• Nervous about learning new things and technology moving fast?
• Want to learn faster, applying knowledge across multiple subjects?
• Approach courses with a life-changing perspective
• People reported being more comfortable learning and being in new environments with increased speed

Why This Course

• The completion rate of Nanodegrees is at best 34% ([1][2]) with private undergrad colleges at 64% [3]
• Traditional education is based on an industrial-age model. (See Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk [4])
• In the Information Age, we need a learning paradigm shift.
• Traditional Learning Structure:
  • Structured learning times (classes)
  • Imposed deadlines (quarter, semester)
  • Guidance on what to learn (teachers)
• Self-Directed Learning Structure”
  • Loose learning times (online classes a 24/7 access)
  • Loose deadlines (complete this by next week or at your own paces)
  • Guidance is shared between you and the structure of the online class
• Time for a change

Robert Joseph, Ph.D.

• Advanced Degrees From MIT and CMU
• Data Scientist and Former Director at Stanley Black & Decker
• University Professor for over 15 Years, 10 of them fulltime teaching adult learners
• State of the art development for over 20 years
• Patent for Internet DJ
• Father of 2 Awesome Teenage Boys

Class Philosophy

• You are ultimately responsible for your learning.
• No course will give you everything you need because everyone needs something different.
• Use supplemental sources; some listed on the Resources page. 
• Map out your own learning path based on your and as you learn more continue to update your needs based on new information.
• Use this and all courses as a guide and the entire knowledge source.

1. Defining your why gives you more direction.
2. Once you have your first why go a level deeper and ask yourself, why is that your why and come up with a second why.

• Ratings help us to make the course better
• Ratings help you to reflect on what you learned

1. Faster understanding
2. Agility in thinking
3. Knowledge without fear

EL³G™ stands for:

1. Emotion and Self-Talk – can enhance or hinder your learning.
2. Learning to Learn How to Learn – broadens your learning and understanding ability
3. Generalization – demonstrates how to use these techniques to apply to everything.

1. Emotions are the biggest barrier to learning and are all about the choices that we make.
2. Fear, Frustration, and Self-doubt are all choices
3. Developing that ability to choose is a like muscle, you can strengthen with practice.

• Our Mindsets Matter
• Dr. Crum is a professor, psychologist, and researcher investigating how mindsets affect health and behavior.

Click on this link to see the entire video

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – You’re Right.”
– by Henry Ford, American Industrialist

• Changing what you tell yourself changes not only how you view things but also the actions that you take.
• Stories can be very powerful so create stories that will help you reach your goals.

1. Direct your learning
2. Pull knowledge in from different subject area
3. Provide a repeatable method for problem-solving

Give someone a fish and
They eat for a day

Teach someone to fish and
They eat for a lifetime

Teach someone to Learn “how to learn to fish” and
Everything is possible!
— modified by Robert

1. Figure out what you are trying to learn and why
2. As you are learning, filter the information into its simplest context.
3. Act quickly in doing something fun and relevant to the information you’ve learned.
4. Figure out a process on how to get yourself out of learning gaps by the following:
   1. Identify what you know
   2. Identify what you don’t know
      1. Break operations down into smaller steps and test assumptions.
      2. As you verify your assumptions, refine your thinking.
   3. Develop a plan on how to learn what you don’t know.
5. This may require that you repeat the above steps several times as you continue to learn and grow. You don’t always solve the problem in one step but sometimes small steps towards the goal continue to get you there until you have that eureka moment and it all falls into place.
6. Become a continuous universal learner

Process for transferring knowledge from one thing to another. There are two types:

1. Near – apply skills in one area to a similar area
2. Far – apply what you learn to a different context

Strategies

1. explicit teaching
2. group learning
3. reflection
4. analogies and metaphors
5. try generalizing

1. Thought about and used my skills in one area to apply them to a new area
2. I worked to gain an understanding of the important components of comedy and how they fit together.
3. Organizing principles in a way that made sense to me.
4. I used additional sources to build on my knowledge
5. I did not let negative talk creep into my learning
6. I found an ally with a common goal
7. All this allowed me to co-create something that I had never done before.

1. Everyone creates mental models to represent the world around them.
2. Mental models can be extended in many ways and here are two that I want to talk about:
   1. Decomposing concepts — this is used to identify building blocks
   2. Abstracting concepts — moving from specific to general

<!–

• Mental models are representations based on a perspective and usage that highlight aspects of real-world concepts.
• Mental models often have multiple layers to them.
• Mental models allow you to reason and draw conclusions in one domain and make similar solutions in totally different domains.

–>

1. Set a goal and make a plan. You can always change it but setting a goal and making a plan brings it to life. It gets you underway.
2. Goals and plans can be changed as you get more information.
3. Learning is a continuous process that begins when you first conceive of an idea.

1. Take care of yourself
2. Think about your internal needs before you start and come up with a plan on how to have them met.
3. It is OK to change your plans and your thoughts but starting is key

1. Define what you think your needs are.
2. Ask others for help.
3. It is OK not to have everything all worked out. Starting is the first step.

HAVE FUN AND CHOOSE POWERFULLY!