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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Indigenous Canada by University of Alberta

4.8
stars
21,724 ratings

About the Course

Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies that explores the different histories and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples living in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores complex experiences Indigenous peoples face today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations. Topics for the 12 lessons include the fur trade and other exchange relationships, land claims and environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art and its expressions....

Top reviews

DN

Aug 30, 2020

This is a great survey course about Indigenous Canada. As a participant, I have learned and unlearned so much about Indigenous Canadians, and more important, this course has inspired me to learn more.

JH

Feb 13, 2021

Highly recommended - I have recommended it some of my staff who are interested in both taking the course and reading the materials. I should note they are First Nations and are as interested as I was.

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6826 - 6850 of 7,644 Reviews for Indigenous Canada

By Jérémy T

Sep 9, 2021

Excellent course overall! This course is a solid base from which to further my own knowledge and understanding of historical and contemporary Indigenous issues. My only suggestion for improvement would be to edit some quiz questions so that there is only one correct answer per question. I found myself frustrated at times when I got a question wrong even though, for some questions, two options were clearly correct based on the course content.

By Lana S

Oct 25, 2022

I really enjoyed this course. Understanding the First Nations perspective and learning specific areas of inadequacies in our history and relationships is important for all Canadians. I hope this helps bridge the gap in understanding between our people.

I loved the portrates of the presenters and those people being highlighted. It would be nice to have links to more info or to the art of the individuals discussed in the last lesson.

By Lorena K H

Dec 12, 2021

A good survey course. The emphasis on Metis and Plains is understndlable, since it is Alberta-based..This terribly essential information should be essential for every Canadian. It desperately needs upgrading, in the last few sections.To integrate materials, I thought more time should be allowed than the esimates given. And, lastly, please do not let some modules fall into the trap of creating reverse racism (however justified that may be)

By Diane F

Jan 15, 2021

On occasion the questions were not quite well timed with the course materials, particularly the question on Idle No More. I also think that adding further visuals to the videos would be helpful and informative. While the lecturers are excellent, this format could more closely follow an in-class format where images accompany oral lecture content. In Week 12 a number of artists are named, but for most we did not see images of their works.

By Anna L

Aug 23, 2020

Content was really great! My only complaint were the quizzes. I took a couple twice and some correct answers were counted as wrong. It doesn't change my takeaway that the course itself was really good and made me want to learn more in different Indigenous studies classes going forward. It obviously can't cover everything in depth but definitely helps to fill in holes where most provincial primary and secondary education curriculums fail.

By Diana T

Aug 10, 2020

I would actually give this course a 4.5 but couldn't figure out how to do that. It was an excellent overview and I learned a great deal. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of Linda's paintings and her discussion of them.

My only criticism is the Forums - I found it difficult to find meaningful discussions. I am sure they were there, but there were many negative, show-off, posturing type comments that made it frustrating to wade through.

By Pete G

Sep 7, 2020

As a recent immigrant of Canada, I felt it was a duty of mine to learn about the indigenous history of my new home. I learned a lot during this course and I appreciate the amount of hours and effort that has gone into creating this course that is available for free. One bit of feedback for me personally was that I found it quite hard to concentrate at times due to it being done in the style of a lecture. Anyway, big thanks to the team.

By Stephanie P

Jun 30, 2020

I enjoyed this course and also learned a lot of new things about different groups and different aspect of Indigenous culture, life and history. The videos were great and made the course accessible, it helped me work at my own pace as well as stay engaged. It is a great starting point, and I would love to continue learning more in depth on this subject from the faculty of UofA if additional courses will be made available in the future.

By Scott D

Jan 8, 2022

Honest presentation of matters related to being Indigenous in Canada today. It should be obvious to all students that this course just scratches the surface. Some of the coverage related to resource extraction requires more definition or detail, in my view. Topics such as this can be difficult viewing but the material is presented in such a way as to allow the student to proceed without so much discomfort that they abandon the course.

By Charmaine T

Feb 18, 2021

A great overview of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The history of decolonization and its continued impact on everyone today is a stark reminder that the work required is still ongoing. However, the resilience and determination of each group will not be shortchanged or pushed aside. The drive to reclaim and let their voices be heard continues to grow and thrive and even amongst challenges, the truth still remains and always will remain.

By Richard D

Dec 10, 2021

Having worked across Canada in remote areas I have experienced and witnessed the good and the bad of being Indigenous in Canada. This course showed me so much more and opened my eyes to the reality that has been in front of me throughout my life. I started this course to kickstart the exploration of my families Indigenous ancestry and I am now very motivated to learn more about my ancestry and the Indigenous experience in Canada.

