Questions tagged [learning]

Questions about learning process in academia, lesson plans, learning problems, etc.

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Is there data or research on the tradeoffs associated with revealing how a student's grade on an assessment compares to the rest of the class?

We're building a teaching platform for projects, and one of the goals is to provide rich feedback to students concerning their performance. I'm fairly data-driven as a student and always appreciate ...
Jedi's user avatar
  • 846
9 votes
1 answer
165 views

Have there been studies about the effect of idle time vs time pressure in learning?

There is a discussion in our institute about how much of their time students should spend on lectures and homework. My own experience has been that idle time and wandering of the mind is necessary ...
Aivar's user avatar
  • 191
4 votes
1 answer
305 views

Effects of Game-based Learning on Motivation for Learning [closed]

I found many studies discovering the impact of game-based learning on motivation for learning. For example, these papers You can also find a summary of them in this book chapter. However, it is ...
user2521204's user avatar
  • 1,061
2 votes
1 answer
186 views

Lecture notes or books? [closed]

What is the best approach to learn a new topic in postgraduate Mathematics with a solid basis? I'm about to start my thesis in postgrad Theoretical Physics but looking to learn a few topics for ...
Alexander McFarlane's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
174 views

Does it matter if you have three or four possible answers when making a multiple choice test for learning?

I have built several apps in Norwegian about hunting, philosophy etc. Students use the app to learn a subject and test their knowledge before doing their exam. In current state i have one question ...
bogen's user avatar
  • 111
5 votes
0 answers
597 views

How to learn advanced math and statistics at my own pace? [closed]

I have not a very strong mathematical nor statistical background. This fact has not prevented me to work in a data analysis department because of my programming skills. I know the basics of important ...
José Vallejo's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
240 views

If "learning styles" are bunk, then what is the most effective form of learning? [closed]

I have read research claiming the idea of multiple styles of learning does not hold up. If so, what does the research say is the best form of learning/teaching?
JClaussFTW's user avatar
6 votes
5 answers
201 views

Ways to display extra-curricular/independent learning

I am a mathematics student and have been extensively reading textbooks cover-to-cover in my own time. Thus, my transcript does not say that I have (for example) taken differential geometry, even ...
malxmusician212's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Performance of the Toronto Paper Matching System (TPMS) for (conference) paper review assignment

[EDIT (2016-11-11) based on a comment] I have been invited as a reviewer for the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP 2016, on image processing, in a broad domain sometimes ...
Laurent Duval's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
259 views

How much details one should learn when studying mathematics on his own? [closed]

I'm unemployed but I like to learn graduate studies in mathematics just for fun and to get a non-academic work. Thus far I have managed to fill details of the lecture notes and learn theorems ...
selfstudent's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
211 views

How can I get sufficient guidance from an advisor who's always travelling?

How can I get the most out of my advisor's knowledge if s/he's always travelling and out of office? We communicate by email, but I find it uncomfortable as I am new to the field I am working in and ...
user10853's user avatar
  • 233
10 votes
3 answers
882 views

When teaching, which question types are effective for stimulating deep processing of the material in students?

In our university, we have a discussion about different question types to use in a module in our Electronic Learning Environment called 'self-tests'. We use this module to stimulate active processing ...
Matherion's user avatar
  • 211
1 vote
2 answers
332 views

How does one determine he has a learning disability? [closed]

How does a graduate student determine if he has a learning disability? Are there any signs to look for? At what point is it worth seeking a professional opinion? Some people, at least, believe there ...
Geremia's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
159 views

Online courses in standard university curriculums

Does anyone know examples where online courses (or other similar eLearning methods) are currently used effectively in the curriculum of a university?
50k4's user avatar
  • 706
27 votes
13 answers
10k views

How can I encourage students to ask questions in class

In my field (as in many others), students are assigned articles or textbook chapters to be read as preparation for classes (i.e. the whole class has to read the same set of texts). I encourage my ...
Robert's user avatar
  • 1,666
1 vote
2 answers
369 views

List of Subject Dependencies for building a subject taxonomy [closed]

I am interested in compiling a list of learning dependencies by subject matter. E.g., you must know certain kinds of algebra before you can learn certain aspects of trig, and you must know how to add ...
user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
665 views

How to tackle papers filled with unknown vocabulary

Background I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around papers for my distributed systems class. I and two partners have to write a research paper, and we must cite around 20 research papers ...
trivialPants's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
702 views

How can a would-be researcher overcome slow comprehension, obsession and poor communication skills?

