Too much math! This course was not at all what I was expecting it to be... which could be both good and bad, depending on your own perspective. It concentrates heavily on the logistical side of negotiations via mathematical analysis to figure out "what's at stake" in a negotiation (i.e. "the pie") and less so on learning actual negotiation techniques. I got halfway through the first week before deciding to un-enroll. That said, Professor Nalebuff has a very engaging teaching style and presents each lecture in a dynamic fashion via animation. If you are a math whiz who excels in algebra and can do complex mathematical equations quickly on the fly, then this course will definitely benefit you. If you are like me, however, and looking for a course that will focus more on artistry and practical real-world application, then this course is not for you.

Some really EXCELLENT things about this course:

Professor is charismatic and very easy to listen to

The graphics added to each lecture are excellent: simple to grasp, add a lot to understanding, keep student engaged.

Many of the things the professor talked about made complete sense as he explained them.

Reasons why I didn't give it 5 stars:

I took this in an effort to obtain necessary continuing education hours I require for my professional assosication, while under a bit of time crunch. This meant I needed to complete the course in certain amount of time, and my pace was two weeks material per one week. This worked great until mastery quizz, which only allows another try every 8 hours.

I had been unprepared for the math involved in the course. So I couldn't quite recreate the mathematical steps in my head during tests though it seemed clear when professor did it.

I had somehow thought that the course would be about how to psychologically /emotionally encourage people to take positive and productive part in a negotiation process. I didn't know it would be primarily around how to encourage people to accept your thinking based purely on numbers. Maybe that can be made a little more clear in the course description prior to enrolling?

I also struggled with finding a partner for the peer assignments, due to people not responding, even though I did not leave it till last minute and went straight in during week 1. So this made me worried about finding a partner for the two later assignments.

I ended up listening to all the lectures, but unenrolled as administrative requirement to backtracking the certificate I had paid for up front, in order to get that certificate attached to another course (Psychological First Aid = though professor not as charismatic, and did not have any groovy graphics like this one, the material was interesting and I sailed right through to get the certificate without issues).

So: the content was interesting and very worthwhile overall (= 4 stars), but it did not provide for my primary purpose (= 3).

I would gladly audit other courses of this Professor.

I have completed over 12 courses on Coursera and this one is the best presented of them all. You can learn a lot of un-intuitive things about negotiation that will serve you well in life and business.

Professor Nalebuff does an excellent job of keeping the student engaged through his own examples of negotiations as well as guest speakers. I've learned so much from the Intro course to use at work.

Having a really pathetic experience finding a peer to do my assignment with. you can check the threads i have created more than 5 new posts and replied on more than 15 different forums. Because of this i am unable to proceed with my assignments.

I expected this course to be a whole lot more convenient considering the reviews i have read and owing to the reputation of Yale university, but this is a really sad experience. i have spent more time on SEARCHING FOR PEERS for the zincit case for Week3 than the amount of time i took to go through week 1 and 2 together !! Been looking for someone to do this assignment with for over a week now ! And i do not want to negotiate with anyone who has no knowledge of the course n write an assignment on it cz it will be a one sided negotiation. Where is the learning in that ??

Either give me a refund or help me solve this problem so i can proceed ! not enjoying this course with the way it is going.

The lectures are very clear and the animations are very helpful at understanding the material, the quizes in between as well. However, the basis to this whole course as presented in week 1 is wrong and assumes rational behaviour by the players - an approach long debunked by researchers. this is very old fashioned and doesn't take into account personal feelings, charachter and cultural difference, as well as real life consideration taking into affect. For example: no one in their right mind would pay another firm (baltimore) 300$, that comes out with a profit of more than 100$ just due to a lucky break, when the other firm should have payed 200$ in the first place, and doensn't take into affect that the sheer effort of oranizing the flights, schedueles and negotiations, is not worth the 300$ saved by San fransisco along with the feeling of getting "screwed" (a feeling that even monkeys fight against).

A superb introduction to negotiation from game theory point of view, which itself is a fascinating subject and taught by Barry nelbuff, a brilliantly simple teacher. read his books and you'll know.

