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

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 enhances the learning process.<p>I can post some of the notes I took on the course if anyone is genuinely curious. The key premise of the course is that the brute force approach people usually take to learning is highly inefficient and ultimately ineffective (you&#x27;ll forget).<p>EDIT: Notes <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastebin.com&#x2F;JNbGxvpQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pastebin.com&#x2F;JNbGxvpQ</a>

I find this interesting for two reasons.<p>I think I recall that not too long ago, the most popular course on coursera was Ng&#x27;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 from one to the next. But I want to believe there is a more interesting phenomenon occurring where reading about abstract notions of learning causes a person to question how they themselves learn, and if the same abstract concepts apply. This is more a whimsical thought, than a serious one.<p>The second reason this is interesting is it could be surfacing a real issue with the way we have become accustomed to ingesting data. Could it be that we are becoming aware and fearful that the long term effects of suckling the internet&#x27;s spout of instant gratification is causing serious harm to our ability to &quot;actually learn&quot;.<p>Neither may be the case, but it seems like there is something interesting going on here.

Dr Oakley also wrote &quot;A Mind for Numbers&quot;, which is essentially this course in text form. The book is great as a a basis for the theory of learning, and dives into the same content (diffuse vs focused thinking, skimming chapters before reading etc.).<p>I find having a text reference with dedicated time makes me learn more, so if you&#x27;re interested in the course you&#x27;d probably also love the book.

This is a pretty good summary of the core concepts: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.math.toronto.edu&#x2F;nhoell&#x2F;10rules-of-studying.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.math.toronto.edu&#x2F;nhoell&#x2F;10rules-of-studying.pdf</a>

This course revolutionized my views on learning. After taking it and applying the suggested techniques I&#x27;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.

CrashCourse has a study skills course: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNcAJRf3bE1IJU6nMfHj86W" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNcAJRf3bE1...</a><p>It&#x27;s geared more toward a younger crowd, but it&#x27;s still pretty good, at least so far.

Great summary on the course from reddit: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;GetMotivated&#x2F;comments&#x2F;5950tm&#x2F;text_i_just_finished_the_online_coursera_course&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;GetMotivated&#x2F;comments&#x2F;5950tm&#x2F;text_i...</a>

I&#x27;ll report in too. I took the course and thought it was excellent. I love learning and have been learning new things for decades and thought my techniques were pretty good. I&#x27;m a very fast learner. The course helped me more than I was expecting and my learning speed and ability to memorize noticeably improved. Especially with the foreign language I&#x27;m studying. And the theories around how the brain works were interesting. And it&#x27;s a pretty short course.

Is this any good? I&#x27;ve had it in my list of things to check out for a while but I suspect it might just be TED-talk pop-psych voodoo stuff.

Here&#x27;s a great playlist featuring Richard Hamming with a CS focus on a similar topic: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30</a>

Am I the only one who thinks this is a cynical ploy to tap into the anxieties people have about not being successful?

Quite an awesome course. I highly recommend it. In a day and age, we feel outdated by minute, sets right perspective and gives a good system for knowledge worker of any domain.

Took the course, loved it. Bought the book, loved it. Encouraged my partner to check it out, she stuck through it. 3 years later she&#x27;s about to graduate from college with her basic counselling education and experience behind her where she hit top of the class. She&#x27;s about to set out on her own. This course was a massive driver and I&#x27;m not sure she&#x27;d have gone this way this quickly without it.

I took the course as well and wrote a post about applying the lessons learned as a developer: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;learn-love-code&#x2F;learnings-from-learning-how-to-learn-19d149920dc4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;learn-love-code&#x2F;learnings-from-learning-h...</a><p>Feedback welcome! Would love to learn what other techniques devs use to learn and level up

I haven&#x27;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.

Can anyone of you report any long term benefits from these kind of courses? Personally, I think those classes (haven&#x27;t looked into the coursera one) only present obvious stuff.<p>I&#x27;ve once worked through &quot;Make it stick&quot;, a book that is often recommended when it comes to learning. What I&#x27;ve found is that there is nothing wrong with the content but it did not really help.<p>I imagine that most people who struggle with learning deal with some kind of psychological issues that need to get addressed. They need to learn how to deal with stuff like frustration, worries, perfectionism or self esteem.

For those who read her book and did the course, is there anything in the course that isn&#x27;t covered by the book? what&#x27;s the advantage of the course over the book?<p>As a side note, I have found that the most powerful technique for me is recalling.

Fantastic that resources like this now exist. In some ways it seems to be reminding us about how we <i>used</i> 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 fairly clueless about what they find genuinely interesting. It becomes difficult to approach topics playfully.

I highly recommend this course. One thing i learned and have been practicing was how useful was memorization and spaced repetition practice of things i would like learn and understand.

There is a book from the 80s with the same name &quot;Learning How to Learn&quot; by Gowin &amp; Novak. The book was very influential to the UX field. Concept Maps -the technique presented in the book- is used a lot to understand user mental models. The book is 80% discussion about how to apply the technique in a classroom... 20% explaining the technique, but anyways it&#x27;s worth the read.<p>Edit: small correction, according to google the book was published in 1984

I find that learning how to learning how to learning how to learn is a good way to spend my time when I don&#x27;t actually want to accomplish anything.

I love to learn how to learn. Using what I learnt to learn stuff is hard, so I don&#x27;t do it.

Interesting article, personally I think this is more useful: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.supermemo.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20rules" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.supermemo.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20rules</a>

I took this course it is wonderful and good. Also read her book.<p>I now always try to skim the index of a book or chapter before reading it. Also try to study in smaller sessions, every day, instead of cramming a ton of info in just one day.

I haven&#x27;t done that course but I have to agree. Learning how to learn is vastly important and really hard to do on your own, because the requirement is the same as the result.

I have heard that the way it is presented is very dry. I have read a summary on reddit and I think it is good, but I just don&#x27;t have the time to spend on it.

Which i neatly tagged away in my bookmarks feeling good about envisioning taking it some day in the future. :) :(

This reminds me of a book I read years ago: Learning How to Learn by Idries Shah<p>It was an interesting look at Sufi thought.

Wasn&#x27;t this the course also provided by the teaching company?

I saw the title and initially thought this was about AutoML.

took the course, I think it is pretty good, it follow the rhythm our brain to remember something.

The very first sentence:<p>&gt; 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.<p>I feel embarrassed on the Oakley&#x27;s behalf. But I&#x27;m not a cat owner so maybe a room in one&#x27;s home smelling (however faintly) of cat urine isn&#x27;t particularly embarrassing.<p>Am I unreasonable in thinking that the author is an asshole?

What&#x27;s the best MOOC on Compilers?

Sounds to me like a lot of people are searching for a course which will allow one to overcome a lack of intrinsic motivation. But all the best tools in the world wont make you a smith, if you find no fun in hammering red hot iron.

Previously:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14936265" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14936265</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15084059" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15084059</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15068785" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15068785</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14930203" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14930203</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14928598" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14928598</a>