Learning How to Learn

The pull is that it turns vague study advice into a few techniques you will actually use: how focus and rest trade off, why spaced practice beats cramming, how to start when you are avoiding the work. It is short and light, so the return depends on whether you apply it rather than just watch it.

It is not a technical course and will not teach you a subject, only how to learn one. It first appeared in 2014 and some references show their age, but the underlying science has held up. Audit it free; the paid certificate adds little unless you need the line on a profile.

Learning How to Learn is the most enrolled Coursera course ever made and one of the most enrolled MOOCs in history with nearly four million learners. Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski translate neuroscience research into practical study techniques: the diffuse vs. focused thinking modes, how memory consolidation works during sleep, spaced repetition and retrieval practice, the Pomodoro technique, and how to overcome procrastination using an understanding of how the brain works.