4 ms·

That's a problem with a lot of content, right? Specifically practical concepts. Did you ever find yourself thinking the same things about your entry level colle

That's a problem with a lot of content, right? Specifically practical concepts. Did you ever find yourself thinking the same things about your entry level college classes if you had been lucky enough to attend any? You can read a blog post about building bicycle wheels in five minutes and get most everything you'd gain from going to a weeklong course, but the difference is all in how you'd engage with it. A longer discussion, open area for questions, and building familiarity with the material drive the skill home whereas that 5 minute blog post might as well disappear into the depths of memory the second you navigate elsewhere. I took the course and while I agree that I wanted more depth, it certainly wasn't "vacuous" given the context. And it should be noted, the materials of the course follow some of the concepts taught within - they're doing their best to make sure you learn their basic concepts of how to learn.

Fnoord 8y ago
The "I could've learned that in a 5 min blog post" applies to basically anything and is condescending, arrogant, and does not warrant a discussion. Learning How To Learn is an entry level way to get from practically nothing (everyone who can comprehend the course has some fundamental basics; e.g. spaced repetition we learn at elementary school in The Netherlands) to a more productive learning environment. It does that by teaching you techniques via theory, practice, and ultimately a quiz about the material. After you completed the course, you will understand the techniques, have familiarized yourself with each of these, and you can likely apply them. It is also likely you found a preferred technique (or found a confirmation that your previous preference is the best one for you). If you already know these techniques (such as spaced repetition, focused & diffused mode, pomodoro technique) then the course has little value. You could still help people on the forums (explaining something has great value for yourself as well), or learn a thing or two from the forums or Friday mailing. If people don't know how to learn then all the other courses on Coursera and other MOOCs are useless. The popularity of the course and the positive reviews underline its usefulness. You can find naysayers for every course. For example, I'm a naysayer of the Cryptography I course in a way. I recommend it (as far as I finished it; the first 2 chapters I did) because for me it gave me gigantic headaches and migraine. It isn't for me, I'm just not intelligent enough for it combined with the headaches and migraine it didn't work out and I had to call it. YMMV.
- geezerjay 8y ago
  > The "I could've learned that in a 5 min blog post" applies to basically anything and is condescending, arrogant, and does not warrant a discussion. You've completely missed the point and even failed to assume that the OP was well-meaning. The whole point of making it clear that the content of an online course can easily be learned by reading a blog post on the subject is to warn potential users that they risk wasting their precious time watching hours of videos consisting mostly of useless filler when spending 5 minutes reading a blog post would get you the same results. Frankly, this is a major and all too frequent problem witg MOOCs. Sadly, some courses are obvious exercises on how to stretch close to no content into hours of video. Personally I would hate to waste hours of my personal time unnecessarily, thus I appreciate these warnings.
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    It makes no sense to make such a point about this specific course when it can be made about any course. Additionally, it is not possible to get on the same level via a 5 minute blog post compared to completing the course. Such counts for most if not all courses. > Personally I would hate to waste hours of my personal time unnecessarily, thus I appreciate these warnings. These warnings can be made with about any online content. It boils down to "I found it a waste of time"; data suggests the course was NOT a waste of time however. I appreciate such data over anecdotal evidence.
    - geezerjay 8y ago
      > It makes no sense to make such a point about this specific course when it can be made about any course. The point is that the assertion was made regarding this specific course but not any other. You're the one trying to put up a strawman by forcing the assertion to cover other courses, when nothing of the sort has been made. >Additionally, it is not possible to get on the same level via a 5 minute blog post compared to completing the course. Such counts for most if not all courses. I'm not familiar with the course, but I'm very familiar with other MOOCs from edx, coursera, and udemy. Based on my personal experience I can say that some courses, particularly technical courses, are indeed packed with useless filler content, and the same learning experience can be had by reading a small blog post covering the subject. This assertion is not uncommon, and unfortunately is a recurring problem with MOOCs.

Fnoord 8y ago

The "I could've learned that in a 5 min blog post" applies to basically anything and is condescending, arrogant, and does not warrant a discussion. Learning How To Learn is an entry level way to get from practically nothing (everyone who can comprehend the course has some fundamental basics; e.g. spaced repetition we learn at elementary school in The Netherlands) to a more productive learning environment. It does that by teaching you techniques via theory, practice, and ultimately a quiz about the material. After you completed the course, you will understand the techniques, have familiarized yourself with each of these, and you can likely apply them. It is also likely you found a preferred technique (or found a confirmation that your previous preference is the best one for you). If you already know these techniques (such as spaced repetition, focused & diffused mode, pomodoro technique) then the course has little value. You could still help people on the forums (explaining something has great value for yourself as well), or learn a thing or two from the forums or Friday mailing. If people don't know how to learn then all the other courses on Coursera and other MOOCs are useless. The popularity of the course and the positive reviews underline its usefulness. You can find naysayers for every course. For example, I'm a naysayer of the Cryptography I course in a way. I recommend it (as far as I finished it; the first 2 chapters I did) because for me it gave me gigantic headaches and migraine. It isn't for me, I'm just not intelligent enough for it combined with the headaches and migraine it didn't work out and I had to call it. YMMV.

geezerjay 8y ago
> The "I could've learned that in a 5 min blog post" applies to basically anything and is condescending, arrogant, and does not warrant a discussion. You've completely missed the point and even failed to assume that the OP was well-meaning. The whole point of making it clear that the content of an online course can easily be learned by reading a blog post on the subject is to warn potential users that they risk wasting their precious time watching hours of videos consisting mostly of useless filler when spending 5 minutes reading a blog post would get you the same results. Frankly, this is a major and all too frequent problem witg MOOCs. Sadly, some courses are obvious exercises on how to stretch close to no content into hours of video. Personally I would hate to waste hours of my personal time unnecessarily, thus I appreciate these warnings.
- Fnoord 8y ago
  It makes no sense to make such a point about this specific course when it can be made about any course. Additionally, it is not possible to get on the same level via a 5 minute blog post compared to completing the course. Such counts for most if not all courses. > Personally I would hate to waste hours of my personal time unnecessarily, thus I appreciate these warnings. These warnings can be made with about any online content. It boils down to "I found it a waste of time"; data suggests the course was NOT a waste of time however. I appreciate such data over anecdotal evidence.
  - geezerjay 8y ago
    > It makes no sense to make such a point about this specific course when it can be made about any course. The point is that the assertion was made regarding this specific course but not any other. You're the one trying to put up a strawman by forcing the assertion to cover other courses, when nothing of the sort has been made. >Additionally, it is not possible to get on the same level via a 5 minute blog post compared to completing the course. Such counts for most if not all courses. I'm not familiar with the course, but I'm very familiar with other MOOCs from edx, coursera, and udemy. Based on my personal experience I can say that some courses, particularly technical courses, are indeed packed with useless filler content, and the same learning experience can be had by reading a small blog post covering the subject. This assertion is not uncommon, and unfortunately is a recurring problem with MOOCs.