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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

#81

Post by kelukelugames »

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…

What is considered brute force and inefficient?

I'm relearning to play basketball and found repetitive drills on basic skills to be the most helpful. I shoot dozens and dozens of mikan layups and it's really helped my pick up game.

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

#82

Post by gamad »

baby wrote: post #43
jedberg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author is trying to paint a picture of just how unprofessional the setup is, how it's just the corner of a house, etc, but it sure comes off as rude and unnecessary.

People try to be good writers and they forget that people they're writing about have feelings too.

And the cats! They have feelings.

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

#83

Post by HumbleGamer »

This course revolutionized my views on learning. After taking it and applying the suggested techniques I've seen an amazing increase not just in my competence but my confidence. It left me feeling empowered. I was almost a bit sad when I reached the end.

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

#84

Post by sien »

cpsempek wrote: post #78

I find this interesting for two reasons. I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng's ML course. It is ironic that people are now more interested in teaching oneself how to learn versus a machine. This change could be attributed to other reasons like change in user demographics, or, market saturation, so that naturally popular courses will change once a large majority moves fro…

It is the most popular course on Coursera because it's ~3 hours of lectures and ~3 hours of study and it seems to be advertised for everyone who logs on to Coursera.

Andrew Ng's Course is 11 weeks and it's about ~5 hours a week and on top of that you'd really want to be quite able at High School Maths and have some programming background.

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

#85

Post by subroutine »

cpsempek wrote: post #78

I find this interesting for two reasons. I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng's ML course. It is ironic that people are now more interested in teaching oneself how to learn versus a machine. This change could be attributed to other reasons like change in user demographics, or, market saturation, so that naturally popular courses will change once a large majority moves fro…

One reason though, that the ML course was most popular, was because Coursera was founded by Ng, and that was the first course offered. Still you make some interesting points.

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

#86

Post by cpsempek »

sien wrote: post #84
cpsempek wrote: post #78

I find this interesting for two reasons. I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng's ML course. It is ironic that people are now more interested in teaching oneself how to learn versus a machine. This change could be attributed to other reasons like change in user demographics, or, market saturation, so that naturally popular courses will change once a large majority moves fro…

It is the most popular course on Coursera because it's ~3 hours of lectures and ~3 hours of study and it seems to be advertised for everyone who logs on to Coursera. Andrew Ng's Course is 11 weeks and it's about ~5 hours a week and on top of that you'd really want to be quite able at High School Maths and have some programming background.

Easiness of the course is could be a big factor in it's popularity. A simpler explanation :).

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

#87

Post by jamestimmins »

davidgrenier wrote: post #77
jamestimmins wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on why it's valuable to go through different books in parallel? My goal has always been to do one thing at a time, so the idea that the opposite if beneficial is interesting.

The course emphasizes how memory works, you would think that to remember things you have to write the information well-enough in it so it sticks. But in reality, the information has been there the first time around the issue for the brain is finding the information like locating a product in a large warehouse. It is the process of recall that makes things stick to memory as opposed to repeated memorization. Working o…

Very interesting. Thanks for the info. I honestly haven't given much thought to how much I recall; I figured that I remembered what I remembered and that was that. Perhaps that should receive more attention.

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

#88

Post by cpsempek »

subroutine wrote: post #85
cpsempek wrote: post #78

I find this interesting for two reasons. I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng's ML course. It is ironic that people are now more interested in teaching oneself how to learn versus a machine. This change could be attributed to other reasons like change in user demographics, or, market saturation, so that naturally popular courses will change once a large majority moves fro…

One reason though, that the ML course was most popular, was because Coursera was founded by Ng, and that was the first course offered. Still you make some interesting points.

Right, I agree, I am not convinced of my first point. As you point out, the first users were likely mostly technical people. This is reinforced by the fact that the first courses offered were almost all CS/ML/Math related.

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

#89

Post by myth_drannon »

cpsempek wrote: post #78

I find this interesting for two reasons. I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng's ML course. It is ironic that people are now more interested in teaching oneself how to learn versus a machine. This change could be attributed to other reasons like change in user demographics, or, market saturation, so that naturally popular courses will change once a large majority moves fro…

Ng's ML course was one of the first ML MOOC courses. Right now you have hundreds if not thousands of excellent ML courses to choose from.

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

#90

Post by 0xffff2 »

pavanred wrote: post #73
cholantesh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a brief perusal of the article, there doesn't appear to be much point to the sentence you quote. It's irrelevant at best and, yes, rude at worst. I'm a cat owner; if I or any of my cat owning peers were told our homes smelled, we would be embarrassed.

Honest question. If it really smelt, would you still be offended? I am genuinely curious. I watched Bill Burr stand up comedy routine recently and he touches upon a similar topic. Though its comedy, I thought he made a good point - shame is a valid human emotion, why are we as a society so against feeling it, even when it is justified.

The person you replied to never used the word "offended". The word they used was "embarrassed"; I doubt the embarrassment would be substantially affected by whether or not the room actually smelled.
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