How to make progress in Mobile ed

James Taylor
James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭
edited November 20 in Resources Forum

As one who loves to study and has a large library, how much "extra" time should I devote to the suggested (not required) reading?

For instance, when I get to the end of a segment, and the professor recommends a topic guide on Covenant, and I have 50 articles on Covenant, I find myself giving in to the temptation to read ALL of them! This translates to me knowing almost everything there is to know about Covenant (hyperbole), but hardly making any progress in the class. 

At this rate it will take me 10 years to finish the 19 classes I have. I am not expecting to finish them over night, but I also don't want to unnecessarily get bogged down either. I also greatly benefit from the extra reading so that's why I'm torn about how to proceed.

I'm aware of the subjectivity here, but any pointers/thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

Grace and Peace!

James

Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

Comments

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

    As one who loves to study and has a large library, how much "extra" time should I devote to the suggested (not required) reading?

    For instance, when I get to the end of a segment, and the professor recommends a topic guide on Covenant, and I have 50 articles on Covenant, I find myself giving in to the temptation to read ALL of them! This translates to me knowing almost everything there is to know about Covenant (hyperbole), but hardly making any progress in the class. 

    At this rate it will take me 10 years to finish the 19 classes I have. I am not expecting to finish them over night, but I also don't want to unnecessarily get bogged down either. I also greatly benefit from the extra reading so that's why I'm torn about how to proceed.

    I'm aware of the subjectivity here, but any pointers/thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

    Grace and Peace!

    James

    James good question.  My take is that I will be coming back to these courses multiple times. I go through all the material the first time around except for what the guides offer - there is way to much to be able to read all of that up front.  In the future when I come back to a course I will more likely take a bit more of a look at what the guides come up with and explore that material in more depth - but not necessarily every guide or every suggestion it comes up with as I simply would not have the time here on earth - I'll have eternity in heaven but not expecting to have a Logos Library there.  As the name suggests they are guides so you don't need to read everything religiously  - though like you I don't want to miss out - but just focus on those you find are of particular interest to you at the time.  When coming back to courses there are times when it will be look at a whole course again - and at other times it maybe to look at the same topic covered by different speakers in different courses because that particular topic is on interest to me.

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for chiming in Doc. That sounds like some helpful pointers. I'm wondering home many of us share the same dilemma

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Matthew C Jones
    Matthew C Jones Member Posts: 10,295

    Thanks for chiming in Doc. That sounds like some helpful pointers. I'm wondering home many of us share the same dilemma

    I agree with Doc. Guides are just guides. When I first started working through my courses it bothered me not to read everything. I decided I better get over it or quit buying courses. Since I like so many of the upcoming courses I just got over it.

    Logos 7 Collectors Edition

  • John Kaess
    John Kaess Member Posts: 723 ✭✭✭

    I'll reply to the contrary. I have a significant library with logos 5 Platinum and Logos 6 Gold along with a lot f other resources. I got NT221 - Writings of John by Ben Witherington last year. I skimmed the class and then did the first 2 lessons. To my great surprise, i discovered that though i had all of the resources for the required reading, i had almost none of the resources for the suggested reading. I've spent the last year adding resources as i can afford them. I now have all the resources for I,II,III John and almost all for Revelation, but i'm still well short of getting everything for the Gospel of John.

    These courses are expensive, and to my mind it would be a waste to not take the advice of the professor about what resources and articles are helpul and profitable in the area they are teaching. I don't see the value in rushing through the class to get to another one without gleaning all the knowledge and perspective available.

    john

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    Thanks for your input John. As for me personally I was primarily referring to the actual guides that are just populated by the resources in your library, which would be different for everyone. But I agree with you that the "required" and "see also" (suggested by professor) are  non negotiable. Where I see the debate is should I spend the 6-8 hrs of topic studies (I literally read hundreds of pages on Saturday for approximately 7 hrs on covenant). Now given that not every topic has the same amount of content (covenant is a massive theme), I know that every segment will vary but I'm just trying to be a good student and steward of my time and resources. 

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

    These courses are expensive, and to my mind it would be a waste to not take the advice of the professor about what resources and articles are helpul and profitable in the area they are teaching. I don't see the value in rushing through the class to get to another one without gleaning all the knowledge and perspective available.

    John I am sorry my post was not clear.  I was not suggesting to do this in any way, shape or form.  I totally agree with you on these points. I am not talking about rushing through the course for the sake of completion - I dont' think anyone who has commented on this post is suggesting that either.  The beauty of these courses is we can take our time.

    But I do think you have to be careful not to miss the forest because you are so busy looking at the trees  so I was saying I that I  look at selectively what is generated by the reports Logos suggests to run in the Guides and Tools section of the course - the section highlighted in yellow below.  As an example I have run the Topic Guide on Christology as suggested by in the course and displayed the results found in my library just for topically indexed resources.  If I read all of these articles, along with what is generated by the other sections of this report,  plus all the results generated by the Passage Guide Logos is suggesting to run, along with the two word study reports, they are also recommending, if I went through each and everyone of these I'd never get through a course.  I would love to be able to dig into it all - but its not possible and this material generated by these reports in not part of the course and will vary depending upon your library.  From what you say about your  library mine is much larger so I will get a lot more hits than you do - and you will still get a substantial amount of hits with your library .

    Having completed all the suggested and see also readings in this section of the course I might then pick two or three of these topical articles on Christology to explore the topic further or  I might decide I have gotten enough out of the course readings for now and not look at any of the on my first pass of the course, but later on when I go through the course a second or third time I may well decide at that point I want to explore beyond what the course recommends directly to read and look more deeply at the topic of Christology in general so will look at even more of these resources from the topic guide or Factbook or Passage guide or whatever guide or tool it maybe.

    I hope that makes more sense to you now or anyone else that may have misunderstood where I was suggesting to be selective in what you read.

  • Tanner Thetford
    Tanner Thetford Member Posts: 117

    I solve this issue much more organically for myself. I simply read until I find the material repetitive, I then switch to scanning the information. If nothing new jumps out at me during scanning, I feel I must have "got the point" and move on.

    Basically if none of my extra reading is giving me any new information it isn't worthwhile to me. That's when I know it is about time to move to the next topic or set of readings.

  • James Taylor
    James Taylor Member Posts: 1,408 ✭✭✭

    read until I find the material repetitive, I then switch to scanning the information. If nothing new jumps out at me during scanning, I feel I must have "got the point" and move on.

    Great points, reminds me of the class I took on information extraction. Thanks for the reply Tanner!

    Logos 10  | Dell Inspiron 7373 | Windows 11 Pro 64, i7, 16GB, SSD | iPhone 13 Pro Max

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

    read until I find the material repetitive, I then switch to scanning the information. If nothing new jumps out at me during scanning, I feel I must have "got the point" and move on.

    Great points, reminds me of the class I took on information extraction. Thanks for the reply Tanner!

    Yes good advice Tanner. And I do have that class in my list of course to complete James, maybe I should make it a priority :[:)]

  • John Kaess
    John Kaess Member Posts: 723 ✭✭✭

    Ah! I see now. NT221 does not have that section for Guides and Tools, at least I haven't seen it in any of the lessons yet.

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

    Ah! I see now. NT221 does not have that section for Guides and Tools, at least I haven't seen it in any of the lessons yet.

    John the screen shot is from NT221, segment 8.