You can set yourself up for learning more effectively.
Most courses provide an outline of what they expect you to learn, often called learning outcomes.
Go through the learning outcomes and work out what you already know and what you’d like to know before you even begin.
Highlight the topics that the course teaches.
Now get what you already know down on paper. Don’t use full sentences. Try bullet points, mind maps, sketches or diagrams, whatever works for you.
Then at the bottom of the page, write three questions: three things you’d actually like to learn from the course.
Simple as that. It sets your brain up to be an active participant in your learning process.
If you can link what you know and what you would like to know to your current life experience and even your family and friends, emotions can be good glue.
This technique is called active learning. You can adapt it to any learning experience in your life, a whole course, a single lecture. An article or a whole book.
