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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Dramatic changes in the textbook industry, and taking Learning How to Learn, helps an open-minded learner to retool his career

Learning How to Learner Tom Willkens writes:

“At twenty-eight years old, I felt trapped in my publishing career, both intellectually and professionally stagnant—and my quant skills had seriously degenerated. After my father sent me a link to Learning How to Learn, I inhaled the information and self-experimented to rebuild my skills from the ground up. One year later, after acing my GREs, I’m now enrolled in a special Master’s in Computer Science program at the Brandeis University Graduate School.

“My goal is to enter the field of adaptive learning software. Part of my first career as a freelancer was spent designing tests for a major textbook publisher, and they’re now switching up their whole business model. Everything is in a state of total flux, and it’s pretty exciting! You might have already seen it, but this article, ‘Artificially intelligent software is replacing the textbook—and reshaping American education’ gives a good overview.”

(Incidentally, if you’re looking for a knowledgeable expert who is keenly interested in every aspect of adaptive learning software, it would be a good idea to reach out to Tom Willkens.)

Our top-choice textbook to help improve retention in college

Speaking of the textbook industry, our top choice textbook for for university instructors and administrators who are trying to improve retention while empowering students is On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life, by Skip Downing. Hands down, it doesn’t get better than Skip’s book, which is heading into its third decade of service to higher education (the 8th edition has just come out). As far as we can determine, On Course is the #1 student success textbook in the world, and for good reason. In all honesty, if we could do another MOOC to couple with Learning How to Learn for students, we wish it would be a MOOC based on On Course. There is also a Study Skills Plus edition and a Facilitator’s Manual, as well as annotated instructor versions. There is solid research evidence that On Course works to make substantive improvements in retention—having read the books and used some of the approaches for years in our own teaching, we can understand why.

Australian Senior Mentor Linda Walker weighs in with intriguing MOOC suggestions

New on Coursera is ADHD: Everyday Strategies for Elementary Students from The State University of New York & The University at Buffalo. The first session begins on 23 May. Barb has met some of the producers of this course, and it looks like it will be outstanding, especially for parents of children with ADHD. Another topic that frequently comes up in Learning How to Learn discussions is learning with dyslexia—in this regard, the MOOC Supporting Children with Difficulties in Reading and Writing, from Coursera-University of London is generating very positive comments.

The University of Leeds has four ‘Learning Online’ MOOCs on FutureLearn designed to help high-school students transition to university or the workplace: Learning and Collaborating, Managing Your Identity, Reflecting and Sharing and Searching and Researching. Linda notes: “I’ve just started Searching and Researching, and I’m looking forward to Week 2 which promises to help me think critically about the information found online, and make judgments about its quality and usefulness – a useful upgrade to my self-taught researching skills!”

A Pomodoro Clock coded by a Learning How to Learner

One of our learners, Brandon Gottschling, has coded a pomodoro clock for desktop and mobile. Check out the Pomodoro clock, and the positive comments from other learners, on this thread.

Learning How to Learn in Bengali! শিখতে শেখা-আপনাকে সাহায্য করবে কঠিন বিষয় আয়ত্ত করতে

Our new Bengali Lead is Arifa Shahnaz, who is spearheading efforts to transform Learning How to Learn into Bengali (বাংলা অনুবাদ: শিখতে শেখা-আপনাকে সাহায্য করবে কঠিন বিষয় আয়ত্ত করতে). This will be the first ever translation of any MOOC into Bengali. If you speak Bengali, Arifa could really use your help as part of the little team she is forming. Please fill out this form to join a terrific group!

This is an excellent volunteering opportunity to translate world’s most popular course and to work with the dynamic and vibrant global translator community along with a cross cultural team of diverse learners. And think of the impact you will have on the lives of 300 million+ Bengali speaking community worldwide!

You can also connect with Arifa via linkedin @ https://bd.linkedin.com/in/arifa-shahnaz-11b2b0111. (Here’s a discussion forum devoted to the new Bengali group.)

Arifa says: “Can’t wait to hear from you. Let’s do it together (চলুন একসাথে করি) !!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Barb’s favorite biographies—the continuing series

To wrap up this email, here is one of Barb’s favorite biographies: Peter the Great: His Life and World, by Robert Massie. This is truly one of the greatest biographies ever written, and fully deserving of its Pulitzer Prize. Not only does the book provide great insight into Peter the Great—it also takes us down some of the stranger rabbit holes of history. Who knew that Sweden’s Charles XII squirreled himself away in Turkey, driving his hosts crazy and refusing to leave? Barb babbled so much about the fascinating insights from this book that her family began rolling their eyes when she brought it up. 🙂

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Are You a Medical School or Pre-Medical School Student—or Just Interested in Learning Hard Stuff?

