As an educator myself, I found this class to be rather pathetic in its structure and the assignments. These are topics and activities that I was doing as a student in middle school and junior high (both public schools mind you, not arts centered charters). Charging people for a certificate in this "class" is tantamount to what diploma mills do as the course requirements are not up to even senior high school level coursework. Truly, Coursera, what happened to your open education offering real education?

The course failed to make me enthusiastic about image making the way I was enthusiastic about typography in the preceding course.

Not up to the standard of the previous two courses. The material was already covered in the first course - Fundamentals of Graphic Design - and nothing new was brought to the table. Even the assignments were a re-hash of the ones from the first course. I realize the point of the lack of specific guidance was intended to encourage us to explore the "making" of multiple iterations of the images. I just would have liked to have more instruction or examples of the elements of composition hierarchy.

The weakest of the series so far. Overlap with some of the other courses. Too much art therapy.

To be honest, the professor had a lot of extraneous meandering monologues that seemed poorly written (or possibly off the cuff), and I sometimes felt that criteria for performance evaluation was very subjective or ambiguously written for a course where we are subject to peer evaluation.

I am very sad with my rating because I had great expectation. This was the part of this specialization where I expected to unleash my creativity, and it's a pity that it turned out to be the weakest link. The instructor failed to instruct, simply said. Of course, imagemaking and creative arts in general, can't be easily systematized and subjected to measurable rules and conditions. However, the instructor made the whole course and the assignments incredibly confusing. I believe, such a teaching technique works in person, when all the questions and doubts can be cleared, the coursework follows a certain rhytm and develops naturally, an many iterations are possible. Unfortunately, the instructor's style doesn't translate well to online course. Discussion forum is full of people not sure what the assignments are about and the staff, although present and active, doesn't do more than copying and pasting same instructions the students are asking about, as if it made things clearer. This lack of clarity impacts final grade, because all the peers understand the tasks differently and rate accordingly.

Out of all the different ones in this specialisation, I felt like this one was the course that could have the most work done to it. I didn't feel like I learnt anything in this section, as yes you could be imaginative, however there was no real structural lessons apart from showing how to make your booklet at the end. Lessons about random placement and other overlapping didn't really give me any more depth of understanding compared to what I learnt in the last few courses in the Graphic Design specialisation.

Not enough video's and explanation and what's there is to simplistic.

Not so good questions to review other people's work.

Instructions were very unclear and were interpreted differently by each student. Instructor was very dull compared to the other instructors. Because each student interpreted the instructions differently, grades were all over the place and it was very hard to understand what we were supposed to do.

complete waste of time, I didn't learn anything valuable

Lectures are just weird. I managed to get 91% when accidentally submitting week 1 work to week 2 assignment. Course is too artsy and so full of questionable hipster quirks.

mostly abstractions and not many objective guidance

I personally did not find it constructive enough to spend money on.

It is way too general and basic. I expected something more articulated and not so elementary

This is more challenging that it seems. It forces you to think creatively and critically with a seemingly simple subject. I recommend this course for anyone who wants to work with their hands a bit

The assignments were complicated and it wasn't always easy to follow.

Nothing interesting. Common information about nothing. Sorry

Almost nothing is taught! :/ Assignments are boring and uninspired. Everything is really abstract and more guidance is needed.

Very useful course. Really puts you to practice. I learned a lot and feel encouraged to continue. Reviewing other peer's work was inspiring and gave me fresh ideas about what I could have done better.

The course is generally interesting as a purely visual exercise, but It's not very clear what are the learning points are. Even the final assignment is not very clear in its objective, and no samples are shown. (The final video shows the process of handcrafting a book, but doesn't even show us the final book!) Would recommend this only for people who have created artwork before, or at least have a keen desire to do so.

I felt like this course was a super waste of my time and if anything should have been an intro class. There wasn't much that came out of it. If you have ever taken an intro to art class it's essentially the same thing. I feel like there should have been more to gain from the class than just making projects

I Didn't find it helpful actually

Super inspiring course with a super creative instructor: I really loved Gail Swanlund's unconventional way of teaching. Her videos are really poetic, encouraging and teeny-tiny bit crazy as well. I had a lot of fun experimenting, creating and making images, but also giving feedback to other students and seeing their creative work. Learned a lot, but in a really playful (and unusual) way!

The course content was good but the assignments weren't structured that well. While reviewing I realised some people made very simplistic stuff like me after following instructions, while others with more design experience created really amazing stuff. They should have included some advanced example for demo.

I enjoyed this course. I do not draw or paint, but the course did expand my knowledge of layout and establishing visual hierarchy in designs. I was forced to think more about using a grid as part my concept development. It was also helpful in developing a stronger sense of how to integrate colors scale and text into my work. Great additional reading suggestions for continued growth in image making for those who are into making their own image, which I am not!

I'm so happy i did this course. Gail, you're amazing and you made my imagination go wild with just your words. I can see you love your craft and that's very inspiring. Enjoyed this course all the way!