How do you stay motivated to complete online courses?

Question

bibby · Answer

* negative reinforcement i.e. if I don't do 2 videos today, I'll skip lunch
* positive reinforcement - rewarding yourself when you accomplish a task/assignment etc.
* make sure your goals are achievable/reasonable
* maybe make a chart so you can have a visual of your progress
* make friends to discuss what you're learning, it'll make it stick. it's hard in an online course but you might be able to find an IRC channel for discussing your language. doing it with a friend in general will help

kingkhan94 · Answer

I think the best way is to keep saying yourself that you are learning too many things from the course,,,,,

woodrow73 · Answer

apply the knowledge you are learning to create something tangible, so you eat the fruits of your work. something that you find cool.

when I was learning java, one project among many was one to encrypt the king james bible (or any text for that matter), and display each encrypted line on my command prompt; it looked pretty cool. I ended up integrating it with GUI and file IO. Later I messed with sternography.

woodrow73 · Answer

It's always helpful to know why you are learning what you're learning, and if you really aspire to accomplish those goals, you can achieve it.

anonymous · Answer

Like other said I think the best way is using the knowledge you achieve to do something that you enjoy. After starting seeing the 6.00 lectures I downloaded an ebook about pygame and became a lot more motivated when accomplished making my poor version of minesweeper by my own

mtfredle92 · Answer

One of the best ways  for me to stay motivated is to have a set time and place you do the work. For example, I have to go somewhere outside of my house to complete the online courses, and it is always in the morning before I go to work. This type of activity will soon be added to my schedule which will make it easier to complete the courses. Another good tip is having someone else work with you. They do not need to be in the same course but if they have stuff they need to do and you work in the same area, it can help make the course easier to get through.