How to Take an Online Course Effectively?
In a freakish but fortunate accident, I came across a podcast episode titled, “How To Take A Course (And Actually Get Your Money’s Worth)”. I am currently taking an online course on writing, so I was mildly curious.
But it turned out to be a damn good thing. I had an epiphany and a major takeaway from this episode. Let me try to summarise them:
- Set an intention. Set a curriculum.
- Give yourself permission to be on a curriculum at your own pace.
- Success is not watching every video or completing every worksheet.
- Define your own success and actively chase that in the course.
- There is a price, and there is a value of a course. Do not confuse both.
I do the same with non-fiction books. I don’t fret over the partially read or abandoned books in my Kindle. Yes, $10 is a big price for a book. But if there is one single idea that I can take away from it, it is really worth it. When I am in need of the topic, I can always jump in and learn more. Life is too precious to slog through some unenjoyable book. While reading, it is always better to chase than search for effective retention.
I can apply the same logic to a course. No one is going to write on my tombstone that I completed watching all the videos and completed all the worksheets of a course. With a lot more attention and active learning mode, I may be able to get my dollars’ worth of learning by watching only videos that are really important to me at this point in time. I don’t need to be guilty of not waking up in the morning and attending the lecture (when I can do the same in a relaxed and active way by listening to the recorded one). The dollars spent on a course are high compared to a book. But my attention, pace of learning and value I get have no relationship with the money. Disassociating money and sunk-cost fallacy with an online course is extremely liberating.
In that spirit, listen to this podcast episode; after 28 minutes, the last 15 minutes of the episode is enough to get the gist and the value 😁