it has a lot of nice information about the brain and ways of study, but this whole course is a way of procrastinating.

I feel like it could have been summed up really much better into written text and finished at a much faster rate.

Too school focused, I wish there was a version to help people that aren't being tested. I thought it would have more information about how to find useful information instead of just remembering what was presented to you.

The course has useful information, but I think it was a little superficial and too focused on studying for exams, instead of focused on studying for your professional life or just intelectual self development.

While the instructors may be well versed in their fields, I felt the course took too long to get to the meat of the issue. I suppose I wanted a faster-paced course without a lot of hand-holding.

this is a good course but if you think better and deeply you will understand that deep inside you your self know this things but maybe you did not do in daily life.

Didn't learn as much as expected about learning how to learn. Maybe my expectations were too high.

Really basic, with some interesting stuff but could be reduced to a third of the time...

Very basic and useful only for the students in high school... not for professionals.

Boring techniques for remembering.

Nothing related to learning or understanding.

i think the coming classes will be great more than that ... but it's good

The interview at the end was the best part of this course.

extremely easy and sparse content.

I want it to be more exciting.

superb course I ever had

This is definitely a course for someone that has finished a higher degree. if you've done that, there's a very big change that you already know about 90%-95% of the techniques presented in thous course.

ME DECEPCIONA LA FALTA DE TRADUCCIÓN AL ESPAÑOL.

NO puedo responder las preguntas porque no sé inglés.

Espero se solucione este problema para continuar.

Gracias.

Lidia Menares M

This course did not motivate me at all. Videos where mainly repetitive and the questions seemed to be there to serve no purpose.

Only part 3 was partly interesting and usefull. All the rest is vain.

No hay buena traducción

Fuck this shit

I broke every rule of efficient and effective learning until I met this course, Dr. Barbara Oakley Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, and the book: “A Mind for Numbers”.

I wish I had met your group and this powerful vehicle of learning earlier –university wouldn’t have been so costly (studying the inefficient way) and the rewards could be even more phenomenal with this awareness. Nevertheless, your incredible work will continue to help mitigate the cost.

Although I maintained good grades through university primarily because of my high enthusiasm, interest and determination to achieve excellence in life–long learning, but the personal cost was undue stress –over studying, keeping many late nights, dependency on caffeine and life-work-family balance. However, I imagined there had to be a better way.

The frustrations and occasionally being at my wits end in solving some of the problems in the computer programming languages I am currently learning have instantly dissipated because of this course. I have completely changed my old and inefficient learning methods and formed new habits for learning.

Amazingly, I failed to solve the triangle problem on the first try at the end of a long day of work and study (after staring at it for about 45mins) in the book: “A Mind For Numbers” by Dr. Barbara Oakley. However, determined, I gave it another shot the next morning, right after waking up -it took me less than 30 seconds to solve. You’ve got to love the diffuse mode…

While I love academia and stand ready to dance with whatever pain it dishes out at me in my life-long learning journey, this course has single-handedly removed current and whatever inherent or perceived pain that may be associated with life-long academic learning for me.

There is a better way to rote learning method -a different, efficient and effective approach… Academic goal or any subject matter no longer need to take many years of painful endurance to achieve or master.

This course has armed me with the ultimate set of tools to expertly construct efficient and effective learning methods with measureable success. Essentially, I have learned how to hack my academic growth and goal.

Finally, in the past, I stumbled upon one or two of the methods taught in this course in academic journals and other articles. However, these occasional, inconsistent and isolated pieces of information were not cohesive to form a powerful enough force to help build a fundamental understanding and practice of efficient learning methods. Additionally, overpowering the well-formed habit of the inefficient rote learning method was a challenge.

Fortunately, this course and the book: “A Mind For Numbers” by Dr. Barbara Oakley, compiled and put all of these scientific data on efficient learning methods in to proper perspective, easy enough for anyone to understand and practice.

