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Ask HN: Checkout my CS open learning website

6 points by adaptives ↗ HN
I have organized computer science videos from open courseware and a couple of other sources, as structured courses. Each topic page also uses Disqus to let people leave comments and ask questions.

I have several courses (currently 11) such as Algorithms, SICP, Machine Learning, Data Structures, etc.

I am working on creating timelines for existing videos, and will also add new courses in time to come.

The website is hosted at http://www.adaptivelearningonline.net

What features can I add, which will help people in the learning process?

If you are aware of video courses which are not included, please point me to them as well.

10 comments

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leftnode
http://www.adaptivelearningonline.net -- clickable link.

I would really work on the design. It looks very immature and I would immediately dismiss it as a fake site or wouldn't invest much time in it. It just looks like a bunch of exported Word documents.

Also, use UL's and LI's for the list of topics rather than tables.

You could easily re-set everything back up as a Wordpress site and get some great themes for free (or very inexpensively) and it would immediately add a lot more features.

Its a good idea though, and I do appreciate the work to bring all those videos together.

jgeewax
The content looks awesome. Really nice work, I appreciate having all the videos together in one place.

I agree with the poster above that the design could use a bit of work. It would be a shame for all the content to be dismissed because the site layout feels like one big advertising trap.

adaptives
Thanks for the kind words and suggestions. I totally agree about the bad design. Actually this is my improved design :-)

I will continue to work on the design and make it better...

jgeewax
You may want to check out Envato for a template to get you started. ThemeForest.net looks to have some nice stuff that's reasonably priced.
adaptives
Thanks for your suggestions. I really appreciate them.

I wanted to do this project from scratch (instead of using WordPress or Drupal), because I felt that down the line, it would be easier to add features which might not align well with an existing CMS type of system. Right now this website is implemented in Django and Python.

Another motivation was, it would help me learn some design skills.

I agree that while re setting everything to WordPress will give the website a much more professional look, I would still like to do it myself, if only for the learning experience.

lpolovets
Nice idea.

A few features that might be neat: - let people rate courses - have groupings of courses (the newbie section, the system/compiler/database section, the OOP section, the algorithm section, etc) - tag courses with their programming languages/topics/levels, etc - search by keyword (could be offset by having tags)

I like the logo and really like that you have free ebook links on some of the courses.

adaptives
Nice suggestions. Thanks. I especially like the suggestion to group courses.

My logo is actually from Seth Godin's ebook on Tribes.

I plan to add more free book links. Would like to request HN readers to suggest some.

mbowcock
Agree that the design could use some work but the idea is great. I like the links to books, maybe add links to other online resources. I also like the idea of discussion. It would be nice if 'study groups' could be formed around the various subjects.

FYI - There's a similar site here - http://academicearth.org/

adaptives
Study groups is a wonderful idea. I have thought about this, but could not figure out, what I can add to a study group, which does not already exist in a mailing list. Can you give some suggestions please?
adaptives
Thanks for the link to academicearth.org/