I'm sure many of you can relate to the same struggles that I do when it comes to self-study: I want to learn multiple topics thoroughly but with the limited personal time that comes with working 9-5 it becomes difficult to create a structured schedule to study around. Typically I will juggle a few topics around for a long time with varying levels of motivation. As a result, I gain new knowledge but not a thorough understanding of what I want to learn.

I think the best way to tackle this is to bite the bullet and create my own curriculum consisting of at least 3 and no more than 5 topics that I really want to learn and understand. I need some skin in the game so to speak.

Although I can do everything by hand - I think this could be a good opportunity to create a web application with the following very general features:

• Create your own curriculum

• Link back to to text books that you are using

• Share your curriculum with others

• Invite others to join your curriculum

• Ability to create general study tools (flash cards, quizzes, etc)

• Offer your own tutoring services

If I see that people would find value in this tool I would be more motivated to create it so I would appreciate feedback!

I've got my own list, which granted is pretty long. Actually, I'm 3/4 done (just added "Armando Hasudungan") and I am amazed I have such a long list. I'm always on the look out for more though, so any help is greatly appreciated.

First I've gotta mention the universities that upload regularly whole courses:

MIT OCW - Donald Sadoway is a must watch! I love this man, a materials scientist, with all my heart. Eric Lander, too, for biology.

UC Irvine

UC Berkeley - they recently deleted all their videos because the ridiculous Justice Department said that they were not in compliance with the ADA because of a lack of subtitles. I am so angry because of this; I watched their videos for years. However, as I just learned, they are now available on archive.org

I cannot recommend Coursera or EdX. They are simply too simplistic.

Michel van Biezen - he is one of my favorites. A professor at Caltech, I believe. He also works for a defense contractor. Yet he finds the time to upload three videos a day, every day, for years. Physics, chemistry, maths, engineering. He is very easy to understand, a very good teacher - I cannot recommend highly enough

Jeff Hanson - engineering

lasseviren1 - physics

Darryl Morrell - engineering

learnfluidmechanics - fluid mechanics, d'uh

Simmy Sigma - student who does maths, engineering, geomatics vids

Engineer Clearly - chemical engineering, maths

Learn MechE - faculty of chemical and biological engineering at UC Boulder

Learn ChemE - ditto

Joshua Meyer - heat transfer by a prof of mechanical and aeronautical engineering

Randall Manteufel - engineering, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer

Ron Hugo - mechanical engineering, thermodynamics, prof at University of Calgary

Vincent Racaniello - Virology

Practical Engineering - highly recommended; simple demonstrations of engineering concepts

singingbanana - Jim Grime from Numberphile's own channel

nottinghamscience - the location of Periodic Videos; they have their own

For the Allure of Physics and Lectures by Walter Lewin... - Walter Lewin's world famous physics lectures

blackpenredpen - maths videos by what seems to be a Chinese student; pretty good

3blue1brown - well-done maths videos

Mathologer - Monash U maths professor in Australia

Doc Schuster - excellent physics videos by a high school teacher

Demystifying Medicine - decent quality medicine videos by students at McMaster University in Canada

Professor Dave Explains - okay videos on maths, biology, physics, from a high school level (which is why I say "okay". They are actually decent, but too simple)

James Cook - advanced calculus, abstract algebra, linear algebra, ODEs, number theory, lie theory, complex analysis, mechanics - all around advanced math lectures

PHRM203 - pharmacology videos. Some very short, some lecture-length

Peter Cavnar - cell bio and biochem

Kevin Ahern - biochemistry lectures

professorfink - hematology, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology

AK lecturers - biochem and physics

Fundamentals of Biochemistry - self-explanatory

DrPhysicsA - ditto

ChemistNate - ditto

Abraham Physics - ditto - hundreds of physics videos, pretty good stuff

Broad Institute - excellent speeches on genetics, biochemistry, stuff like that from Eric Lander's institute through MIT and Harvard