Check out this excellent article “How We Studied for the Boards,” by Farokh Jamalyaria, MD. Farokh discusses a medicine-specific strategy that many of his physician colleagues and he have used over the years to learn dense, complicated information quickly and effectively, and to do well on board exams.

Class Central

Here’s Class Central’s latest article from their series of roundup articles about trends in MOOCs: “Less Experimentation, More Iteration: A Review of MOOC Stats and Trends in 2015.” The increasing interest is astonishing! We believe a particularly important trend are MOOCs which provide college credit. Class Central feels similarly—here’s an intriguing article about precisely that phenomenon: MOOCWatch Jan 2016: Credits and Credentials. This latter article was written by Anuar Andres Lequerica, an expert on the intersection between games and learning—he manages a podcast/newsletter where he summarize the latest news, research, events, and job postings.

Exciting News—Learning How to Learn is now in complete Chinese and Spanish as well as Portuguese versions!

Yes, it’s true—now Learning How to Learn is available in complete translation (meaning that the webpages and quizzes are all translated, as well as captions on the videos), in three different languages: Chinese and Spanish as well as Portuguese. It is a tribute to Coursera’s heartfelt desire to help people learn effectively around the world that Learning How to Learn is now Coursera’s most-translated course. Do you have Chinese, Spanish, or Portuguese-speaking friends? You might ask them to spread the word!

Help with Translating Learning How to Learn

Speaking of translations, Coursera is working hard to try to streamline the process of helping with translations. If you’d like to help with translating Learning How to Learn into your favorite language, please sign up for the Coursera Global Translator Community (GTC). (Take a look at the great pdf that walks you through the sign up process.) Once you’re signed up with a Transifex account, just make sure you’re logged in to Transifex and you should then be able to find the translation project for Learning How to Learn here. If you have a problem, just email our own special Learning How to Learn contact at Coursera, at LHTL-translations@coursera.org.

A Language Learning Resolution

Haven’t made a New Year’s resolution? As Learning How to Learn Senior Mentor Linda Walker notes, it’s not too late. “Dr Ruth Arber and Dr Michiko Weinmann, Co-Directors of Deakin University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Languages (CTaLL), argue that learning a new language should be top of your list”: Why learning a new language should be your New Year’s resolution. In Learning How to Learn, we always encourage doing something unexpected, and what better unexpected thing to do than a New Year’s resolution in February!

Our Top Recommendations for Language Learning Books

Since we’re on the topic of language learning, we’d like to give you our top three language-learning books. Here they are:

• Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World. This book is by Barb’s friend Benny Lewis–it’s an inspirational as well as pointed how to manual about how to pick up other languages. Benny originally thought he couldn’t learn other languages. But when he changed his approach, it worked wonders–he now speaks ten different languages!
• Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It by Gabriel Wyner is a great complementary volume to Fluent in 3 Months. Like Benny, Gabriel is self-taught in his foreign-language learning–he uses imagery to help remember faster and more fluently.
• Harmony of Babel: Profiles of Famous Polyglots of Europe by Kató Lomb. This is an older book, but it’s fun to read because of its inspirational stories and great insights from a variety of perspectives into language learning.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

London Taxi Drivers and Learning

Barb’s recent trip to London for the Learning Technologies Conference was terrific! (Here’s an intriguing Google Hangout discussion about little known, but vital aspects of learning with Barb and educational psychologist Tesia Marshik, hosted Sukhvinder Pabial.) The trip was also especially interesting because Barb had the chance to speak with plenty of London taxicab drivers, who are among the most highly trained and professional group of drivers in the world. One taxi cab driver spoke of how he had been a poor student when he was younger. But after he spent three years studying locations in London (chunking!) to take the taxicab driver test–a formidably difficult feat–he understands much more about the learning process. He now plans to return to school, which was something he never thought he could do before. Learning well changes our brains, and makes it possible to learn more things–things we never thought we could learn. That thoughtful, persistent London taxicab driver is an inspiration for all of us.

Learning How to Learn in Princeton, New Jersey!

