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Learner Reviews & Feedback for A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment by Indian School of Business

4.8
stars
5,808 ratings

About the Course

What are the determinants of a happy and fulfilling life? This is surely one of life’s biggest questions, and a question that has interested many of our ancestors. Buddha famously gave up his kingdom in search of happiness. Several Greek philosophers (from Aristotle to Epicurus and Plato to Socrates) had their own views on what it takes to be happy. And of course, we all have our own theories about happiness too. How valid are our theories? Until recently, if you wished for an answer to this question, you would've been forced to base it on discussions with spiritual leaders. Or, if you were lucky, you could've based it on late-night (and perhaps intoxicant-fueled) conversations with friends and family. Happily, all that has changed now. Over the past decade-and-a-half, scientists have gotten into the act big time. We now have a pretty good idea of what it takes to lead a happy and fulfilling life. This course, based on the award-winning class offered both at the Indian School of Business and at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin, developed by Prof. Raj Raghunathan (aka "Dr. Happy-smarts") draws content from a variety of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral decision theory to offer a tested and practical recipe for leading a life of happiness and fulfillment. Although not mandatory, reading Prof. Raj's forthcoming book, titled If you're so smart, why aren't you happy? can help you review and assimilate the material covered in this book at your leisure. For Coursera learners alone, the hardcover version of the book is available for a deep discount of 50%, plus shipping and handling. You can order the hardcover for 50% off by writing to Aaron at: Aaron@800ceoread.com. Please mention that you are a student of the "coursera happiness course" in your email. The course will feature guest appearances by several well-known thought leaders, including: - Dan Ariely (author of Predictably Irrational and, soon to be released, Irrationally Yours), - Ed Diener (“Dr. Happiness”), - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Flow), By taking this course, you will discover the answers to questions such as: - Why aren’t the smart-and-the-successful as happy as they could—or should—be - What are the “7 Deadly Happiness Sins” that even the smart and the successful commit?, and - What are the “7 Habits of the Highly Happy” and how can you implement them in your life? By the end of the course, I expect students who have been diligent with the lectures and exercises to not just gain a deeper understanding of the science of happiness, but to also be significantly happier....

Top reviews

CR

Apr 23, 2018

Excellent course, Professor Raj is great. I found it very helpful to see what types of personality traits I have that may contribute to my happiness level and possible approaches to dealing with them.

LS

Jan 23, 2017

This course is a joy! I cannot recommend it highly enough. Practical advice based on long-term research, interviews with worldwide experts on the topics discussed, and a fabulous professor. So great!

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1976 - 2000 of 2,036 Reviews for A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment

By İSMAİL Y

Oct 26, 2022

very good

By Jeet S

Jan 14, 2022

very nice

By EE-020-Kabita S

Oct 31, 2021

excellent

By shwet p

Jun 1, 2022

nkjdbfkj

By B E

Aug 31, 2020

awesome

By Shailesh K M

Apr 11, 2017

awesome

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Nov 30, 2015

Great!

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Aug 19, 2022

Done

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Jan 19, 2021

great

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Jul 4, 2020

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May 30, 2023

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Aug 17, 2021

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good

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Jun 20, 2020

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Jun 15, 2020

Nice

By Ziv B

Oct 31, 2016

yay

By ARIJIT M

Jul 19, 2021

5

By Anne L

Jul 26, 2020

I enrolled in this course in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic. I watched all of the video lectures, completed the quizzes, submitted my assignments and reviewed the work of my peers. The only thing I did not do was submit my final exam (reasons below).

What’s great about the course: There is a great deal of content that introduces lots of social science concepts that affect happiness. You can delve deeper into those elements that interest you and have a base line knowledge of those that don’t.

Dr Raghunathan is a great presenter with passion for his subject. The cheesy music and jokes grew on me as I realised they were his authentic style.

Some of the exercises were fun and introduced their concepts in a gentle and thoughtful way.

What could be improved: The errors in the course are distracting and disappointing (I’m talking about the ones that impact how the course works operationally (e.g. not being about to upload assignments in a certain format when videos say that you can do so, being told assignments have been submitted late when they have not, being told you have answered questions in lectures wrong because you did not use a capital letter) rather than typo errors or the wrong pictures being referenced). I understand that there isn’t a commercial drive to correct these errors in a free course, but we are six years on from when it was first created and some of the main errors impact people’s enjoyment and progress, which in turn will impact whether people will pay for a Certificate at the end (it did me).

Peer reviews: while I completely understand that this course aims to be as inclusive as possible, it lacks credibility for people to pass assignments when they don’t understand the assignments, or have plainly put no work into them. For example, one of the questions was “what makes you happy?” To gain points one simply had to list a few examples of things they personally did that made them happy, an answer presented to me just said “lots of things” and nothing more, When I tried to award zero points, I encountered error messages and could not submit my marking.

The final exam: This comprises of 12 questions in two parts (a) and (b) that covers all of the content of the course.The exam is a tall ask/order in terms of requirements and content, particularly when you consider the lower level of skill and knowledge students have needed to pass the assignments that have come before it. I would suggest that the part (a) sections of the final exam were incorporated into the weekly assignment tasks so we get accustomed to the rigour you’ll be expecting at the final stage. Then the final exam should only be comprised of the final six (part (b)) questions (and we were only required to pick three or four of those to answer and submit). I suspect a lot of people, like me, quit the course before submitting the final exam. I was all up for showing you what I learned and what I committed to do to improve my happiness; the final exam misses the mark in achieving that, which is a shame.

By Mary W

Mar 25, 2016

I had reached the last session of this course when it suddenly became impossible to access the video. i had to wait several days before this was possible (other videos from other sites were OK so must have been local to you and not a fault at my end) Then when I could access the site again I found I could not reconnect with the course at the level at which I had left it but would have to start again. Unsurprisingly I did not want to do this but would like to finish what was a very interesting and thought provoking course and the presentation was excellent and deserves 6 stars... the prof is a star. I hope you can help in this matter as there does not seem to be anywhere on your site where one has the opportunity to contact Coursera with problems such as this as I do not think this review page is truly relevant to the problem but where else can I go? Please do not suggest the Community Forum.

Hopefully

Mary W

By Juliet J

Feb 23, 2021

I probably had higher hopes for this class and what format it might take, which led me to find the class less rewarding than I expected. I was looking forward to learning a variety of practical techniques to develop happiness and fulfillment, but the course was for more clinical. It pulled study after study and recommended a wide array of self-help books rather than provide hands-on techniques and guides for building a base for happiness. Even the weekly exercises felt tedious more than fulfilling. The instructor was positive and brought a genuine enthusiasm to the class, although the team that offered additional support felt overtly canned. Other might get more out of it than I did, but the class was fine.