Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Science of Well-Being by Yale University

This course really helped me a lot, I am grateful with Laurie Santos and her team, the people involved into this great project. The oriented me into understanding valuable states of being and actions.

Best college course I ever took and I plan to review the lectures and materials as needed.

I took this course during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, together with a friend. We had a lot of fun discussing the concepts, etc.

I would like to add some suggestions for an update which I imagine will happen on occasion. Although this class is taught at Yale to a young student body the fact that it is on-line means that older people will also take the course.

Given that reality - add some other examples of what people think will make them happy. As people age it is not generally about good grades, getting married and having a good job. There may not be studies to quote as the non-student is not a captive audience that signs up for studies as part of course requirements, etc. And yet, there must be a way to broaden the knowledge base to include someone older than 22.

Class is valuable to high school/young college student & should be a HS grad requirement, since not everyone goes on to college, much less Yale

Teaches importance of thinkI,ng about others - feelings - not just the material.

Most emotionally stable adults will have learned everything in class through life and experiences. This class being the most popular in Yale history is a sad commentary on the fretful lives of adults. Also why self help books make best seller lists and certain religious leaders get rich by selling hope. Downside is the instructor's over use of the word stuff.

A serious downside is the importance of a peer review which chances are isn't going to be written by somebody who is actually a peer.

The class can be an invasion of privacy, a not so serious situation if everyone is a teenager who tend to blab about everything. However, you have to be cautious about what you post, because later on your words can be taken out of context and come back to haunt you. The peer review , in some cases, can be an exercise in superiority and getting a kick out of passing judgement and trashing another. Also taking assignments too literally.

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Information is mostly repetitive like the graphs and the data for example. Another thing is that the graphs are way too much and should be toned down and it is not interesting at all along with adding politics into the well being which makes no sense in my opinion respectively. Overall I give this course a 2 out of 5 and it could have been better with less information that is repetitive.

PLEASE STOP ASKING ME IF I WANT TO BUY THE CERTIFICATE.

I'm only in part 1 of this course and it's enough to make me drop it.

I'm only choosing 2 stars now bc it won't let me proceed without picking an amount. I'll know more at the end how it really goes.

I think there is too much hype over the course and the delivery was really just normal. Perhaps is the current global situation that drives the demand of enrollment.

It serves as a good reminder on what really matters in life.

none of this advice applies for people with schizophrenia

I was into Positive Psychology for the last 2 years. I had read Positivity, Flourish, Thinking Fast and Slow,Insight, Emotional Intelligence, Happiness at Work etc. When the State and the Citizens of many countries ,including India(where I come from) started showing Gratitude to the HealthCare workers, Doctors, Sanitation workers, Police and the like, I started looking into State Gratitude to a community of service providers. In the process, I tumbled across this Program. That too from Yale! And Free! A God-send, I feel.

This program is an integration of different developments in Psychology at different points of time by different researchers and moulded into one of Well Being, for all the people. It gives the Modus Operandi to become Happier, much more than Wishing A Happy New Year or A Happy Married Life which are well meaning rituals.

There is a lot to learn from this program and lucky are those who learn them at a younger age. They can consciously lead a happy life. I am trying to spread the benefits of this program in my circle through Facebook, WhatsApp and email through a summary (article) I have made.

And, everybody in this world is craving for happiness : if only they know of this program, they will be better off.

Cannot recommend this course highly enough! While it will force you to really evaluate yourself and get out of your comfort zone, you are so much better off for doing so. Objectively, I doubled my happiness in 10 weeks, which made dealing with everyday life so much easier.

You have nothing to lose by trying this class and its exercises out. At most, you're out a little bit of time, but if (and likely when) it works for you, you gain new perspective on yourself and the world around you.

Thank you professor Santos. It was a great course and I learned so much and the extra readings are great. I just started my blog "Motivate Yourself Daily" to help others learn ways of changing their thoughts and living a happier and more success life.

If you offer any other courses in this subject topic, please let me know. I would take them all. Any other book suggestions are always welcomed.

Thank you again!

Great course! I definitely will carry the learnings from this course in my daily life, and am looking forward to continuing with the rewirements.

Definitely recommend this to everyone who wants to learn (or re-learn) to be happy.

