How to create your own learning path

As a learning experience designer, I usually think about and map out the best way for our adult learners to reach point A to point B.

Point A is where they don’t know anything or know little about a specific topic while point B is a certain point in their life where they can apply what they’ve learned and/or explore deeper into the subject.

For my own self-directed path to becoming a data scientist, I wanted to create my own learning plan in a way that I could get from point A to point B and then eventually to point C, D, etc. without getting *too* distracted by the myriad of MOOCs, articles, and other resources.

Caitlin Hudon recently posted a presentation about getting “plugged into” data science and creating my own path is a way of me to monitor whether or not I’m still active in my pursuit.

I’d spare you the lecture about adult learning and other technical stuff. I just want to share how I do it because I’m sure a lot of people want to learn new things whether for professional development or for transitioning to another field.

I created this learning path because I want to keep track of my time and my progress. I also shared it with a friend who’s also pursuing a data science career and seeing each other’s paths help us keep each other accountable and permission to nag each other :))

Here’s the current snapshot of my study plan on Google Sheets:

For estimating the start and end date of the courses, I used the WORKDAY function with EXCLUDE DATES (for holidays, family events, etc.). It provides me an estimate of how long I’d finish courses and gives me a feeling that I’m sort of winning in life :))

I started my study plan last year and there have been changes after reevaluating what I needed to learn first and what I can afford considering my budget. I recently enrolled in DataCamp because I’ve heard great things about it. Even if it’s not free, the investment is worth it.

It also helps me focus on one thing at a time. I’m very distractible so looking at this almost every day helps me stick to my goal.

So that’s how I keep track of my data science learning journey. I’m curious to know how other people monitor their own learning paths!