Academic studies have measured different aspects of Ruhi. One doctoral thesis examined the Ruhi courses using a combination of academic approaches to reflective and critical learning, experiential learning, and moral/ethical contexts. Mortensen interviewed participants before and after a series of courses. Over a 6-month period, the study started with participants in the Midwestern United States and in a later phase was expanded to areas in Canada, Iran, Ethiopia, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Mortensen included recommendations in his thesis. and hoped his results would be considered in adjusting the courses. He found a significant minority of participants took the course based on the mandate of the Universal House of Justice and small number were not Baháʼís and came as a result of being personally invited by friends or family. A majority liked that the curriculum was built around social or group learning, having a chance to learn from other people as well as bring their own experience to the study circle, and appreciated the natural laughter that arose. All the non-Baháʼís interviewed went on to take additional Ruhi classes, none of the participants voiced disappointment or dissatisfaction with the Ruhi method of education itself; the majority underscored what was to them the unusual component that much of the work and learning of a study course was done in a community setting.