Nowadays, knowledge is one of the important factors that people need to have for surviving in daily life. The more knowledge people have, it can increase the chance of success in their life. There are many ways to gain more knowledge such as learning from teacher or learning by their experience but the way that everyone can do is self-learning. Self-learning is a way that can make people achieve more ability to compete with others because today, it is a society with highly competitive that most people should attempt to survive. Self-learning can also give many benefits to the learner as below. It can be stated that self-learning can give too many benefits and improve learner’s intelligence and skill too. One of the most effective way of study is the self study at home. It is the way in which a student challenges himself and tries to find the ways and solutions of anything without any external aid. This signify a student’s mental strength, confidence and self-belief.

Self-education means education through one’s efforts instead of being taught by a trained professional or instructor. This means an individual uses common sense, creativity, base knowledge, educational material, resources, and experiences to become more intelligent and educated. In doing so, people educate themselves by learning through observation and experimentation through various mediums.

With the digital age at its peak, many learning platforms, and limitless educational resources, students should understand that their education is in their hands. With all the knowledge at the touch of a student’s fingertips, students need to learn to educate themselves as opposed to waiting on instructors or sticking to curricula.

Educating yourself can be as simple as picking up an extra book on a new subject, or taking a beginner’s course to learn a new hobby.

The following are practical ways to take charge of a self-guided education:

1. Attend free community workshops. You can find free community-sponsored classes by looking through the local classified sections in the newspaper or on public billboards.
2. Take free online college courses. Some colleges offer free courses to students with the option to donate money. However, it is important to note that the completion of these classes usually does not count toward a degree program if you plan on taking official courses in the future.
3. Check out books at the library. Borrowing books on a subject that you want to understand is one of the best ways to obtain a free education - just be aware that the information may be outdated, so always double check the date that the book was published.
4. Find used textbooks. These can be found in many places, including online auctions, college book stores and even yard sales. If you don’t wish to purchase them, many college book stores also offer textbooks on loan.
5. Obtain applicable hands-on experience. Consider volunteering or applying for a job that will require you to expand your knowledge.
6. Find a mentor. Becoming an apprentice in the field is a great way to get an education while building valuable money-making skills at the same time.
7. Apply for grants and scholarships. If you want to go the formal route instead, obtaining grants and scholarships can greatly reduce the amount of money you have to pay for your education.

What are the benefits of self-study?

The benefits of self-directed learning can be different in terms of the types of leaner it develops. However in common, here are some key benefits of self-paced learning.

* Learning at their own pace:

During self-study, students learn at their own pace, focusing more on areas that interest them the most or that which they understand better. This helps reduce feelings of frustration, anxiety, or boredom that students may struggle with within a classroom setting.

* Develops ownership of learning:

This act of children taking up complete ownership of their learning can result in a sweep of knowledge for themselves. They become their own masters. Students define what to do, how to when to, and how long to study or whether to re-study. By self-learning, students build an immense sense of self-confidence that helps them deal with all possibilities of their life. They only get thirst to learn more and more but delve into deeper research to expand their knowledge. Such is the effectiveness of self-paced learning, which helps them to prepare for the future’s goal with resilience and complete immunity.

* Better insights into learning”

Students who self-learn have more opportunities to control their learning with better data insights. Learning Management System (LMS) these days come with adequate tools that let students be vigilant of their assessment performance with insightful data presentations and instant notifications about test scores. Some software even details the number of time students spends learning with weblog analytics.

* Freedom to use various models of learning:

Students have a variety of learning modes to choose from. It could be from YouTube tutorials, books, podcasts, webinars, discussions, polls, activity walls, as they wish. Online learning software has most of these including self-learning through quizzes, PDFs, assignments, etc. All that the students need to do is to choose the one that suits them the most that they find the most engaging and move on.

* Most engaging learning experience through Mobile:

M-learning or mobile learning is quite in now. Mobile tools as learning aids have become a part of higher education institutions now. Students use mobile phones to self-learn across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions. This sort of learning with their most favorite devices peps them up the most.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 16 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.