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I have joined a 3-4 months technical, online course related to my profession. I know the basics of this subject, yet wanted to get in-depth content about it and hence opted for this one. The course is also intended for experienced ones, not someone who is new to it.

We are less than 20 students in the class and the instructor ensures it is an interactive one. I have asked a few questions to which the instructor was unable to answer and tried to dodge the question by saying, 'It is not important', 'Don't worry too much about it' etc. I googled those questions and got it clarified myself. But, later on, may be say, after a month or so, s/he would talk about that topic which s/he had dodged earlier.

The course is for two more months but I have almost lost interest in attending this course, because of those incidents. It is mainly like, though the course is an interactive one, the instructor doesn't want to answer in-depth questions.

I am unable to concentrate in the current sessions. How should I get back my original enthusiasm as when I have joined it?

P.S: This is not a company sponsored course. I have opted it out of my own expenses.

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    This sounds like something you should talk to the instructor about. It might be that if you were asking about details which would be covered later in the course, they meant "don't worry about it, we'll get to that later", which would be a fair response (though perhaps not the best wording).
    – kaya3
    Dec 19, 2021 at 9:00
  • None of us knew that it would be covered later. He was only trying to dodge it. May be because he didn't know the answer then. In fact, the questions that I had asked were popular and highly voted questions on stack overflow, with ~200-300 votes.
    – Sara
    Dec 19, 2021 at 9:29
  • Is it required (formally or informally) that you take this course? Do you get anything by completing it?
    – Buffy
    Dec 19, 2021 at 12:13
  • Yes. There are advanced topics that are being taught. And some internals of the basic topics. Most importantly, i paid for it too.
    – Sara
    Dec 19, 2021 at 12:30

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First, if you aren't getting anything out of the course then you should probably just quit. The money you spent is a sunk cost for which there is no return and no reason to sink more.

However, if you think that there is something valuable to come and still want to stay with it, then one strategy you might employ is not to treat the course and its instructor as a source of answers, but as a source of questions.

You indicate that you are already doing this, of course. Going outside the course to answer the questions that are raised in your mind from participating in the course can be valuable, actually.

Part of the problem might be that you already know just about as much about this topic as the instructor, so your questions are also new to them.

It is a powerful learning experience to explore, on your own, questions that arise in some (any) context. Keep a notebook of the unanswered questions that arise that you think are worth exploring further. Then, as time permits, attack those. You will probably learn more, and at a deeper level, than if the presentations were very slick and complete. In that case some of the important ideas just slide right by without imparting any real insight.

Not that it is a solution, but you might go back and look at how the course was advertised. If it claims to be what it isn't, then you have a right to complain to the organization that sponsors it. But it might also be that it was your expectations that exceeded what the course promised.

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