About this course: Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of selective ignorance over general competence. We’ll provide practical insights from science about how to learn and change effectively even in maturity, and we’ll build on what you already know to take your life’s learning in fantastic new directions. This course is designed to show you how to look at what you’re learning, and your place in what’s unfolding in the society around you, so you can be what you want to be, given the real world constraints that life puts on us all. You’ll see that by using certain mental tools and insights, you can learn and do more—far more—than you might have ever dreamed! This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or subsequent to, its companion course, Learning How to Learn. (Mindshift is more career focused, and Learning How to Learn is more learning focused.)
Who is this class for: This course is for everyone.
Created by: McMaster University
Taught by: Dr. Barbara Oakley, Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning, McMaster University
Professor of Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Oakland University
Taught by: Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Computational Neurobiology Laboratory
| Level | Beginner |
| Commitment | Two hours of study per week, for four weeks. |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Spanish |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Change IS possible
In today's world, change is the only constant. This means that whatever stage you are in life, you need to keep yourself open and able to change. How can you do this? In three ways: Learn more about your hidden capabilities and assets. Learn more about learning effectively. Learn about matching your assets with the opportunities that face you. In this week, we'll dive into these three important areas!
13 videos
- Video: 1-1 Introduction – About Mindshift
- Video: 1-2 The Value of Being a Slow Learner
- Video: 1-3 From Passive to Active
- Video: 1-4 The Value of Your Past
- Discussion Prompt: The unexpected assets from your past--and breaking through initial feelings of incompetence
- Video: 1-5 Mastery Learning
- Video: 1-6 Focused Versus Diffuse – Furthering Your Understanding
- Video: 1-7 Should You Listen to Music When You're Studying?
- Video: 1-8 Learning Something Hard? The Coffee Shop Trick
- Discussion Prompt: Favorite places to study, and helpful study apps
- Video: 1-9 Your environment affects who you are
- Video: 1-10 The Changing World – Matching Aspirations with Opportunity
- Video: 1-11 Natural Passions, Career Choice, and Gender
- Discussion Prompt: Your challenge
- Video: 1-12 Week 1 Wrap Up
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #1
Graded: Week 1
Graded: A first look in the mirror
WEEK 2
Getting Deeper into Happy Learning
Key to your ability to mindshift is being able to learn effectively. This week, we’ll dive deeper into this vital area. Getting yourself motivated to tackle procrastination can sometimes be a challenge in learning, so we’ll give you some important tips here. But we’ll also give insights into mental tricks to help you focus, relax, and reframe if stress intrudes. We’ll also show you how to avoid common learning pitfalls. Welcome and enjoy!
14 videos
- Video: 2-1 Week 2 Introduction
- Video: 2-2 The Value of a Poor Memory
- Video: 2-3 Meditation and Mindfulness – What to Look for
- Video: 2-4 The Pomodoro Technique as Working Meditation
- Video: 2-5 Getting Past Procrastination
- Video: 2-6 The Value of Procedural Fluency and Deliberate Practice
- Video: 2-7 Bad Grades and Barb's Hands – The Value of Mental Tricks
- Video: 2-8 Learning to Reframe – Put a Label on It!
- Discussion Prompt: Overcoming cognitive distortions
- Video: 2-9 Integrate All Your Senses Into Learning – The Pitfalls of "Learning Styles"
- Video: 2-10 Can You Try to Learn Too Much?
- Video: 2-11 Your Social Brain
- Video: 2-12 Week 2 Wrap Up
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Interview with Singapore Entrepreneur Adam Khoo
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #2
Graded: Week 2
WEEK 3
Learning and Careers
This week, we’ll be talking about how your own career can develop and change through your life. Your own internal feelings about what you want to do can play a critical role in your long-term happiness. But society and culture can also have a dramatic effect on your career choices and decisions—as can your parents, family, and friends. We’ll talk about second-skilling yourself, and developing a talent stack of average talents that can combine into a formidable asset. We’ll also talk about various tactics and techniques to help you survive career changes and upheavals. Welcome and enjoy!
13 videos
- Video: 3-1 Week 3 Introduction
- Video: 3-2 Passion and Work Part 1
- Video: 3-3 Passion and Work Part 2
- Video: 3-4 Passion and Work Part 3
- Discussion Prompt: Hidden talents
- Video: 3-5 Mindshifting – What to Do in the Face of Opposition
- Video: 3-6 General Competence versus Selective Ignorance
- Video: 3-7 The Value of Feeling Like an Imposter
- Video: 3-8 Avoiding Career Ruts and Surviving Career Catastrophes
- Video: 3-9 Bad Traits as Best Traits
- Discussion Prompt: The good side of "bad" traits
- Video: 3-10 The Intelligence of Emotions
- Video: 3-11 Week 3 Wrap Up
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #3
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #4 Remembering Names & Faces
Graded: Week 3
Graded: A heart-to-heart talk with friends
WEEK 4
Adopting a Learning Lifestyle
In this final week of the course, we'll be exploring how and why to keep yourself in "mindshift" mode. We'll give you all sorts of insider tips on how to pick out the best online learning with materials that are right for you. And we'll also talk about other ways of learning—ways that can make you "the smartest person in the room." Disruption lies ahead in the world—this week, we'll help you seize the advantage. Off we go for our final week of Mindshift!
13 videos, 1 reading
- Video: 4-1 Week 4 Introduction
- Video: 4-2 Why Should You Keep Learning?
- Video: 4-3 MOOC Tips Part 1 – How to Get the Most from MOOCs
- Video: 4-4 Dirty Little Secrets of Traditional vs Massive Online Teaching
- Video: 4-5 A Visit to Barb's Basement: The Secret Sauce of Learning How to Learn
- Video: 4-6 MOOC Tips Part 2 – Looking More Deeply Into Quality Learning
- Discussion Prompt: Best MOOCs and best MOOC-making!
- Video: 4-7 Mentors in Your Life
- Video: 4-8 Read Read Read
- Discussion Prompt: Favorite book or author
- Video: 4-9 Surviving in the New Information Economy
- Video: 4-10 Week 4 Wrap Up
- Video: 4-11 Finale: Discovering Your Hidden Potential
- Discussion Prompt: Share your Mindshift!
- Reading: Please Rate this Course on Class Central
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #5 Language Learning
- Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #6 How to Memorize a Deck of Cards
Graded: Final Examination
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from Your Peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
Creators
McMaster University
Founded in 1887, McMaster University is committed to creativity, innovation, and excellence by inspiring critical thinking, personal growth, and a passion for learning. Ranked amongst the Top 100 universities in the world, McMaster pioneered a learner-centred, problem-based, interdisciplinary approach to learning that is now known worldwide as the “McMaster Model”.
Ratings and Reviews
This was my first online learning experience, and I must say this was an excelent MOOC.
The way is is organized and the material available for learning is actually very interesting.
Thank you Barb and Terry! Another great MOOC! I really enjoyed it and it changed my mind.
Amazing course :))
Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.
© 2017 Coursera Inc. All rights reserved.
Another wonderful course offered and presented. I enjoy the structure, the content, the workload for each week. I really felt it had opened up ideas to work towards getting back into the workforce post maternity leave. I also really enjoyed the idea of being a better learner and also looking at a mindshift within myself. I am not 100% there but I feel like this course has given me the motivation/inspiration to make actionable goals.