I have been working on a startup idea for exactly this purpose. Something that is much better than posting bunch of links on various places, bookmarks and emails. Announcing CoLearnr - A platform where topics can be socially curated, discussed and collaboratively learnt. Very happy to share the dev site since have not launched the main site yet.
I researched MOOCs as part of my thesis and found that the platform they use and their business model is not so great! Is online learning as simple as watching video heads with a bulk standard discussion forum? Very happy to share some of my findings from the research.
- Online learning platform should be built for learners and not IT administrators. This is where moodles, blackboards all suck!
- Online learning should be engaging and distraction-free. We can learn a bit from social networks, how they show all the content inline and make it engaging and addictive.
- Online learning should make it easy to link knowledge and build conceptual maps. For example, based on the topic you learnt, the platform should show the other topics that you could learn so that you can generalise (broad knowledge) or specialise.
- Online learning should suit modern time-constrained learners. For example, typically all these platforms offer just one way of visualising a topic which was originally decided by the curator or the IT administrator. But learners need various views. Won't disclose a lot on this, but for example, a view showing only recently added materials, a view showing only the items to read etc could be intriguing.
Please feel free to take a look at my effort and let me know your thoughts.
tl;dr CoLearnr - a platform for collaborative learning
http://dev.colearnr.com/finance
I researched MOOCs as part of my thesis and found that the platform they use and their business model is not so great! Is online learning as simple as watching video heads with a bulk standard discussion forum? Very happy to share some of my findings from the research.
- Online learning platform should be built for learners and not IT administrators. This is where moodles, blackboards all suck! - Online learning should be engaging and distraction-free. We can learn a bit from social networks, how they show all the content inline and make it engaging and addictive. - Online learning should make it easy to link knowledge and build conceptual maps. For example, based on the topic you learnt, the platform should show the other topics that you could learn so that you can generalise (broad knowledge) or specialise. - Online learning should suit modern time-constrained learners. For example, typically all these platforms offer just one way of visualising a topic which was originally decided by the curator or the IT administrator. But learners need various views. Won't disclose a lot on this, but for example, a view showing only recently added materials, a view showing only the items to read etc could be intriguing.
Please feel free to take a look at my effort and let me know your thoughts.
tl;dr CoLearnr - a platform for collaborative learning