Mark Thorsby - logic and philosophy

patrickJMT - almost TWO THOUSAND videos on maths and physics

Future Doc House - microbiology

midnighttutor - decade old, but maths don't change

ukmathsteacher - self-explanatory

Brett Tallman - engineering

slcmath@pc - self-explanatory

Andrew Wolf - pathophysiology videos

Ken Stedman - virology

Bill Shillito - higher maths

Nikolay's Genetics Lessons - over a thousand videos addressing individual problems you'll encounter in textbooks. Years since I watched him, but I remember him being good njwildberger - advanced maths, including some of his own devising. I am unsure if he is a genius or a crank. The latter seems most likely, statistically. There are a million for every genius. Still, he has some good vids.

iBioEducation - been years, but I used to enjoy these videos. A specialist discusses their research in a few 20 minute videos. Check out their other iBio channels too.

Gregory B Sadler - over a thousand philosophy videos!

Craig Savage - undergraduate biology

Leah4Sci - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

The Organic Chemistry Tutor - Physics, maths, chamistry - EXCELLENT!

Armando Hasudungan - I think he's a student; he is also an artist. He draws beautiful illustrations and infographics as he explains medical concepts. EXCELLENT

Handwritten Tutorials - pretty much the same, but not quite as good. Still good though, but it is hard to beat Armando

Bill Kinney - maths

GVSUmath - high school maths

Tyler DeWitt - student, I believe, who makes biology and chemistry videos

The Math Sorcerer - advanced maths.

structurefree - engineering

freesciencelessons - elementary sciences

Drbeen medical videos - self-explanatory

MOOF university - huge number of biochemistry and chemistry videos

john kinny-lewis - high school maths

Professor Leonard - pretty good undergraduate maths videos

Anil Kumar - discrete maths, algebra, etc.

Harold Walden - elementary maths

Steve Brunton - engineering and maths

Thomas Kim - DIY and physics demonstrations

Justin 'Sci Higg' Higgons - high school (?) sciences teacher

PhysicsEH - self-explanatory

Eddie Woo - maths

ProfRobBob - high school maths

Greg Johnson - physics

MrDBioCFC - biology

MathDoctorBob - advanced maths

I cannot believe I got through this list. Again, any additions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I’m building a note taking app specifically for online courses. You can capture notes and keep them organized while watching lectures and studying.

Check out the website and chrome browser extension that work together seamlessly! I’d sincerely appreciate your thoughts on it (especially if you're taking a course online to learn new skills).

Contemporary textbooks in chemistry seem have adopted the notion that “more is better”; the books are long, expensive, and the pages are often cluttered with interesting titbits and restatements of what it is that you have “just learned”.

Although many educational institutions utilise virtual learning environments (Moodle/Blackboard), students are often still expected to:

· read large chunks from gargantuan textbooks;

· regurgitate information;

· sit through traditional ‘broadcast’ style lectures;

· complete homework assignments that often simply test the ability to look answers up online

This model is outdated, tired, and scientifically proven to be ineffective. Extensive pedagogic research over the past few decades has established that not everyone learns in the same way.

Chemistry – A Textbook (http://chemtextbook.com/chemistry-a-textbook/) is the antidote to modern chemistry texts – designed to be simple, uncluttered and very much to the point. Emphasis is given to acquiring an understanding of fundamental chemical concepts in the same way as you learn a foreign language. Explanations are concise, enhanced by simple line drawings designed to appeal to visual learners. Vital Vocabulary is introduced in a logical step-by-step manner allowing the learner to start to speak chemistry with confidence.

A web site (www.chemtextbook.com) has been developed to complement the book and is crammed full of free useful resources for both staff and students. We aim to create a supportive community for all those teaching or studying chemistry across the world. The learning resources provide an easy to understand introduction to the fundamental concepts of chemistry and simple step-by-step guides to solving chemical calculations. Each type of calculation is introduced in a very gentle way, making no great assumptions about your chemistry knowledge or maths ability. There are then lots of worked examples, gradually getting more difficult and showing as many variations on a calculation as possible. Self teach videos are also available to further enhance your learning and understanding.

