It’s as if someone had read my mind and saw everything I was looking to learn, put together courses taught by the smartest people in the world, and put them online.  For free.
Coursera, you rock my socks off.
Coursera is a fantastic startup that brings courses from the top universities, taught by the top professors, to anyone around the world who wishes to learn.  I’m learning Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act from my favorite Emmanuel brother, Ezekiel Emmanuel (and yes, I know how geeky that reads).  I’m learning pharmacology from another UPenn instructor, and my finance class from University of Michigan kicks off this week.
My husband has also joined the Coursera train – his classes are decidedly more nerdy technical that mine.
The fact that it’s out there is great. Â Making time for the coursework (particularly when you’re not getting credit or a degree from it)…well, that’s another story. Â Here’s how I fit in Coursera on the go:
1. Â At the beginning of the class, I download all the readings and save them into my Coursera folder on Dropbox. Â Every week, I download the slides and lecture videos to the same Dropbox folder. Â When you can access the material from anywhere, you have no excuse to not do it.
2. Â Access is the first part – knowing when to do what is another one. Â I try to schedule 90 minutes of Coursera work each day, and roughly divide the accordingly during the week:
Monday – Health Policy reading
Tuesday – Health Policy lectures
Wednesday – Pharmacology lecture, quiz
Thursday – 1/2 Health Policy homework
Friday – 1/2 Health Policy homework
Saturday – edit, submit homework
Sunday – plan for the week
If you schedule it, you really have no excuse to not do it.
3.  Do Coursera work first thing in the morning.  I like to get my brain charged for the day with completing my readings/lectures, and this way I don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.
How do you continue your post-collegiate education? Â Are you doing any Coursera classes? Â Share in the comments below – I’d love to know!
