Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential (Coursera)

Offered by McMaster University,
Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential (Coursera)

Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of selective ignorance over general competence.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

We’ll provide practical insights from science about how to learn and change effectively even in maturity, and we’ll build on what you already know to take your life’s learning in fantastic new directions. This course is designed to show you how to look at what you’re learning, and your place in what’s unfolding in the society around you, so you can be what you want to be, given the real world constraints that life puts on us all. You’ll see that by using certain mental tools and insights, you can learn and do more—far more—than you might have ever dreamed!
This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or subsequent to, its companion course, Learning How to Learn. (Mindshift is more career focused, and Learning How to Learn is more learning focused.)

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Change is possible
In today's world, change is the only constant. This means that whatever stage you are in life, you need to keep yourself open and able to change. How can you do this? In three ways: Learn more about your hidden capabilities and assets. Learn more about learning effectively. Learn about matching your assets with the opportunities that face you. In this week, we'll dive into these three important areas!

WEEK 2
Getting Deeper into Happy Learning
Key to your ability to mindshift is being able to learn effectively. This week, we’ll dive deeper into this vital area. Getting yourself motivated to tackle procrastination can sometimes be a challenge in learning, so we’ll give you some important tips here. But we’ll also give insights into mental tricks to help you focus, relax, and reframe if stress intrudes. We’ll also show you how to avoid common learning pitfalls. Welcome and enjoy!

WEEK 3
Learning and Careers
This week, we’ll be talking about how your own career can develop and change through your life. Your own internal feelings about what you want to do can play a critical role in your long-term happiness. But society and culture can also have a dramatic effect on your career choices and decisions—as can your parents, family, and friends. We’ll talk about second-skilling yourself, and developing a talent stack of average talents that can combine into a formidable asset. We’ll also talk about various tactics and techniques to help you survive career changes and upheavals. Welcome and enjoy!

WEEK 4
Adopting a Learning Lifestyle
In this final week of the course, we'll be exploring how and why to keep yourself in "mindshift" mode. We'll give you all sorts of insider tips on how to pick out the best online learning with materials that are right for you. And we'll also talk about other ways of learning—ways that can make you "the smartest person in the room." Disruption lies ahead in the world—this week, we'll help you seize the advantage. Off we go for our final week of Mindshift!

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Leading for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Leading for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education (Coursera)

This course is open to professionals interested in learning more about leadership in higher education for a changing demographic or interested in developing their own leadership skills. The very idea that individuals can be taught to lead is not without its skeptics. Reasonable people, even some scholars in the field, point to the important traits, skills, and attributes that are observed in many visible leaders and contend that certain qualities necessary for effective leadership are not easily transmitted.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
e-Learning Ecologies: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning for the Digital Age (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

e-Learning Ecologies: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning for the Digital Age (Coursera)

For three decades and longer we have heard educators and technologists making a case for the transformative power of technology in learning. However, despite the rhetoric, in many ways and at most institutional sites, education is still relatively untouched by technology. Even when technologies are introduced, the changes sometimes seem insignificant and the results seem disappointing. If the print textbook is replaced by an e-book, do the social relations of knowledge and learning necessarily change at all or for the better?

Oct 5th 2026
4 Weeks
Psicología (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad de Palermo

Psicología (Coursera)

¿Qué estudia la psicología? ¿Qué hacen los psicólogos? ¿La conciencia, qué es? ¿Y el estrés? ¿Cómo aprendemos? La sensación y la percepción ¿son lo mismo? ¿El lenguaje depende de las ideas? ¿O será que nuestro pensamiento es dependiente del lenguaje que hablamos? ¿Querés conocer las respuestas a estos interrogantes? En este curso de Psicología podrás explorar sobre todo esto y mucho más. Al culminar su recorrido no solo vas a haber aprendido sobre las bases del cautivante mundo de la psicología, sino que contarás con herramientas que te permitirán conocerte mejor.