Barb will be kicking off the IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference in Princeton, New Jersey on March 5th (here is the complete program description). Anyone can attend this conference, and it’s really inexpensive–only $35 for K-12 teachers if you register by February 29th. There are also student travel assistance awards, especially for those from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states in the USA. Barb would love to meet you!

MOOC Overview

Here’s a fascinating overview article “MOOCs Grow Up” by Blaine Flamig in Computer Power User that provides perspective on where MOOCs are coming from and where they’re going. Learning How to Learn is featured towards the end of the article.

MOOC of the Week

Senior Mentor Cristian Artoni has an intriguing MOOC suggestion: Critical Perspective On Management by Professor Rolf Strom-Olsen. This is an On Demand course that can be followed at your own pace. All the topics are related to a critical thinking approach to management–for example, how was it possible for Romans to build a flourishing grain trade market without rapid information access such as we can get now through the telephone and internet?

Shadow Education

Most of you know our friend Manabu Watanabe in Japan, who previously introduced us to Flash Anzan. Manabu is back with several intriguing postings about what he calls the “shadow education” system–a growing force internationally. If you love education, a tendency is to focus on the bright side–but it is only by also taking into account the shadows Manabu alludes to which will allow us to become better. (You can follow Manabu on Twitter.)

In-Video Quizzes on Mobile Apps

Great news! In-video quizzes are now available to learners using Coursera’s mobile apps, not just for those using desktop computers. Thanks to Coursera’s hard-working team for this (and many other) achievements!

Great Memorization and Learning Strategies from Master Learners!

Nelson Dellis, four time US memory champion, just filmed a fantastic interview with Alex Mullen, an American memory competitor and medical school student at the University of Mississippi. Alex recently won the World Memory Championships in China last December (although Nelson beat him last year, and is still the USA Memory Champion. 🙂 ) In this interview, Nelson and Alex talk about competition and memorization strategies, and Alex’s studying strategies and tips for students. And while you’re watching, don’t forget to take part in Dart Neuroscience’s extreme memory challenge! Dart Neuroscience is doing their part for humanity, to help improve our understanding of memory. By taking this test, you can play a role in helping scientists do research.

Best Book, Bar None, On Memory

Our very favorite book on memory and memory techniques is Moonwalking with Einstein, by Joshua Foer. If you want to spend an enjoyable time curled up with a book, there’s nothing better than reading about Josh’s unlikely story of going from memory championship reporter to becoming a memory champion himself. And you’ll learn plenty of helpful information for you while you’re at it!

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

MOOCs for Teacher Development

If you are an elementary or secondary school teacher anywhere in the world, we would really appreciate it if you might take the following very brief survey about MOOCs. This will be very useful for a panel being hosted at SXSWEdu called ‘MOOCs & Teacher PD: Mindless Snack or Hearty Fare?‘ with our friend Charlie Chung from Class Central, and Coursera’s Julia Stiglitz.

Can You Help by Becoming a Mentor for Learning How to Learn in Chinese?

Are you a speaker of Chinese and would you like to help out by volunteering on as a Mentor for 学会如何学习, the new version of Learning How to Learn in Chinese? If so, please volunteer here! Learning How to Learn is now not only the most popular course in the world—it is also Coursera’s most widely translated course. This is because Learning How to Learn is something that is helpful for virtually everyone, everywhere. Your own help in improving this course can make a difference in allowing people to better their lives!

Become the Spanish Lead for Aprendiendo a Aprender?

We are looking for one person to volunteer to become the Spanish Lead for the new Spanish Language Platform of Learning How to Learn — Aprendiendo a Aprender. This person would be responsible assembling a team of volunteer Spanish-speaking mentors, sending out monthly or weekly emails to the entire set of Spanish-speaking learners, and helping improve the translation quality of the course. More information, including a link to the application form, is here.

Encouraging Reading In Young People

Our Learning How to Learner Bhairavi from India has begun a wonderful new “Purple Patch Initiative” of providing the first book to Indian parents. This program is also meant to empower parents by also giving them tools to make the book reading experience with their child successful. You can help by checking out the Purple Patch Initiative’s Facebook page, here. In a related vein, health care providers in the US often participate in program called “Reach Out and Read.” Each year, when a child gets his or her annual checkup, they get a book. Here’s a little more information about the US program. If you might like to start or participate in a similar program in your own country, you may wish to reach out to Bhairavi or to the US program for ideas or connections.

