Kursteilnehmer-Bewertung und -Feedback für Archaeoastronomy von Politecnico di Milano

Very interesting topic. Extremely enjoyable. Appreciate the technical introduction to the topics, but would have appreciated a little more big picture. I'm still wondering about the real motivations behind these ancient structures.

Loved the course videos and lectures were entertaining. I was a bit dissappointed with the outright dismissal of non-traditional understnadings of these ancient monuments and thought the explanations on why and how they were built, were lightly treated.

A great course ...

Excellent introduction to the field with exciting examples of the centrality of the movements of celestial bodies to religious belief and practice (and more) in antiquity, as realized in stone structures. If only I were a scientist and, especially, a mathematician! What is so interesting is that clear, precise evidence can be provided through these methods. My first thought was, how much more interesting and enlightening any study of antiquity would be with the particular addition of archaeoastronomy. These discoveries through mathematics feel rather like magic, reaching beyond the mechanics to reveal deeper insights into how people of the time might have experienced connection and communication with the heavens. Thank you!

[If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to have the instructional staff review some of the more technical quiz questions and pull out some items for supplementary video instruction. As the factors accumulate, they become pretty confusing for the less mathematically knowledgeable among us.]

Very good course to give you a basic overview of archaeoastronomy as a branch of science. The quiz questions tend to be too "technical" and sometimes really challenging as it requires a lot of focusing on the parts where astronomical phenomena are described. The course could be longer.

It's a great course about ancient archaeology with its relation with astrology. It is apparently new subject but developing much rapid pace. It will shade light on many things which are clouded by current pseudo science of ancient astronauts. Only difficulty I face with this course is the accent of the instructor.

interesting perspective

Nice course to understand the basics of Archaeoastronomy. Sometimes I felt the questions are bit far, at least in language, from the lectures.

Excelente para abrir la panorámica mental arquitectónica arqueológica sobre nuestro pasado en edificaciones milenarias. El último cuestionario fue muy capcioso y no muy coherente.

First of all many thanks for University Politecnico Di Milano,Coursera community and Mr.Giulio Magli Proffesor.Archaeoastronomy isn' well known subject by the people in the world But all branches of sciences. are interested in each others.Differences between of archaeology and astronomy are the places where work.You are looking to the past always in both. I felt ike timetraveller here.

Muy buen curso. Los test son suelen irse por detalles que con frecuencia pasan inadvertidos. Me gustó mucho y aprendí mucho.

Si algo se me complicó particularmente, fue el acento del instructor. tuve que basarme mucho en las transcripciones para lograr una comprensión más cabal de los temas. De cualquier forma, muy bueno.

A fine introduction, but more detail would be appreciated in some discussions, as well as some glaring omissions.

I found the lectures about the architecture and its relationship to the environment fascinating and impressive. The material was well presented and I could answer the quiz questions easily by reviewing my notes. The lectures about actual astronomical measurement did not familiarize me with those concepts and I had a very difficult time passing the two tests on that material. I did search out some additional information about azimuth but I did not do that for all the astronomical terms and concepts.

c'est un bon cours il faut bien se familiariser avec le vocabulaire astronomique pour pouvoir suivre et il permet d'enrichir ses connaissances sur des lieux mythiques

!Excelente¡ aunque si no manejas el vocabulario astronómico se puede volver un tanto complicado...

Interesting course. Good photographs. There is a transcript, but it was hard for me to understand the professor.

Very interesting information. I am going to pursue this field and it was good to learn first hand what to expect. However, I found both the Speaker and viewpoint very biased. There comes a time when the world has to realize that People of Color belong in it. In history, and in the beginning of time. Sorry, we did not just evolve when Europeans enslaved us. And our names were not Toby or slaves. This is something that was done to us, not who we are or ever were. We were and continue to be of a highly race of people, damaged and trodded upon by European thinking. Especially, its constant need to write us out of history. Therefore, this very informative class suffered two stars.

Should be a fascinating subject. Ancient peoples knew a lot about the stars and placed structures so as to observe them in various ways. Instructor has an extremely strong accent. Almost need subtitles.

I initially really enjoyed this class. I just feel that the last week felt tacked out. The same care was not given to it that was given to the other ones when it came to lectures et al. And talking about the moon and venus, I feel this could have been handled in similar ways to the other sections of the course to make it palpable, a visceral experience of the information instead of just bleating back info from articles.

For me this course did not provide what I was looking for. Thus, as far as I'm concerned this course did not reach its full potential, meaning it neither truly teaches astronomy nor archaeology. Instead, it simply discusses a number of astronomical features to be found at archaeological sites. Though it does introduce a number of the astronomical terms I had hoped to learn, it does so in an unstructured and unguided way. As such, this course might be a good bridge between archaeology and astronomy, it the latter is already known, as well as a good way demystify some of the aspects surrounding archaeoastronomy (or astronomical features of archaeological contexts), but does not live up to the task of introducing the novice into the subject.

interesting course but you cant do the tests if you didnt pay money (any tasts)

The content was really good,especially unraveling the astronomical connection behind monumental architecture around the world. However, as a layperson the astronomy part was difficult to understand. So you will have to go through that part multiple times. I even enlisted the help of an astronomy enthusiast to further break things down for me.

I was just looking to experiment and this seemed very interesting given the blend of architecture with astronomy. My sense of imagination with respect to the 3D is very poor and thus I didn't put enough effort in a few places. These were the very ideas which required effort and dedication to be put, for the other parts of the course are easy enough to understand. Overall it seems like a light course not requiring enough effort and often effort and your learning are linked together and you might leave the course not having learnt as much as you had hoped. The course and coursework should be made more rigorous to expose the students to the core ideas like visualising space, directions through other means ans thus you end up giving the students a way of thinking and looking at the world.

A good course but I needed a better understanding of the basic astronomy before starting, the archaeology sections by comparison were easy so and could have been more complex

This course has amazing information in the lectures, but it is difficult in the video lectures to pick out what bits of information are going to be relevant in the quizzes, you will have to re-take quizzes a number of times, no matter how well you are taking notes. Also the very last section is entirely made of a rushed-maths lesson, and a quiz based on that rushed maths lesson that is VERY difficult. I would highly recommend this for anyone who already knows basic Astronomy Math, and caution anyone who doesn't.

The content was well delivered for the first 5 weeks. The tests, however, often did not relate well to the content discussed, and often could not be completed given the information contained within the course, and the student is left guessing rather than knowing. The week 6 material contained more content then all 5 weeks combined, and it was all reading, and no video. Often topics (and mathematics) were introduced without context, and variables were introduced without being defined (such as "i" for inclination). I have an astrophysics background, and I found the test at the end of week 6 nearly impossible, even though it was material in my own field of study.