Online Learning Can Be Awesome. Here's How.

There are a lot of wonderful learning resources on the internet. How should we go about using them?

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Finding the right learning resources
2:04 Getting practice
4:02 Finding a learning community
5:08 Planning your practice
5:54 What happens next?
8:18 A worthy cause

Resources featured in the video:

Young, H. D., Freedman, R. A., Ford, A. L., Sears, F. W., & Zemansky, M. W. (2014). Sears and Zemansky's University Physics with Modern Physics.

[NickPriore]

I think learning paralysis is a big road block for some people. It can be daunting to open your laptop and see thousands of resources for a topic. Also, it’s easy to become dissuaded after feeling like you know a topic just to realize how much more you don’t know. I understand that that is what learning is, knowing what you don’t know, but the reality is that for many people (myself included) that the overwhelming amount of information out there can be… overwhelming 😅 Love the videos Ben, always good to see that you’re active.

[scatwork]

I think one of the hardest parts about online learning is discernment. I am absolutely an advocate of all the resources at your fingertips, but I also know that media literacy is a necessary component that may be missing. How do you know the resource you are accessing is accurate? How do you know the content is trustworthy? Will a learner know to check references? These are the questions that come to mind whenever I set out to learn something new via these open sources.

[MictheEagle]

The cornerstone of effective learning is focused inquiry. Instead of aimlessly consuming information, identify a specific concept and delve deep into it. Seek out research papers and expert sources to gain a comprehensive understanding. Transforming learning into an engaging experience is equally crucial. For example, popular media, such as crime dramas, can unexpectedly spark interest in forensic science, offering a tangential yet motivating entry point.
Gamification can greatly boost motivation. Practice problems and sample examinations simulate real-world challenges, making the learning process both stimulating and rewarding.

So, focused inquiry, scientific research, gamification/entertainment, problems and solutions.

[Saintjohn]

For me it all boils down to finding the right mentor and the right guidance.

[CaptainWumbo]

aw man, I really miss the forums of the 2000s and early 2010s. Such great resources and fun places.

I think information is still out there, but since the internet shifted from hobbiests to commercial interests, we see a lot more poor information and broken telephone summaries of summaries of summaries. The incentive of ads brings in a lot of SEO first content.

I personally always learn by doing, and THEN looking for resources to help me with the problem I'm on. I think it leads to long term learning and avoids a lot of short term study techniques that optimize out high storage.

[StrinGhost]

I have started taking notes online of what I am learning
Writing important points etc

Those questions are really helpful to identify what, why, how, when u are learning the thing 🔺 for

[uaweezaherri]

What's cool and sometimes works for me is to just do a brain dump in a disposable paper of all the questions I have about the subject, before learning anything from an educational video. Only after watching the video, I do try to see if the video answered some of the questions I had in mind. If it is the case, I write down what i remembered from the video. If it didn't it's okay. There might be new questions that can also pop up. It takes more time and I don't do it every time but it works for me for the beginning steps where I am often curious and have a bunch of questions 😊.

Great videos! I always find them very insightful

[bears]

Ever since I was a little kid, I've been extremely curious about a lot of things, and my parents wanted to support it as much as they could (none of them got to finish high school, so on their eyes studies should be my priority). But their support was limited to giving me the tools and no guidance, for example, I had to learn to play the violin on my own. This might have been an useful situation, as I've always been a self-learner (learned english all by myself as well), but to be honest, sometimes I really wish I could afford a more personal mentorship... It's just so hard and overwhelming to find the right resources and keep focused on them, while being able to see and correct my own mistakes. Right now I'm in a very long burnout period, there are so many things I want to learn and hobbies I want to practice, but even the thought of starting is paralysing me...

[MarianneHMiettinen]

I highly recommend creating a little "course" for yourself. I do this in Notion, where I make a to-do list of 1 to 10 videos to work along-side when I practice data and statistics related programs and tasks. I usually do first "follow-along", and then "apply" to my own interest such as a Harry Potter dataset, where I have to do the same thing completely from scratch. Another key is to keep each "course" very brief so that you can finish them in 1 to 7 sessions. Another important point is to make sure the videos are easy enough for you to follow-along (but also not so easy that they are boring).

Notion is great because it allows me to write both notes, toggle sections, to-do lists, video links, and I can make a board table where I drag each course from "not started" to "in progress" to "done", and just can feel satisfied to see my progress.

[audinue]

I really love the way you kissed that book 💗
This reminded me of my past self.
Thank you.

[BruceLee]

Excellent content as always, Dr. Keep! Thank you for the work you do.

[TicTacYo]

I can't wait till your site is up. Please have a comment section for discussions! Would you do a video on learning how to draw? The way it's taught is through rote learning and it's not very useful to draw the same thing thousands of times and only get a little better. I was discouraged from tracing at a young age, but I guarantee if I stuck with it I would have been 1000x the artist because I enjoyed doing it AND I was learning about form. I feel like a lot of times we're given restrictions on how we should learn, even when that thing works for us and sparks our interest. I taught myself that it was bad to even draw from reference, so the restrictions put on ourselves and by others can deeply impact our learning process. Why start math with arithmetic when you could start with group theory? Why focus on US history when you could give an overview of World Civilization? There are so many ways to introduce people to new subjects, but we're so focused on specific teaching axioms that we forget everyone is interested in a subject for their own reason, we should help people, especially children, find those reasons.

[TimeraB]

Wow, I think this is one of my favorite videos from you so far. A really good checklist for finding a good learning source. And a reminder that you don't just have to find 1 perfect resource.

[Divyando]

Loved it ❤
Got to know lot about online learning
Was in trap of psedulearning( feel like learning but in reality nothing but binge watching content)
Had a change in perspective by your video

[maulanayafiedanendra]

Man, I really need this. Thanks Mr. Benjamin

[nuelbagus]

I think you should explore how we can utilize LLMs (GPT-4, Claude, Etc) in learning. It opens up a lot of learning technique that is hard to obtain for a self-learner. One thing that I utilize the most is how to use abductive approach, where the learning process is started through question without thinking about structure. I think you would able to develop a robust learning framwork

[galileu]

This video is excellent, by providing mental clarity and a procces to facilitate learning in general, thank you for your work

[reyhanarahma]

This video is really accurate. I'm currently learning Italian, and although there are abundant resources on the internet, it's really difficult to actually use what I've learned. I have no one to practice with except my teacher, hence my progress in speaking is very slow

[yuvraajbhatter]

i really loved your take on pairing resources because this past week i was really struggling to choose what resource to use for learning economics. It was either the crash course on youtube or economics for dummies. So, tomorrow i am going to be using both resources instead of choosing between either.

[nanashipersonne]

I think more important than many of those points is first: is it worth learning? Many theories in economy, business theory are simply based on hearsay and do not have much historical mathematical evidence behind them. Economists are still shit at determening the next economic crashes, risk measuring is still bullshit if the capital asset pricing model is used, as said by its inventor. It does more harm than good to learn bad theories. So do not just learn misinformation, most newspapers and videos make you worse at decisionmaking with giving you a bad basis. Learn Math mostly statistics first. This gives you the tools to determine better what is bullshit through making you understand how to make statistics, which most stellar useful science is based upon. That is my experience after getting my degree in business. Getting another degree in IT now. Also pay attention to conflict of interests (what if they only make money with advertising? Why should the focus be on quality?). If you absorb stuff without a good statistic or stellar logical experiment behind there is a good chance you‘re wasting your time to become basically more stupid.