Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Mediterranean, a Space of Exchange (from the Renaissance to Enlightenment) by Universitat de Barcelona

Los subtítulos en inglés deberián ser opcionales.

Wonderful course! I loved every part, it gave me a huge comprehension about this history chapter that is enormously important for us. This course was a gift for me, and I am very glad with the professors, Coursera and the University for the opportunity.

This course is a really good introduction to Mediterranean Studies for people with an interest in history. It touches on the academic features without being too complicated for people unused to academic learning. For an experienced history student, the course is slightly less valuable as it is quite easy and simple in points, I still found a lot of interest in the course. The only other thing that let the course down was the English translation which could be quite inconsistent and patchy. Nonetheless, it was informative and enjoyable.

The course was very interesting and it gave some good ideas, however I felt that it tried to teach too much in too shot time. It would have been better if thee would have been less themes but each of them deepened more - or the same amount of themes but in this case more time dedicated to each of them (not just a 30 min class, but maybe 1-2hours). Now I feel like for each theme we scatched the surface but didn't eally went into them

Problems with translation from Spanish to English creating confusion to non - Spanish students. Not all the lectures are translated. I have noticed that some English translation is missing or is incorrect.

Also, since I am a non - Spanish student I can not review correctly and accordingly Spanish posted assignments due to language barriers.

The course material was good but the lectures being in Spanish with English translations was difficult to follow. I was disappointed in the short videos with subtitles.

If you are in love with history, western civilizations, the Middle East and everything related to the Roman Mare Nostrum, you will not regret taking this MOOC. Those professors, lecturers and scholars in charge of the course will not let you down.

Very informative and helpful for my genealogical research, as well as for sparking much curiosity. I feel I'm picking up a little Spanish too!

Muy buen curso, en contenido, en metodología. Buenas las opiniones del grupo. Muchas felicitaciones y agradecimientos.

A very interesting and accessible course with plenty of reading suggestions for those of us who want to continue learn

El curso me permitió tener una visión más amplia, concreta y profunda del Mediterráneo.

This is the second course I have from Universitat de Barcelona. Both outstanding.

Very interesting and interdisciplinary course. Congratulations for you great job.

Broad overview of subject with interesting essays from fellow students

An incredible experience. Congratulations

Excellent course and widely recommended

Wide-ranging and inclusive coverage of a vastly complex topic by an impressive list of erudite instructors. Very interesting, with very many jump-off points for further study. However... many of the translations into English were difficult to decipher, some to the point of near-obscurity. Sorry to say, translating of words does not reliably lead to transfer of meaning. Still, highly recommended for its reach in surveying the high points of the subject matter. Thank you!

I enjoyed this course. I wish you had gone more in-depth in regards to the Moors. If you ever decide to do a course fundamentally focused on Moorish Spain, please contact me. I'd love to take that class.

Sincerely, AB

needs more written material accessible in English for the non-Spanish speaker to delve further into in order to understand the lectures in greater depth.

This course is very interesting and educational. I really enjoyed it. My only complaint is that sometimes there wasnt any translation from spanish.

1. Sometimes the audio of the recordings is poor, making it difficult to listen.

2. For non-speakers of Spanish, the translations are not so great and sometimes lack proper grammar or are almost literal translations of the spoken Spanish version. This makes the subject matter, although very interesting, very difficult to fully grasp. This also occurs in the quizzes, causing me to either misunderstand or not understand the questions.

Overall, it is a very interesting course but the 'execution' is not up to standard. It could be improved by updating the audio recordings, and correcting the translations for the subtitles

El presentador de los dos primeros videos lee continuamente el material, un material que debe dominar y que est

Too fast speech/ language use in combination with poor english translation, otherwise pretty well done.

Most of the lectures were very rushed and brief. They quote facts and names and rarely bother to elaborate on them. The "interviews" that often serve as a second lecture for the week mostly repeat the first lecture /average duration for both - 5 minutes/

Almost no reading materials in english.

The translations in English isn't very good.

The peer review processes for the final assignment is flawed, since you will be given to review works in spanish and english, with no option to"skip" to an essay in a language you understand. The grading criteria is also flawed. For example the required length of the essay does not seem to be obligatory.

The staff rarely bothers with answers in the discussion forum

All in all it is an interesting topic, and a good starting point for your own research. Sadly, It is one of the worst courses i have taken part in.

Un curso bien armado, y con un enfoque interesante y que entusiasma a partir de la obra de Broudel. Felicitaciones.

Algunas sugerencias con ánimo de mejorar aún más su excelencia:

(i) Una breve descripción de cada lugar de Barcelona donde se dicta cada clase; algo se dice pero un poquito más (qué se exhibe allí; época de construcción, uso antes y actual, etc.) sería interesante, y que la cámara hiciera un brevísimo recorrido;

(ii) Respecto a las referencias a los cuadros y obras de arte que se van mostrando intercalados durante las exposiciones, su identificación está al final de cada lección; esto dificulta su correlato con la obra mostrada; si se pudiera poner una leyenda al mostrarlas, y si eso parece que puede distraer, ver de hacer un corte a la lección y presentar tres ó cuatro todas juntas y con breve referencia escrita.

(iii) Quizá un mayor uso de mapas por parte de los expositores, que pueden ser interactivos (mostrar las rutas, lugares como por ejemplo Lepanto, la ubicación de los puertos con un poco más de detenimiento, la costa africana sobre el Mediterráneo en auqel entonces y ahora...).

Por favor, son solo ideas y en modo alguno desmerece la calidad y muy buena organización del curso.

Gracias.

José Luis Rinaldi