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

nytimes.com

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

#61

Post by sp527 »

roceasta wrote: post #55

Fantastic that resources like this now exist. In some ways it seems to be reminding us about how we used to learn. Children spontaneously go back again and again to things that delight them (spaced repetition) and they switch activities when bored (Pomodoro). Unfortunately, perhaps as a result of schooling, or other hard knocks, the spontaneous impulse gets lost. Adults suffer from mixed motivations and seem to be fa…

Adults are forced to be much more pragmatic and less volatile. Plus, most of us suffer from time scarcity. There's a specific pivot point in life wherein you shift from primarily a learner to primarily a producer and I think the shift in how we approach knowledge and our own interests is the unfortunate baggage of that transition.

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

#62

Post by b_emery »

davidgrenier wrote: post #46
b_emery wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you read through the books more slowly, practicing, and recalling the material? Can you elaborate on your process now?

I work several subjects in parallel (three books currently). I go through each chapter twice. Once to understand the material then moving on to another book. When I come back to the former book I go through the chapter again creating Anki cards for anything notable. The sheer amount of material I notice I had completely forgotten on the second reading is astounding. I go through the Anki cards daily, in the morning I…

Thanks very much

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

#63

Post by k_lander »

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…

yeah, same. felt the entire course could've been compressed to a 12-point medium article.

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

#64

Post by ImaCake »

leggomylibro wrote: post #56
baby wrote: post #53

I haven't followed a course on Coursera since the first iteration of Crypto I. I heard that it became really bad, asking you to pay for a lot of courses.

You heard right, it is really bad. REALLY bad. They don't even audit the courses they sell to see if they work. I've seen blatantly missing material, completely bricked dev environments, assignments with rubrics that don't match up with their grading criteria, repositories with several errors in code marked, 'DO NOT EDIT', the list goes on. Rough stuff. Look elsewhere for online courses. Coursera is all about pushing…

I find Udemy is a lot better. The courses have been rated by other people so you can usually figure out if it's worth the effort to spend $15 on it.

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

#66

Post by posguy »

tertius wrote: post #42
vira28 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the notes. I did first week and honestly felt it was too slow and somewhat discontinued. I am going to read your notes :)

I think their audience (i.e. style) are new college students.

I dunno, as a new college student I wasn't terribly impressed with Coursera's offerings as compared to the (half-hearted) online classes I've taken from my local community college. Despite many of the professors not knowing how to work Canvas, often the courses are engaging enough to get me to actually complete said coursework.

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

#69

Post by cortesoft »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #58
rifung wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a cat owner.. it never would have thought that my home smelling slightly of cat urine was embarrassing. Perhaps the author also didn't think it was? I don't think cat urine smells bad.

I'm a cat owner and cat urine smells horrible. Our home does not have the smell of cat pee because we clean up after our cat quite regularly. I don't get it. I would be embarrassed if someone said my home smelled like cat pee.

I am a cat owner, and if you have a good sense of smell, you can't really avoid the smell, no matter how often you clean. All homes that have animals have a smell.

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

#70

Post by jamestimmins »

baby wrote: post #53

I haven't followed a course on Coursera since the first iteration of Crypto I. I heard that it became really bad, asking you to pay for a lot of courses.

I'd counter this mindset by saying that OF COURSE they ask you to pay. In my experience they've provided extremely high quality educational material, and even while paying its a fantastic deal. I especially liked the algorithms course by Tim Roughgarden.

It's one thing to say that their lectures are objectively bad, but quite another to argue that asking for payment in return for a service is itself a bad thing. I personally have benefited quite a bit from Coursera and Udacity, and now see paying for courses as the best way that I can make sure others are able to benefit as well.

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