Lectures were a bit repetitive. More example could have been used to teach concepts.

Positive: There are a lot of examples and interviews with people in the field that help to understand better. I think the concepts exposed are useful and relevant.

Negative: I think it the course could be done in a much more compact way (the introduction and conclusion of each video, which is just music, take together around half a minute). I think all the concepts could be introduced in half of the time. There is a lot of reiteration and some texts are so similar with one another that more than once I thought I was doing again the same section.

First two weeks were a waste of time and generally unclear. Could have started straight away with week 3 and would have been clearer. Very academic style.

Important topic, important informationBUT, given in a painfully slow pace. All 4 weeks can be summarized in 10 slides and 20 minutes video.

This is for people doing social work in third world countries. Trust me, videos discussing open defecation and child marriage get old fast. Also, the stuff about social norms is very confusing and hard to understand.

I found it very difficult to engage with this course which is surprising due to its exciting potential

The course is just about terms and jargon not so much about ideas.

Thank you so much for an eye opening course around a field I had very little scientific knowledge about. Growing up and living in developing countries in East Africa, I am very familiar with problems of FGC (female genital cutting), open defecation, open urination, bribing etc; problems that seemed never ending in spite of diverse attempts by relevant government authorities at ending them.

Fortunately, I have realized now through the course that personal and collective behavior is a complex thing that to eradicate undesirable behavior like FGC one needs a complex approach that targets most importantly both personal & collective behavioral factors.

Besides, when it comes to engaging such problems in future discussions, the scientific basis I have picked up through the course via exposure to relevant scientific language, methods & research work would guide my views on such social problems.

I plan to read the whole course book - Norms in The Wild – Cristina Bichhieri - to reinforce the skills I have so far learned.

Thanks Again

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Social Change, Social Norms course is a transformative and unique field which aims at changing human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions for the good of the community.

The course has led to my increased awareness and more understanding of the people, cultures and socities, as a result of more information in the community, which enables people to make informed decisions based on the scenario at hand. And, with the knowledge and skills acquired from this course, i am ready to contribute positively to social change to transform the society.

I would also like to thank the lecturer for he experience, confidence and knowledge in the field. The delivery of the course was exceptionally excellent. The examples used were relevant to motivate a people to take charge of changing bad norms of the society, with an aim of promoting the marginalised groups of the society like girls, women and children.

Many thanks to UNICEF for the opportunity to train me into this wonderful course.

Good course! I would recommend this course to anyone with even a passing interest in social behavior! The material is very accessible & engaging. Both the reading material and lectures are brief, straightforward, and high-quality. Some of the quiz questions were surprisingly challenging (not the typical regurgitated Q&A from lecture videos). To get the most out of this course, I suggest participating in every discussion prompt you can. Taking the time to apply the concepts and reviewing others' applications will only reinforce and challenge what you're learning. I am currently working my way through the second course in this series!

topic was very interesting , the study material is very useful and to understand the basic concepts of the Social Norms . Normative and empirical expectation help to understand the social setup and behaviors of the society , their are need to change the social form with changeling circumstances. there are old unscientific custom in our society which are required to change and allow the younger generation to adopt the moral and scientific methods for their development . free and fair life is important for the growth of individual life , we first and prim objective to develop the civilized society for peace and justice .

Am a Social Worker and thrilled in completing the prestigious course! The course is precious to me as it envisioned me a lot on social norms and social change, which are cardinal aspects in betterment of our society. Crisis,crisis! Of late, the word crisis is an all-pervasive eloquent analogy which seems bewildering and confusing.Superstitions,customs,and certain crude norms prevalent here are warning signals that our goal is far away. This course definitely had ignited minds to think about bringing in glorious changes.In my opinion,all those who dream of a better social change should go for this this course.

The course was very interesting and at a high level. It required more time then advertised though, actually double the amount of time because one cannot pass the tests when only listening to the videos or reading through the texts. This course requires studying of the concepts in order to obtain a clear understanding and be able to implement the concepts in the examples given in the tests. This enabled me to learn a lot and have a good insight in social norms and social change. I will definitely be able to use this in my current and future work related activities. Thanks a lot.

