Luis Esteban Vela Donoso, page #1

ENG 0100 NRC 2101/2224/4139

Katya Palacios C
17/09/2017
Summary

One of the most successful internet courses of all era with more than 1.8 million of

takers is not about any difficult subject given in school, as math or chemistry, perhaps is

about learning how to learn. Barbara Oakley is the creator of one of the most innovative

courses of all times in which with a mix of skills and common sense she teaches you how

to improve your learning skills so any subject becomes a pleasant task.

Dr. Barbara Oakley with a few resources created a course that surpasses the online

courses that other institutions have made. With just self-education in the aspect of editing

and creating video content Dr. Oakley have passed over courses as the ones given on

Harvard, in which they spent millions of dollars on equipment and on staff for the classes.

In partnership with Terrence Sejknowski, she created a course that teaches people how to

improve their learning skills using principles of neuroscience and common knowledge. Its

not rocket science, said the same Barbara Oakley explaining that the methods she uses are

not on teaching the people new content, but teaching them ways to retain the knowledge on

their heads.

The final goal of the course is rewiring your brain. The way in which Dr. Oakley

describes the process of learning her course is by saying that during the course they learn to

rewire their brain, and at the end they must do it to consider the goal achieved. Barbara

Oakley said that as a student she was never so good at math or science, and that she knows
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the struggles of students when they cant understand those subjects. The problem there is

that when students cant understand they feel dumb, and thats an inhibitor of learning, the

course uses the knowledge of neuroscience to teach methods by which students can find the

way to learn the best way to learn.

Every student is unique so the course gives you the tools, but you must find your

best way to learn. And that is what characterizes this course. Dr. Oakley designed the

course with funny ways of learning, for example, she uses a lot of goofy animations. By

doing this your brain can easy remind what you see and can easily learn. As said before,

every student is unique, and thats the reason of why Dr. Oakley give the general tools so

anybody can resemble their brain into a new state in which learning is easily, and thats the

reason of the success of this course.

Dr. Oakley have created one of the better online courses for students. With the help

of her colleagues and her husband, she has made a course that is necessary for students of

all ages but that is non-existing in learning institutions. She has made a step into the way of

improving learning, she would like to see learning institutions on schools even when they

are not, but maybe, the success of her idea on her course will made the path to a better way

of learning and teaching in the future.