Oct 5th 2026
4 Weeks
University Teaching (Coursera) Coursera
University of Hong Kong

University Teaching (Coursera)

University Teaching is an introductory course in teaching and learning in tertiary education, designed by staff at the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Hong Kong. With input from instructors, guests and interviewees, including teaching award winners, students, and experts in the fields, you will be exposed to research evidence in relation to effective university teaching and practical instructional design strategies. You will also be exposed to multiple examples of effective teaching, and hear the views of teachers whose teaching has been judged to be excellent.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Playing to Your Strengths by StandOut (Coursera) Coursera
Automatic Data Processing (ADP)

Playing to Your Strengths by StandOut (Coursera)

Playing to Your Strengths is designed for any professional individual striving to be more productive and more focused today than they were yesterday and those who want to make their greatest contributions at work and in life by embracing a strengths-based mindset. Based on the six-part film series Trombone Player Wanted from Marcus Buckingham, this 6-week course includes video demonstrations, practice simulations, a course guide, and reflection activities that will inspire you to identify your strengths and make them a vital and sustainable part of your everyday life.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Teaching Science at University (Coursera) Coursera
University of Zurich

Teaching Science at University (Coursera)

This course will prepare you for teaching science in higher education. In this MOOC you will learn to make your knowledge as an excellent researcher accessible to your students. We will show you how to communicate science to novices as well as advanced students in science.

Oct 12th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Aprender (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Aprender (Coursera)

¿Quieres conocer tus recursos y niveles de desempeño relacionadas con tu proceso de aprender? ¿Te interesa desarrollar habilidades para aprender más y mejor? En APRENDER conocerás y pondrás en práctica, de forma sencilla y práctica, resultados de investigación recientes sobre los procesos de lectura, almacenamiento de información, recuperación de recuerdos y velocidad de procesamiento. Así, podrás utilizar, de forma eficiente, estrategias y técnicas muy útiles en tu vida académica, profesional y cotidiana.

Sep 28th 2026
4 Weeks
Overcoming Dyslexia (Coursera) Coursera
Yale University

Overcoming Dyslexia (Coursera)

Dyslexia is everywhere, touching so many children and adults, and while science has made extraordinary progress in understanding and clarifying the condition, this incredible powerful knowledge rarely reaches those who most need to know and would greatly benefit from it. Our goal is to change all this with the Coursera you are about to view, produced by Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development, both the leading scientist studying dyslexia and the most devoted advocate for helping those who are dyslexic.

Oct 3rd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Potenciando mi aprendizaje en el primer año de Universidad (Coursera) Coursera
Universidad de Chile

Potenciando mi aprendizaje en el primer año de Universidad (Coursera)

El propósito del curso es acompañar a los estudiantes de primer año a potenciar sus aprendizajes, con la finalidad de fomentar una buena experiencia en la universidad. Lo anterior se realiza a través de un auto- diagnóstico y de la familiarización con distintas estrategias de estudio, de gestión del tiempo y del abordaje de evaluaciones.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Career Planning: A Pathway to Employment (Coursera) Coursera
University System of Georgia

Career Planning: A Pathway to Employment (Coursera)

This course is designed to foster creative approaches to launching a new career. You will articulate best ways to make a first impression and analyze your strengths by creating a personal statement. You will identify appropriate elements to make your resume stand out from the crowd. You will also identify the most effective ways a cover letter can answer a job description, and how to best leverage social media in your job search.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introducción al Aprendizaje Universitario (Coursera) Coursera
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Introducción al Aprendizaje Universitario (Coursera)

Este es un MOOC introductorio al aprendizaje universitario, a través del cual, el estudiante podrá conocer aspectos fundamentales que intervienen en el aprendizaje y rendimiento académico universitario. Representa a la vez una oportunidad para reflexionar sobre el propio quehacer académico como estudiante, así como una instancia para conocer distintas herramientas que promueven mejores prácticas en el contexto del estudio.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling (Coursera) Coursera
University of Houston System

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling (Coursera)

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling introduces educators to digital storytelling and explores ways to use digital stories to enhance students’ learning experiences. The course is designed to be comprehensive yet fundamental. By comprehensive we mean that the course provides a solid foundation for all of the components of a digital story and illustrates these components with tutorials, example stories, and links to additional readings. The course also provides a hands-on opportunity for learners to create their own digital stories. The course is fundamental because it covers the basic process of creating a digital story starting with just a simple script and as little as one image.

Oct 12th 2026
5-12 Weeks