I can’t believe I’m paying for this crap: it’s one of the worst online courses I have ever taken, as I’ve already experienced with the other courses in the Business Foundations Specialization.

Coming from a science background, I am continually disappointed at how much MEANINGLESS HOT-AIR BULLSHIT JARGON AND HAND-WAVING -- I call it "the Five-Axis MHABHJ Paradigm, which is based on 7 factors formed by 3 circles of focus" -- there is in business and how long it always takes you people to get to the point, on the very rare occasion that there is one. This entire course -- if you can call it that -- on Managing Social and Human Capital could be summarized in about 2 pages. Ten minutes to say: “organizations must adapt to change, have a clear plan, communicate it and execute it”. Wow!

The professor is monotonous, boring and drags on forever instead of being concise and direct. Moreover, many of the slides had typos on them ("shot-term", "time" instead of "timely", etc.). Lastly, don't use terms like "Chuck" (referring to Charles Schwab), when you know that there are students from around the world taking this class.

Perhaps Coursera / Wharton could offer problem-solving exercises that make students think and work, instead of just giving us fake wrote-memory quizzes that people could pass without even watching the videos (Google).

Firstly, let me state that I'm very thankful for the coursework -- thank you! While both professors are quite knowledgeable, I never felt either professor was entirely invested. The course began with a caveat that this class was a deep dive rather than a formal study, which I took strong exception. In addition, the quizes were a regurgitation -- never challenging or encouraging independent thought. Both professors often alluded to what they would do in the classroom, but never made an attempt effectively to use this online teaching-medium to foster real discussion. In fairness, the material in its presentation was brief and cursory. My critique is also validated by referring to the Discussion Forum. Unlike other classes that I have taken, this Disscussion Forum was empty; no one is posting in general. HOWEVER I think that this coursework is fascinating! Therefore, something needs to be improved. Give this material the attention that it is due.

The case studies in the course are exemplary. For an MBA student to understand the decision making process at the highest level and to gain right decision making approach this course is a must .

Lots of fluff. The most important lesson was Autonomy, Variety, Significance, and Feedback.

While it is great to see lectures by Peter Capelli and Mike Useem, the depth of the material stays quite at the surface. Both could go much deeper - instead the material consists of 4 weeks, each week showing videos with one of the scientists for about 60 minutes. No further reading is prepared, apart from one test at the end of each week. In comparison to other courses on coursera it is a bit disapointing, especially as the course is slightly more expensive than other, significantly more rich ones.

I don't even know what are they talking about. All the knowledges are by piece and piece. The lesson is short and I don't have any clue for the big picture of the managing human capital. Not recommended.

More hands-on casework would have been beneficial.

the content could have more streamlined. a few tidbits of useful information splattered across some of the lectures.

Teachers present a lot of anecdotes but few real-case data

Dear Prof. Mike Useem and Prof. Peter Capelli,

Greetings from the Philippines!

Please allow me to express my gratitude to the both of you and the rest of my instructors ( Business Foundations Specialization) for such a short yet very informative and practical encounter (virtually). The topics discussed were on point and closer to home since I'm newly promoted as Operations Supervisor here in one of the biggest shopping centers in Asia. And I shall say, mismatch between salary expectation and the actual, inequity, incentives system, promotion, etc, were resonated to me since I personally experienced them. With my new learning, I firmly believed I'm now ready to tackle new and bigger responsibility and yes, learning will never stop. This is just the beginning.

Thank you once again Coursera for granting me the financial aid. I swear I won't be able to enroll to this wonderful course if it weren't for your generosity. From the bottom of my heart, please accept my sincere gratitude. And oh, did I tell you that this would be my first Coursera-verified Certificate? I'm ridiculously ecstatic right now and can't wait to share this to my linkedin and resume.

Thank you once again. God bless you more!

Sincerely,

REAL PRADO,

Mechanical Engineer, Philippines

A fantastic, thought provoking course. Gave us a lot of things to reflect on and be mindful of in different situations in the organization. Thank you Prof Cappelli and Prof Useem. Grateful to you.

I didn't like tests because they didn't check if I understood a material. I should have learned examples, names of companies to pass tests, but I don't need it. The professors are fine, I liked them. There was useful information. But I didn't like the concentration on examples and a lack of structure (presentations with the main thoughts would be really helpful).

While I did feel there was some good material in this course, I also felt there was too much concentration on related stories, and quizzing on the stories, instead of the material itself. Hopefully this is something that can be corrected in the future, so the material can be the star instead of what sho

The last two modules are far too anecdotal and don't contribute much insightful theory.

No structure for the course

only a few tidbits of helpful info. compared to accounting and marketing this course is not very helpful.

The course was very well planned with a good number of examples to make the concepts easy to understand. The professors gave a very smooth presentation of the topics given. Even the tests at the end of each week made me go through the all the topics taught through out the week. I would suggest anyone and everyone to enroll for this course as it is not specific to the needs of a specific industry, rather it is a necessity for all members of the working population to understand the way to manage human and social capital.

This course is absolutely wonderful. I really love the examples the instructors used for demonstrating the concepts, for example: the fire fighter story and critical lessons from the Marine force. Previously, with only an engineering background, I trusted the job should be divided technically in the most efficient way but after this course, I realised the optimal solution must include an understanding of human behaviour. In conclusion, this course absolutely enlightened me with useful knowledge for my future career.

I really enjoyed this course! The lecture videos were so easy to follow and the professors gave excellent examples to help understand all the material. I will definitely be bringing all of this knowledge further with me, both in life but also in my future career. The quizzes helped me test my knowledge and was extremely helpful! I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in both business but also the human side which comes along with running and managing a company.

Super interesting!

Excellent course.Well Designed course by experienced faculty at Penn. If you are a new comer to this field i insist you to take this course it will help you a lot. As in managing social and human capital the most important this is understanding the mindset behind the people why they are working with you, why they will work hard for your organisation, will there be any benefit to them if they work hard for you. You will learn hell lot of things. About managing social and human capital.

Thank you so much to Professor Peter Cappelli and Professor Mike Useem for the knowledge that's been shared in this course. I'd say it's absolutely wonderful! I highly recommend this to anyone who would like to get a glimpse of what managing human and social capital is like. It's simple, understandable, and nothing too complicated. Thank you to the whole Coursera team too for the opportunity to join this course! I look forward to joining other courses offered.

I found this course enlightening because it has basically agreed with the ideology I have been recommending my previous managers to implement. I believe many companies tend to forget that people have emotions and overwrite their opinions in any matter that affects the company. I believe, as it has been said, every employee is a crucial element of the business.

Beautiful course. And I loved the examples the presenters used.

Pretty good course. A little bit too much on the academic side (similar to other courses in this specialization). The reason this is a problem is that this course is supposed to be able to be taken by individuals with no previous business experience. High level business concepts and terminology at times will confuse lay people. All in all a good course though, many insightful stories. Strategic intent... amazing concept.

Excelente curso sobre um dos aspectos mais desafiadores para gerentes e diretores em geral, a administração de recursos humanos. O curso explica de forma simples e acessível teorias que administradores poderão aplicar no dia a dia e indica materiais para leitura para aprofundar o conhecimento. Além das aulas o curso tem um resumo em PDF que facilita para ajudar a estudar ou para ser usado como material de consulta.

I really enjoyed, very interesting topics and examples that made very easy to bring the content of the course to the current organizational reality and day to day world at work. I felt that this course was not only designed for people that are already in management positions, but also for those, like me, that wish to growth and become an effective and fair manager in the near future.