Learning and Changing

Here’s a fascinating article about why scientists can’t decide about whether salt is killing us. It seems that when scientists review the evidence, they are biased and “reluctant to change their view in light of new facts.” Unfortunately, even being a really smart scientist is no protection against jumping to conclusions and then persisting in the path you’ve chosen—regardless of contrary findings. This is part of what Learning How to Learn is about—helping you to step back and finding your own areas where you’re stuck, to help open your mind and accept new possibilities.

Excellent Books about Finding Your Hidden Biases

Here are some of the best books we know of to help you begin climbing out of your hidden biases:

• On Being Certain, by Robert Burton.
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris.
• Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji.
• Pathological Altruism, edited by Barbara Oakley, Ariel Knafo, Guruprasad Madhavan, and David Sloan Wilson. (It’s your own thoughts that you know what’s best to help others that can surprisingly often lead you astray.)

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Interleaving

One of our learners, Quin Benson, has used the discussion forum to mention an excellent article: “The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up Boosts Learning.” We’ve often found that learners in math, science, and engineering benefit greatly from tricks like placing problems on flashcards. Write out the solution by hand on the back of the card to help “neurally encode” it. You can mix the cards up and pull them randomly to check your ability to solve the problem. Not knowing in advance what section a problem is from forms the very essence of interleaving. (Hat tip: Senior Mentor Linda Walker.)

Upcoming Visits by Barb to the Hague, Anaheim, and Princeton

Barb and some of the Learning How to Learn Mentors will be in the Hague for the Coursera annual conference on March 21-22. If you’re interested in attending a meetup with us there, please post on the discussion forum, here.

And here’s an intriguing video about the upcoming On Course Conference, April 7-9, 2016, in Anaheim, California. Barb will be headlining this one. She’s been to On Course conferences and events in the past, and loves them—they have a great way of helping you to nudge students to start thinking for themselves. Barb will have plenty of time between sessions, so please come up and say hello. Hopefully you can share some coffee or tea while you discuss learning.

And don’t forget the upcoming IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference in Princeton, New Jersey on March 5th. This is going to be a great event, with lots of insights about teaching in STEM, kicked off by Barb’s keynote. So do come if you have the chance! Here is the complete program description.

Fantastic Biographies!

Both Terry and Barb are big fans of biographies—they’re one of the best ways to learn from the lives of other people you admire, or about history. One of Terry’s recent favorites is Tales From Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience, written by Terry’s friend Mike Gazzaniga. The book describes how Mike’s work led to a whole new insight into how consciousness is distributed broadly between the two hemispheres. And one of Barb’s all time favorite biographies is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. Weatherford traveled thousands of miles, many on horseback, in the Great Khan’s footsteps. Biographies just don’t come better than this.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Time to Go Surfing—or to Ride a Unicycle

In the MOOC, we use the example of a surfing zombie to represent process versus product. That is, the idea of getting into the flow of your work. It turns out that the surfing zombie is a good metaphor for something else—the value of learning a new sport. Read this great New York Times article by Gretchen Reynolds: “Learning a New Sport May Be Good for the Brain.”

A Free Online Bachelor’s Level Biology Education

Learning How to Learner Brian Brookshire has put together an excellent post on how to capture the bulk of a bachelor’s degree in biology entirely through free MOOCs offered by top tier universities. As he relates in his posting, Brian has a bachelor’s from Stanford, and would like to pursue his doctorate in biology—despite the fact that he hasn’t taken any formal college or high school courses in biology! How to get himself prepared at low cost? You guessed it—MOOCs. (If you are a top researcher looking for a highly creative, keenly-motivated student, I’d suggest looking at Brian.)

Taiwan in the News!

Taiwan has some VERY exciting MOOC-related activities coming up—Barb will be there on April 21-22. Aren’t you curious now to know what’s going to happen? Stay tuned!

A Mind for Numbers has been continuing to grow globally in popularity—it’s now published in traditional Chinese: 用對腦，從此不再怕數字：學會如何學習，以如何創意思考，解決(幾乎)所有的問題! Enjoy!

Great Books about Statistics

We have a minor hobby of reading books about statistics and probability. In fact, statistics and probability shape everything around you, so the more you learn, the deeper your awareness of life. You don’t need to understand every detail of the math to still pick up useful insights. In fact, many of these books don’t rely on equations to convey their main ideas. Here’s our “all star” listing:

• The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century, David Salsburg. One of the best histories of statistics, wrapped up in beautiful stories. A wonderful book!
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This first is still our favorite of Levitt and Dubner’s wonderful series of books. You couldn’t find a better way to understand everything from how and why school teachers cheat to the strange world of sumo wrestling.
• The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail–but Some Don’t, by Nate Silver. Sometimes it’s hard to get a grasp on Bayesian ways of thinking. Not when Nate Silver writes about it! He not only makes everything easy to read—he makes it exciting!
• The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy, by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. Okay, we’re suckers for history with regards World War II, so that makes this excellent book a “two-fer”–fascinating insights about probability mixed with compelling stories about vital historical events.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Why don’t we ride zebras like horses?

