Learning How to Learn

I have just finished a wonderful MOOC (on the Coursera platform) titled Learning How to Learn.  I wish I had known this decades earlier!  The course brings together current research on the biology of learning and brain function with practical actionable suggestions on how to improve acquisition of new knowledge.  Awesome! 

As a final project, we were asked to express what we learned in our own words in a way that we could explain it to others.  I am a lifelong couch potato who has recently (last couple of years) gotten serious about exercise and been working with a personal trainer.  She has taught me a lot, and I thought that other people's understanding of good exercise habits would be a way to express what I had learned in LHTL.  Here is my final project:

Physical Training	Studying
Set good daily habits	Set good daily habits
Move everyday	Practice Every Day
Break it down:  workout is series of tasks	Break it down:  study is series of tasks
Build it up:  when can do a weight, increase it	Build it up: when you have a concept, try a harder concept
Get stronger by repeating, repeating, repeating	Solidify learning by repeating, repeating, repeating
Space your practice:  muscles need time to recover	Space your practice:  chunks need time to form
Watch your form by review in mirror	Watch your form by frequent self testing
Sleep is part of your workout:  vital to recovery	Sleep is part of your studying: vital to making chunks permanent
Variety:  vary intensity and activity to work different muscles and prevent burn out	Variety:  vary concepts studied to prevent burnout and enable connections between different ideas
Add more challenging levels	Add more challenging levels
BREATHE	BREATHE
Learn by Doing	Learn by Doing problems, review, active recall
Make it your own:  customize your workout	Make it your own:  own examples, analogies
Progress not in a straight line	Progress not in a straight line
Focus on process/practice not result	Focus on process/practice not result
Celebrate each workout	Celebrate each study session—reward is part of the Pomadoro technique
Refresh, relax and renew	Refresh, relax and renew

The course is over but Coursera is planning to bring it back as On Demand.  This is a link to the archives:  https://www.coursera.org/course/learning

The best way to find all MOOC's is at Class Central:  https://www.class-central.com/