Best Practices for MOOC participants
I am not only a trainer, but also a learner. Life-long learning!
As statistics show, almost all MOOC participants drop out from a MOOC sooner or later. Some probably simply are persons who spontaneaously register for any course that sounds interesting, even if they have no time for it, or they register because they think they should learn something in this domain, but in fact do not really want to. They will probably find out very soon. But some learners maybe just need a good strategy how to manage their self-learning.
Here, I offer you some Best Practices for MOOC participants which proved to be useful for my own self-learning:
- Limiting number of inscriptions: Only register for courses for which you have time and motivation. When you register and do not follow the course, this will only make you feel bad. Each MOOC description tells you how many hours per week the course will need. This is usually meant serious. Of course, if you have previous knowledge, you can be faster, and if the topic is completely new to you, you might need more. But essentially, you can assume that the course takes the hours announced. If you are a good time manager, you can quantify exactly, how many hours you can spend on learning. As a rule, for a normal person who already has a full day, I would not recommend to take more than one course at a time.
- Reserving time: It is no use to wait whether you might have time left. You will probably not. If you want to succeed in the course, you must reserve time for it. If it demands 5 hours per week, you can schedule one hour for each day from Monday to Friday or reserve the Saturday morning. But you need to plan the time, because most MOOCs demand significant time that can not be covered by the few hours per week where you feel bored and do not know what else to do. My best time for the MOOCs are the food times: One lecture at breakfast, an exercise for lunch and a last bit of knowledge during dinner.
- Know you goals: What is your goal? Do you just want to get a rough overview? Have fun? Get the degree? Become an expert? Depending on your goal, you will need to work hard or just lean back, wait and see. However, you should know your goal and adapt your learning behaviour. If you are satisfied with a rough overview, then just watch the videos and click through the tests without preparation. If you follow higher goals, you need to consider the following Best Pratices.
- Take notes: The course provides a lot of material which you can re-read and re-watch as often as you want. However, when you try to find a specific bit of information, it is not easy to find it again. Searching is waste of time. Usually, the course contains a lot which you already know or do not need to remember. There are only few key learnings. I always take notes about these key learnings in a separate file. This is not only useful during the course, but especially half a year after the course, when I want to look up something.
- Make sure you understood everything: Even if some knowledge will not be asked for in the quiz, however if you did not understand basic concepts, ideas or words in previous sections, it can keep you from understanding the rest of the course. So, you need to look up words you did not understand and find out what it is. If a course unit was complex or you were not concentrated, then you should better watch the video twice or three times. This is one of the extra features a MOOC offers, compared to a real-life course. Use it!
- Do your homework: It is very common in school, universities and work life to not do your work yourself but just copy it from someone else. This is simple and fast. But it prevents you from learning. I know that in life knowledge counts nothing, certificates and eloquence count much more. But if your objective is to learn something in the course, you should do your homework yourself. You can discuss with others, but for really profiting of the course, you must manage to solve the exercises yourself and understand why it was the solution. I even recommend to do all the voluntary exercises. Because they help you to learn. Fluency results from practice.
Yes, yes, these are the Best Practices for those who really want to learn something. There are lots of ways to betray, but I will not teach you that.
As statistics show, almost all MOOC participants drop out from a MOOC sooner or later. Some probably simply are persons who spontaneaously register for any course that sounds interesting, even if they have no time for it, or they register because they think they should learn something in this domain, but in fact do not really want to. They will probably find out very soon. But some learners maybe just need a good strategy how to manage their self-learning.
Here, I offer you some Best Practices for MOOC participants which proved to be useful for my own self-learning:
- Limiting number of inscriptions: Only register for courses for which you have time and motivation. When you register and do not follow the course, this will only make you feel bad. Each MOOC description tells you how many hours per week the course will need. This is usually meant serious. Of course, if you have previous knowledge, you can be faster, and if the topic is completely new to you, you might need more. But essentially, you can assume that the course takes the hours announced. If you are a good time manager, you can quantify exactly, how many hours you can spend on learning. As a rule, for a normal person who already has a full day, I would not recommend to take more than one course at a time.
- Reserving time: It is no use to wait whether you might have time left. You will probably not. If you want to succeed in the course, you must reserve time for it. If it demands 5 hours per week, you can schedule one hour for each day from Monday to Friday or reserve the Saturday morning. But you need to plan the time, because most MOOCs demand significant time that can not be covered by the few hours per week where you feel bored and do not know what else to do. My best time for the MOOCs are the food times: One lecture at breakfast, an exercise for lunch and a last bit of knowledge during dinner.
- Know you goals: What is your goal? Do you just want to get a rough overview? Have fun? Get the degree? Become an expert? Depending on your goal, you will need to work hard or just lean back, wait and see. However, you should know your goal and adapt your learning behaviour. If you are satisfied with a rough overview, then just watch the videos and click through the tests without preparation. If you follow higher goals, you need to consider the following Best Pratices.
- Take notes: The course provides a lot of material which you can re-read and re-watch as often as you want. However, when you try to find a specific bit of information, it is not easy to find it again. Searching is waste of time. Usually, the course contains a lot which you already know or do not need to remember. There are only few key learnings. I always take notes about these key learnings in a separate file. This is not only useful during the course, but especially half a year after the course, when I want to look up something.
- Make sure you understood everything: Even if some knowledge will not be asked for in the quiz, however if you did not understand basic concepts, ideas or words in previous sections, it can keep you from understanding the rest of the course. So, you need to look up words you did not understand and find out what it is. If a course unit was complex or you were not concentrated, then you should better watch the video twice or three times. This is one of the extra features a MOOC offers, compared to a real-life course. Use it!
- Do your homework: It is very common in school, universities and work life to not do your work yourself but just copy it from someone else. This is simple and fast. But it prevents you from learning. I know that in life knowledge counts nothing, certificates and eloquence count much more. But if your objective is to learn something in the course, you should do your homework yourself. You can discuss with others, but for really profiting of the course, you must manage to solve the exercises yourself and understand why it was the solution. I even recommend to do all the voluntary exercises. Because they help you to learn. Fluency results from practice.
Yes, yes, these are the Best Practices for those who really want to learn something. There are lots of ways to betray, but I will not teach you that.
AndreaHerrmann - 1. Mai, 08:58
