Online Courses: How to get the most out of it

With the advent of online education platforms, the learning industry has practically transformed itself into a dynamic environment. Curious people are now seen learning new skills to change professions, develop hobbies or feed their weird interests (like trying to learn German to watch foreign films without subtitles, not me, duh).

The most important part of educating oneself and/or learning a skill is the retainment of information or the subject matter. In a professional sense, the crucial part may be presenting the skills you have learned through some medium. While a few decades back certificates would’ve sufficed, nowadays certificates are regarded as a mere link or a piece of paper in your online resume and offline file-holder respectively.

After some discussions, reading and some personal discovery, I have managed to delineate certain processes and activities which might help in better absorption of the study material. I believe these pursuits can also help one express his/her credibility in the respective courses more professionally. One can pursue all or some of these ideas. In other words, Readers, it’s your time money, spend it wisely.

• Explain a Complex Topic- This should be done on a platform like Medium or Wordpress. While explaining the complex theory you will be forced to trim the vast amount of information into a limited word article. Moreover, you will have to write in order to convey that particular information. This activity will force you into reading/knowing more about the said topic and you will leave out with a clear understanding of the same. Not to mention the blog post which you can share with your recruiters later on during an interview.
• Keep notes- Write down the important topics and a brief description of the same. If you feel writing down the notes is simply a waste of time then you can simply keep online notes, screenshots etc. Educational sites like Coursera have the facility of maintaining online notes where you can jot down your understanding of the lesson and also keep a screenshot of the video associated with the topic. The notes can be compared to flash-cards which can help you get a quick recap of the course.

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• Get a study buddy- This acts as a great motivation and keeps you on track of the course. However, since making friends might be an arduous task for many, you can always opt to contribute and discuss in the online forums. This can benefit you in two way:-

1. You can clear your doubts
2. You get to identify people who are interested in the same topic as you are. Search them on other platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and connect with them. There you go. You have a study buddy now. Also, these connections might prove to be a great way of utilising the networking advantage these platforms offer.

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• Work on a project- This can be difficult for people with limited time. However, working on a project helps in developing the practical skills required in the given industry. You will be amazed when you realise the differences between watching a video and actually implementing the principles into practice. Moreover, the project(s) can also be included in your resume and act as a professional backing of your skill/hobby.

In courses where projects can be time-consuming or say impossible because of unavailability of resources, you can think of a hypothetical scenario and plan out your course of action. (Say you are learning about supply chain management, think about yourself as a member of an organisation and how you would deal with the crisis created due to a natural disaster/pandemic/mishappening. If you come up with an innovative solution, write a blog post about it and discuss it with people who share your interest).

• Write a Review- This serves as an effective way of retaining the course information and its important learnings. It can also serve the purpose of helping fellow students who might be pondering on their decision to take the course.

However, make sure that you write a detailed review. Your review should include the professional level of the course, the main topics covered in the course, important case studies/projects included as a part of the course etc. This way you can go through your review months (or years) later and identify the topics you struggled with. The process of identifying your weak spots will reduce your revision time by eliminating the need to go through each and every aspect of the course. You can get an example here on how to write a review.

Happy learning!