When I began this blog I started taking these free online classes for the first time. As I learn in the individual courses I am also learning what I can reasonably accomplish given all the other constraints of my life.
I have an avaricious appetite to learn about everything, completely. It is pretty common that as you learn, you realize your finite capabilities and the tremendous amount of things you will never know; doesn't mean you can't try real hard.
I signed up for too many classes and am having to drop them as I adjust my expectations. This is what is great about these classes though. They cost nothing and are completely available to whatever extent you want to pursue them. I am having to drop some classes are give up on certification but I can examine the course material and learn from parts of the whole.
In taking too many classes I am presented with more options and given a more firm grasps on the holes in my knowledge. I am really interested in cosmology so I signed up for the galaxies and cosmology class, as it turns out I am woefully behind on my math and physics to comprehend and process much of the particulars. I can understand concepts but to get at the depth of the topic and some real understanding I now know I need to work on that side of my brain.
I also had to dismiss a fundamentals of nutrition class that I really wanted to take because there was simply too much work given what I was already committed to. In the process though I discovered a great free open textbook on nutrition that I can now read at my leisure.
Another great problem of too many classes is getting a better idea of what I enjoy learning about versus what I want to know about. For example I really want to know about history and programming. What I am discovering is that I am up to date on the videos and assignments of the history class a day after they are released while the programming classes I put off for longer. This helps to discover what I am really interested in and where I may perhaps be able to find expertise or where I need to put more effort.
It is truly wonderful and astounding to have so much great information at my disposal. What makes this experience so great is the form; the videos, assignments, discussion boards, peer reviews and all the supplemental material made available from all over the web.
Turning to the form I have found myself working mostly with those courses that are on a timeline in which everyone is doing the same course work in the same time frame For me it is just much easier to continue when you have weekly material and assignments versus just having everything available. Constraints in this case make it much easier to keep with the material and stay on task regularly.
I have been primarily on Coursera, as they have the most classes available from a whole bunch of great topics. I have found the Stanford MOOC site to be easy to navigate and well developed. I would like to see their video elements come to the other sites as well. When you watch a video on the Stanford site the slides that are used are shown just under the video with a time stamp on the slide so if you want to go back to a specific slide it is very easy. You find the slide with the relevant information and clicking on that slide brings the video to that time. The biggest problem I have with Coursera which is small, is navigating the videos after watching them to find particular information. The Stanford site solves this problem very well.
I am having a great time with these classes so far and I doubt there will be very large gaps in the rest of my life in which I am not taking some sort of MOOC. I am enjoying Coursera immensely and am looking forward to taking classes when they start here shortly at edX and Canvas.
class2go.stanford.edu - Stanford site
https://www.canvas.net/
https://www.edx.org
https://www.coursera.org/
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