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In my personal experience, I find extremely difficult to stick with the courses that are mostly video based. Not just from OCW but Coursera, edX, etc.

But what I found is that, for me, a really good way to start learning a new subject is studying from Lecture Notes.

These are generally less dense and more tractable than a whole textbook, and at the same time, you get the written form which I find a bit easier to follow than multiple hours of video.

Of course you miss the depth in some cases, but as introductory content I find them really to the point and easing the learning curve.



I've found that if there's a project at the end (like in Free Code Camp (I think one or all of those may be a single word), I tend to do much better. Not only does it help me cement things into my brain, but it motivates me to keep going. Not to mention, the learning I get from the videos is OK, but the real learning comes from what I look up to solve the practical.


My issue with lecture notes has been that I always read through them too quickly to grasp the material. On the other hand, videos seem perfectly paced for me or I can change the speed and rewatch things that don't make sense.

There's an aspect of change over time that you get which isn't that easy to show on paper. It helps me better relate one concept to the next.




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