I’m smiling as I write this because I’ve now written these two recent additions to my vocabulary enough times that they feel sort of real. It’s sort of cool how you can create new stuff if you just, well, create it.
And I think that’s going to be the basic message here for how to go about creating an MSelf or a SelfCert. It’s so wide open that you can just create what you would like to create, really, and after you have some sort of idea what you are going to do, whether it is vague or detailed or anywhere in between, you just start doing it. It will take you somewhere where you can adjust and continue on …
This is just my experience. It’s not a prescription to follow, but rather an example to try on, like a pair of shoes.
My first MSelf
I don’t know when my first MSelf / SelfCert was and you won’t either. We all learn lots of stuff in different ways. In high school I focused on tennis, I tried my hand at Nicaraguan liberation theology and sewing in college, I did poetry for several years after university and got more and more interested in languages, which I’ve worked with off and on ever since. I’ve been working on creative writing now for several years, too. There’s so much that we just go and learn out of interest and curiosity.
In Summer 2025 I decided to dedicate a year to Scandinavian Studies, which I’ve been interested in for a long time, particularly since the summer before my senior year of college, when I took a course in German at the University of Minnesota. In Folwell Hall there was a sign for the department of Scandinavian Studies and Dutch, I think it was called. Now I see they have the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, and Dutch. Nearly forty years later I thought I’d give the Nordic part of that long department name a whirl.
I came home from a dog walk in mid July determined to look at Scandinavian Studies programs. I scanned through three of them: my alma mater, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin and Berkeley. I spent maybe an hour, hour-and-a-half. I had already thought about what I would like to do一 I was basically verifying that what I had in mind might belong to a Masters program. Since the MEd program I teach in lasts just one year, I decided one year would be long enough for an MSelf, and since I really liked the structure of my undergraduate program at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, I decided to have four-and-a-half fall semester courses, a January course (we called it Interim), and four-and-a-half spring semester courses, followed by a short abroad experience.
I drew boxes in three columns (fall, January, and spring) and wrote the names of the courses. For the fall semester I chose Scandinavian languages (two credits), literature (1 credit), the folk high school system of adult education (1 credit) and Scandinavian cuisine (half a credit). For the January term I decided to focus on immigration to Minnesota (of which I’m a product, a few generations removed), and for the spring semester I kept the languages (2 credits), literature (1 credit), and cuisine (half credit), but replaced education with politics, which I eventually switched to history about a week before the second semester began. In the second semester I also focused on Swedish, since I had decided to take a Swedish writing course as part of my abroad experience, so I replaced the second language credit with a course in creative writing in Swedish.
The abroad program was simply three weeks in Scandinavia. I figured I would live one week in each of the three largest Scandinavian countries. I discovered I could live at a folk high school in Sweden and be a writer for a week. A friend suggested I visit the open air museum in Roskilde, Denmark, so I rented a nearby Airbnb. And then a colleague in Iceland invited me to come to Reykjavik in the fall as a visiting scholar. A little later than my original plan, but hey – it is so perfect.
Curriculum? For languages I was already using Duolingo and iTalki. I added online subscriptions to a Danish and Swedish newspaper and committed to reading some of the texts in both the literature and immigration courses in Scandinavian languages. (I followed through, reading in both Danish and Swedish. Norwegian, I’ll get to you eventually.) I watched a few Netflix shows in Scandinavian languages. Luckily the course about folk high school programs steered me to free online Swedish courses and inexpensive online writing courses. I also reconnected with Barbara Cartford, who tutors Swedish online, and we’ve been having fun language meetups ever since.
I googled what literature was considered part of what someone should know about and I asked my language tutors on iTalki and at the folk high school what they read in school in their countries. I bought a Kindle for immediate gratification and portability and I discovered Bokus to order regular books in Swedish. I also got a few texts in Danish from Orell Füssli in Switzerland. There is also a fantastic online site with free Swedish texts: Literatturbanken.
