Learn effectively on this course
This short guide is here to support you as you go through the course, especially if you're studying on your own. You'll find some simple, research-informed strategies to help you stay motivated and get more out of your study time, without feeling overwhelmed.
Staying motivated
Many students say they need motivation to learn, but motivation is unpredictable – it comes and goes. What really keeps you moving forward is building habits. Creating small, manageable learning routines helps you to stay on track even when you're not feeling particularly inspired. Start by keeping your study sessions short and focused, just enough to get into the flow without feeling overwhelmed. You can try using the pomodoro technique (25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break) to stay on track. Celebrate small wins along the way – progress is more powerful than perfection. Even completing one item is a success and helps build momentum.
To make your learning habit stick, set a fixed study schedule and pair it with an existing routine, like watching a video with your morning coffee or reviewing notes before bed. Linking a new habit to something you already do makes it easier to remember and follow through – this is called habit stacking. In addition, use the platform’s tools to track your progress, for example, click 'Mark as complete' for each activity so you can easily see how far you’ve come. Staying accountable also helps. Connect with others in discussion forums or ask a friend or a family member to check in on your progress. And remember, motivation grows when learning feels meaningful – try connecting what you’re learning to real-world topics that matter to you.
Motivation is not something you wait for. It’s something you create. Take one minute now to write down why you joined this course and when and where you plan to study each day. Keep it somewhere visible – you’ll thank yourself later.
Learning to learn
Learning doesn’t happen just by reading or watching. It happens when you actively work with the material. One of the most effective ways to do this is by testing yourself soon after encountering something new. Even if you get it wrong, that moment of effort strengthens the learning process by creating connections in your brain.
In fact, learners who test themselves, whether with closed or open-ended questions or by explaining ideas in their own words, retain far more than those who simply review. This approach is especially powerful because of something called the forgetting curve, which shows that we begin to forget information almost immediately after learning it. When you test yourself, you interrupt that forgetting curve and help your brain hold on to what matters. Coming back to the material again later strengthens learning even more, this means revisiting what you’ve learned after a break, instead of trying to memorise it all at once.
You can also boost understanding by using real-life examples to make abstract ideas more relatable, or by mixing different topics or types of questions within the same session. These strategies might feel more effortful, but that’s exactly why they work. The active mental effort you put in while learning, such as testing yourself after encountering new concepts, helps generate focused attention. That attention signals to your brain, ‘This is important–keep it’. Without that signal, your brain is more likely to let new information fade away. Passive review alone isn’t enough, it’s the effortful engagement that helps learning stick.
If you're interested in exploring the concepts behind these strategies, such as, retrieval practice, spaced practice, elaboration, metacognition, interleaving and concrete examples, you’re more than welcome to. However, that’s not the intention of this course. You don’t need to memorise these terms; what’s most important is understanding that how you study is just as important as what you study.
Let’s get started on the course.
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