Has anyone tried the "Through its Scriptures" free edX courses taught by Harvard Divinity School profs?

[MettaSutta]

They have courses on Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduism, etc., and they are free unless you want a printed certificate.  I feel I really need to get up to speed!

[Pierre de Olivi]

I haven't tried these specific courses but I've done my fair share of MOOCs and OpenCourses in High School and the earlier part of summer. I would say their benefit really depends on how you learn, because if you don't get the certificate (and sometimes even if you do) other universities have no way of verifying how much work you've put into them so they count for next to nothing when applying to programs. However, often times they do represent sound scholarship in their readings lists and actual content, which can provide important background that a grad school or similar program may presuppose even if you can't prove you've taken a course on it.

For background, then, it comes back to how you learn: personally I found the lectures on the MOOCs I did too easy and ended up treating them like glorified bibliographies for self-study. But if you're driven and you like learning in a lecture/course format, by all means go for it.

[Rafram bar Pappa]

I have not taken these, but I have worked on the Judaism module twice now. It gives a lot of good and well-resourced information, both broad historical overview and close studies of specific texts. The students who participate as much as they can on the forums, interacting with the material, one another, and the teaching staff, seem to learn a lot. In terms of the amount of content, it's probably comparable to reading a "Introduction to X" book on the topic aimed at the mass market, though with a lot more interactivity. 

Two things to note: the series focuses on scriptures, so most of the sections are going to be close readings of important texts. Secondly, the whole series has a particular set of assumptions about religions and how they ought to be thought about academically. I know that we spent a lot of time talking about this and drawing lines for participants, which is sometimes difficult. People have very strong opinions and beliefs about what "religion" is or should be, or what specific religious traditions ought to say and be. 

[MettaSutta]

On 7/27/2018 at 3:06 PM, Rafram bar Pappa said:

I have not taken these, but I have worked on the Judaism module twice now. It gives a lot of good and well-resourced information, both broad historical overview and close studies of specific texts. The students who participate as much as they can on the forums, interacting with the material, one another, and the teaching staff, seem to learn a lot. In terms of the amount of content, it's probably comparable to reading a "Introduction to X" book on the topic aimed at the mass market, though with a lot more interactivity. 

Two things to note: the series focuses on scriptures, so most of the sections are going to be close readings of important texts. Secondly, the whole series has a particular set of assumptions about religions and how they ought to be thought about academically. I know that we spent a lot of time talking about this and drawing lines for participants, which is sometimes difficult. People have very strong opinions and beliefs about what "religion" is or should be, or what specific religious traditions ought to say and be. 

Are you in a Religion M.A. program?