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Journalism of Courage
While technology courses often have high demand, a few unconventional online courses have also found takers in large numbers across the world. In India, these three Coursera programmes have received particularly positive feedback: Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills, Tools and Techniques for Managing Stress, and the Science of Well-Being for Teens.
The educators of these courses are either professors in a reputed foreign university or are industry professionals. They tell indianexpress.com what inspired them to curate these short programmes and why we need to register for them.
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Isn’t negotiation learning more on-the-job training? “The concern about on-the-job training is that employees do not receive feedback on what they do well and how they can improve. Many learners in my course are experienced business negotiators who tell me they have learned new frameworks and tools in the course. Many other learners have no on-the-job training and use concepts from the course for everyday negotiations. During the course, they have the opportunity to negotiate with someone from another part of the world who gives them feedback on how to improve,” Sidel explained.
The course is available in 19 languages. On the online learning platform Coursera, it has received 18,838 reviews. While the candidates are allowed to learn at their own pace, it takes approximately 17 hours to complete.
Talking about the impact of this course, the educator gives an example: “A few days ago I received a message from someone in India who explained that he was a negotiation novice. A friend asked him to negotiate a graphics design contract. So, he used learning from the course to find the interests of the other side and their alternatives. He also used psychological tools from the course (such as reciprocity) to get a better deal and wrote a contract for Rs 84,000 that included a dispute resolution clause. The same approach could be used in everyday negotiations such as renting an apartment or in major business deals,” Siedel said.
The Science of Well-being course was introduced in 2020 by Dr Laurie Santos and was one of the most popular courses of the pandemic year. Dr Santos is a cognitive scientist and professor of psychology at Yale University. While this course registered a whopping 2.5 million readers in 2020, Dr Santos has introduced a special course for teens on the same lines.
“Many people who took my happiness course as adults said they wished they had an opportunity to learn these practices earlier. We also heard from lots of parents and teachers that they wished they had a version of the class they could share with teenagers. This was why we realised that we needed to develop a new version of the class for younger learners,” she said.
Santos believes this course found takers in millions because of a post-Covid effect. “People have always wanted to become happier, but this has become even more of a focus in the post-Covid era. The class offers practical evidence-based strategies for improving well-being and I think it’s helped a lot of people,” she said, adding that the feedback has been encouraging. “We’ve heard from so many teens that the class has helped them change their habits and learn new skills. We have also seen in our adult learners that people who take the class report being statistically happier after completion,” she said.
Santos is working on developing content for even younger learners (children aged 3-6 years) as well as for specific professions and another course for parents.
TJ Walker is an instructor and a well-known name in the personal development industry. As per Coursera, he currently has more than 1.3 million registered seekers for his online courses. About five years ago, Walker started going deeper into personal development and decided to come up with a course on tackling stress.
“Traditionally, I had done communication skills courses, a particular subsection of personal development. And now, I started going more deeply into personal development—everything from goal-setting to how to be more successful and happier in life. In the course of my research and studies, I found that stress is a huge issue for a lot of people. If you’re feeling incredibly stressed, all sorts of bad things happen to you in your life. You don’t exercise as much, eat unhealthy etc. Because of that, your brain isn’t functioning as well. You are not as productive at work and you’re therefore not making as much money,” he said.
This in turn, as per Walker, will harm your finances, etc. “That’s why I decided to do an in-depth course specifically focusing on how people can reduce stress,” he said.
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Through this course, the student will gain knowledge about the causes, types and effects of stress on physical, mental and emotional well-being.
There are various courses on managing stress. After the pandemic, there has been an increased focus on mental health. How is this one different? “This course is unique in its focus on a media-based solution. We are bombarded with promotional messages that are selling aerated drinks, processed food, etc that bring lifestyle diseases like high blood pressure, which in turn causes stress and other issues,” he said.
Walker also said there is so much content on television, OTT and social media platforms that escalates stress, taking a toll on the brain. “If you’re used to constant stimulation every second of the day, you can’t stop and think of your thoughts. You can’t write your own novel or business plan because your brain is just constantly being zapped away, and that causes stress. So that’s what is unique about my course. I try to go to the root of the problem.”
