Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential

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 4.8 stars Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said 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.

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”.

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 expand

1. Video: 1-1 Introduction – About Mindshift
2. Video: 1-2 The Value of Being a Slow Learner
3. Video: 1-3 From Passive to Active
4. Video: 1-4 The Value of Your Past
5. Discussion Prompt: The unexpected assets from your past--and breaking through initial feelings of incompetence
6. Video: 1-5 Mastery Learning
7. Video: 1-6 Focused Versus Diffuse – Furthering Your Understanding
8. Video: 1-7 Should You Listen to Music When You're Studying?
9. Video: 1-8 Learning Something Hard? The Coffee Shop Trick
10. Discussion Prompt: Favorite places to study, and helpful study apps
11. Video: 1-9 Your environment affects who you are
12. Video: 1-10 The Changing World – Matching Aspirations with Opportunity
13. Video: 1-11 Natural Passions, Career Choice, and Gender
14. Discussion Prompt: Your challenge
15. Video: 1-12 Week 1 Wrap Up
16. 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 expand

1. Video: 2-1 Week 2 Introduction
2. Video: 2-2 The Value of a Poor Memory
3. Video: 2-3 Meditation and Mindfulness – What to Look for
4. Video: 2-4 The Pomodoro Technique as Working Meditation
5. Video: 2-5 Getting Past Procrastination
6. Video: 2-6 The Value of Procedural Fluency and Deliberate Practice
7. Video: 2-7 Bad Grades and Barb's Hands – The Value of Mental Tricks
8. Video: 2-8 Learning to Reframe – Put a Label on It!
9. Discussion Prompt: Overcoming cognitive distortions
10. Video: 2-9 Integrate All Your Senses Into Learning – The Pitfalls of "Learning Styles"
11. Video: 2-10 Can You Try to Learn Too Much?
12. Video: 2-11 Your Social Brain
13. Video: 2-12 Week 2 Wrap Up
14. Video: Optional Bonus Video: Interview with Singapore Entrepreneur Adam Khoo
15. 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 expand

1. Video: 3-1 Week 3 Introduction
2. Video: 3-2 Passion and Work Part 1
3. Video: 3-3 Passion and Work Part 2
4. Video: 3-4 Passion and Work Part 3
5. Discussion Prompt: Hidden talents
6. Video: 3-5 Mindshifting – What to Do in the Face of Opposition
7. Video: 3-6 General Competence versus Selective Ignorance
8. Video: 3-7 The Value of Feeling Like an Imposter
9. Video: 3-8 Avoiding Career Ruts and Surviving Career Catastrophes
10. Video: 3-9 Bad Traits as Best Traits
11. Discussion Prompt: The good side of "bad" traits
12. Video: 3-10 The Intelligence of Emotions
13. Video: 3-11 Week 3 Wrap Up
14. Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #3
15. 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 expand

1. Video: 4-1 Week 4 Introduction
2. Video: 4-2 Why Should You Keep Learning?
3. Video: 4-3 MOOC Tips Part 1 – How to Get the Most from MOOCs
4. Video: 4-4 Dirty Little Secrets of Traditional vs Massive Online Teaching
5. Video: 4-5 A Visit to Barb's Basement: The Secret Sauce of Learning How to Learn
6. Video: 4-6 MOOC Tips Part 2 – Looking Deeply Into Quality Learning
7. Discussion Prompt: Best MOOCs and best MOOC-making!
8. Video: 4-7 Mentors in Your Life
9. Video: 4-8 Read Read Read
10. Discussion Prompt: Favorite book or author
11. Video: 4-9 Surviving in the New Information Economy
12. Video: 4-10 Week 4 Wrap Up
13. Video: 4-11 Finale: Discovering Your Hidden Potential
14. Discussion Prompt: Share your Mindshift!
15. Reading: Please Rate this Course on Class Central
16. Video: Optional Bonus Video: Nelson Dellis Memory Tips #5 Language Learning
17. Video: Memory Tips: Nelson Dellis on How to Memorize a Speech or a Script

Graded: Final Examination