I had taken Odersky's first scala course in FP, which probably helped prevent initial shock, but I still had to put in the hours to get through all the assignments. That said, it didn't like banging my head against some complex theory or algo problem.

Seeing the absolute beginners stuggle is painful, but at least they are making an attempt.

Btw, the craziest coursera forms I ever saw were in the non-tech fields. In Into to Finance it was so bad; at least our sort don't type posts in all caps ;)