The lecturer is very expressive. :)

Single best course I've taken.

the lecturer was soo cool!

very informative course.

It is a riveting

Excelente curso

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Although the level of the course is very basic (it is definitely designed for total beginners), I appreciated the opportunity to write to a prompt and with a deadline, both of which kept me motivated. That said, the peer review system was a bit disappointing; it is important for people considering this class to understand that your workshop poems are ONLY reviewed by other people taking the class at the same time as you, so you are basically at their mercy. I appreciated most of the feedback I got, but I did have one peer reviewer who just wrote "nothing" in every single space where a written comment was required. This was a bit annoying since I had worked quite hard on the feedback that I provided for her!

I also must join the (many, many) other reviewers who have commented on the antics and silly energy of the instructor. While it was obvious that he was trying to keep the viewer engaged with all the jokes, banter, etc. I must admit it did get old... for several of the videos, I turned off the sound and just read the transcription.

I would recommend this class for people who want a very basic introduction to writing and appreciating poetry. More experienced writers might be less satisfied.

The course material, assignments, and the instructor are fine. The only problem I have with this is the "Peer-graded Assignment", while a lot of the time they are helpful, there is a handful of people who have no idea what they are doing. They do not read the instruction (as for grading) at all and give the wrong mark (as in technical requirement, not in whether the poem sounds good or not). For example, it said "give 2 points if response to the other prompt" and yet the "peer" give 0 point? Some people cannot read and their response show that they have no knowledge about certain types of poem and their feedbacks are even sometimes contradictory? This same problem occur in other courses as well so I will stop using Coursera due to its inttelligent "peer" grading syste.

Doug's lectures were great! He's entertaining and he gets the concepts across very clearly. I struggled with the course itself, however. The participation rate was low and the iOS app was so buggy I deleted it. The web interface was better but still difficult to work with.

The iOS app would forget I was in the course and lose my assignments. It also wouldn't let me open the discussion forums. With the technical problems and low participation I can only give the course 3/5.

I think this course is good if you're just starting out and want to know the basics. But it's not a great course for more advanced students. The peer graded assignments are a gamble because some people fail to understand what the assignment actually is before they try to grade your assignment. Also, I don't like how certain sections are heavily focused on rhythm and rhyme. This course isn't really geared toward free verse poets.

The annotations of the different poems were great and taught me a lot about different poetic elements, but the lectures were unbearably corny with all of the different sound effects and bits. I found myself reading the transcripts because I could not watch the videos without feeling like I was being talked down to or that the instructor didn't take the course seriously.

The course itself is very good but the peer review process for your grade is a bit lackluster. If you have a peer who doesn't actually feel like trying or doesn't understand the material then your grade suffers despite what the other reviewers provided.

Not as much creative flexibility as I thought there would be. Writing to prompts left very little room to create poetry that felt like my own. Good short course (knocked it out in a couple of days) for revising/learning techniques.

This course seems to be aimed at absolute beginners. If you don't know what a rhyme is, this "workshop" is definitively worth your time. Else, there may be better investments.

there's got to be more poems, more reviews. 1 poem to be reviewed makes the brilliant course flippant

ok. some tools are missing, like a resource page referred to by the instructor.

A stimulating course. Great online interaction with tutors. Some great links.

Learnt a lot about writing poetry. Realised there's still a lot yet to learn

The course could have used more content. That is, it is too brief.

Elementary and entertaining with some unique and creative prompts.

It was a great course, however it was very short and brief.

The instructor is animated and great, but the grading process is flawed and sucks.

While the material has been interesting, I paid to take this course in large part for what I assumed would be helpful feedback and critique, to help me improve. I submitted my first peer assignment 6 days ago, and I've not received even one critique/feedback. If things change as I continue this course, I'll revise my rating. But at the moment, I'm not satisfied in the least. If none of my fellow students reviews my work, how about one of the staff mentors? Hello? Is anyone even out there?