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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by McMaster University

4.8
stars
12,626 ratings

About the 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.)...

Top reviews

EC

Aug 26, 2020

I enjoyed this course very much. I am 64-years-old and this course taught me that you can learn anything new no matter what age you are. I am now broadening my passions and learning is a lot more fun.

DI

Oct 30, 2020

Great course! This is a lot more general than Learning about Learning but is also useful nonetheless. I like the focus on keeping positive and being confident in your potential despite our weaknesses.

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3251 - 3275 of 3,613 Reviews for Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential

By John A S

Jun 12, 2020

Professor Oakley and Professor Sejnowski are knowledgeable and engaging teachers for the subject. They have created a good course. Despite their passion and charisma displayed here, I can agree in some of the cons in the reviews that it the concepts displayed here are the same with the previous MOOC "Learning How to Learn" or book "A Mind for Numbers." The difference however is that in this course, they encourage lifelong learning to different passions for our 21st century technological world.

By Hamel M

Jun 4, 2022

Very well presnted and thoughtout course. Should be required course for all students as early as high school. The instructor is phenomenal, really the right person to teach this class. She relies on a lot of personal experience in accentuating the various topics in the course. This made the course more relatable the instructor more authentic. On the downside, because of the heavy reliance on personal experiences, the sources cited lack diversity. That was my only objection to the course.

By Deleted A

Sep 27, 2017

This course does an excellent job of motivating you that you can change the course of your life through learning. It contains lots of useful and accessible material on how lifelong learning works. The course feels like a bunch of random (but useful!) topics presented in arbitrary sequence instead of drawing a connected, integrated big picture. Be prepared to spend time integrating the ideas together into your own life if you want the ideas to stick.

By Mikhail G

Mar 5, 2021

Well, It was intresting experience. But After that course I have mind that it's crumpled.

It has pretty manyissues with Russian translation in subtitles and materials is intresting but ther is no sense of completeness.

So I recommend to take this course ONLY after finishing "Learning ho wto Learn".

In that way you may look on this as a good addon.

Like Heroes Chronicles in HoMM3 :)

Barbara, Terry thank you very much! anyway You're the best.

Good luck!

By Emmanuelle R

Dec 22, 2017

Une synthèse vraiment riche et objective des certains livres probants et pertinents en matière de self-développement. Des outils importants pour apprendre à progresser dans l'apprentissage dans des voies parfois différentes de notre formation initiale, en évitant de tomber dans certains pièges. Appui nécessaire et stimulant des neurosciences...Une formation utile pour apprendre à apprendre en mettant en exergue ses traits de personnalité.

By Sumaya A

Aug 23, 2018

This course is a great one. It really helped me a lot to shift my mind. Now I think I am able to learn anything. I restored my old passion of studying physics and astrology. My only objection was that the content didn't have many exercises. It all depends on the videos and writing your thoughts in the discussion forum. But I think as an amount of information, It is still enough. The information affected me greatly. Thank you.

By Mario S

Mar 29, 2021

A feel good course with a lot of value, although an easy and sometimes fast pace. More homework and depth for some of the topics like procrastination and the advantages of slow learning would be welcomed. The course is meant to leave you with a positive attitude towards mindshift, but the onus of the effort is on the student. Make sure to pause after each video and think how you will apply the lesson in your life.

By Dr. P M

Sep 15, 2017

I have enjoyed this course , gained new knowledge, but I feel this course was not as good as "Learning How to Learn", where a high standard was set by dr. Oakley. I felt more interviews could have been done with people who made a career change, How difficult or easy it was for them and also how they are progressing or have progressed in the new career. If they regret it or believed that was a great success.

By Claire R

Feb 9, 2018

I've giving this only 4 stars because I'm comparing it to Learning How to Learn which I took first. Though the production values are better for this course it seems more scattershot in what it covers. Really interesting though. I learned things which I think will help me improve my life. But for me this class is a really beneficial add-on to the Learning How to Learn class. Thanks!

By Rommel J P

Oct 26, 2020

Highly recommend this course before taking any online (or offline) course as it can help you be more effective in learning. On the other hand, some things I already learned from Learning How to Learn from the same professor. It's still a good refresher and there are enough additions, especially the memory tricks. More interviews from other Mindshifters would have also been useful.

