
Y Combinator Challenge #13 - Online Learning - crocus
http://astartupaday.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/y-combinator-challenge-13-online-learning/
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donw
I'll add something here, since I'm writing an application focused on language
learning: Pick an area to focus on, and provide lots of automation for the
user.

Even though my application is _very_ beta, it automates a lot of the drudgery
in building studylists, which differentiates my software from all the other
spaced repetition systems out there. This has gotten a pretty positive
response so far, and has the added advantage of being very difficult to
duplicate, giving you a big competitive edge.

Not sure how this could be applied to subjects other than language, and doing
it for language is hard enough, but that's what makes this an interesting
problem. :)

Also, I've dug around quite a bit, and talked to a few other researchers, and
have yet to find any proper studies on the effectiveness of SuperMemo
algorithm itself. There are lots of testimonials, but nothing involving a
control group, and so until I see some hard data, I'm going to remain a little
skeptical.

If anybody knows of such a study (with associated data), please let me know.

Of course, since I'm building a learning system, this puts me in a good
position to undertake such an experiment. _grin_ Which I plan to do next
semester, using a few hundred students' worth of Japanese classes.

~~~
helveticaman
Upvote for using hundreds of student hours. Free labor is good for startups!

I also resent the fact that your time is viewed as worthless if you don't have
a college degree.

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donw
It's not even about free labor. The students in the classes will get free
access to my learning system, which has all their class materials built-in,
and so no matter what the result of the experiment, the people who use the
system will at least reap the same level of benefit that they would with
traditional flashcards, and with far less work.

So, I'm doing something to help them, and in return, getting some data to
improve the system. Truly the epitome of a win-win scenario.

And, actually, I do have a college degree. Two of them, to be precise, and I
rather wish they had been printed on toilet paper, so they'd be worth
something.

I've met many college-educated idiots, and many self-educated geniuses. I've
also met a similar number of fantastically intelligent college graduates, and
self-educated morons. The true test of intelligence, in my experience, is
action. Those with intelligence act, create, build, and contribute to making
humanity _better_ , whether they want to or not.

So, you've been upvoted for being agreeable. :)

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Alex3917
Having failed a couple papers in educational theory classes for proposing
vaguely similar ideas, I'll give you the standard criticism: How does this
maximize the child's intrinsic motivation to learn? Which isn't the same
question as 'will this be fun,' which you make the case for. But rather, will
this make kids the kind of people who want to check out non-fiction books from
the library on their own ten years from now.

~~~
helveticaman
>But rather, will this make kids the kind of people who want to check out non-
fiction books from the library on their own ten years from now.

That's a really tall order.

~~~
Alex3917
While we don't know much about building intrinsic motivation, we do know a lot
about the factors that undermine intrinsic motivation. So in practice if you
can avoid all these, and you make the process both enjoyable and useful, then
at least you're on the right path.

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whacked_new
nitpick: spacing algorithm does not "dramatically increase memory." Your
memory is not so much increased. Your retention rate is what increases.

Another nitpick: 10 minutes a session is too short for anything of any
intensity. For single sessions, 40 minutes would be better. But again there
isn't a hard rule. Oh well, ideas surely are cheap.

~~~
kleneway
Thanks for the correction, I've updated the post accordingly.

The idea behind the 10 minute sessions was to address issues with short
attention spans. Maybe that could be another dynamic variable - the lessons
change in duration once they reach a point of diminishing returns.

