Category: Uncategorized

Happy New Years to our Learning How to Learners!

Learning How to Learn stays in the news!

Here’s an article in the New York Times by leading tech journalist John Markoff (@markoff) about Learning How to Learn’s status as the #1 most popular MOOC of all time. If you want to learn how to learn, you’ve definitely come to a popular place!

Staying On Course

Now’s a good time to plan and register for the On Course National Conference in Orange County, near Anaheim, California, April 8 and 9, 2016. On Course is a conference that’s right in line with the ideas and approaches of Learning How to Learn—Barb will be the opening keynote speaker this year.

Barb’s Research on Pathologies of Altruism

Some of you might like to learn a little more about Barb’s unusual area of research. She’s always interested in how we truly help others. Oddly enough, our own helpful desires, especially when mixed with a bit of egotism (we believe we know what’s best for others), can mislead us into doing profound harm. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Here’s a conversation between Barb and popular radio host Stefan Molyneux about her research on pathological altruism—there is also some intriguing discussion about how Learning How to Learn came to be created. (Video, Audio, Soundcloud.)

If you’d like more insight into Barb’s work, a good place to get started is her book Cold-Blooded Kindness: Just Give Me a Shot at Loving You, Dear, which is a true crime mystery about an eery killer in Utah. (Don’t miss the about-face at the end.) This book grew out of Barb’s earlier effort to explore the origins of nasty behavior: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, the book received high critical praise from leading psychologists and psychiatrists. For more scientific explorations of pathological altruism, read Barb’s co-edited volume Pathological Altruism (Oxford University Press), or her article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Concepts and implications of altruism bias and pathological altruism.” And here’s an article by philosopher Stephen Hicks that explores related ideas. Important stuff if you care deeply about others. (Incidentally, Stephen’s book Explaining Post Modernism is terrific!)

Happy learning and Happy New Years!

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

Happy Greetings on a Sunny Friday to our Learning How to Learners!

Our friends at Dart Neuroscience are asking if you can help advance research into memory by taking the Dart Neuroscience Memory Challenge.Your help in taking the simple memory test would be deeply appreciated. And if you haven’t seen it already, you may wish to watch this wonderful bonus interview with Dart’s standout memory expert Nelson Dellis, 4 time USA memory champion. (Can you tell that Barb had a cold when she did that video? 🙂 )

Terry Sejnowski speaking in Brazil!

Exciting news is that Terry will be speaking at the International Brain Research Organization in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 11th. (Incidentally, we have 21,000 learners enrolled on our Portuguese Learning How to Learn platform Aprendendo a aprender! )

A blast at our latest meetup!

Our last meetup in Silicon Valley filled the coffee shop to bursting–we had some 25 Learning How to Learners, an additional half dozen fantastic people from Coursera (they do so much behind the scenes to make our course a standout), and Dhawal Shah and Charlie Chung, Barb’s friends from Class Central–the best source around for quality information about MOOCs. Don’t miss Class Central’s sizzling website, chockful of helpful information about the right MOOCs for you. (And feel free to leave a review of Learning How to Learn!)

San Diego Learning How to Learn Meetup

A reminder that Barb will be happily meeting with all interested Learning How to Learners on Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 (noon) – 1:00 pm in the Lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, 1 Market Place, San Diego, California.

As always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

Cheery Greetings, as always, to our Learning How to Learners!

Hopefully the course is moving along well for you—pop online and watch a video if you’re not finished yet with the course! Meanwhile, lots of updates this week.

Special Silicon Valley Learning How to Learn Office Hours

Barb will be holding a very special meetup in Silicon Valley on Tuesday, June 23rd, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm at the Bean Scene Coffee Shop, 186 S Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, California, USA. This meeting is special because it will also include some of our favorite people from Coursera. Join the fun if you can!

Learning How to Learn Vocabulary Site

A wonderful vocabulary teaching site for Learning How to Learn has been developed by Kevin Johnson on Cerego. Check it out—it’s a terrific free adaptive learning tool that makes great use of spaced repetition.

Engineering Highlights

Some of the most highly rated bonus videos in Learning How to Learn are those done by legendary engineering Professor Richard Felder and his preeminent educator wife, Dr. Rebecca Brent. These terrific videos, featured at the end of week 4, give insight on learning in mathematics, science, and engineering. Incidentally, Dr. Felder’s sons Gary and Kenny Felder have just had their superlative textbook Mathematical Methods in Engineering and Physics published by Wiley. You can get a little additional background about the book in Gary and Kenny’s video here.

Another wonderful book by Barb’s friend Guru Madhavan explores how engineers think: Applied Minds: How Engineers Think. It’s coming out soon—check out the fantastic endorsements from some of the world’s leading writers and thinkers!

