Course Review: Learning How To Learn
This popular course on Coursera is taken by many, but what can you expect from this course on Learning How To Learn?
Is the online course Learning how to learn worth it?
The course is fairly easy to digest, and you can go through the entire course in a few days. The course learning how to learn does in a sense what it sets out to do. It gives you analogies for how your brain works and a few practical tips and tools for you to use when studying.
If you’re just starting out your learning journey in either high school, college, or any other higher education, I’d say take the course. It’s fast and you will get some useful tips. If anything, it will get you to become more aware of your own learning process and get you to start thinking about the process of learning.
Overall, I think this is a great course for people starting out trying to improve themselves, and for others who might just want to repeat things about learning they already know or perhaps want to make sure they’re not missing anything fundamental.
Considering the course’s length to value ratio, I’d say it is definitely worth the time to go through it. The concepts that are taught still hold up and are a nice balance between scientific and practical.
The course is also free and can be taken by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
What does the online course Learning how to learn help with?
The course helps you understand learning and some ways to analyze your learning experience. You can take the knowledge from the course and apply it to your future learning. There are some studying techniques mentioned in the course, but for me, the most valuable part is the description and analogies of the fundamental concepts of learning. Now when I try and learn something, I think back on the images in the course, and can properly manage my learning strategy.
It teaches fundamental concepts such as the value of deep focus, regular practice, challenging yourself, the importance of repetition, and spaced-out learning sessions. These concepts are immensely important for long-term learning and understanding.
The course is also a great starting point to enter the rabbit hole of the science of learning. Many of the recommended reading and video sources are very interesting and they themselves refer to further sources.
How long does the course take to go through?
Depending on your schedule, you can go through the course in about 1-5 days. The video material is easily digestible, and I watched it comfortably at x2 speed. However, the course also comes with a lot of good recommended reading which will increase the required time, depending on how much you decide to read.
But for the most part, you can go through this course fairly quickly and gain some helpful insights.
Is the course hard?
The course’s content is made to be understood by pretty much anyone. So, you do not have to worry about any prerequisite knowledge. A lot of us who are interested in learning and how the brain works already understand some of the concepts taught in this class.
The course has some Quizzes, but if you focus during the video lectures, they won’t be a problem at all. Maybe for some, it is actually too easy. This is a topic that I am really interested in, and I would have loved a deeper and more detailed course. But that’s just me. I think for the course’s target audience, it’s just fine.
Course link: Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects