Smart Learning and how E-learning can help
An efficient way to learn Science, computer and math, and how E-learning companies are utilizing the techniques to help students learn better!
Disclaimer: This post is full of opinions based on my experience.
Photo by : Eugenio Mazzone
Introduction #
My wife recently got accepted to medical school. Before she started the process, she was a political science major with minimal training in science and math. However, to even be eligible to apply, she had to take numerous math and science classes at the university. I had always taken my ability to learn science concepts for granted, but this endeavor of my wife led me to reflect upon and appreciate the learning techniques I had developed throughout the years. It also got me thinking - What is the best way to teach individuals new concepts in science, physics and math? I have been thinking about this for a while, and this post is meant to share my thoughts on the topic.
In this essay I will explore a few concepts.
- Definition of learning in terms of desired outcomes.
- How have I learned throughout years. I have done fairly well applying these techniques, so hopefully, they will be useful to the readers.
- Major Elements of Successful learning. In this section I will discuss several components of successful learning such as breaking the concepts into smaller pieces, mastering them and learning from mistakes.
- Examples of E-learning sites that have employed these techniques.
Part 1 : Learning #
The desired outcomes of any learning activity is mastery of the small chunk any individual learner wants to master. To clarify, if one opens a book on dynamics of systems, this doesn’t necessarily mean one wants to always master everything about it. Often times he/she want to master a certain section, and other times, learn about a whole chapter. So learning outcomes really determines how one would study. If one just wants to understand the basics in a very broad way - such as what relativity is, they probably would pick very different books than if the learning outcome was mastery of the intricate details and formulation through which relativity was hypothesized. Hence, desired outcome determines the learning.
Learning is very hard to fully define since there are many aspects of learning humanity doesn’t yet fully understand, so in this essay, we will focus on learning new concepts of sciences and mathematics.
People learn for various reasons, and clarifying them before picking how to learn is essential. School learning in my opinion always includes mastery of topics as desired outcome. School learning is outlined such that students learn the foundations first and keep building on it. In his TED talk, Sal Khan, the founder of khanacademy, articulates that students need to learn for mastery and not settle for getting some questions wrong, especially early on in their learning sessions or classes. As a Mechanical Engineer I can attest that mastery of basic topics is crucial to understand advanced topics.
A recent example of when mastery was essential at work: Me and my colleague were trying to understand how to predict yielding in a cylindrical surface. There are textbook formulas for buckling of surfaces we could use. However, our cylindrical was different. And we needed to thoroughly understand the derivation of the existing formulas to see if we can apply it to our specific case. Turns out we couldn’t, and we had to find other ways. Had we not tried to master the derivation of the formulas, we would’ve applied wrong engineering equations, and hence made the wrong decisions.
Part 2 : How I learn #
As my wife was going through the process of learning, we would discuss different ways to learning. The process of introspection taught me about how I learn. A obvious disclaimer - I am quite certainly not the first person to write about this technique.
The fundamentals of my process is simple. I separate out the topics into small chunks. Often times the chunks are smaller than a chapter in a book. Engineering books usually have each chapter split into smaller chunks and there are questions after each chunk. I do make notes when I study, but at the end, I answer related questions about that section without referring back to any notes. I obviously do not remember everything I have ever learned, so I do expect to forget this at some point in the future, however, right after I am done studying, I expect to remember every concept, and preferably every formula.
Next, I will solve each question in the chunk I chose without looking at answers, any hints or formulas. If my understanding of concepts is not thorough, I will definitely make mistakes or get stuck. This is a good thing. This will allow me to ask myself - what concept did I not get fully understand? I go back to the chapters and find out where I lacked in my learning, and then revisit it for better understanding. When I feel like I understand the concept, I go back and attempt solving the problem again. Keep in mind I haven’t looked at the solution yet. This process is crucial and forms the foundation of what I call “smart studying”.
Oftentimes, we get questions wrong because of lack of thoroughness of understanding a concept. There will obviously be other reasons such as being careless etc, but majority of the time, it is our understanding that has gaps. Actively questioning what concept did I miss that resulted in getting this question incorrect is crucial to my studying. This takes time, and sometimes more than twice as long as simply going over the concept. It will probably take more time than you think you should spend in this one small concept. But remember that if you don’t build fundamentals, you will never be able to master advanced concepts.
I call this process smart learning because applying these concepts, one will spend fewer total hours studying in a semester. Applying smart learning process and mastering small chunks will save a lot of time learning advanced concepts and, because of the way information is stored in our brains, once we have mastery, even if we forget, coming back and re-learning takes a fraction of the time. Furthermore, it actually enables you to apply these topics in a way you would never be able to without mastery.