A Teacher Training Program in Pakistan

A new teacher training program is being created for new college teachers in Pakistan—the organizers would be grateful for any suggestions on existing curriculum, online teaching resources, instructional videos, books, relevant orgs/contacts, etc. Any ideas can be emailed to benje@amalacademy.org—more info can be found at amalacademy.org/teaching.

San Diego Office Hours and STEM Conference Opportunity

Barb will be holding office hours in San Diego, Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 (noon) – 1:00 pm in the lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, 1 Market Place, San Diego, California. She’ll also be speaking in San Diego at the upcoming U.S. News STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference and she would like to invite you to participate as well. The conference will address both exciting new models in STEM education and how to remedy the shortage of qualified STEM workers in the USA. Barb will be a panelist on the session “Enlightening Minds” on Wednesday, July 1 at 9:45 AM, along with Dr. Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside. By using the code SPEAK15 you can register at the special speaker’s discount of 50% off the registration rate.

As always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

Cheery Greetings, Learning How to Learners!

A brief request here to help Barb’s friends Dhawal Shah and Charlie Chung at Class Central, the great website that tells you about all the best MOOCs. If you could fill out this brief, 90-second survey, it would really help Class Central, and all of us, to better understand our awesome MOOC students.

Also, great recent news for teachers and professors! Penguin, the publisher of A Mind for Numbers, has made a special discounted examination copy of the book available for teachers and professors. So if you are a teacher or professor who is considering the book for course adoption, please go here.

Barb will be holding Learning How to Learn office hours/course meetups—she would LOVE to meet you! She’ll be at the following places (feel free to splurge on a coffee or smoothie to say thanks to the coffee shops that are hosting us).

• Near Seattle, Washington, Sunday, June 14, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Starbucks Coffee Shop, Lake Forest Park Town Centre, 17039 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, Washington.
• In Silicon Valley, Tuesday, June 23rd, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Bean Scene Coffee Shop, 186 S Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, California
• In San Diego, California, Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 (noon) – 1:00 pm, in the Lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, 1 Market Place, San Diego, California. (Barb will be at the US News & World Report STEM Solutions Conference, panel 8F: Enlightening Minds, earlier that morning.)

This fall, Barb will be in South Africa and, tentatively, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and China—more details are coming. She’d love to meet you on her travels!

In the meantime, as always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

Cheery Greetings, Learning How to Learners!

A brief request here to help Barb’s friends Dhawal Shah and Charlie Chung at Class Central, the great website that tells you about all the best MOOCs. If you could fill out this brief, 90-second survey, it would really help Class Central, and all of us, to better understand our awesome MOOC students.

Also, great recent news for teachers and professors! Penguin, the publisher of A Mind for Numbers, has made a special discounted examination copy of the book available for teachers and professors. So if you are a teacher or professor who is considering the book for course adoption, please go here.

Barb will be holding Learning How to Learn office hours/course meetups—she would LOVE to meet you! She’ll be at the following places (feel free to splurge on a coffee or smoothie to say thanks to the coffee shops that are hosting us).

• Near Seattle, Washington, Sunday, June 14, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Starbucks Coffee Shop, Lake Forest Park Town Centre, 17039 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park, Washington.
• In Silicon Valley, Tuesday, June 23rd, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Bean Scene Coffee Shop, 186 S Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale, California
• In San Diego, California, Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 (noon) – 1:00 pm, in the Lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, 1 Market Place, San Diego, California. (Barb will be at the US News & World Report STEM Solutions Conference, panel 8F: Enlightening Minds, earlier that morning.)

This fall, Barb will be in South Africa and, tentatively, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and China—more details are coming. She’d love to meet you on her travels!

In the meantime, as always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

Hello, Learning How to Learners!

We hope you’re having a great week! All is going well in Learning How to Learn–you are currently joined with some 220,000 learners in this On Demand version of the course, which shows how popular and useful learning how to learn can be!

Help with writing

If you’ve been thinking about doing final project, or you have trouble with the writing process on your job or in your studies, you might want to watch this bonus interview with top writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant. This is one of the most popular bonus interviews on Learning How to Learn, and there’s a good reason for that.

Help with anxiety, depression, and PTSD

A popular and inspiring post about anxiety, depression, and PTSD from the previous session-based version of Learning How to Learn has been moved into the On Demand version of the course. If you face any of those challenges, you may wish to read the wonderful posting, which can now be found here.

A great upcoming MOOC

If you want even more inspiration, you might wish to sign up for the upcoming MOOC A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment, by Barb’s friend, “Dr. Happy-Smarts” (also known as Prof. Raj Raghunathan) of the Indian School of Business. The course is full of great information and has many guest lectures by some of the most important researchers in psychology, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Dan Ariely, and Barbara Fredrickson.

