Learner Reviews & Feedback for Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop by California Institute of the Arts

I have learned so much and I love D's energy and the avid participation of the other students. Will definitely pass on what I've learned. Can't wait for more courses like this in the future! :)

Excellent course and excellent instructor. Amazing community as well.

It gets 3 stars only because I learned new things in the class. But the teacher (Bless his heart for meaning well) ended up being rather annoying and distracting with his constant antics. It's okay to throw that in every now and then but this was really awful, makes you want to forward to the parts where he is normal. That's when you can pay attention to him and understand it all. Think you should ask him to tone it down big time... Everything in small doses is great.

I think there is an unfair marking system in the last week - I wrote about it too. I don't want to pay for a course and have my points cut for silly reasons. If that's how it works, I never want to pay for certificates. What's the point in paying for 'subjectivity' or 'having to adapt my answers to suit the course'.

The course material is very good. The most obvious issue with the course, is that peer revision takes a very long time, which means that you will get overdue assignments no matter what. For instance, after three weeks I'm still waiting for a revision that I wanted to use for the final workshop. I assume that instructor involvement in project revision is impossible in this kind of online course; but perhaps, if the issue is that people aren't getting their work reviewed, there could be an incentive for reviewers, for example, get an instructor/mentor review, if you submit at least, say, 10 thorough peer reviews.

Designed more for a child learning about poetry for the first time. Some of the facts about poetry aren't accurate. The effort to make the class more engaging ironically only distracts from the course material. The time spent attempting humor could have been spent on teaching, but instead a lot of time is wasted by speaking down to the viewer like they are a toddler. I did not finish this class as I couldn't stand the videos.

Clearly the target audience is a younger and newer Poet. I learned some new terms and enjoyed some new Poetry. Overall it was just okay.

The theatricals of the presenter make the videos unbearable to watch, and so the course impossible to attend. But that's probably just me.

Loved it! Great teaching, well paced, can't get enough of the transcripts with the videos. Very fun and really pushed me in my craft.

This was a brilliant course. I audited the course with interest, and completed it. It acquainted me with essentials of writing and understanding poetry. Brilliant!

Great experience. The course was very well done from a technical and systems perspective. The online experience and tools worked really well, easy to understand and use. The instructions for using the tools were clear, especially the workshop and assignments portion. The instructor, Doug Kearney, was effective, funny and very on-point. Overall, five starts. I look forward to doing another one. Oh yeah, my poetry improved as a result!

This course has so much substance in it, very engaging and lively. I loved the way Doug teaches and passes across lessons! Perhaps I should come take a course at CALARTS.

Amazing course, very well structured. Helped develop my poetic voice and provided technical knowledge as well. Experimented in poetic forms I'd never heard of. Thank you so much.

Exremely inspiring, informative and encouraging. Pace is just right too. Thank you so much.

I am just over half way though this course and it is amazing. The content is great. Doug's video lectures are enjoyable, enthralling and thought provoking. I continue to amaze myself as to what i do and don't know.

I am learning more than i anticipated with a short course. Keen to see where my new found knowledge leads me...

It's a great course for learning about poetry in depth

Engaging on a new level. I like the workshop format on a MOOC.

What a great course!

At first, wanting to keep true to my own style, I started with much trepidation but, right from the beginning, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole process expanded my awareness and, rather than putting me in a straitjacket of style and substance, it expanded my horizons, sometimes with prompts that seemed totally impossible; particularly daunting were the lipogram, cinquain and Alexandrine, and yet the poems flowed. This was a big revelation for me, as well as very exciting.

I’m still surprised that I wrote many poems of which I’m so very proud, often working on both prompts. The course moved me out of my comfort zone: for instance, with ‘The Table-Top Pencil Sharpener’, which was supposed to be pure image, but wouldn’t behave, and wrote itself anyway. I would never have written a poem on this subject before, and yet it emerged. Writing something so different on a subject so seemingly mundane, really cemented in my mind the possibility of writing poetry about anything, whilst filtering it through perception and imagination.

Another aspect of the course that stands out for me are the peer reviews: both giving and receiving. I was very lucky to have reviewed some fantastic poems, and most of the reviews I received were thoughtful and productive. Going to try to use the comments box, now, to thank those who took the time to really consider the poems and their comments.

The moderators were excellent, helping out with both technical aspects of the course and comments on poems. There were some technical and navigational aspects of the website I struggled with: finding peer reviews, and lack of reviewers at certain times so having to reset deadlines, but the moderators stepped in very quickly.

Even though the course has finished, I will still tackle some of the prompts not completed within the timeframe, due to deadlines (or as someone on the forums endearingly termed them - ‘deathlines’!) The ‘conceit’, for one, and an already started new poem, using rhyme originally penned by a famous poet.

Thank you for a concise yet truly inspirational course. I will remember this time with great affection.

Wonderful workshop. Very well presented and jump charged my writing. Thank you Cal Arts.

A lot to learn.

Thank you for introducing me to poetry that I was never aware of before.I thank the mentor and my peers for their constant virtual support.Looking forward to learn more

Instructor, Mr.KEARNEY makeS of poetry something so lit. It has awaked the interest for understanding it better.

Great skill-sharpener for practicing poets and literature teachers. Doug is a very engaging teacher. His selection of poems is thought-provoking and informative.

The teacher truly makes this course a 5 star learning experience. He's funny and entertaining while presenting course materials. I have a major difficulty with school-- I dropped out of high school and college. I love this class. He kept my interest and helped build my understanding on poetry. I highly recommend this for anyone looking to improve their poetry or learn about poetry! The assignments were fantastic. There's always two choices for the homework and you can pick one (or both if you want) but one is graded. So if you aren't into one of the assignments, there's always something for you here.

The revision and the poem analysis by Doug was truly enjoyable

This course provides brilliant explanations delivered in an extremely entertaining manner and incredible prompts that make the process of writing poetry extremely amusing. I recommend it 100%.