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Learning and science

study buddy matching

SHOW HN2018

217points
64comments
#157of 2,155 in 2018
Top 8%of 2018 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

12 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 9 critical, out of 33 comments about the project. Thread score +0.16.

Idea: 9 for, 2 againstDocs: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 0 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Useful concept for online learners

    From 3 comments
    • This is awesome! Are you familiar with the plus/equals/minus learning concept? Unfortunately I can't recall the exact term used when I first read about it and google isn't…
      elliekelly on HN
    • This is a fantastic idea. With some MOOCs, I tend to procrastinate heavily, so I hope societal pressure from a study buddy would help me avoid that :)
      kakaorka on HN
    • Wonderful concept. From my experience in distance learning (online courses), lack of human engagement is the #1 problem that leads to dropping a course -- no real human…
      crazygringo on HN

Objections

  • Sign-up requires full name and email before seeing features

    From 2 comments
    • That looks like a great thing to me. One thing that bothers me though is that you have to hand over your full name and email address before you can even see what functionality…
      sischoel on HN
    • I think it would help, you could also have a link to a separate page where you show screenshots and how it works if you want to keep your landing page minimal. It's just a trust…
      sischoel on HN
  • Search overlay appears broken and confusing

    From 1 comment
    • Latest firefox, created account, logged in, went to '_build_ my profile', received what looks like my profile screen, clicked on 'search' for courses, a gray overlay is put in…
      passwordreset on HN
  • Unclear how studying with a buddy works once matched

    From 2 comments
    • Latest firefox, created account, logged in, went to '_build_ my profile', received what looks like my profile screen, clicked on 'search' for courses, a gray overlay is put in…
      passwordreset on HN
    • Thanks. The Tinder comparison is fairly clear, but there's still something nagging at me. Tinder (I think) is partially based on physical location. I suppose there's always…
      passwordreset on HN
  • Landing page looks unfinished and needs explanation

    From 1 comment
    • I think it's a really cool service to offer and I could see it really helping a lot of people. Here's my thoughts on it. The main webpage is possibly too minimal. While…
      agracey on HN

Requests

  • Add more courses such as Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard and fast.ai

    From 4 comments
    • I know this is for MOOCS but there are lots of great courses that are available online from universities where this would be useful. I'm taking Deep Reinforcement Learning…
      kirill5pol on HN
    • Please add courses like CS109 (Harvard), CS231n (Stanford) etc. They are pretty famous among the MOOC people as far as I know.
      harias on HN
    • Any chances of adding Fast.ai courses?
      thisisit on HN
    • Crap, one more thing I meant to add -- Stanford Lagunita (lagunita.stanford.edu) has a number of interesting courses that you might be interested in indexing.
      passwordreset on HN
  • Add class size display

    From 1 comment
    • Our catalog currently consists of all courses from Coursera, edX, Udacity, Udemy, and The Great Courses Just put that sentence on your site. It would also be helpful to see…
      nerdponx on HN
  • Add a Q&A or mentor pairing feature

    From 1 comment
    • This is awesome! Are you familiar with the plus/equals/minus learning concept? Unfortunately I can't recall the exact term used when I first read about it and google isn't…
      elliekelly on HN
  • Add location-based matching

    From 1 comment
    • Thanks. The Tinder comparison is fairly clear, but there's still something nagging at me. Tinder (I think) is partially based on physical location. I suppose there's always…
      passwordreset on HN
  • Add non-MOOC subjects like languages and frameworks

    From 1 comment
    • How about adding non-MOOCs for people to organize learning subjects together? Say I want to learn a new language or framework. It would be nice to be able to find a group of…
      maltalex on HN

Questions

  • How do people actually study together online?

    From 2 comments
    • Latest firefox, created account, logged in, went to '_build_ my profile', received what looks like my profile screen, clicked on 'search' for courses, a gray overlay is put in…
      passwordreset on HN
    • Thanks. The Tinder comparison is fairly clear, but there's still something nagging at me. Tinder (I think) is partially based on physical location. I suppose there's always…
      passwordreset on HN
  • Why use this site instead of MOOC discussion forums?

    From 1 comment
    • Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you look for a study buddy on your site and not in the MOOC discussion forum (because there you will easily find people taking the same…
      account99668877 on HN

Alternatives named

  • MOOC discussion forums

    From 1 comment
    • Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you look for a study buddy on your site and not in the MOOC discussion forum (because there you will easily find people taking the same…
      account99668877 on HN
  • Reddit learning communities

    From 1 comment
    • You might also consider posting this to /r/cscareersquestions or /r/learnprogramming on reddit.
      afarrell on HN
  • Plus/equal/minus learning model

    From 1 comment
    • This is awesome! Are you familiar with the plus/equals/minus learning concept? Unfortunately I can't recall the exact term used when I first read about it and google isn't…
      elliekelly on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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