The content was good. It addressed some topics to understand. I am more upset with the surprise 10 page research proposal required for the course. I would have NEVER taken the course and PAID money if I new that requirement for just a certificate.

Great content! the peer graded assignments were a little too vague. loved the lecture/videos and additional reading/resources

Peer review for this course is dysfunctional. Grades appeared to be given randomly. The lectures were informative, but the platform has issues.

Good course. Dr. Anderson is clearly a prominent scholar and expert on the issues. Glad Coursera added the recent video of him produced these last few weeks [July 2020]. It made the course more current than its 2017 production date.

To enhance the course, I’d invite Coursera to consider 1. Updating the Resource Lists including articles, videos and research data. Some of our readings are dated. In light of all the information relevant to this topic coming out since George Floyd’s death, it is vetted and available. 2. Give us TWO weeks to complete our final project. One week didn't seem like enough time to properly explore and write about the suggested topics. I am recommending the course to several people. I think it’s that good. It simply needs a tweak of attention to updates. Other than that, the bulk of the resources were enlightening.

This course is an excellent source of education! I learned so much, and feel so proud of myself for completing it, and getting grades that I never thought I could! Thank you, Coursera! :)

Outstanding course that will be as rewarding as how much effort you put into it. There is plenty to learn and it is challenging to complete everything in 4 weeks, particularly if it's a busy time of year. Keep this in mind as you pace yourself through assignments.

This course was outstanding. The video presentaions, additonal readings, and peer reviews allowing insight into other students perspectives was a definite plus. Will recommend to other co-workers.

This course was very informative and provided a variety of resources and facts, both historical and current that I am looking forward to teaching my own children.

While I enjoyed the lectures and information, I had a few gripes with this course. I was not interested in workload that felt like busy work, graded by random people on the web. There are other courses who have used small quizzes showing that we learned what the lecture went over, without me doing my own research and finding sources and hoping some random person likes what I wrote in a paper. The first peer review assignment was interesting, but the rest felt like a complete waste of time. I decided to just watch the lectures, as I'm here to learn things from someone who knows more about the subject than me. Thus I had to unenroll in the course after the lectures because I wasn't interested in doing an essay on some random topic.

Also, another slight negative, the lectures were at times difficult to follow, since the instructor slows down and breaks up his sentences often, as he appeared to be coming up with the sentences on the fly, with only small notes of certain dates or study names instead of a full script to read/memorize. I had to speed up the video to almost 2x, and just read the manuscript to truly follow the sentences he was saying.

Again, great subject... I wish there were more lecture information here, but the busy-work turned me off from this course. Please tell us the things related to the subject. Sure if we were in a university in class setting, the research and peer review makes sense, but an online course will sit better to a wider audience without an extensive research essay, especially peer-reviewed.

This class isn't hard but just feels like busy work.

This was a great course! Thank you for the opportunity to take this course. I am also an two time alumnus from the University of Illinois' College of Education. I don't know how I managed to graduate and not take this course. I am very glad I did. I learned a lot from this course. My only complaint would be that I wasn't expecting to do a research paper. Luckily, I am a professional researcher and a teacher (Thanks Illinois), but many of the general population may have struggled with this assignment. And the paper may have scared some people away. I would suggest keeping the paper, but giving more time to write, and also prepare a module to help newcomers learn how to write academically- especially in the social sciences. I will say though, I did get to read some pretty good papers, even the ones that were not the "best academically" it was still great to read other's work and their styles of reporting.

Very much enjoyed the lectures, I wish the coursework wasn't as intensive. Would have preferred quizzes/reflection papers on the topics introduced during the video lectures.

I'm giving it three stars because I didn't feel like there was a professor at the helm or a teacher assistant. If they were involved at all, they didn't make their presence known. If this is implied in the course description, it should be made explicit. That said, I really appreciated the videos and readings. The assignments need to be more clear and streamlined in terms of requirements. For instance, the final paper is mentioned and part of the final 3 assignments. Each assignment shares the ultimate goal of writing this thesis paper but each time it is mentioned, the assignment sounds slightly different and the information isn't complete. APA formatting isn't mentioned until the end but that would be good to know for the 3rd week assignment of building the references. The criteria for grading is also not in the spirit of this course. It is said from the beginning that as a peer reviewer we should not focus so much on the writing ability but the criteria covers technical things (like APA) that distract from the point of taking the course. This may be carried over from a letter grade course at U of I but carries less relevance to its current use. I hope this constructive criticism is read and addressed by someone leading this course.

History is often painted from the conquror's perspective, and the racial or any form of discrimination is taught in biased way.

The course was very informative and helped me improve my understanding of the subject.

I felt Dr Anderson did an excellent job and I enjoyed hearing from the other resources and speakers as well. I would be interested in other similar courses and also other classes from dr Anderson.

The topics were good, and the professor clearly knows his subject. The final paper took more time than expected, but overall I felt like I came away with more knowledge on the subject.

Excellent beginning with loads of sources to recognize diversity on America. Many cogent topics to consider, too many to be in-depth but a great place to start.

An eye opening and well thought out course. I learned a lot and it gave me a lot to think about...

I learned so much in this course, however, I have one complaint. For 2 separate assignments one person, anonymous, gave me significantly lower ratings than the other 2 reviewers. Shouldn't that person HAVE to give feedback so I can defend my work? Getting 3/5 from that person on most categories upset me, when the other reviewers gave me all 5/5s. I worked SO hard on my final paper, I think I should be able to see why that reviewer graded me down so significantly, and I should be allowed a rebuttal.

I learned a lot from this course. I thought I had a decent understanding of Race and it's effect on people in America and found that what I knew wasn't true (the worst kind of knowledge). There was plenty of good material in the presentations and the supplemental material and videos were very good. My eyes have been opened and I will seek out more information about these issues.

excellent course on the subject

The assignments connect the participant to a more academic engagement with the topic than a practical one. I was hoping for to investigate ways I could apply the information delivered in the course for than stretch my skills as a scholar.

The concept of the course is important and well stated in Dr. Anderson's introduction and throughout the course -- learning about the racialization of American thought and culture allows us to see the underpinnings and grip of bias today. However, the assignments just didn't link up with extending the engagement with the material and the overall objective of the course.

I also had a technical issue week three with no way to remedy the situation. I was unable to copy and paste my work -- received a "coursersa is undergoing maintenance" message. The help screens offered to real solution and there is no way to reach out for technical support. Frustrating.

Overall, I appreciated the opportunity to learn from Dr. Anderson. Thank you.

Enjoyed the content and found the additional resources to be fantastic! However, the assignments left much to be desired. The assignments themselves were vague and the rubrics (IF provided) were not clear. The course also has a peer review system, which would be fine, but grades seemed totally random. One week I received two 100% markings and one 30%!!

you shouldn't have to purchase the certificate to submit your quizzes to get scored.

Great subject matter and content; but poorly managed by Admin behind the scenes. poor follow-up to inqu