In the afterword chapter of the book, Dr. David B. Daniel said it best:

“There has long been a stream of potentially productive study advice coming from scientists. Unfortunately, it has seldom been translated so the average student can easily grasp and use it. Not every scientist has a knack for translation, and not every writer has a firm grasp of the science. In this book, Barbara Oakley threaded this needle beautifully. Her use of vivid examples and explanations of the strategies reveals not only how useful but how credible these ideas are.”

Thank you Dr. Barbara Oakley and the Learning How to Learn Team for a job well done! Your work is indelible in my mind and I can be certain, in others too.

This is the first real elaborated review I´ve done in my life. That´s the kind of impact this course can produce. I felt like I wanted to express my opinion about it and my gratitude. If you are someone who likes learning or teaching, or need to perform those activities in your everyday life for any reason, then you should take this course without hesitation. The information given is so valuable and eye opening. I personally like to read a lot and gain new knowledge about anything, but I always had that little feeling that I was not being truly efficient in doing it, that I was doing something wrong or, going further, that I wasn´t capable or smart enough to retain the information I was trying to learn, because I usually found myself investing a lot of time reading over and over again a material to realize, weeks later, that I had forgotten almost all of it. That, of course, caused me a lot of frustration. I used to feel that I was wasting my time. I knew that the best way to learn something was trough practice, but this course helped me understand how the process of learning really works, the correct way of practicing and the mistakes people usually make (illusions of learning).

I had read years ago a book about memory and memorization (Una Mente Prodigiosa by Ramón Campayo), originally written in spanish (I´m a native spanish speaker), which gave me a lot of insights and tools for memorizing better, but I never applied it to my learning process. This course has filled the gap between memorizing and learning, the missing piece that I needed to complete the puzzle. The tools mentioned in that book are also mentioned here, but joined together with the process of learning subjects completely, with understanding, creativity, flexibility, associations and long term memorization.

I have used the tools given in this course to learn and memorize the course itself, and they have been truly effective. I have also used them in studying in my own area of work, which is mechanical engineering, and also have proven to be quite useful. I now feel that the information stay in my mind for longer, which helps to understand new and more complex concepts better. Of course, memorizing is not learning, real learning comprises a lot of other things, but it´s a very important part of the learning process. If you can´t remember the material, then you can´t use the information to solve anything, to learn new things or to use the information creatively.

I also play the piano, and I have even used some of the information while practicing and learning new songs. This demonstrates that the concepts of the course can be used in any field, as long as you´re learning something.

Another important and pleasant aspect of this course, is the way Dr. Barbara Oakley presents the material. She is so kind and friendly, which gives you the sensation that you are listening to a close friend or someone that you´ve known for a long time. That makes the course material more accessible and enjoyable. Dr. Terry Sejnowski also does a very good job at teaching. They´re just so easy to hear. The material is very clear and well organized.

I will say like Dr. Barbara says very often: I can´t thank you both enough for this course. I´m really grateful. Learning is a lifelong process, and that´s where the importance of this course lies.

This is a great course. The concepts and techniques taught here should be required by every teacher and student in our school systems from kindergarten on. Of course, some of the material is well beyond the grasp of a kindergartner, but the techniques and methods can be taught by how their teacher manages the delivery of curriculum. It is never too early to teach our children how to learn.

This is a wonderfully succinct presentation of key concepts that I wish had been available to me in my youth. I was very fortunate to have an anatomy and physiology professor in college in 1979 that took time in his lectures to teach about how the brain learns and some methods and principles for study, retention, and recall. I saw many of his concepts in this course.

I later went on to teach college myself. I found the students in my Freshman course on data communications were particularly lazy about making an effort to learn material thoroughly. I knew this bad habit would hinder their progress in the semesters to come.

I adopted a practice of making my mid-term exam a thorough (not to be confused with level of difficulty) test of their understanding. Consequently, 60% would fail that test. When delivering the bad news I also delivered a path to recovering from that score. I provide several hours of lecture on what I learned about learning from my A&P professor. Then I offered a retest. The questions were posed differently in wording and type (multiple choice vs short answer essay vs T/F). Everyone improved their score significantly and the pass/fail distribution reflected more of a bell curve distribution.

