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Comment by nightowl03d | Hacker News Reader

That is funny, every time I see a course with a bunch of video lectures and no notes and reading list I move on. My strong preference for on-line learning is a reading list, ideally spread between no more than 3 or 4 books, a syllabus, and list of exercises.

If there are videos I listen to them while I am doing the homework associated with the video, but usually I get the homework done before the video finishes.

Disclaimer: I can probably get away with this because I already have a PhD and so I have a lot of practice in learning things

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It's really cool how you're able to complete homework while you're watching video. Can you get into more detail about how you're able to do this?

My roadblocks to doing this would be that I wouldn't be able to pay attention to what's going on while thinking about a homework problem, that some things need to turn over in my head before I understand it at the level needed to apply it, and that solutions often take a long time to type up, especially proofs and programming assignments.

When I was an undergrad and graduate student I got into the habit of always doing the readings pencil in hand, which involves filling in the details of the important proofs, and doing some simple problems of my own devising before going to the lecture. I still do that before I work the exercises for an online course.

Of course whether I finish the exercises before the lecture completes really depends on the course. If it is implementing a simple algorithm and devising some test cases for it then it is often the case. If it is implementing an ML algorithm over a large data set, of course not.

Also I have been working in open offices for a long time, so I have learned to focus when there is a lot of background noise. I usually do not start paying attention to the lectures unless it sounds like there is a good joke, or I am getting stuck doing the exercises.

I also do not actually watch the lectures, I only listen to them unless I get stuck in the exercises.

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