I am a convert to Judaism and hungry for all the knowledge that I can find. The course was very good and the instructors more than capable. Maybe adding one really elementary video in the beginning for folks like me would be appreciated. Or, maybe other students are way ahead of my knowledge. The only other recommendation I would make regards the printed script that accompanies the videos. Wording is great. Punctuation dreadful, way beneath the level of the instructors and the course.

Generally the course was really good, and had some excellent materials, especially the glossary for each chapter and the readings. Although it is considered an introduction, sometimes there was assumed knowledge of Judaism and Jewish theology/history, which was a bit unfortunate. This could easily be fixed with possible "additional" materials to expand on the topics covered. Overall though, it was a course definitely worth taking

I wish the course had covered a bit more about the Talmud, and possibly another topic. The course may need to be a bit longer, though, to accomplish this. Otherwise it was a good beginning study on the Talmud. I appreciate the hard work both put into producing the videos. Thanks for the course.

Very interesting, with great use of the text to illustrate various talmudic methodologies and features. However, PLEASE have someone proofread your captions. They are riddled with errors, including both leaving out Hebrew words and mis-transcribing English words.

A fast paced and interesting journey through an example of the subject. Leaves a lot of questions to explore. The only thing I would like to have seen more would have been interaction with other students.

This is a very well constructed introduction to the Talmud but I think it would be improved if it made more demands on the student in terms of reading assignments and exercises.

Very interesting peek into the world of Talmud (and interesting to this non-Jewish student). I like that the Hebrew-reading student can access the original texts too.

Informative and deatiled. A bit more practical context for those unfamiliar with the jewish tradition would have helped put this on 5-star level :)

I wish there were subtitles in other languages. Some concepts are too complex to understand in a foreign language.

The course is great and the instructors are superbly skilled people making complex topics easy to understand.

very interesting, challenging, but I find it hard to understand the intonation (highs and lows) of the ph

Very informative course. I would like to thank the team behind this course, I learned a lot from them.

No problem with the course actually. Experienced several technical problems, however.

Entertaining way of teaching a complex subject

complicated topic,,,but well presented

Very informative!

G

My rating is a hybrid rating reflecting the content vs the course structure. I was looking for something more basic as I knew virtually nothing about the Talmud. I learned that I am not really interested in the intellectual discussions/arguments that are involved in Talmudic study and the detailed discussions in the videos were well beyond what I needed. So I give the content a 2 for me personally. The self-paced format worked for me, the video delivery was fine and I liked being able to download the transcripts and the glossaries. I read through the transcription after watching the videos and noticed that the transcriptions had many errors. Had I not listened to the video first, I would have been confused. I also found that I needed to read the transcript to better understand the content. Video only would not have been sufficient for understanding. I think Sarah's delivery was much more engaging and animated than Prof Wimpfheimer's. I appreciated the opportunity to take the quizzes more than once. While this course was taken purely for my personal interest and i didn't need to "prove" completion/passing, I still wanted to know what the right answers were. I would have liked having an easy way to download the completed quizzes with the questions and the correct answers. Rating of 3 for the format/structure. This was the first online course that i have taken that was not work-related and i plan to see what else is available.

Interesting & informative but a bit overwhelming with too many divergent opinions centuries apart. Glad I participated but not sure I fully understood how or if the opinions studied applied practically. Instructors were good & presented the subject matter well, however the plethora of information & constant twists & turns at times lost me.

I still continue to take Coursera courses.

Yoffee

great presentation with good dive into historical context and thought provoking material. quizzes are too easy, no real "homework" and self study required, which could strengthen the course. Beware that many academic views diverge from traditional Jewish interpretations and opinions accepted in more observant communities and yeshivot.

While the content was generally good, some of the explanations were lacking, starting in "the middle" as you say. This is not helped by the poorly edited text that accompanies each lecture. After six years, this should have been fixed. Organization of the material could have been better.

The professor is speaking as a robot, and not a human being - reading the text without any emotions, pauses, gesticulations etc, All these are necessary to make the lectures worthwhile watching, otherwise we could just read the text.

c'est bon pour notre propre culture mais il faut arriver à suivre surtout qu'il y a des termes spéciaux à connaître

I expected a more general view of the Talmud, I think the course is not for the normal student.

Le falta trabajar sobre la lógica del talmud.