I have to take a video-based course. This is not how I best learn. Help!

I took an optional online video-based course a couple of years ago and watched after work or on the weekends. I'm with you on learning this way - it's like being the target of a firehose. I didn't pass the final exam, but there was a lot of coursework outside of watching the videos and I just wasn't motivated enough to persevere, so don't let my failure deter you. If this is a required course for your job and you really think you would do better by watching the videos on your commute, look into getting a Chromebook or inexpensive Intel-based laptop + a pay-per-month mobile hotspot (Virgin Mobile has some). You might also be able to tether your phone to the laptop/Chromebook instead of using a hotspot. Then watch the videos on your commute or at work. I'm assuming the video is Flash-based, which the Chrome browser should be able to handle. Make sure whatever you get can handle the video format of the courseware. Alternately, find out if the courseware is available on DVD. If so, get yourself a little portable DVD player ($50) or so and watch wherever you're comfortable. Take notes as if you were in a college lecture and review them when you can. This saved my bacon through 4 years of high school and 4 more years of college. Good luck. Sometimes the fact that the Internet exists makes things harder for us!

This is probably a long shot, but have you looked for a 'transcript' feature in this course? When I've helped design courses with training videos in the past, we've usually included that for people who - understandably - would rather not sit through the videos (or had difficulty doing so for whatever reason). If the feature isn't immediately obvious, maybe contacting customer service, if it exists, could help to hook you up with transcripts?

Treat it like a college lecture course. Take notes. That should at least prevent you from having to watch the videos more than once. Make a nice cup of tea to drink with it, and try to have a set time that you do all this, so it becomes sort of a ritual until it's done. This is a program that you are already using? When you are at work, since you said you would have time to watch it if you had the proper setup, can you practice doing stuff in the program that the video talked about? Or get more familiar with the program so that not everything covered in the videos is brand new?

Some video setups will let you play at a higher speed, so that might be worth a try. (If this is Windows Media Player-based, try http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/windows-media-player-keyboard-shortcuts.)

If you're in the US, the provider should offer alternative forms of the info to meet Section 508 accessibility requirements. In other words, there really should be closed captioning or at least a transcript. If there's no obvious link to a transcript, write the provider of the course and ask for it. If the provider says there's no transcript, depending on how irked you are, you can inform your employer that the course that they're requiring employees to take doesn't meet basic federal accessibility requirements and that they might want to use another provider who does. Copy the provider of the course on that and see how quickly a transcript appears. I guarantee they have one, since the boring talking heads had to have a script to read from. I also hate video. I turn off the sound, read the transcript or closed captioning, and speed up the video if at all possible, assuming the visuals are actually useful, which often times they aren't. Good luck!

There are programs around for ripping streaming media from youtube. Would it be possible to find something like that for these videos so you can at least watch them offline later on? Maybe if you post what kind of setup you need to watch them someone will have a solution for this?

Another book learner here - I truly hate having to watch a video. (In person doesn't annoy half so much) However, it sounds like your resentment is making this harder than it needs to be. My advice is to bribe yourself for watching the videos. Every 20 minute video gets a small treat, each completed module gets a bigger one. (Just make sure you follow through and really give yourself the rewards - your subconscious will be notice and will be more cooperative with it trusts you to follow through the good part.)

Can you work from home for a day or a half-day and watch the videos then? It seems crazy to me that your employer is requiring you to watch a video on your own time with your own equipment for training that is for your job. What do people do in your workplace who don't have the right computer setup at home?

I take online classes and it really helps me to write everything down. I rarely look at them again but the combination of the process of writing as well as pausing the video really helps it sink in for me. In your case, it might help to have the notes to look at (during your commute!) to help you learn that way. Perhaps you could describe whatever kind of error or setup is needed for your work computer. Maybe all it needs is a download, or perhaps a different web browser would work. Someone here might be able to help point you in the right direction. Also nthing trying to find a transcript. Another idea which occurs to me, do you have any coworkers who are also doing this that you can ask them to take good notes for you? There might be an opportunity to borrow or trade for them.