Short while ago I came across an article by a respected NHS consultant in a newspaper which made me curious. It was about the most popular online course in the world with more than 2.5million subscribers.
Having been an educator and trainer myself more than half of my working life, and good part of that in online learning, those numbers astounded me. So, I decided to investigate.
What is this product, who is the author, why is it so popular? My head began to buzz. I decided to investigate, and here is what I found:
The organisation behind
The product is coming from Yale University in the US. Yale is a 300-year old world-renowned university, with 62 Nobel Prize winners to its credit.
What’s the name of the course: It is called The Science of Well-being.
The person behind it is an academic named Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at the University.
What’s the story?
Over the years, Prof Santos had seen a lot of young students, new to university life, faced with pressures and deadlines of academic life, experiencing stress and feeling depressed, which in turn affected their academic performance. She decided to do something about it and designed a course to help them develop their resilience and wellbeing to help them cope better. For a few years, she taught it from her own home, in a relaxed and informal setting, and it had become very popular. As a result, the University had helped her develop it into an online course and make it available to all the students as a resource to promote wellbeing, as part of their pastoral care.
May 18-24 2020 is the Mental Health Awareness Week. Held to ransom by Coronavirus, it is a good time to focus on mental health and wellbeing. Mental health is a real concern at the moment as many people have lost loved ones to the virus. Most people’s livelihood has been affected and are facing uncertainty. World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of a potential mental health crisis amongst world’s population due to the corona pandemic.
During this global crisis, there has been an outpouring of generosity by individuals and organisations keen to do their bit to alleviate the pain and suffering of fellow humans. Many technology giants have made their platforms freely available to people stuck at home to help communicate and work, whilst in lockdown. Yale University on their part have decided to make this popular online course on wellbeing freely available to everyone across the globe as a way of promoting mental health and wellbeing.
So, why is the course so popular?
- Currently there is a huge need for this kind of product, due to the damage coronavirus has caused to people’s lives
- It is a tried and tested product made to address an identified need and proven to have worked
- It has an excellent pedigree – coming from the world-famous University of Yale which a lot of people trust and hold in high regard
- And best of all it is free! That explains its record-breaking success.
You too can find out more about the course and register online at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