I m a current master coursework student in engineering major and I’m planning to do a PhD after graduating from this course. I want to know how to become a qualified researcher. There are several ...
Mr.unknown's user avatar
91 votes
22 answers
38k views

What is the point of a lecture when you have a textbook?

I never really understood the point of having a course with lectures when the course has a textbook. Sometimes the subject is so high-level or specialized or so modern that the contents are changing ...
math_lover's user avatar
  • 1,191
2 votes
4 answers
301 views

Resources to improve presentation skills [closed]

I will defend my thesis soon. It would be great if someone could suggest me any good course or resource to improve my skills.
biotech's user avatar
  • 1,160
13 votes
4 answers
2k views

Leading an Academic "Book Club"

Short form: How should one lead a collaborative "book study group" amongst one's peers, particularly when the leader does not have deep prior knowledge of the book? Long form: I'm an undergraduate CS ...
apnorton's user avatar
  • 334
1 vote
3 answers
362 views

How to get confidence in myself after making several errors?

I am a PhD student in mathematics. I was always brilliant in my studies. Now, I have a problem consisting in doing wrong things without paying attention. For example, I was asked to do some ...
Khadija Mbarki's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Does more knowledge enhance your chance of doing better and 'original' research (in mathematics)?

NOTE: I had asked this question in here, in my edit, but since it is irrelevant to that question, I moved it here as it is a separate question... I chose to study bulky books instead of attending ...
MKR's user avatar
  • 921
-1 votes
2 answers
191 views

Learning Biology, methods? [closed]

I am not sure if this is the right fourm for this question or if it counts as opinion based/subjective (if its not moderators feel free to remove or delete it, I should know better by now), but are ...
Ro Siv's user avatar
  • 359
1 vote
4 answers
496 views

Should you keep a notebook of example problems while going through science and engineering courses?

I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jot down example problems but understand the core logic of a topic. But some of my high level math classes tend to have very few examples ...
Shamisen Expert's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
2k views

How can people with debilitating social phobias get through foreign language? [closed]

I almost didn't get my BS degree because I have never successfully tolerated a foreign language course. My most recent attempt was no exception. I paced about in front of the building trying ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
177 views

Data supporting educational entertainment media as an ineffective method to stimulate students to learn academic concepts outside of the classroom?

I define educational entertainment media as books, films, animation, video games, board games, toys, and such, designed with embedded practical examples of academic concepts. I am unfamiliar with a ...
linuxfreebird's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
314 views

Assessing the relevance of textbooks

I have accumulated a lot of textbooks, many of which I have yet to read, and I am wondering how to determine the relevance of those books for me based on my field of study, my interests, and academic ...
user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
276 views

When graduated and thinking hard problems by own, how to get help on hard parts?

I graduated from maths with better than average grades. But on my free time I would like to learn a book Qing Liu: Algebraic Geometry and Arithmetic Curves on my own. The problem is that it has some ...
user2219896's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
375 views

How to find exercise problems as a graduate student?

I took my first graduate course as an undergrad last semester and it seemed that graduate student exams are much more open ended. Not only do they require you actually know more stuff (i.e. remember ...
Fraïssé's user avatar
  • 11.4k
35 votes
4 answers
4k views

Do exercises in a theoretical reference book need to be solved when doing research?

