While there was some good content in this course, I was disappointed in the structure of it. I have taken a series of Positive Psychology Courses from the University of Pennsylvania and one from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and got so much out of them. Those courses were truly self-paced and there was time to really engage in the individual activities. I never felt pressured or that I was working against a deadline.
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However, in this course, I felt driven by the expected completion date and the Coursea reminders that I am for credit I have to be finished by a certain date. I cannot tell from the design of the course whether this is professor, Rice, or Coursea driven requirement, but for working adults it is ill-conceived - especially for a topic like mindfulness where there is a significant experiential component.
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From my perspective (and one of my Masters Degrees is in Education with a focus on adult and technology learning), this design doesn't make sense.
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First, I would suspect that most of the people enrolled in this course are working adults - living complicated, over-taxed lives. This specific type of course is not a critical-path degree programs but rather something people take out of personal interest and desire to improve their lives. There is no need to be calendar driven. There is nothing magic about completing this in 30 days.
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Secondly, the weekly structure is linier - content -> activity -> case study -> graded reflection. Therefore, in order to meet the 7-day timeline and be compliant, the study is driven either to rush through the content, ignore the three day activity target, or to do the minimum to get by, particularly in the reflections.
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I would recommend the following changes:
1. Eliminate the drive to have this done in a month and quit sending messages trying to push the student into compliance. At the end of the first week I had to make the decision whether to just drop this or continue because I was so annoyed by the nature of the Coursea notice. How many students are being driven away when they realize that they can't keep up this pace because of tempo/demands of their "real lives."
2. At the beginning of the course, recommend that the student start a mindfulness journal so that they can capture the learning from their practices and be able to reflect on them at the end of the module. Then, as content is presented, for some, add an activity for experimentation with the results added to their journal. I think this building block structure would provide deeper learning then the current design
3. I would eliminate the Case Study Videos. While I understand the intention of building connection, it is so staged that, at least for me, it is "check the block" "make work."