Chris Higgins in Mental Floss points us towards one of the most informative, funniest little videos we’ve seen in a long time: Why Don’t We Ride Zebras Like Horses? This video grows from one of our favorite books, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond. Diamond helped create a virtual genre of large scale studies of people and their cultures. One of the most recent books to emerge from that genre is our top recommended book last year, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

Learning How to Learn continues to grow—in many different languages!

Learning How to Learn continues as a juggernaut in the world of MOOCs. We have had nearly 1.4 million registered students since the course’s birthday. Learning How to Learn is the most-translated of all Coursera’s courses, with completely translated Spanish, Chinese, and Portuguese versions, and videos captioned in many other languages.

If you’d like to help with translating Learning How to Learn into your favorite language, please sign up for the Coursera Global Translator Community (GTC). (Take a look at the great pdf that walks you through the signup process.) Once you’re signed up with a Transifex account, just make sure you’re logged in to Transifex and you should then be able to find the translation project for Learning How to Learn here. If you have a problem, just email our own special Learning How to Learn contact at Coursera, at LHTL-translations@coursera.org.

Complexity theory

We’ve long had an interest in complexity theory. Our friend Zach Caceres, who heads the Michael Polanyi College, a wonderfully open program for obtaining a college degree at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, has recommended the Complexity Explorer at the Santa Fe Institute. This website has excellent online courses and other educational materials related to complex systems science.

GREAT general book to get you started on chaos theory

If you’re not a scientist, (or even if you are) and you want to get a compelling overview of the birth of chaos theory—a sort of fraternal twin to complexity theory—read James’ Gleick’s Pulitzer Prize nominated, million copy best-seller Chaos: Making a New Science. It’s now in its 20th anniversary edition. We recall once speaking with a philosopher who made erroneous presumptions about how the world works (he hadn’t studied chaos theory). This misunderstanding crept back into his studies of philosophy. Whatever you know, or think you know, it can be helpful to broaden your understanding by learning at least a little about important new areas.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Leadership conference with a difference – 25 May 2016 (Barb’s thrilled to be back in England!)

There’s a wonderful upcoming leadership conference “Liberating Leaders,” on May 25, 2016 at Bedales School in the UK. The conference is for school leaders, aspiring leaders and sixth form pupils. It was designed in partnership with TES, one of the world’s most influential educational publications. “Liberating Leaders” is a great conference not only for those in the UK, but for those around the world who are looking for more international leadership perspectives. You’ll gain the tools and knowledge to be innovative in running a school while helping students develop as individuals. (Bedales has been famous ever since its founding over a century ago as a humane alternative to the authoritarian regimes typical of late-Victorian public schools.) Student delegates will be given the tools to prepare them for taking on leadership roles in their schools. Barb will help start the conference with her keynote—it would be great if she might meet you there!

Meetup in the Hague

A reminder: Barb and some of our Senior Mentor Team will be having a Learning How to Learn meetup at the Hague Marriott. We’ll be in the Great Room Lobby & Bar from 6:00 – 7:00 pm on March 20th. If you’re planning to attend and haven’t posted on the discussion forum already, please add your post on the discussion forum here. We’re in town for the Coursera annual conference. Coursera works hard to share innovative new tools to improve our MOOCs—the Learning How to Learn team is about to embark on some new learning!

“Dabble in Something Different”—A Rule of Thumb for Remaining Creative

One thing Barb likes to do to remain creative is to spend a little time reading books, watching television shows (she’s currently engrossed in Season 4 of House of Cards), or taking MOOCs that have nothing to do with whatever she is working on. In fact, the further away the subject is from whatever she’s working on, the better. She feels this “dabble in something different” philosophy has helped her keep a creative edge, and has also helped her maintain an openness to new ideas and approaches.

