Дужа захпляльны і цудоўны курс! Раю ўсім! Выкладчыкі - чароўныя!

Great course!!

While this course was not exactly what I had expected, it certainly offered insights that I would have never imagined. More importantly, I now know the terminology used and can differentiate the different periods in which the books were bound.

What I loved most was the hands-on-project, which takes the students through the full process of not only creating an illuminated manuscript, but it also drives the student to one of the most important elements which makes up the codex, the binding.

Participating in the above process is invaluable. If you're a lover of illuminated manuscripts, or letters, the freedom towards the creative process is quite "illuminating." Coming up with the content for the copy and the corresponding illustrations was quite fun and somewhat unnerving at the same time. I was nervous about approaching the illumination, not of the letters, but of the other elements such as the initials. Once done, though, it was a very satisfying feeling. The binding process was a bit unnerving as well, not because it's so difficult, but because I didn't necessarily have all the tools.

Having said, this, I would have given the course 5 stars. I gave it 4, only because, the binding process "how to" was not the most clear.

Otherwise, this is an excellent course which I highly recommend. I look forward to other related courses.

I am enjoying this course a lot!!

this despite some broken links + as per my experience with the course, the process of getting reviewed by the pairs is a pain, often not getting the feedback needed, the deadline surpasses, and it is complicated to understand if it is due to system or not. While getting those issues one cannot concentrate properly on the course because it takes time digging on that part instead of dedicating that time studying.I think the course is excellent though and I am absolutely loving it.

Very engaging and creative course that allowed me to study a subject I have always been enchanted with. The only issues are that the professors accent was so deep that it was difficult to understand her and the machine generated transcript had the same issue I did. Still a most enjoyable course and I would highly recommend it to all. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to take it.

You can read my full review on my blog:

http://merrycx.wixsite.com/scribal/single-post/2017/02/19/Coursera-Medieval-Manuscript-Class---Final-Review

E

First I'd like to say that this course is quite original and I give a lot of credit to Dr. Sanchez-Pinto for taking on such a project. Her videos are the most instructional of the class. That said, there are two instructors, and Dr. Martinez-Dávila mostly introduces a series of reading materials, so there are hardly any videos on the history component of the class.

Also, the weekly assignments are quite lengthy and require quite some work. For these, there is a deadline of only one week and the feedback from students is very diverse, depending on whether they are themselves librarians or not.

Overall an interesting course for those who are curious about manuscripts, but could definitely use a makeover.

While the information was quite fascinating, the presentation was very dry. I realize English is not Dr. Sanchez's first language, but she was stiff and obviously reading the text. There was little or no inflection. Her attempts at humorous or light comments fell flat because of this and didn't add anything. I would also like to have seen the writing portions of the lesson integrated into the history. It was awkward reading about the times/peoples and then going on to the writing. Certainly there was a better way to do this. It was like taking two different courses at the same time.

(+) I really liked the manuscripts part - it was great.

(+) I liked the hands-on project about creating the manuscript, but sometimes instructions were too vague or missing at all.

(-) I didn't like the history part. It has a lot of reading materials and none of the videos. And I didin't always see a connection to manuscripts.

(-) I hate the system when other students should grade my assignments. There was one student who always put too low grades to me and I didin't understand why (for example, I have written ductus of 3 letters and he put that I have done only 2 etc). I suppose that he doesn't understand English quite well so he doesn't understand the rubrics, but that's quite demotivating.

(-) The interview with a Dutch scriptor, who showed letters from manuscripts, was not translated to English.

It was a very interesting course, however it was biased toward Spanish history with the inclusions. I was really more interested in what I thought the course was supposed to be about anyway, Medieval Manuscripts. I had a terrible time deciphering the lecturer's English and, because I'm not interested in a course certificate, the course projects were a waste of my time, though I can see that they could be fun and add to the enjoyment of the course.