The Art of Effectively Using Free Resources
📝 Overview
- Resources are Abundant
- Select One and Stick With it
- Learn By Doing — Put it into practice
💻 Online Resources
Learning has never been easier with the power of google. From learning how to ride a bike to learning how to make the next trillion-dollar company the skills can all be acquired from the internet. One million + articles are posted to Medium and close to one million hours of content is uploaded to youtube every day. The issue is not the lack of resources, but rather the lack of effectively using them.
Here are some of the best places to find free resources:
- Khan Academy
- edX
- Coursera
- Udemy
- Ted-Ed
- Codeacademy
- Stanford Online
*some of these sites offer one free course or have some selections of free courses and others paid.
🤔 Decided you want to learn a new skill?
Maybe you find an online course you like on udemy. You buy the course and plan to finish it within the next week. You maybe follow through and work on the course for the first few days, to only quit when it comes around to the third day. This is the story most people go through, as less than 1/3 of people who buy udemy courses actually complete them.
☝️ Select One & Stick With It — Be Realistic
The key to actually following through with an online course is to set realistic goals. These goals will be different for everyone but some general guidelines include:
- 🗒 Build a schedule
Spread the work out across the week rather than trying to complete it in one sitting. This will help balance out the workload, increase retention, and set expectations before you begin your course. A course you may have anticipated taking one week may actually take a month.
- 💰 Only budget time that you have to build a new skill
If you have never completed an online course start off with one, and instead of budgeting 3 hours for the course, set more manageable goals like 30 min a day. If you think you have an hour budget 30 min, half of that, anything extra is a bonus.
- 🔗 Have friends or people hold you accountable
Consider taking the course with another person. Completing a course with someone else can be beneficial if you get stuck somewhere and also allows both of you to keep each other accountable.
🙇 Learn By Doing — Put your skills into practice
Online resources and courses are not just about checking off boxes and earning certificates, but actually being able to put the things you learned into practice. Take a course because you actually see yourself using it, not because it is trending. If you are taking a course to help you in your career or start a business, go and apply what you learn once you have completed the course. The majority of people who do end up completing a course do not actually implement what they learned defeating the purpose of taking it in the first place.
Good Luck!