Highly practical and applicable, you will be Doing, not just Listening. You'll have the opportunity to test your 'before' and 'after' levels of happiness - mine increased significantly.

Wonderful course! Health begins with a healthy mind: a positive mind that sees the beauty in everyday life and in the people around us.

A good practical review of some of the most interesting findings in positive psychology. Largely delivers well on what it promises. However, some of the studies covered are over-interpreted. For example, most studies in psychology suggest general trends across a group of people rather than sure-fire solutions that will work for everyone, but I would say that the latter claim is implied pretty often in this course. Also, the material related to Brian Wansink's research should be omitted, because his research has been called into serious question lately.

Learned few interesting and useful things from the course, but found it to be somewhat boring. Also, in order to get a certificate there is a need to review a peer final work submission, the system didn't capture review that I did and now I have to come back and look for one to review since none exist now (improve the software Coursera and also create notification based on a queue).

This is a class recorded, that is not online learning and the topic of this course demands more energy from the instructor. I've had better learning experiences regarding this theme.

Do not purchase the certificate, the course is great but the certificate is a dud you print off yourself. For $70 I need a seal otherwise my son could’ve made me a better one.

I worked so hard and find it sad that I did all that work but there was no certificate to celebrate finishing?

Great course! Very practical tools based on scientific research. The professor was clear and had fun slides.

One distracting and slightly annoying part of the class was the number of times the professor said "Yale" in every single lecture. I think I counted 6 times in one lecture. I can't remember a single professor from my Columbia courses concerned about our self-esteem so much to remind us every day that we were at Columbia. Plus, with this being a class about social comparison, constantly remind Coursera students that they're not at Yale isn't exactly effective.

Even so - that was a minor thing and I did really enjoy this class. I'd recommend making the app a little easier to track, for example being able to auto-fill items for today that you did yesterday. I meditated every day but after a while, I stopped tracking it in the app because I didn't like having to fill out a new event each time. Also - it asks to connect to an account but I don't want anyone seeing my data except Yale researchers.

Firstly, Laurie Santos kept us all engaging and enthralled throughout the whole course. I just loved her! Secondly i have never enjoyed peer interaction about the course and the peer viewing sessions were one of my favorite things! I have started to look at happiness through a different pair of lens and will continue to debate with my mind about the misconceptions and miswantings we all crave. This course is such a subtle and nice course where you can just listen to all the studies and the statistics just shocked me. My whole life no one has taught me the things we all are satisfied or content with. I learnt so much about HEDONIC ADAPTATION(which is my fav part) and lots of things which are eye-openers. I discussed about these psychological aspects with my friends and family and they loved the concepts as well! Thank you YALE! Thank you Ms. Santos! It was such a pleasure doing this course and knowing you. I have recommended to my friends and they will join in no time!

Thank you so much, Dr. Laurie Santos! You are a teacher that leads by example! Thank you for your generosity and kindness in giving this experience of learning away to the world as a gift! And what is the subject? Happiness! You have filled the world with joy! You have made my first online college class interesting and manageable. From a teacher to a teacher, you even made me look forward to my homework! You challenged my thinking and supported your findings with science. The ten weeks of work were meaningful and well supported! I often found myself in flow looking at the resources you provided. My take-aways are my notebook, activity log and membership in the global Happiness Lab. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for this opportunity!

Excellent course with lots of strategies and 'rewirements' to enable the student to experience well-being and gratitude in their life. This was an especially great course to take during the coronavirus pandemic crisis as it helped me to use some of the 'rewirements' to cope with the uncertainty and anxiety associated with this. Thank you to Dr. Santos for sharing her advice and suggestions in a personal online forum for those of us in the course. This was very helpful. Thank you!!

This course it's great, I would recommend to anyone really, it really helps you understand the misconception of happiness and explore which are the things you need to do in order to live a peaceful and happier life. Simple things we forget. Great resources, the teacher interactive very prepared, this course is different than any other. Definitely worth it to take it!

This is a brilliant course. I am in my late sixties but have learnt a great deal about what makes us happy (and what doesn't) and have now got the tools to make changes in my own life. I hope I can keep referring back to the course material and learn more. I have recommended this course to many friends and will continue to do so. Thank you!