“Learning How to Learn,” the most popular course on Coursera

Post by capkutay » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 8:00 PM UTC

sp527 wrote: post #9

Took the course. A lot of it is cruft and motivation for the underlying core ideas. The techniques suggested are things many people are already familiar with: recall, deliberate practice, interleaving, spaced repetition, Einstellung, Pomodoro, Feynman Method, Cornell notes or similar (to force recall), exercise regularly, sleep well, focus on concepts not facts (chunking), etc. A composite of these dramatically enhan…

Post by stinkytaco » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 8:02 PM UTC

pavanred wrote: post #14

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #6

The very first sentence: > The studio for what is arguably the world’s most successful online course is tucked into a corner of Barb and Phil Oakley’s basement, a converted TV room that smells faintly of cat urine. I feel embarrassed on the Oakley's behalf. But I'm not a cat owner so maybe a room in one's home smelling (however faintly) of cat urine isn't particularly embarrassing. Am I unreasonable in thinking that…

To me that sentence reads as a factual description devoid of judgement. EDIT: I am surprised so many feel strongly about this and it didn't strike to me as insensitive at all. Just makes me realize that being sensitive to others is quite hard, specially while writing for platforms with such diverse set of users. How would one know? :)

Post by droidist2 » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 8:03 PM UTC

pavanred wrote: post #14

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #6

The very first sentence: > The studio for what is arguably the world’s most successful online course is tucked into a corner of Barb and Phil Oakley’s basement, a converted TV room that smells faintly of cat urine. I feel embarrassed on the Oakley's behalf. But I'm not a cat owner so maybe a room in one's home smelling (however faintly) of cat urine isn't particularly embarrassing. Am I unreasonable in thinking that…

To me that sentence reads as a factual description devoid of judgement. EDIT: I am surprised so many feel strongly about this and it didn't strike to me as insensitive at all. Just makes me realize that being sensitive to others is quite hard, specially while writing for platforms with such diverse set of users. How would one know? :)

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 8:06 PM UTC

sp527 wrote: post #9

Took the course. A lot of it is cruft and motivation for the underlying core ideas. The techniques suggested are things many people are already familiar with: recall, deliberate practice, interleaving, spaced repetition, Einstellung, Pomodoro, Feynman Method, Cornell notes or similar (to force recall), exercise regularly, sleep well, focus on concepts not facts (chunking), etc. A composite of these dramatically enhan…

Post by softawre » Thu, Aug 24, 2017, 8:09 PM UTC

stinkytaco wrote: post #20

pfranz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought similarly, but still think it was worth it. A big reason I took it was because I had been meaning to read her book. My wife and I have thought about the topic of learning probably more than the average person. She has been using Anki for years to help with foreign language study. She admits she didn't figure out how to study until college and most of it was self learned try-and-fail. We see others in our fa…

When I was in college (some 20 years ago almost), they had a freshman course that more or less covered this and was required. Less science and more "life skills", it still had a lot on study discipline and covered many of the concepts in this course. I imagine many American universities do the same.