Coursera: Fantasy and Science Fiction (Summer 2012) discussion

I'm really glad I took this class. Even if I don't always agree with the Professor's assessment of things, I appreciate what I've learned from this class. I feel like I will be a more thoughtful reader in the future.

What about the rest of you? Would you take another class from this professor?

I loved it too, found the reading list and lectures to be well done. My only issue was the peer-grading system. It was just frustrating.
I dont really know what they could have done differently, given the size of the class and all.

Really enjoyed it - and it was great prep for Greek & Roman, I think, got me back into the habit of looking beyond the story and at what influences the writer is drawing on. I didn't like all of the novels and I didn't agree with the Prof all of the time, but I learned a lot and that's what really makes a course for me.

On peer grading I think I'll withhold judgement until I see how well the G&R course does it - they have a much more detailed and helpful rubric and I have a feeling that will work better. But I want to see it in action. I agree with someone who posted on the forum suggesting that it wasn't *our* grades that mattered but how carefully we examined other peoples' work - that's what we learned from, not the actual writing.

I'm also glad I took the course. I read some things I wouldn't have otherwise picked up, and looked at those I'd read before in a different light.

I found the discussions on the forums interesting. What a diverse group of people with such different views, especially of the last book.

I'll probably hesitate before taking another course here only because of the amount of work involved and the fact that I'm not interested in most of what's being offered. The peer grading system was an issue for me, too. I think we should have been allowed a wider range of grades to give, particularly since grading native and non-native English readers-writers on the same scale was often difficult.

For me the best part was reading pretty much great books, trying to learn to write a proper essay, reading them and the history of Western (as in American) genres.