

Show HN: CoLearnr - Collaborate and Learn for free - prabhus
http://www.colearnr.com

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prabhus
We believe that collaborative learning (where learners and experts
share/discuss/learn together) is better than a MOOC or pinterest model for
life-long learning. I gave a talk to Penn State University on this topic
recently - [http://coil.psu.edu/2013/09/04/recording-available-
redefinin...](http://coil.psu.edu/2013/09/04/recording-available-redefining-
collaborative-learning-with-colearnr-a-conversation-with-prabhu-subramanian/)

Please feel free to shoot any questions/ideas/suggestions to help us build a
great platform for learning!

\- Prabhu, Miguel, Rashmi and Veronica

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evegeny
Interesting website.How is it different from Pinterest or Learnist?

[http://learni.st/category/featured](http://learni.st/category/featured)

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prabhus
Hi Evegeny,

They are the usual suspects for social learning, aren't they? Pinterest
definitely is an inspiration for the user interface.

The problem with typical social learning platforms is the quality. Try
learning about a topic from these sites. There will be just no structuring,
anyone can share whatever they know, you can have any content on any board -
the reality is that these platforms are no better than following lots and lots
of twitter feeds and blogs and trying to learn about a topic. There will be
lots and lots of links to read and you might end up spending hours and hours
reading them. But after spending that much time, have you ever felt that you
have just wasted significant part of your life? I always used to feel so. This
is the sad state of informal learning which is one of the reason we keep
looking for institutions providing formal learning. Among other things, when
you pursue a course from a university or a MOOC or something authoritative,
there is a trust that you are not going to end up wasting your time reading
biased or some amateurish blog about your subject.

One of the things we did with CoLearnr is to attract people with expertise in
certain subject areas and allowed only these folks to curate content. Of
course, the community plays an important role in enhancing the topic by
participating in discussion, suggesting alternative links etc.

~~~
evegeny
I agree. I have never used pinterest for anything myself. Your website has
videos from YouTube, MIT and Stanford (Entrepreneurship). I like the
convenience part in the sense I need not look for those videos myself if
someone has already put the effort in collecting them. I also like the fact
that your website supports pdf, slides and webpages as well. But how is it any
different from a website that just has bunch of links to other free content?

Here is one -
[http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses](http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses)

Apart from the interface, what else is there for learners?

~~~
prabhus
You can do quite a bit already with CoLearnr.

1\. You can create a private topic just for you and curate contents that you
like. Very shortly you will be able to share this with your friends and
collaboratively build a topic. Check out this video for an example -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HydOgRqByRg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HydOgRqByRg)

2\. We have a small but growing community already. Please check out our
topics. Below are some of the topics we are proud of.

[http://www.colearnr.com/soft-skills](http://www.colearnr.com/soft-skills)
[http://www.colearnr.com/topic/522677f41fe5e070f6829e03/moocs](http://www.colearnr.com/topic/522677f41fe5e070f6829e03/moocs)