Part 3: Elements of Successful Learning #
Why is Mastery of Small Chunks important?
The answer is very simple - to keep our motivations high. Studying in general is not the most exciting thing for most of us. This means, eventually if we continue studying, our brain will get fatigued or bored, and we won’t be able to continue. There is a chemical called dopamine that gets produced in brain when we complete certain tasks among other reasons. That is why it feels so good to complete a semester or a project. Dopamine is a key to help us with motivation. Dopamine gets produced when we gain successes. When a task gets completed, our brain produces this chemical which makes us feel good.
Splitting your studying goals into small chunks and completing them helps produce dopamine in our brain which helps us focus for longer. Completing small chunks of studying and answering questions to prove that your learned it well will produce dopamine in your brain allowing you to study more effectively.
Mistakes are actually magical things that save you a lot of time if you use them right
Making Mistakes is a good thing!
Making mistakes is a really good thing, and this should be expected and thought of as a crucial part of your learning. Making mistakes will teach you what is truly going on with your learning activity. Mistakes are actually magical things that save you a lot of time if you use them right. When you make a mistake, go through your steps and see lack of which concept resulted in a mistake. Then go back and polish on that step. Maybe you don’t understand the assumptions made in the concept, or maybe you missed an edge case. Oftentimes, it may be basic concepts you didn’t fully understand in previous chapters. It is always good to make notes that covers assumptions and edge cases. But, for the most part, textbooks have all of it in them in a pretty well organized fashion.
Part 4: E-Learning sites that implement Smart Learning Techniques #
As mentioned in the title, E-Learning sites have a really good opportunity to enhance how people learn. It is really exciting how e-learning makes smart learning techniques accessible to help students learn better. I have greatly benefited from E-learning in my professional and personal development. E-learning is a wonderful example of how technology can help people.
The Magic of Udacity.com / Code School / E-gmat.com and many more
There are a few learning companies that do a really good job of following this principle. I have taken a few courses at the sites mentioned above, and they do a good job of splitting courses into small pieces. After each small piece, they do a small quiz. This does a few things:
Keeps you engaged:
It is very easy to be disengaged while watching a 45-50 mins class on your screen. In 2013/2014, I took CS50 (taught by David J Malan), a computer science class from Harvard EdX. You essentially watch the lectures and do homework. This was a different experience than taking classes in person. It took me a long time to move from one lecture to another because I would get stuck at something while doing my homework, and because of lack of a teacher or TA I could talk to, I had to find outside resources to ask questions to. Oftentimes I had to google to find answers from other sources (which is not a bad thing), ask one of my programmer colleague or folks in New Orleans hack night, or go back to the course and re-watch sections.
I have taken several courses in python, web development and business with Udacity.com. It solved some of the issues with online learning by designing courses with small chunks and constant quizzes. They quiz you every 2-10 mins, and you have to click on next button to go from one section to another. This ensures that you are fully engaged in the class, and helps you ensure that you fully understood the concept just taught. Even when the course was inadequate in explaining something, googling or asking other folks was easy because you knew what to ask. I have had incredible success learning with Udacity.
Keep you motivated:
All the courseware mentioned above involve some sort of quiz after a small period of learning. This one of the best advantages of e-learning. Even teachers at the universities with lots of resources can’t ensure each student is engaged and is learning every single concept. However e-learning platforms allow this sort of individual attention to mastery for each student. Needless to say, it also helps you by giving you a sense of completion and mastery.
Part 5: Conclusion #
Improving e-learning modules?
What would be cherry on the top is if while you are answering questions, if you make a wrong answer selection, the e-learning platform would diagnose the topics that you faltered in, and give you pointers on what concepts to study.
Conclusion
Learning for Mastery is essential, and applying smart learning concept makes learning much faster. Learning concepts in small chunks and testing them not only helps master concepts, it also helps one study for longer time periods and helps you do better in tests and in life by studying fewer total hours.
This post has been mostly about learning and it would be a disservice if we do not talk about the advantages to learning in-person. First - you get to ask questions to a real person as you have confusion. This is hard to scale in e-learning platforms. Discussion boards work but not as well as being in a classroom. Additionally, the teacher can ask you questions and actually diagnose why you aren’t understanding certain concepts.
E-learning websites have the technological advantages that can be used to enhance traditional classrooms by providing them the ability to give individual attention to each student and allowing self paced mastery of topics for students.
Hence, combining these two forms of learning provides the best of both worlds. It provides the invaluable experience in class learning provides with a more scalable individual attention.
As always I welcome thoughts and suggestions!