By Amber C

Mar 26, 2023

If you're feeling unsure about learning something new, be it due to age, skills, anxiety about change, etc., this course is great at breaking down those barriers. Barb, one of the professors, changed course completely and has lived through that kind of a mindset shift herself! There is strength where society says there is weakness and this course helps one identify that.

By Kantesh G

May 9, 2017

Excellent intro to how to improve your learning in a learning-crazed world! As the pace of change gets faster and faster, the ability to quickly absorb and learn new stuff is going to be critical for us to thrive as individuals in whatever stage of life we are at. This course gives you ideas about how to learn quickly and retain it and gain from it for a long time to come.

By Akif H

Jul 7, 2020

Firstly , i don't have any idea about this MOOC , but eventually i feel very content because this MOOC showed me more towards life decisions and how to learn and all that stuff . also, once again they proved that nothing is impossible in a scientific approach.

I appreciate you and your teams time and effort to make this beautiful fun filled informative MOOC .

thank you all.

By Victoria B

Jun 12, 2022

Insightful and helpful, I found this course to be quite interesting. Barb and Terry upped the presentation of material from their initial MOOC, Learning How to Learn. For me, I enjoyed the former more than the latter; probably because the focus was more on neuroscience and less on how to make a MOOC. That said, I gained knowledge from Mindshift, which is always valuable.

By ΓΙΑΝΝΗΣ Ε Κ

Nov 17, 2017

the good stuff

catchy videos, nice videos simple , easy to watch and follow, giving just enough information without many (boring?) details. In general is fun to watch and learn :)

the "could be a little better" stuff

I think that in-lesson quizes and in general the quizes could be a notch up in difficulty , and I don't that would hinder the whole experience of this course.

By Goyo W C

Oct 10, 2019

This course has helped increased my confidence in discovering my potential especially useful in breaking down some myths like slow learning is bad! Though the contents are in fact too full as a whole, they have been presented in small lots thus enhancing me to absorb the various concepts or tools one by one!

Well done, I must say, and congratulations!

By Luis S B L

Apr 8, 2018

It´s an interesting course. You can find things inside you that can help you to live in a better way. You can perceive the things around you in a different way. If you do this course conscientiously you can learn a lot of thing about yourself that you have hidden. Thank you to Barb and Terry for show us these interesting concepts and insights.

By Tyson K

Dec 19, 2019

I think if this material and the material from Learning to Learn, the first course before Mindshift, were just one course it would be the best mooc of all time. Alot of the material was repeated from Learning to Learn. Felt as if the course stretched on a little to long, and thats with the course only being four weeks.

By Wajeeha

Dec 27, 2018

This was a very refreshing and innovative course. It opened parts of my mind which I didn't even know existed! I'm very fortunate that I could learn from Professor Barbara! The whole course in itself raised my optimism levels generally and I can't wait to start applying this newly gained knowledge in practical world!

By Chris A

Jan 31, 2021

A very useful course to understand how to better learn and better teach, encompassing tools and techniques to facilitate learning and understand. A great motivator for everyone to keep on learning, whether for work, self-development or just even fun! Thanks to the teachers for keeping us motivated all along!

By Yohannes R H

Jun 23, 2020

This is a good course. It gives you a lot of information about how you can change. One interesting point is that our "weakness" sometimes could be our assets we don't realize. There are many aspects you can try that you thing suit you best. Hopefully I could use one for myself as I just completed the course.

By Micheila S

Dec 29, 2017

Nicely ties in with ideas, concepts, and lessons from Learning How to Learn. Frames the constantly changing world as a positive. Since change is the only constant, we might as well embrace it as an opportunity to broaden our passions, discover new skills, keep the brain young, and keep work life interesting.

By Deleted A

Sep 19, 2017

Loved this class. Some important things I learned were to broaden my passions instead of following only one, reading books outside of my field will enrich my main focus by giving me a new perspective in my field, and our minds will continue to be sharp and fresh as long as we learn something new everyday.

By Jason K

May 9, 2020

I enjoyed doing this course and you can tell the improvement in the quality since LHTL, which I also enjoyed. Barb is always great and explains concepts clearly. I Think Terry has improved a lot since LHTL which is great to see. Content was good and everything connected together well. Thank you!

By Lucia J

Sep 3, 2020

In fact I have expected a bit more practical side of the mind shift and this was too theoretical. I knew about half of the presented material so not so mindshifting but I can see how it can help other people that are stuck in their lifes thinking it is too late to learn and achieve something new.