To Sir, with Love

I’m currently taking an online course on behavioral economics. It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything through Coursera (it’s an excellent resource, with many topics available at no charge to the learner), but I was in the market for some personal development and this seemed like a good way to stretch myself – behavioral economics being a major stretch for an English major. The course I’m taking is A Beginner’s Guide to Irrational Behavior with Dan Ariely, professor at Duke, and author of several books. All of us at EPI read his book Predictably Irrational a few years ago, so I figured it would be a reasonably interesting subject and that he would be an engaging instructor.

It is, he is, and I’m learning a lot. Ariely presents his subject in a way that completely reinforces what we at EPI believe about learning:

• He uses humor and personal stories to engage students.
• The material lends itself to a variety of learning styles.
• His video lectures contain multiple opportunities for interaction.
• Regular quizzes test our knowledge throughout the course.
• The assignments are meaningful.

Besides learning about behavioral economics, I am rediscovering things about myself – how I learn best, how much fun it is to learn when the instructor and the technology are good, and also how important it is to push that envelope once in a while. It’s been such a positive experience that it’s making me fall in love with learning all over again.