I didn’t know at the beginning where my reading would lead me, nor that I would eventually focus on Swedish. (I actually took placement tests in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish before and after the first semester – also free from a Swedish folk high school. At the beginning of the year I was better at reading Danish than Swedish. That has since flipped.) I didn’t know that I would sign up for an online course in Scandinavian bildung, but it fit very well with the folk high school work. And I had no idea I’d be able to do a weeklong writer’s course in Skölding, Sweden in the summer, but yes, anyone can sign up, from anywhere in the world.
I also didn’t know I’d have a shield with a Viking ship and Old Norse as a symbol for my MSelf, but I made one, so now I have one. And this afternoon I made a symbol for my SelfCerts 2026-2027, too. It’s just one symbol, perhaps I’ll add the month … or perhaps I’ll just give myself as many of them as I actually accomplish.
In summary, I planned in a very general way; I created a framework. And then I let the learning take me where it led. I was successful not because of the specifics created beforehand, but rather the flexibility of following where things led as they emerged from the learning itself. That flexibility is perhaps one of the important distinctions and advantages of an MSelf: the curriculum fit me very well because I kept creating it as I learned. I didn’t know I would be able to read Swedish crime stories, but once I read one it seemed logical to read several. I had never heard of Johan Hassan Khemiri, but the first novel was so good I read a second (which a student in one of the writing classes recommended). Same thing for Tove Ditlivsen, only that was a trilogy and I read it in my strongest second language, German. Oh, and while I loved the Swedish poetry class, the other writing class? I paid to attend ten times, but quit in the middle of the third session, with a polite but final “I’m sorry, I have to go” message in the chat. The teaching didn’t fit my level or my expectations, and it was in English. So I dropped the class. Easy as that. Leaving the class didn’t harm my learning, it improved it, because I was able to focus on more productive avenues.
That’s how I planned my MSelf. I created a framework. I followed my interests. I added and subtracted as I went with an eye toward motivation, effectiveness, and enjoyment.
Oh, and one other thing. I blogged about the process along the way and I shared with people what I was doing. Going public was important. I even picked up the book “Little Experiments” during the second semester, which underscored how being public about your self-learning keeps you accountable and motivated. The book is pretty much a handbook for anyone interested in creating an MSelf or SelfCert.
That was my personal formula. It’s just one formula. It’s only an example.
Moving foward with a SelfCert
In Fall 2025, after posting about my MSelf progress (that whole going public thing), I connected with Irina, who was among the first to express interest in doing something similar but a bit less intense. We created the SelfCert on the spot. The SelfCert is virtually the same as an MSelf except for the duration. SelfCerts are shorter. How much shorter is up to every individual person creating a SelfCert. That’s part of the joy of it being self-directed.
For my part, I’m planning in 2026-2027 to do a series of SelfCerts. They will be thematically linked around the theme of health and nutrition, an area I’m committed to more out of necessity than a burning interest. This will be much different for me than a year of Scandinavian Studies. I’m making little bets by keeping each SelfCert independent and only three weeks long – the first three weeks of the month. During each three-week time frame I will focus on one modification to my current eating habits and one type of physical activity. How I feel will be my main assessment.
If the three-week period goes well I will perhaps extend the practice longer, combining it with the next SelfCert. If I’m ambitious I’ll do one SelfCert every month, September through May. Considered all together, that will almost be an MSelf, I suppose. But I’m not committing to that. I may take a month or two off. I may or may not create a Healthy Cooking component like my two half-credit Scandinavian Cuisines courses. I’m keeping it at the SelfCert level because (1) I know my motivation is more pragmatic than passionate and (2) I’d like to experience a SelfCert in order to be a better coordinator of both the MSelf and the SelfCert for others who will join me in the pursuit of their own interests.
And what are those interests, you ask? Are there really others who want to join? Well, yes, I’m glad to report! Those who have already picked a 2026-2027 topic are interested in pursuing:
- Agentic AI in Education
- Creating Textiles
- Creative Writing
- The Language and Culture of Bolivia
- Photography
- Shedding Light on Dark History
- Using AI tools for business analysis and integrating AI solutions in business environments.
If you’d like to join us, let me know. I think it’s going to be a hoot! We plan on meeting online once a month to swap stories and motivate each other. Reach me at [email protected].