Along the lines of this “dabble in something different” philosophy, when Barb was in Utah several years ago working on a book, she became friends with Creighton Horton, an assistant Utah attorney general. Creight has gone on to write a spectacularly interesting book A Reluctant Prosecutor, about his life as a prosecutor in Utah’s criminal justice system. A Reluctant Prosecutor gives a very different perspective on a world of bombings, murders, political intrigue, public corruption, polygamists, imperious and eccentric judges, capital cases, con men, overreaching cops, venal public officials, and innocent people convicted of murders they didn’t commit. Barb was surprised to learn that there are even better ways to defend the disadvantaged if you are a prosecutor than as a defense lawyer.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for something different to fuel your mental juices to remain creative, A Reluctant Prosecutor is just the ticket.

Teach your Child the Memory Palace Technique

Four time US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis has written an adorable children’s book I Forgot Something (But I Can’t Remember What it Was). What a wonderful way to introduce a child you care about to a technique that can be valuable for them throughout their life.

That’s all for now. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Communities of Learners

Jules Rowley has an excellent post titled “Communities of Learners” in the Learning How to Learn alumni forum. Take a look!

Class Central on taking MOOCs for College Credit

Class Central has just published an important article, “MOOCs for Credit.” It describes different ways you can potentially get low cost college credit by taking MOOCs. If you’re in college, or supporting a child in college, this article is well worth your time. MOOCs’ economies of scale and great teaching mean that there are at last realistic options for reduced college costs. Remember, with MOOCs, you can check out rankings and select from the BEST instructors and instruction in the world. (And yes, in the meantime, face-to-face instructors can use ideas from top MOOCs to up their game.)

A VERY special book for STEM Instructors

Do you teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at any level from high school through advanced university levels? If so, you will want to get and read Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide, which is an extraordinary book by Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent. Richard and Rebecca helped launch Barb’s teaching career, so if you like how Barb conveys the material in Learning How to Learn, you will love Teaching and Learning STEM.This is definitely a five star book—Barb even wrote the foreword. Check Dr Felder’s website for more information and resources related to the book. (Richard and Rebecca’s interviews in week four of Learning How to Learn are favorite bonus interviews out of the entire course.)

A great book on developing charisma

One of the books we recommend most often to people who are trying to move forward in the working world is The Charisma Myth: How anyone can master the art and science of personal magnetism. Time after time, we’ve found ourselves recommending some bit of advice from the book, like feeling your toes to bring your drifting mind back during important conversations. This book is packed with useful, practical information.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Help our friend Nelson Dellis Kickstart his “Art of Memory” project

Many of you have seen our previous videos from Nelson Dellis, the four time US Memory Champion. (Nelson is also a champion for research into Alzheimer’s, which led to the death of his grandmother and Barb’s father.) Nelson is building an online application/website called Art of Memory, which is a one-stop-shop for learning memory techniques, managing strategies and memory palaces, and for training your memory. He is running the Kickstarter campaign so he and his team can develop the idea and build a fully functional beta version of the site so people can start training and memorizing. If you’d like to help him out on this campaign, it would be much appreciated, and also potentially useful for you. Here’s the link for you to see some short videos and explanations of how it works. (Membership is much reduced for folks who back the project on Kickstarter.)

Misuse of p-values

We’ve been asked by statistician and epidemiologist Sander Greenland to please help spread the word about misuse of p-values in relation to research. Here are two easy-to-read articles that can help you avoid pitfalls: “Statisticians issue warning over misuse of p-values,” from Nature, and “Statisticians found one thing they can agree on: It’s time to stop misusing p-values” from FiveThirtyEight. (Here is Sander and his colleagues’ comprehensive paper about this important topic.)

How MOOCs foil distraction

Here’s a great article by George Leef, Director of Research for the John William Pope Center for Policy Research, on how MOOCs can improve education by providing great new approaches for effective teaching. Leef notes that: “by expanding the range of choice for students, online courses catalyze healthy competition. That is vital in education, a field that has long rested contentedly.” Our very own Learning How to Learn receives mention!

If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Happy?

One of our fellow Coursera instructors, Raj Raghunathan, has written the intriguingly titled If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? Barb’s read it, and it’s a thought-provoking, excellent read.

Our minds often encounter negative stimulation, which we of course tend to focus on. After all, if our ancestors hadn’t been focused on negative stimulation, they might not have had kids and we might not be here! So it’s healthy for us to look for positive insights like those in Raj’s excellent book. Plus, it’s a real treat for us to find a fellow MOOC instructor who isn’t afraid to step beyond the usual expectations and to explore a vitally important issue like happiness!

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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