I started a course on Stocks & Bonds at Kahn Academy. I was never required to take any business, economics or practical math courses in my life, and I actually have no clue what stocks are even though I own them. Educational opportunity? Check.
The experience was very similar to watching a lecture in a lecture hall. It was a bit dry, and it was easy to let my mind wander away from it. However with some concentration I could make myself pay attention, and I was successful. The videos were broken into 5 to 15 min segments on varying topics, allowing me to digest a chunk at at time.
I would be interested to know what software they were using to create the videos. The image is of a digital blackboard where the lecturer must be drawing on it with a stylus with the ability to change color. The lecturer used simple charts and graphs to illustrate his point making it very easy to understand. He was also able to add images to the board and write on them, and I found it to be simple and effective. You never see live video or the instructor- which I was ok with.
The experience of the lecture online was also supplemented by a blog of comments and questions. I often learn more from questions posed to professors by other students than the lecture alone, and this column online provided this benefit. (And I also learned more from it in this course.)
I enjoyed this lecture as a way to learn about an unknown topic, but I can’t see myself learning successfully in this environment topics I am passionate about or have specific learning goals with.
I have also signed up for the Learning Creative Learning course from The MIT Media Lab. I like that there is a syllabus and supplemental reading and small groups to discuss with. Let’s see if this works!