By Stacey B

Nov 23, 2020

I really enjoyed this course (even though a lot of the content was disheartening to learn about). I thought it was well presented, offered a variety of ways to learn the materials, and engage with the material. I especially thought the artwork was amazing! and the way it was presented in the little videos with Ms. Dorion explaining all the symbolism and stories. I loved that!! Well done! I have already signed up for another course.

By Niki K

Nov 15, 2020

Excellent source of history, knowledge and perspective. I did find the repetition of speakers, methods of presenting and unit structure too similar for 12 units (weeks). My attention and engagement appreciates more diversity with instruction methods such as other speakers, more examples of music and art with the artist interpretations, other sources of sharing knowledge - exactly what the interviews scattered throughout provided.

By Sheena B H

Dec 20, 2020

This is a great course and I feel every Canadian should take this course in elementary and high school.

I am taking it after being in Canada 50 years and am shamed that it’s taken me so long to acknowledge the first people and their past and ongoing trials and challenges! Thank you to all the scholars.

Be proud, be strong and keep sharing your history and your future achievements.

I am going to look for a course on indigenous art!

By Yvonne C

Feb 3, 2022

I very much appreciated all the content, the research and the art works as well as all the multi-media effects. I would just like to suggest more visual examples of events and/or artifacts in some of the chapters. As well, the format of some chapters are not congruent with the rest of the document. Thank you for sharing your culture to the world. I hope more and more people become aware of your culture and would support it.

By Merewyn W

Nov 25, 2020

It was very educational, and left me wanting to learn more. I did however find it a bit dry in it's story telling, it could have been a bit more dynamic to keep your interest. I am sure budget had a lot to do with it. Personally I would have liked some more visual examples to help exemplify points, whether that be more stills, video footage, animations, or other type of creative elements to help walk us through the chapters.

By Rob A

Oct 25, 2020

Timely and thorough, within the time constraints. A good introduction for someone interested in better understanding the origins of contemporary First Nations issues and aspirations. Better use could have been made of the static background behind the speakers - illustrations of the subjects under discussion could have been shown without distracting from the spoken presentations. I have recommended this course to friends.

By Kyra H

Nov 13, 2020

The information presented in this course was very thorough and well organized. It helped teach me many things that had been left out of a traditional Canadian education in elementary and high school. The only critique I would have is that the videos were hard to continuously listen to, I ended up having to pause and read transcripts to better understand the course and retain information while not losing attention or focus.

By Jen

Feb 19, 2023

I found

the course quite interesting but there were a number of typos in the reading material. I was disappointed

in the the videos (except for the interviews) were basically reading the printed material. No added value to that. I think, give the times we are living in, more time should be spent on the residential schools. Many of us non-indigenous individuals need to have greater depth on the topic so we can understand.

By Amanda P

Jul 24, 2023

This course was very interesting and provided a lot of information and intricate details of Indigenous peoples throughout history to present day. Although this course was great, some of the test questions were not clear and were more generalized making it difficult. I was disappointed to have paid and completed the course only to have a general certificate without my name on it.

All in all, very worth the time, enjoyed!

By Wendy H

Jul 27, 2022

I really enjoyed this, and learned a great deal. I thought I had a good grasp of the basics of Indigenous history in Canada, but boy, I found out SO much more. A great deal was packed into each lesson, too, I don't know how those planning and executing it managed. I would highly recommend this as an excellent overview of Indigenous people in Canada. Well done, University of Alberta, and all the specific participants.

By Mimi

Oct 9, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course and learning a lot I did not know. You've reawakened my thirst for 'local' knowledge and history of our Canada. I'm sure over time you'll get the transcribing more accurate, but that was only an inconvenience. It could have been quite confusing to some people though. Thank you for doing a great job of sharing such a large variety of information about the Indigenous people.

By Linda B

Feb 1, 2021

Thank you for all of the information conveyed during the course of the classes. I believe I have a better understanding of some aspects.

My only criticism is that sometimes the quiz questions were not directly related to material covered in the “ chapter”. Not sure why that happened, however I am happy that I stuck it out to the end!

I also appreciated the visual art at the end of each class, beautiful work! Thank you!

By Paul D

Mar 22, 2022

I learned a lot from the course. A group of us (about 12) from one United Church congregation took the course and met every two weeks for discussion. The original plan was to do six weeks in the fall and six weeks in the winter, but the course did not offer that flexibility.

I would have liked to have known more about the 60's scoop and the effects of adoption of indigenous children into non-indigenous families.

By Sue H

Apr 12, 2021

This course was excellent. I learned so many things I never knew before, but ought to have known. It has given me more understanding of Indigenous issues, and their (true) historical context. The lectures were of a reasonable length, and presented in an interesting format. I enjoyed the styles and variety of each of the 3 professors, and also greatly admired the art and explanations of the artist Leah Dorion.