What's best in this course: the assignments. Requiring a short few paragraph essay answers to a few questions at the end of each week is so much better than just relying on multiple choice questionnaires. This encourages participants to do a little bit more, at least glimpse through a few relevant Wikipedia articles.

Of course there is plenty of multiple choice questionnaires and videos as well. Some of the videos are a bit dated, but that makes them even more interesting as an archaeological evidence. Besides, the subject matter isn't moving forward very fast, though new research reveals new things at a slow yet constant pace.

I enjoyed the course. Lots of Roman history included. Lots of interesting videos from other experts in a particular area of study. But, I will never again take an on-line course with essay questions graded by other students. Out of frustration, I experimented by looking at the answers before taking the test so I knew I should have gotten a perfect score & still didn't get passing marks from my fellow students. I started just skipping them. Remove the essay questions & I would give this course 5 stars.

Thoroughly enjoyed learning more about ancient Rome. The lectures are a great overview of the history of Rome with great insight from the archaeology. I'm an architect and I really appreciated the connection between architecture and the culture of Rome. I didn't realize how much of a Archaeology rockstar Dr. Soren was until I watched the BBC documentary! Thanks to the leaders of the course and Lana.

Solid course for those interested in Roman History. A little meandering at times with tangential diversions into stuff like Marine Archaeology and even studying history through Tree aging but interesting and well paced most of the time.

This MOOC is much more than the course title suggests. It is a history of Rome from its beginning to its end. It's a good and clear introduction to Roman history. The lectures are very interesting and the assignments helpful.

Really enjoyed this course. Especially enjoyed the numerous guest interviews that covered many different areas of the Classics field. The addition of the professor's dog was a little odd.

I loved this class but the only reason I have to give it four stars is the over amount of peer review assignments that are extensive. Otherwise it's great but be prepared to work :)

I am happy this course allowed me to know better this empire the only catch is that there is no transcrption for francophones otherwise there is nothing wrong

A very interesting and entertaining course!

However, the dog could have been left out . . . .

Just started today and have already learned a lot!!! Looking forward to next weeks lesson!!!

Good info, nice professor. Has peer review, which I hate and won't do

Loved this class. I'm a big history person and take any class I can.

Pretty good class.

Dude, lose the dog, it's not cute, it's creepy.

Interesting and well presented. I enjoyed it very much!

Good content, but odd mashing of video presentations. B

Interesting content. Engaging instructor.

great, interesting and complete course

Quite a good resource

good

I didn't find the speaker very engaging. And his habit of bringing the dog into the classes was supremely bizarre.

Very disappointed with this course. Answers to quizzes are wrong, and although students reported this months ago, no corrections have been made.

Professor is on camera much more than necessary and many of the images provided are not the best. Significant errors-- e.g. professor says that the Roman colosseum seated 20,000 while most scholars put the number closer to 50,000. His dog gets more air time than the Pantheon. He shows clips from fictional films such as Gladiator that have only marginal relation to the course.

Very little about archaeology is presented-- although the underwater segment and the one on trees were good. But no mention of aerial surveillance or ground penetrating radar. Barely anything about the traditional "dig."

This course needs a major overhaul. Much better Coursera course is Roman Architecture by Prof. Diana Kleiner from Yale. It's harder. But so much better.

For a course on art and archaeology, there seemed to be little shown. More time was spent with Dr. Soren sitting behind a desk or standing at an empty site, usually reading off the teleprompter. This course lends itself to a lot of visuals, yet that part of the course was very skimpy. And why the old movie trailers? Why did we see a whole video on Troy? This isn't even Roman, beyond the fact that several emperors likened themselves to Alexander and some Hellenistic art influence. That's not what the video referenced. Again, it was just about the discovery of Troy, historical, with no attempt to make it relevant to the course itself. I know some historical background is needed to keep the work in context, but this was more of a history class than an art-based one. And as much as I love dogs, was that really necessary? Trying to be funny or cute didn't work.

Very superficial and inconclusive.

The course professor focuses more on himself than on the material.