A cool summer camp

Lastly, we’ve become aware of a unique summer enrichment opportunity, Adventures of the Mind, for talented teens to help inspire them to broaden their passions by introducing them to a faculty of accomplished adult achievers that include Nobel prize winners, MacArthur geniuses, Pulitzer prize winners, best-selling novelists, and tech titans. Scholarships are available for qualifying students. The curriculum focuses on decision making and financial literacy using chess and poker. Students can apply directly and educators can nominate here.

Happy learning, and good luck with your next module!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

CHEERY GREETINGS!

It’s exciting seeing the incredible progress people are making in Learning How to Learn. For example, in this very week, there are some 28,000 of you from all around the world actively working on the modules. Wow! Now’s the time to pull up the next video with your many fellow learners and enjoy!

Barb is in the Southeastern US right now. If you happen to be in North Carolina, stop by and visit with her at the fantastic Western Region Education Service Alliance in Candler, North Carolina on May 19th (there are two free sessions, the first from 10:00 am – noon, and the second from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm). Barb will then go on to Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak for the world class Charlotte Area Science Network on May 21st. She would LOVE to meet you, so feel free to stop by!

We hope you’re getting a lot from the MOOC–please let us let us know your thoughts on the discussion forums!

If you’re wondering what to do next, MOOC-wise, be sure to head to our friends at Class Central, where MOOCs are analyzed to help you see what’s best.

In the meantime, as always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

CHEERY GREETINGS!

All is going well in the online land of Learning How to Learn, and we just wanted to share our weekly update.

In a tradition he began in the first session of Learning How to Learn, Senior Mentor Cristian Artoni has created an amazing Hall of Fame for Learning How to Learn, which features many of the terrific projects people have done for the previous session-based versions of the course. Now, in On Demand, join our Facebook group and post your masterpiece here.

Here’s an article we really like by Charlie Martin about it never being too late to learn code.

Discussion forums form the backbone of the course. You’ll find fascinating insights there–and you’ll also have a great opportunity to ask questions and share insights. So be sure to check the forums out, whether you’re beginning the course, or just about to finish!

A Mind for Numbers is now available in a Spanish edition: Abre Tu Mente A Los Numeros. Feel free to leave a review of the book on whichever website you purchased the book from (all proceeds go to help Barb’s daughter in medical school).

Thanks so much for joining us in the course–happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

CHEERY GREETINGS!

We wanted to give you a little update on Learning How to Learn. It turns out that our course is Coursera’s most popular On Demand MOOC—we’re nearing million total students signed up from over 200 countries around the world! So where ever you are at in the course, we’re hoping you’re enjoying the materials!

• NEW BONUS INTERVIEWS Yesterday we posted two new bonus interviews–including this newest one with Nelson Dellis, 4 time USA memory champion. Discover how you, too, can help advance research into memory by taking the Dart Neuroscience Memory Challenge.

• BARB OAKLEY WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU! Barb will be speaking in Los Angeles at the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative Symposium tomorrow (April 30th) and she’d love to meet you if you’re there. On May 7th, she’ll be speaking at Harvard about the behind-the-scenes creative process that helped launch Learning How to Learn. Please feel free to join her!

• A MIND FOR NUMBERS: INTERNATIONALLY POPULAR Thanks to your strong interest, A Mind for Numbers has become a New York Times science bestseller. Remember, it’s actually a very general book about learning that can help strengthen and reinforce your knowledge of the material. So get a copy to mark up, either digitally or by hand. Internationally, the Korean edition is available now, and Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Polish, German, Spanish, and Portuguese translations are coming soon.

• ENHANCE YOUR STATUS Many learners—even distinguished professionals—have found that featuring their Verified Certificates in their resumes or on their LinkedIn profiles enhances their professional credibility. If you are looking to build your career, or to impress managers or academic admissions officers, a Verified Certificate is the way to go.

Thanks for learning how to learn!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Hopefully your past week has gone beautifully, and you’ll have a little time this weekend to learn. Learning something new helps keep your mind in great shape!

Here is an inspiring article by our friend Benny Lewis about how language learning can help with all sorts of learning. Benny’s bonus interview on learning a new language is one of the most popular bonus videos in Learning How to Learn. You might be surprised to discover that language learning improves your ability to learn in math and science!

Don’t forget–A Mind for Numbers, the recommended book to help you solidify the main ideas in the course, is available not only in English, but also in Korean and Spanish. Chinese (simplified and complex), German, Polish, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, and Portuguese translations are all coming soon.

And if you’d like to help translate Learning How to Learn into your native language, or a language you’re comfortable with, please just go here to get started. You can learn even more about learning as you think through a video translation. We’re looking for a volunteer female from Brazil who might be willing to produce audio tapes that we could use to dub Barb’s voice on the videos. Please contact Barb at oakley@oakland.edu if you might be able to do this.

In the meantime, as always, happy learning!

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