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HSE University Launches First Online Course for Kids and Parents
HSE University has launched its first online course (in Russian) for kids. ‘Learning How to Learn. How to Succeed at School Without Spending All of Your Time on Studies’ is an adaptation of the popular Coursera lecture series ‘Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects’. We found out why HSE University decided to create a course for kids, and who may benefit from it.
About the ‘Learning How to Learn’ Course
Authors of the ‘Learning How to Learn’ course have prepared 16 videos about how the brain works, learning techniques, and how to fight laziness, based on the most recent research in cognitive neurobiology.
The course will help students gain new perspective on methods of learning and critical thinking and achieve better results in any area, from mathematics to sports. The course has been developed for children over 7, and is suitable for family viewing.
The developers of the course include Dr. Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University; Anna Stogova, an HSE University alum and founder of Russia’s first language café; and Vasily Klucharev, a professor of neurobiology at HSE University.
Why HSE University Decided to Adapt the Course
Three years ago, the course ‘Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects’, developed by Dr. Barbara Oakley and neurobiologist Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, became the most popular course on Coursera.
As of today, over a million people have taken the course, and, for a time, it garnered more registrations than a course on Machine Learning, taught by Andrew Ng, one of Coursera’s founders.
Anna Stogova, an HSE University alumna, found the course very interesting. She contacted one of its creators, neurobiologist Barbara Oakley, and soon, the learning experts found common ground. According to Anna, both of them wanted to make high-quality contemporary education accessible to all, regardless of a person’s physical or financial capabilities.
Barbara told Anna about the launch of a new course about the brain and memory for kids and teenagers, which had been created with the support of Arizona State University. The HSE University alumna decided to get her alma mater involved and join efforts to adapt the course for Russian-speaking kids and teenagers.
‘HSE University reacted to my suggestion right away. Even though the course is not for adults, but for children, all of us saw its huge potential,’ Anna said.
‘Making the ‘Learning How to Learn’ course was our first experience in producing an HSE University video course for kids, the results of which, I believe, have set a high standard for all future courses in this field,’ said Evgenia Kulik, HSE University Director for eLearning.
Vasily Klucharev, Director of the HSE Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, has become a co-author and co-lecturer at the course, which was published on Coursera in the beginning of July. Over 5,000 people have registered for the course over the month, and its ranking is about 4.9.
‘The animation turned out to be so lively and engaging, and the course is so simple, yet substantive and useful at the same time, that even viewers used to contemporary media will find it interesting,’ Anna said.
Authors: Alena Otman, Anna Reznikova