«It’s not my nature to complain, but so far today we’ve had three movies, two filmstrips, and an hour and a half of magazine time. I just don’t feel challenged.»
«Of course we could make things more challenging, Lisa, but then the stupider students would be in here complaining, furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation.»
Lisa and Principal Skinner in The Simpsons: «The Secret War of Lisa Simpson»
From November of last year until May of this year, I did a just-for-fun course two times a week for two hours each. I deliberately keep the topic vague here, as it is not crucial for the posting. It was just to do something else, learn something I was curious about, try it out, and broaden my horizon. But it is also a professional certification that comes with some rights, incl. to use highly dangerous tools. So it comes with a tough exam.
Being a learner again under these conditions and while doing a full-time job was interesting for a couple of reasons:
First, I have been a university lecturer for about 15 years. I think I know what I am doing in a course, but mostly as a lecturer. I haven’t been a student for about 20 years. While I took part in a few workshops in the meantime, it wasn’t a fully fledged course on a complex topic, and MOOCs don’t really count here. So, learning and training the necessary skills for a topic for which I have no talent nor prior knowledge was an incredibly humbling and eye-opening experience. Now I know better how some of my students feel — the ones with the blank or confused faces. And that despite the topic being complex and having no prior knowledge or talent, you can get your act together and work through it.
Second, things have changed massively when it comes to options for learning. Both good and bad. It is now extremely easy to find additional material online, especially videos or wikis. It was never easier to understand something. There were also online material provided for a fee, which was … okay’ish, but very limited. You had to be a bit creative to download the audio files or videos. On the negative side, there are more distractions than ever. Making and defending the time to learn the equivalent of a 600 pages textbook, covering several complex and distinct subtopics— yeah, that was difficult. Especially while working a full time job. Learning in the university library (fewer distractions) was useful here. And taking about a month vacation before the first exam and another week before the second exam allowed me to pass them.
Third, I found that writing a script by hand is still the best way for me to learn (a bit like envisioned in this posting). However, that was only possible by first collecting the information from various sources in Obsidian. Being able to digitize books quickly was very helpful here. Once the collection was complete, I turned the core information into a 190 pages handwritten script. Afterwards I went through it with highlighters. Overall, it worked well, but in the future I’ll likely add some way to quickly ask myself questions about each page. Still, combining digital and analog was a killer solution. For pure rote learning information (definitions, laws, object recognition), index cards worked fairly well. A pain to learn, but for some factual knowledge you have no other choice.
Fourth, I regret that I did not look around more in the beginning and compared the available learning material. The course recommended an online learning system, but there were better options available. That is not an assumption, the one that was recommended and I used will not be continued and replaced by one of the better options. Unfortunately, it is only after the exam when you find out which material would have been most useful.
Fifth, it was incredibly interesting to do exams again. These one-shot situations in which you have to perform, with few margins for error. At the university, failing would have meant simply doing it again (there is a second exam scheduled for these cases), and failure rates are usually low. Here, the failure rate is between 10 and 50% — it is highly variable. The course I took started with 20 people, 14 remained and took the exam, twelve passed, two did not. Repeating it is not that easy — but possible (with costs for the exam alone of 280€). Not passing — and deciding against repeating the exam — would have meant to burn the course fee of over 2500€. So, it was a serious exam, with a challenging combination of practical skills and a 2-3 hour written test in the first exam, and a practical and verbal test in the second. Plus the usual stressors, such as waiting over two and a half hours until it was my turn (and walking a bit over two km per hour while waiting — hello Smartwatch tracking — everyone has his way to deal with stress). Very stressful, but also cool. I wish I had enjoyed the exams more.
Sixth, it was an incredibly fucking rewarding experience. Not necessarily that I have another qualification, albeit one that is quite common and has no relation to my current profession. For all practical/money-making purposes, it has no actual value. I am not even sure what I am doing with it. But going through the whole process, including when things got tough at work (abysmal and career changing even), and you still have continue to focus on it and punch though … and then making it through the exam … that was something. Computer games pale in comparison, hell, even a vacation does not give that feeling of accomplishment.
So, overall, highly rewarding and a great use of a couple of weeks of vacation time from last year.
So, what do you want to learn?