I am a first year graduate student in a computational math program. Based on my background (I just finished a one-semester graduate real analysis course), instead of reading a specific textbook, my ...
John's user avatar
  • 894
43 votes
6 answers
5k views

What is the best way to retain learned materials

No matter who you talk to, students or professors, they all say that the materials they once learned can be quickly forgotten without further experiences that utilizes or enhances on that prior ...
Fraïssé's user avatar
  • 11.4k
14 votes
6 answers
2k views

How to keep one's focus during discussions, meetings and lectures

I noticed that I have more and more serious problems keeping focused, and despite my efforts to fix it the problem is just getting worse over time. When I'm in a research-related discussion with ...
Imba's user avatar
  • 141
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to improve self-learning as a PhD student?

As a doctoral student, you take some classes, but most of what you do needs material that you must gather from papers, conferences, and other sources. With limited possibilities for communication with ...
marcman's user avatar
  • 2,606
6 votes
4 answers
1k views

Is the correlation between learning a subject and having high grades strong?

I've found myself in a paradoxical situation. I have failed modules over and over, many modules, some modules more than once. One of the failed modules was introduction to computing. After passing it ...
0 kelvin's user avatar
  • 561
2 votes
2 answers
436 views

What is the best way to start learning a new course?

For learning new courses by one's self is it better to read the related text to attend online courses such as from sites like Coursera to combine the two or use another method altogether In general, ...
kanatti's user avatar
  • 123
5 votes
3 answers
315 views

What is the best way to learn without thinking ahead?

I've run into this issue in many fields in which I'm interested in learning about. For the purposes of this question let's assume electricity/circuits/power systems. I find myself starting at the ...
edaniels's user avatar
  • 159
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

How do you convince students that it's OK to teach them "how to think?"

Often in a Calculus or Linear Algebra class, my students may ask - when am I ever going to use this? The answer I try to give them is "You're not. And that's totally OK. But you do need to learn how ...
Luke Oeding's user avatar
18 votes
12 answers
9k views

The Ethics of Preparing for a Course Long Before Actually Taking it

I think this is an unspoken question in academia: how do you factor in the effort put forth by a student before taking your class? I think the answer to this question has several consequences: it ...
Fraïssé's user avatar
  • 11.4k
1 vote
2 answers
362 views

Improve learning skills [closed]

I want to improve my learning skills. Is there any advice or a good method for that? For example, I want to read an article or book and retain as much information possible. But sometimes I read and ...
Pulse9's user avatar
  • 113
8 votes
6 answers
563 views

Should I take undergraduate CS classes if all I do is applied software dev and data science?

I am a PhD student in social science who got interested in programming via data analysis in R and various utility tools in Python, SQL, Java (for web scraping, data querying, etc.). I am considering ...
Heisenberg's user avatar
  • 1,456
7 votes
2 answers
466 views

How do I encourage learning to an underprivileged group

Some faculty members are required to perform service to the community. Providing free education that improve societal value is one of the many ways to deliver the service. However, we recently are ...
w2olves's user avatar
  • 173
12 votes
1 answer
507 views

Are there any available studies on the effectiveness of "learning by teaching"?

There is a study which claims that "learning by teaching" has a 90% retention rate. However, the study is no longer available and it is not clear what kind of research was actually done to support ...
Renan's user avatar
  • 221
27 votes
3 answers
2k views

Swiss cheese holes in my education. Do I go back and fill them?

In this recent blog post the author lists several interesting concepts he has discovered pertaining to learning. One thing he mentions is the following: Mastery is more important than passing ...
jessems's user avatar
  • 371
7 votes
1 answer
224 views

How important is the academic staff to student ratio?

I've been looking at some universities abroad (I'm from Norway) like in Hong Kong (HKUST), but the academic staff to student ratio seems dreadful compared to others with 1:23. Still, people seem to ...
DarkLightA's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
1k views

Skimming through a math paper with a group

I am an M.Sc. student in mathematics. I was recently invited by some Ph.D. students and Post-Docs (a group of 5 people, including myself) to join their study group. We are reading a specific text, ...
user302099's user avatar
11 votes
6 answers
3k views

Where to continue my research-oriented studies after Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science?

I have a bachelor's degree in computer science. I am looking for an appropriate master program. I am interested in algorithms. My question is not about where I should continue my education. My ...
com's user avatar
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