Barbara Oakley observes
So many students will come in and say “I suffer from test anxiety” and it’s actually not true at all. It’s just that when they sat down to do the test was the very first time they realized that they actually didn’t know it. They hadn’t checked themselves beforehand. The more you can test yourself on anything you’re learning, the better it will be. If you read a problem, see if you can work that problem yourself.
I suspect that many teachers and administrators encourage such self-diagnosis. The full interview (quoted from around 1:00:00) offers much more for those interested in learning how to learn.
Towards the end of the interview, Oakley offers her thoughts on the future of university education (1:22:00)
I think that most things can be learned beautifully online and the challenge is in getting professors to create great online courses…
Moving a university is like moving a cemetery—you cannot expect any help from the inhabitants. There’s a lot of institutional inertia, there’s a lot of opposition to online learning at many universities because there’s a fear that jobs would be lost. This makes it difficult for visionary administrators to get material out there that they really want to share.
The part that I really struggle with is that the top-tier universities are getting information out there with massive open online courses. It’s the second-tier universities… if you’re a really good instructor, well it doesn’t matter, we just want no online instruction at our institution that is of a massive form because it could affect our jobs and what they’re not seeing is that it’s going to affect their institution.
Creating a great online course is challenging because learning requires not just informational content but motivation and feedback as well. Software can provide timely feedback, but there may only be a small number of star teachers who can effectively motivate at scale. Limiting the opportunities and rewards for teaching-oriented instructors at second-tier universities to try their hand at teaching online is a major loss.