I don’t like indecisiveness. One of the qualities that I really admire and try to inculcate in myself is decisiveness. Taking any decision is only the first part towards achieving any goals and if we dither right at the first part; Then achieving the goals is almost impossible. I have been very big into setting big lofty goals for myself during new year. I followed this practice for some years, but the end results were not as per my expectation. One major problem with this process is that once you lose momentum or there is break in continuity; it’s very difficult to start again as New year is gone and more often than not, you wait for next new year to again start the process. However, I had this realization off late not to link my goals or objective with new year. But to strive continuously towards my goals. Be prepared that I may not achieve it in first time. There will be breaks and gaps, but I need to pull myself together, learn from last experience and start afresh.
One of the objectives
that I have set for myself is to learn Robotics right from the basics and earn
some sort of accreditation for the same. I decided to act on this plan in first
lockdown that happened last year. I enrolled into one online course covering
basics of Robotic offered by IIT. Part of the temptation was the brand value of
IIT. Unfortunately, I started on the wrong foot as I missed the starting date
of course and when I checked the deadline for first submission was already upon
me. It was a quiz that I need to answer, I had no other option but to search
for the answers on google without going into basics. Immediately once I
enrolled in this course, I realized that I am out of my depth here. Plus, the
professor teaching style was also not very conducive. It felt like they are
just parroting their lines like a Robot in a Robotics course. I tried very hard
to keep up with the course and managed to probably finish it too. The last and
final stage was a examination to get the certificate. I choose not to appear
for the exam as it was clear that I was not able to grasp the course
completely. I still believe that professor teaching that course was also
equally responsible for my decision as his communication was not very clear.
After a brief hiatus, I found another course on same topic
and again enrolled in the same. The starting was much better than previous
course, but I got stuck in some urgencies. Got disillusioned as the course was
again increasingly becoming tough for me for follow and I left it midway too. I
admit that professor teaching this course was a big improvement over the
previous one. In both the courses, one major topic that I struggled to grasp was
advance mathematic and abstract concept related with the same. Even though I
had studies mathematics in school. I was never any good at it. Plus its good 20
years since I had left school and most of the things are forgotten now.
Then around one month back, armed with my new motivation
post COVID recovery, I again enrolled in one more robotics course. One
immediate realization is that Professor teaching this course is again like the
first one in the sense that his communication is not very clear and easy to
understand. I had almost made my mind to leave this course but then the big
question is how to achieve my ultimate objective.
Finally, after some reflection on this topic, I reached two
conclusions.
1)
There is a serial lack of quality in our
educational institutes and I’m kind of disillusioned with brand IIT now. As a
diploma holder, I always carried this impression that IIT is the cream of
educational institutions where engineering is concerned. But after personally
experiencing the teaching method of some of the professors in IIT. I am forced
to change my opinion. I can give some benefit of doubt for the point that
online teaching mode is new for them also and its very much different than old
physical mode of teaching. But the other points regarding how easy they made
the concept to grasp for their student is equally valid. Perhaps their thinking
is that the students they get is already cream of the creams who can grasp
these complex concepts. But this online course is designed for anyone who is
interested to learn robotics and not everyone will be really sharp or bright.
If these teachers can only work with exceptional student. Then I would rate
them lower that the teachers in tier II institute where professor can make even
average student grasp the basic of engineering aspects. Other important aspect
is regarding basic communication skills where I find the teachers severely
lacking. If you are not able to form simple coherent sentences that the
listener could understand than your communication skills are really poor, and
you need to work on it.
2)
Whether I like it or not. The quality of teaches
that I am going to encounter will be just like these only. If I still want to achieve
my objective than I need to look beyond them to understand and grasp the
concept. With the wealth of information available at hand courtesy YouTube and
google and other means at my disposal (Books recommended by these teachers). It
is possible to understand the basics of this subject even without the help of
these professors too. And it looks like that this is only way forward. I need
to temper my expectation that these teachers will actually makes me understand
the concept. The onus is on me and frankly I have been guilty of not devoting
enough time on this topic. The key to mastering any subject is investing
sustained effort and time.
Hence, I have decided to give this course
one more tries. This time give my best efforts and if still the results are not
up to my expectation. Then I will start looking for options outside India other
than IIT. I already have one options available with me in form of CourseEra but
I find it much more expensive compared to NPTEL that I am currently using which
is free for the course and charges only for the exams and hence the
certification. Perhaps that is the reason I’m so casual about it as it does not
cost any money to enrol and then to leave the course. Maybe I need to invest my
own money to reach level of seriousness required for achieving my target.
Before I opt for option of CourseEra. I
will give one final try to my current course to the best of my abilities.
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