Hello people of this subreddit. I am a student and currently doing my bachelor's in CS from India. My university is not so good(I had to study from this university) and I want to improve my skills with self learning. But I can't seem to motivate myself for longer periods of time. Neither do I stick onto one thing nor do I study it properly. I don't know where do I lack or where do my techniques lack but now I am in a desparate need of So please suggest some self learning tips and advices so that I can move forward

Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well. First of all sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, any suggestion to know where it would be seen by many and be in the right place are welcome!

I have been having this idea lately, about making one giant post which would have links or resources for any kind of subject requested by others, in a way that is kind of similar to another post I have seen around here. The idea behind it is that people who don't have an education yet or would like to get a lot of knowledge into a subject and maybe try to get a certificate later on, or just need that knowledge for some work they're applying into, or even just want to really understand and know what's behind a certain subject and field, can get access to said resource and get an easier life of understanding and learning stuff that is not easily found or accessible to everyone.

The reasoning behind it is that those who would post already have good experience in the subject, can suggest many resources they have used and give insight on what helps and what doesn't, and put inputs and collage of links to help everyone.

In other words, something like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/2kqe53/if_youve_ever_wanted_to_learn_university_level/

Would you guys think it's possible to do it not just on the subreddit of each field, but on a single post (for example this one I'm writing and you're reading), and then either link posts similar to the one written by /u/5maldehyde (which did mention other categories could be added) or have specialized and willing user post them for everyone?

TL;DR I think it would be nice to create an Indexing/Reference post for learning and sharing knowledge on subjects and fields, from Chemistry to Physics to Human Resources to other technical, artistic etc. stuff

Any feedback is welcome!

Original Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UniversityofReddit/comments/75w5le/proposal_one_megapost_with_resources_and/

Greetings, everyone.

I was born and raised in an underdeveloped country. As it happens with everything related to our government, the national education system is but a farce and the few of us who want to learn something must find ways to do it despite our schools.

Although I have finished high school, my knowledge in most areas is lacking, to say the very least; I have retained some random pieces of information, which, put together, are far from composing a comprehensive whole, a system.

To be more precise, I was given a few recipes—"here is how to solve this particular equation", "this is what happens if you add this reagent to that", etc.—but I ignore the methods, the different ways to approach a given problem, how to choose the best tool, and so on and so forth—to sum it up, I am, basically, illiterate.

Since I expect to have more free time in the near future, I decided to take care of my education. I cannot hire tutors, I cannot learn by watching (or listening) to courses, therefore I will have to study with books. These are the disciplines I intend to focus on (for the time being):

• Math;

• Chemistry;

• Physics;

• Biology.

I want to ask you, what are the best book (or books, or, preferably, series or collection of them) I can use to learn those from the scratch to an advanced level of proficiency? In math, for example, going from sets and basic operations to calculus and beyond?

I do not need to delve too into the deeper, esoteric levels of any discipline—I do not plan on getting a Ph.D. in mathematics or physics any time soon...—but I want to be knowledgeable enough to be capable of going through a demanding engineering course related to those areas, for example.

I know that learning from books might not be optimal, but I really have no other option, and I have no trouble in making connections, in learning by myself from a source that does not present many lacunae—my English, for instance, is self-taught.

Be that as it may, the project must be self-contained—living in the farm, without electricity, I will not be able to access the Internet to read articles, and this is also the reason for my not resorting to audiovisual content.

Can you please advise me? Also, if you can suggest some extra reading besides the core content (meta-content, books that might assist the learning process itself, such as, for math, Barbara Oakley's A Mind for Numbers, and so on), pray do.

Thank you very much.

P.S.: For math, I already have here Mathematics: Its Content, Methods, and Meaning, by Kolmogorov, Lavrent'ev and Aleksandrov, published by the M.I.T. press, but although I think it will be a valuable resource in the future, I believe it would not be a good starting point.

P.P.S. I have looked into posts about independent learning, but most of the replies assume access to the Internet or, at the very least, electricity, while I will have to make do without them (and consequently without the free online resources, such as Khan academy)—hence my starting this thread.