Left after two videos. Incredibly difficult to understand. Felt like I was on a high school geometry class. Negotiating should be simple, not difficult.

This is a remarkable course for the insight that it gives into negotiation. Previously I would have approached negotiation scenarios (like the course example of sharing the cost of business flights) with just a couple of options in mind (e.g. "split the cost") but this course has opened my mind to a far richer variety of options, and more importantly how to reason about those options (and so hopefully negotiate a good deal) and how to "expand the pie" with more options. The animations are visually cute, but they are also so rich in ideas that the transcripts essentially form a good set of notes about the topic, and they are infused with Barry's sense of fun. My only complaints are that the last couple of weeks of interviews with negotiators aren't as rich/interesting as the first part of the course (though Cohen was great), the early examples are perhaps overly numeric (though probably justifiably for simplicity), and from peer assessments it seemed that many students had little understanding of probability/expected value. But overall, a fantastic course!

Excellent course both in content and format. A mathematical / game theory approach to negotiation is useful to smartly invent solutions. I recommend to take this course in complement to the ESSEC / Negotiation Fundamentals Course which has a completely different, structuralist (French ?!) approach. Together they offer a comprehensive set of skills to be successful in any kind of negotiation (business, diplomacy, private matters, etc)

This is way too complex. I know it is math, but the language, the speed and even after watching a video again and fully understanding it, one gets to the practice quiz and notices that the answers are not fitting to the real result. And same in the example, when one says 65% and, using math, gets a different result (even if it is one digit) than the material, this can cause confusion when taking the quiz.

More, as methods are presented one after the other, you don't have time to actually practice that much the info you just assimilated. For once, I wish a course (this one) would slow down, instead of presenting only what is important.

I would only recommend this to people who are really into math, like they actually work with every day (like engineers).

The Course is a Step by Step Process of Teaching you what you dont know, but often need to Use most of the Times.

The importance of how much to bid/make offer with limited info, and many more things Gives you a New Perspective of things that you will Use More than Often in your Daily Life.

I Highly Recommend this Course for any Individual who has to Interact with Others. This will give you an Edge & Hopefully you get better & better.

The Professor & his Team has made a lot of effort in making this course very Interesting.

All the Best & Cheers

The instructor Barry was awesome. He was articulate, shared industry experience with interactive videos, class room videos and guest speakers. I liked the hands-on real life approach of the course.

Great course .. being an Indian Negotiation is very natural to me. It starts with street vendors in India. I would like you to upload more case studies industry based .. I loved the way you teach ...

Very enlightening course. Loved the material and the way it was given. Learned a lot from the cases were asked to do. Highly recommended for improvement in the workplace as well as personal life!

Certainly participating in this course was a wonderful and very enriching opportunity, all classes as well as videos, printed materials are of the highest quality, with brilliant methodology and easy teaching assimilation of Professor Milton Steinbach.

It is gratifying to be able to take a course of such importance at an institution that is among the best in the world!

The content of this course is comprehensive, clear and well-structured; therefore, I would definitely recommend it to my colleagues.

I would rate the performance of Professor Barry Nalebuff as excellent; he has definitely made me quite easy, this approach to negotiation.

Thanks to the University of Yale and congratulations on this course.

This was an excellent course. Professor Barry Nalebuff was a great speaker, who was not only entertaining but very informative. The class was not easy, but it was well worth the time and effort I put into it. You know an educator is good when you leave feeling like you definitely learned something and enjoyed taking their course.

An exceptional course. All the videos and quizzes are well crafted. Barry is a fantastic teacher. There is no fluff, the material is concise, direct and to the point. Also, apart from being extremely useful, the course is also fun! Well done, Barry and team!

Excellent course. It is probably less structured, than the University of Michigan course (by professor Siedel), but contains a few breakthrough insights that the Michigan course lacks - eg a more defined concept of a pie; a more structured approach to dividing this pie; the principle of "never say no to a proposal, make the other side say no to your proposal instead" etc.