This course was amazing. It opened my eyes to how people in rural environments may differ from people in urban environments, the manner in which social structures may influence our daily choices and ultimately the way we live our lives while also allowing me to create my own opinions about various social structures and the way I think the social structures affect me. I will use this course in my life and also in my field that I am pursuing and would like to thank Coursera, UPenn and UNICEF for giving me this opportunity to learns about social norms.

Estoy muy agradecido por que hayan puesto este curso y mi felicitación a la Dra. Cristina Bicchieri por su excelente forma de presentar los temas, ya que fue ordenada, sistemática y con gran claridad.

Creo que todo servidor público debería tomar este curso, puesto que se intentan modificar patrones de conducta sociales solamente expidiendo una ley o "inventando" un programa de intervención pública, sin este estudio y conocimiento previo, lo que asegura su fracaso, por no ser sostenibles.

Muchas felicidades!!!!

Este curso es muy importante para abordar desde las ciencias sociales, el tema del orden normativo y el cambio social.

La profesora Cristina Bichieri es una investigadora que ha teorizado sobre la relación entre normas sociales y el comportamiento individual y colectivo. Ella también propone herramientas para abordar científicamente el estudio del comportamiento, medirlo y evaluarlo, esto es importante para evaluar proyectos enfocados al cambio de prácticas sociales nocivas para la comunidad y la sociedad.

This course is a must for public health practitioners (and people from many other fields) working on behaviour change and by the end I was questioning my previous approaches to behavioural analysis. The course was really well structured, building each week while providing a lot of food for thought after each week's sessions. Professor Bicchieri was truly and excellent guide to this field and the insights of the other experts very illustrative. Will definitely be doing part two.

Excellent course, well delivered. The last session of week 4 is probably a bit too long and can be split into two separate sessions. The examples are mostly related to international development, which is understandable as the course was developed with Unicef. With a few more topical examples from other contexts it will be clearer to participants that the same patterns of behaviour are at play everywhere around the world and in every social group.

A lot of the knowledge i have picked up is new to me, and obviously very absorbing. I was coming into the course from a legal background so i have better grasp of legal and regulatory frameworks. But i know i should aim to gain knowledge and skills in subjects around; i applaud the cause and efforts by professor Christina Bichierry and all the associates in imparting knowledge and skills on 'social norms social change'. Thank you.

An excellent course that was paced well, and very interesting. It caused me to think about of day-today social situations I come across and to analyze them to determine what is happening and why. The guest speakers made it varied and "real" - it was interesting to learn about approaches to activities such as child marriage, cutting and open defecation in other countries. I learned a lot and enjoyed the course.

Masterfully taught. If you have any interest in working with and understanding cultural practices and social norms, you need to take this course. DO NOT expect it to be easy and be ready to take tests over more than once! I would not place this as a "beginner" level class. I am a post-grad and still found it to be a challenge. I am definitely following up with the Level II course.

The course was very interesting because I learned about different social behaviors and what drives these conducts. Also, I became aware of different cultural beliefs. It was, in complete honesty, alarming to understand the difficulties women face in other parts of the world. I will no longer take for granted my freedom to choose and the availability of services and commodities.

I completed the course while I was at work thanks to its extremely flexible structure. And the lectures given by Mrs. Bicchieri were easy to understand. Given how complicated the syllabus was, I'd say she's a wonderful teacher.

I'm happy to recommend both the 'Social Norms, Social Change Part I' & 'Social Norms, Social Change Part II' courses, as it's worth it.

Its a wonderful experience of learning new terms regarding social norms and social change. I love to continue its second part. The instructor is Crystal clear in her communication and usage of language. and also has given me flexible time to meet deadlines. Thank you University of Pennsylvania/UNICEF , Coursera and above all Cristina Biccihieri-

This course was very useful, helpful and effective. I learned lots of things about social laws and regulations. How to behave with people, which actions are prohibited and not good to do according to the social rules and what are the solving and alternative ways. Eventually, how to advise people not to do which issues are against social rules.