Professionally, Barb’s an award-winning professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and the Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University. Her research focuses on bioengineering with an emphasis on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. She’s also the creator of the massively successful Learning How To Learn online course, which she teaches alongside legendary neuroscientist Dr. Terrence Sejnowski. Dr. Oakley makes the neuroscience of learning both practical and accessible for the rest of us.

In today’s episode we talk a lot about learning and MOOCs, or for the uninitiated, massive online open courses. With all of Dr. Oakley’s credentials and professional experience, we also discuss some adjacent topics like how to hang-up your workaholic spurs, how to avoid task-list intimidation (yes, we touch on task lists!), and how we might leverage Imposter Syndrome for our advantage. As I said at the top of this episode: If a Swiss Army Knife came in human form, it would be called a Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. Like a Swiss Army Knife, there are a multitude of tools and ideas woven into this conversation which can be applied to what’s going on in your own life. Dr. Oakley contributes a wealth of knowledge and implementable inspiration.  

Selected link love + resources from the episode:

• Connect with Barbara on social media and on the web: Website | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
• LEARNING HOW TO LEARN: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (course)
• Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. (book)
• MOOC (Massive Online Open Course definition)
• Oakland University
• McMaster University
• Terrence Sejnowski  National Academy of Sciences | National Academy of Engineering | National Academy of Medicine
• Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. (book)
• A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. (book)
• Pathological Altruism by Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. (book)
• Structures of Science Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (book)
• Pomodoro Technique Website | Book
• Nike Fuelband
• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture  by David Kushner (book)
• Idan Segev - Neuroscience MOOC professor
• I am Jackie Chan: My Life In Action  by Jackie Chan (book)
• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papsan (book)
• Imposter Syndrome  
• Barbara’s NYTimes Opinion Feature, “Make Your Daughter Practice Math. She’ll Thank You Later.”

MOOC Resources from Barbara’s Book, Mindshift:
Find a MOOC! Go online and find a MOOC on a topic you’re interested in. The easiest way to do this is to go to Class-Central.com to run a search. Be careful, though—the subject matter in MOOCs is so broad that you may not even think to look for a MOOC on your favorite minor novelist or television drama—though such a MOOC may very well exist.

You can also go directly to some of the main MOOC and online learning providers and poke around. The following are some of the biggest providers (U.S.-based and university-affiliated unless otherwise noted):

• Coursera (the largest provider)
• edX
• FutureLearn (UK-based)
• iversity (Europe-based)
• Kadenze (Special focus on art and creative technology)
• Open2Study (Australia-based)
• NovoEd (Focus on collaborative learning approaches)
• Udacity (corporate- and university-affiliated provider; focused largely
• on high-quality vocational courses and Nanodegrees for professionals)
• Lynda.com (private company owned by LinkedIn that provides access on a fee-per-month basis to top-quality professional courses taught by industry experts; excellent reputation)
• Udemy (private company for self-selected experts of any kind to offer their training)

There are also MOOC platforms that specialize in certain languages and cultural spheres. These are a few examples:

• China: XuetangX, BistuX
• France: The France Université Numérique
• India: SWAYAM
• Italy: EduOpen, Oilproject (geared toward high school students)
• Japan: gacco, OpenLearningJapan
• Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world: Miríada X
• Kickass Theme Music: “Things Are Getting Better” Written by Rishi Dhir. Performed by The High Dials.
• Stay in the loop about future Le vital corps Salon episodes or with Kara: Twitter | Instagram | The List (sent monthly-ish including helpful health + lifestyle information)

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