Interestingly, when I tried teach how to learn before the mid-term I still saw a 60% failure rates. I expect somethings require more motivation. The risk of failing a course proved to be motivating, so I capitalized on that human behavior. I wish I could have found a better way, because this approach cost several lecture hours of data communications instruction. However, teaching them to learn proved so much more valuable.

I, unexpectedly had the same high failure rate on a term test teach an Algebra class. I responded in kind with lectures on how to learn. On student that started with failing the first term test almost dropped. Another student that had taken other classes encouraged her stay on and to learn how to learn. She finish Algebra with an A-. At the end of the course she came to me with the most treasured compliment of my teach career, "You taught me that I can learn anything I want to learn."

Hello!“Learning how to learn” at first might seem quite absurd.But I assure you that this would be by far the most quintessential course you have ever taken.The course itself is taken by Terry Sejnowski (Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies) and Barbara Oakley, (Ph.D., PE is a Professor of Engineering at Oakland University.)Where she explains, How by considering herself as the “belligerent queen in math” she flunked her way through high school math and science courses, before enlisting in the army immediately after graduation.But it was when she saw how her lack of mathematical and technical savvy severely limited her options :Both to rise in the military and to explore other careers.She returned to school with a newfound determination to re-tool her brain to master the very subjects that had given her so much trouble throughout her entire life.In “Learning how to learn”, Dr. Oakley and Terry Sejnowski lets us in on the secrets to effectively learning math and science ( or any field in particular) secrets that even dedicated and successful students wish they’d known earlier. In the course many important topics likeProcrastination, Chunking, the difference between Long-term and short-term memory and Focused and diffused modes are taken up and discussed in depths (step by step).Moreover many small topics like Test taking, Teamwork, Spaced repetition and Memory retention techniques (including memory palace, usage of analogy and visual representation) are also included which is quite unconventional but extremely helpful especially for students and learners learning a new language.Plus the small Finger exercises and Peer-graded Assignments with a grading percentage criteria always helps students to strive for the “best. Hence, whether by introducing the idea of Zombie mode and other sophisticated processes like Einstellung, Deliberate practice and Transfer idea all by taking examples of great personalities like : Thomas Edison, Santiago Ramón y Cajal and, Salvador Dali, or by providing optional interviews and redings from one of the renowned scholars : Dr. Robert Bilder, Keith Devlin, Dr. Richard Felder and Dr. Rebecca Brent never failed to enthuse our interest in a particular topic and always encouraged us to achieve our highest creative potential.Thank you !

This review is also found in the General Discussion Forum.

Realizing the Capabilities to Learn is My Biggest Motivation

Before starting this MOOC, I was very nervous and anxious about the materials I needed, the type of information I will learn, and how successful I’d be at completing this course. There was also some skepticism on whether or not this course would actually teach me anything useful in my journey for higher education. It took me a week to commence studies, but I quickly became engaged after introductions from Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski. I believe it was their own nervousness that gave me comfort in the beginning, and then watching them transform with a higher sense of confidence allowed me to trust their discourse.

After the first two weeks, I had the opportunity to speak creatively during Sunday dinners with family on some of the scientific factors involved with Learn2Learn. I was surprised at how much of the information I was able to recall and how it led to us reminiscing about past experiences we thought were long forgotten. I’ve definitely changed my perspective or thought process on a lot of events, circumstances, and choices discussed with family, which leads me to have a better understanding of Dr. Sejnowski’s lecture on memory consolidation.

Now that my confidence level has experienced a significant boost, it motivated me to take on a second MOOC. This could not be possible without the information I’ve obtained from “Learning How to Learn.” I had given up on myself and didn’t think I was mentally ready or capable of successfully completing college-level course work. I was wrong! After applying several of the techniques captured from this course, I am motivated to move forward with my educational goals, and will only look back to remember the skills I developed from this MOOC.

Thank You Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski for your inspiration.