Coursera "Learning how to Learn"

[TØny Hine]

This is a very good course on learning how to learn. I have completed the first part. I recommend it to anyone considering an online course or any other learning activity.

However I can hear you thinking what's it got to do with writing? Well, I note in the first part, there is optional video material. One video is an interview with writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant. This is an excellent video well worth watching see link below:-

https://www.coursera.org/learn/lear...nterview-with-writing-coach-daphne-gray-grant

I'm not sure if you will be able to navigate to the link, you may need to be a member. It's a free course so it should be easy to join.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

On a first glance one thing concerns me (I'm a high level vocational trainer, coach and consultant who specialises in adult learning).

Anything about learning types and styles? Something like a Honey-Mumford or VAK assessment? They mention two learning approaches but there are four distinct types of learners and three types of preferred input. Sensory learners will take little from an online course, nor will pragmatists and activists (unless there is an opportunity to do as you learn). That, on the most basic level, concerns me. Trainers know one medium can never cover all people - that's why there are so many varied ways to learn.

This, by the way, is the same misgivings I have about recommending writing books carte blanche. I've never used one - as a pragmatist I learn by doing.

Having said that, they don't seem to be asking for money up front and if you're the right learning type(s) it's a potentially useful free vehicle.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I find video (and audio) training generally useless, unless it's some manual activity I think partly it's only good with really good lecturers. A video is also not the same as live training. I gave training courses about 10 years off and on and what worked best was small groups, short clear intro to each section and then INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION to the students trying to do it.

That, on the most basic level, concerns me. Trainers know one medium can never cover all people - that's why there are so many varied ways to learn.

I'm with J Z on this one.

For self study I prefer well structured text with appropriate diagrams / photos. You can go at your own speed and it's usually better edited so clearer.

The best Lecturers at college were more "interactive" rather than a real life video and it totally depended on the Tutorial sessions (small group per real Lecturer, not an Assistant or Grad student) and lab sessions. It was about 1/3 each excluding time outside that you needed to work on exercises and reading up.

BBC Engineering courses used a similar structure.

I've stopped bothering to look at online videos people recommend.

As Ursula Le Guin and many here have said, for writing the best thing is to keep doing it. At the start some textbooks and reference stuff how to punctuate, structure is useful. But more than any other subject I've learnt, simply doing it is needed.

 

[TØny Hine]

Hi Jo, nice to meet you here! I have just finished your book Abendau's Heir, an excellent well written book.

I think by taking the video out of context so to speak, in other words it is additional, optional material for students of the learning how to learn course, it does lose a bit of its impact. In other words it meant more to me because it was related to the material I had just absorbed. However it does have some good tips in there for aspiring writers.

This is a link to the complete course, a free course which has had some good reviews and some of the write ups in the student forum are excellent.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/welcome

 

[TØny Hine]

I find video (and audio) training generally useless.

Ha! Well, you seem to be a bit behind the times!

Online video is becoming a serious way of learning, have you seen https://www.khanacademy.org Khan Academy for example?

I produce a range of videos to help people learn MS Access and one of my videos an exception I grant, but it has had 170,000 views!

(this should get it a few more!)

Another example:- The little screw came out of my glasses recently and the arm fell off. Now I'm an apprentice served mechanical engineer and pride myself on my mechanical ability, but I could not get the damn screw back in. I spent nearly an hour messing around, gave up and looked on YouTube. I found a YouTube on how to do it, and had it back in in 5 minutes!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Hi Jo, nice to meet you here! I have just finished your book Abendau's Heir, an excellent well written book.

I think by taking the video out of context so to speak, in other words it is additional, optional material for students of the learning how to learn course, it does lose a bit of its impact. In other words it meant more to me because it was related to the material I had just absorbed. However it does have some good tips in there for aspiring writers.

This is a link to the complete course, a free course which has had some good reviews and some of the write ups in the student forum are excellent.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/welcome

Nice to meet you too (and thank you for your kind words )

It's always hard when viewing online, and blended, forms of learning to know how well they're designed without viewing the whole course, but it sounds like this one is well thought out (without me exploring it in detail.) I'm not anti them as a learnng medium - I use quite a lot of blended learning mediums - and think for some people they're ideal, and very accessible. I just wanted to sound the note of caution, especially if it turned out there were hidden costs.

Ps being a third generation only-the-dog-doesn't-wear-glasses-in-that-family person, my tip - keep the mini screwdriver sets that come on Christmas crackers. They're a blast for those wee fiddly screws.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Having said that, they don't seem to be asking for money up front and if you're the right learning type(s) it's a potentially useful free vehicle.

The Coursera courses are free. I often use them with the kids.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Ha! Well, you seem to be a bit behind the times!

I doubt it.

The little screw came out of my glasses recently and the arm fell off.

I said that is the kind of thing Video is good for.