Designing own learning

The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and even some machines. There is also evidence for some kind of learning ability possessed by certain plants. Learning is said to be the process of acquiring new understandings, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes and preferences.   Human learning starts at birth (it might even start before) and continues till death. Continuing interactions between people and their living/working environment play a vital role in shaping the learning path. The nature of learning and processes involved, are studied in many fields including educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology and pedagogy. Research in such fields has led to the identification of various learning methods. For example, learning may be the result of habituation or classical conditioning or operant conditioning or as a result of more complex activities. Learning may occur consciously or even without conscious awareness. The formal educational system, though derived from many of the above pointers, almost fails to convey the essence of learning to stakeholders.  As a result, majority of students perceive learning as a liability and rote learning habits become order of the day. This course is an attempt to define or redefine learning. Participating students would be driven through a process to explore:   What is learning? What will I learn? How can I design own learning process?   The outcome is expected to be initial sketch of a learning process that is tailored for the student.