Introduction to International Criminal Law by Case Western Reserve University on Coursera

Introduction to International Criminal Law was the second MOOC I have taken.

At the time, since it was my first course on Coursera, I was really impressed by the technical side. On Coursera, video lectures are continuously interrupted by review quiestions, checking on how well you understand the material. It really engages you to focus and not loose attention while watching.

During the course we have learned about the basic terminology of international criminal law through recent cases. There were excerpts from recent trials on international tribunals in video or reading, and a lot of real life examples to make the material more current and practical.

There was only one quiz to be completed at the end of the course (very seriously called final exam), but there were tasks to work on every week for each topic called on-line simulations. These basically helped you apply the learnt material in practice, imangining you work on the given case and have to argue either for or against a certain issue. 

Each week we were assigned by the alaphabetical order of our names to be on the side of the defense or the prosecution, so we could also argue each-other in the discussion forums. Just so you get the picture, on the very first week of the course I was assigned in the group that had to defend the Nazi war criminals after WWII. These were really great excercises to practice your “lawyering” skills (I know there is no such word but lawyers do know what I mean).

The course was not really interactive compared to the first one I took. We had the chance to regularly interact with each-other in the forums, but you could finish the course with no communication whatsoever, you just had to post your answers each week.

I enjoyed the videos very much. The teaching method of Professor Michael Scharf is kind of entertaining, and really engaging, so it was not hard to follow along and focus during the lectures.

I took part in the very first session of the course in 2013. There was another session towards the end of 2014, but currently I see no further sessions announced.

I finished the course with distinction, meaning I completed most of the assigned tasks and completed the final exam with a good grade.