|
|
|
|
|
|
by adaptives
5293 days ago
|
|
|
Hi, Some time back I started working on a DIY learning solution for Computer Science. It is based on the concept of peer based social learning. The website has courses which are a collection of material, forums, and activities. Participants consume the information, ask/answer questions, submit responses to activities, and even review other participant's responses. There are no certificates, but whatever a participant does is made available in their profile and is their credentials. I will really appreciate if you can take a look at the website and offer me suggestions on how I can offer the participant's a better learning experience. http://diycomputerscience.com/ Thank you very much for volunteering your time. |
|
|
- The site is quite text heavy. This is probably not a big issue for those highly-motivated to use the site, you're going to discourage use from the casual crowd...which seems to be a big attribute that your site promotes. Casual, self-paced learning. Right?
- The various functions don't seem to be tied together in a very meaningful way. They are all partitioned and activity in one part doesn't seem to surface anywhere else. If you're looking for engagement, this is important. Take a look at Stackoverflow. Practically ANYWHERE you touch on that site will surface additional value to others on the site. Votes will bump old questions. Comments alert the OP that you had something to say. Adding tags expands the reach of specific questions.
- I think you want other people to add content to the site as well, but it's not immediately clear on the best way to do that.
- Everyone on your site is a Twitter account...and that's probably not the perspective you want your users to have on each other. Looking at SO again, their profile tags are quite expressive about the value they add to the community at a glance. This is the target you want to shoot for.
- Making DIYComputerScience an auxiliary tool for your resume is a good idea, but as it stands right now this is not something I would want to use to represent me professionally. I know this is probably still young, but if this is going to be one of your value propositions you're going to have to shine. Again, SO has careers.stackoverflow.com and those layouts are VERY nice and does a great job of pulling in experience/value that you've added from their StackExchange sites. (I use them almost exclusively for my online resume.)
I'm going to give advice that I give to any startup who is entering a crowded market. Your PRIMARY differentiation will be your user's experience. It's good that you realize this and am making it your goal. Here's a great answer on Quora which touches on this exactly: http://www.quora.com/Internet-Startups/Should-I-focus-on-a-g...