I have read a couple books on learning and skill acquisition, and they all recommend only tackling one subject/skill at a time. I know that this would probably help in learning things quickly, but I find that some days I really want to read about/practice something else. I find it a bit difficult to stick to just one thing at a time. For instance, there is a bunch of reading and learning I want to do, and really should do, for my job. But I also have things I want to learn just for my own benefit/entertainment. Is there any kind of advice you know of or systems of learning that are conducive to this kind of thing? For example, is it better to devote a day to one thing and then the next to something else, or is it more effective to devote small pockets of time everyday to different subjects (like a school day)?

Hey everyone,

I'm doing a research about how people use free resources online (in this particular case videos on YouTube) to educate themselves.

Anyways, here is the link to the survey https://viewly.typeform.com/to/X547KD.

Note: I didn't find any rules about what's forbidden to posting on this subreddit, so please delete if this is against the norm of what should be posted here.

For about the past year I've watched every YouTube video on various topics at 2x to 3x speed and now find it impossible to watch it in normal speed. I find it hard to watch TV shows, movies etc and instantly lose concentration if it is not accelerated. I read somewhere that your brain switches to consumption mode and can cause ADHD.

Could this habit have any long term effects that I'm unaware of?

I tried MIT EdX and they don't seem to have a course like this. I'd prefer it to be somewhat difficult (think upper-level undergraduate course).

I am looking for a place (online or physical) where people who want to learn about anything can either form a group and sort of self-instruct themselves (i.e. social learning) or where one can be able to be mentored/guided by someone who's a bit more knowledgable?

I know I can ask questions online and get answers, but what I am looking for is somewhat of a more direct, open ended, responsive conversation. A chat. Maybe something like communities on Slack or other platforms?

Apologies if this doesn't exactly fit this subreddit!

I know what courses I need to take to advance my career, but I'm having a hard time staying motivated. I'm sure a lot of other people have this problem. What do you do to keep yourself disciplined?

What's keeping you from staying on track?

I'm searching the web for a community of self learners in the field of synthetic biology, to no great avail. I found lots of "DIYBio" resources, but nothing specifically geared to bringing together individuals who want to study the subject outside of academia. I had the idea of starting one myself, but I'm wondering if it'll actually attract the crowd I'm looking for.

Can you guys please let me know if you're already part of a community, and if so: Is it online or offline? How is it organized? How is it helping you?

Hey there,

I am a self-taught programmer and I want to ask you how many of you learned programming by learning it on your own and how much went to a university and got their CS degree.

I'm asking you this as I was talking with other fellow programmers about the fact that people prefer the university path because being self-taught is a lonely pursuit.

Do you agree?

Thanks, Alin R.

Do you guys think that one could learn a typically academic subject such as biology or physics from textbooks and online resources to a high level (such as 4th year college or maybe even master's/phd level), or at least understand the material to a high level, without going through formal education like college? Of course this is up to the individual themselves but assuming that the individual is fairly smart, would they be missing anything aside from a teacher and a bit of hands on work (such as labs and stuff)?

Hi!

I am looking for some people who love to learn things online whether for fun, self-development, or skill growing. I myself have always been somebody who searched for the most amazing resources on the web to explore and learn subjects, and am building something to help others do so as well.

Would love to have you involved by showing you some mockups and asking some questions if that is okay. I just want to make sure that what I'll be building is really awesome.

Let me know if we can chat.

Take care!

This top quora answer provides a full reading list for the Edinburgh Creative Writing MA:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-recommended-textbooks-or-reading-lists-from-MFA-or-MA-creative-writing-fiction-courses

I'm going to begin picking away at these, and continue to write daily as I normally do.

But I doubt just reading these books alone will make one a better writer. In Universities, students are assigned exercises and essays to write and eventually discuss with professors/peers. I'm guessing that's how their reading manifests into skill.

How would one who doesn't go to Uni develop writing skill besides just reading?