Ideas

Everyone can be a learner and everyone can be a teacher….
To be honest: the web is full of free lessons, often for a specific topic. Also http://www.youtube.com shows more and more instruction videos.
If you want this site to be successful you need to find some kind of incentive for the teachers to use your site.
Tommy

MIT and a lot of major universities already put course content online for free. That's some major credibility to compete with.

In addition, you're competing with the basic idea of blogging. If someone knows a lot about Civic engines or raising daisies and want to share that with the world, they may already have a blog that covers that topic. You're offering a little more structure and some student-teacher feedback, but you'd need a big hook to pull people from basic blogging.

@micco: that's a fair way to look at it. I'm simply looking to bring those members to a more structured environment, which may or may not be feasible in any sense. I've noticed that the major downfall with free coursework online is that the person who wrote the course is rarely around to offer assistance to students, like for many online enrollment models, and also that this coursework is almost always academic-in-nature. I just think that this sort of information exchange can thrive on an open-sharing basis, even if hitting up MIT for a thermodynamics class that was taught three years ago is what somebody may be looking for. Apples and oranges.

I just google most of my learning gaps...or go to wikipedia.

I think you would have the same problem as any site on the internet that is open content based ( like wikipedia ) and that is verification of the information. We all know that if it is on wikipedia AND youtube it MUST be true.

Truthiness is the big problem online. It's also the big problem pretty much anywhere, books, newspapers, etc. But online... well... the peanut gallery has unprecidented access and abilities to spread incorrect information.

I would think that there's something to say about taking information at face value. That's why the light moderation would be in place, to make sure that what is being submitted at least has viable information. Whether or not that information well-enough pertains to the field for which it was submitted could be easily determined by looking at how popular a curriculum is as compared to how many people have participated in other educational activities in that field. From there, you could weed out the "peanut gallery information" and only stick to the stuff people are finding useful.

There are plenty of university's that post full courses with video and everything. That and there is this place called the library where you can check out pretty much anything.

My only thought for this, is that if you were successful, and gained a positive national recognition, then perhaps passing a course with a great rating would be a recognized by employers. Say, I want to learn Java programming, and I take a particular battery of lessons and tests, then perhaps I could get a certificate from the site, and that could be something that I could use in a job search. Just an idea to throw out there.

Kevin, you have to look at how instructor guidance plays a part. Having a field professional on-hand to answer a student's questions about course material can be pivotal in how or if that student actually acquires the information he or she is trying to learn. Textbook study can carry you so far, and video study a little further, but it is all static information. You can't carry on an informed conversation with a block of text. Well, you could, but that would instead teach you how very white the walls of a padded room can be.

A lot of nay-saying, but there's hope. I like the idea of trading expertise, one-on-one.

ps, the logo isn't good.

I thought about stuff like this, i would love to enhance the amount of tutorial material on the web for alternative learners in the Sciences. But i also know another thing, the accreditation program likes to keep things conservative. I think it is about job security or something.

Chebelus - it is understood that when the student teaches, the student gains even greater understanding. Take that and run with it. You know in windows when you go to start/programs/games and see the online checkers game? Everyone is at a certain level, and everyone has people above and below them. Considering that, then you could be both a tutor and a tutee.

Hello,

I love the idea of acquiring more education, where ever you may find it.

Have you ever checked out http://www.universalclass.com/ ?

But, why not just take online classes then and actually get accredited? It seems to me that most professionals are not typically going to teach for free. At least not as a full time teacher.

See, but one could do that! The idea behind this is not to try to replace accredited institutions (online or otherwise) but to supplement them. A student could take a course at any institution he or she pleases and peruse this site as both an in-depth, interactive study guide and as a means to offer dynamic, third-party information on a given subject as opposed to much of the static curricula found in paid schools (especially with local colleges, often due to lack of funding because our tax dollars are going to such better uses).

On the latter note, I would actually disagree. I've spoken to a couple past professors of mine and they think the idea is great. The means to teach publicly to such a wide audience would be an extension of passion, even without it being a $$cash$$money$$ gig. Unfortunately, some tenured professors only teach for the pay. I would like to think that this is not the majority, and that the more hip professors would jump at the chance to spread knowledge to students who are not just browsing the site, but is a targeted individual who has specifically chosen that professors course over others and will likely be interested enough (or committed enough to a parallel course elsewhere) to follow through. As far as full-time is concerned, actually creating curricula on-site would be fairly easy and not very time-consuming. Institutional professors would likely have curricula on-hand to submit, with the added bonus of being able to go beyond the boundaries of the classic school setting with their coursework (without becoming too obscene, of course), where gonzo professors that have registered to submit coursework would likely be interested enough to develop it from the ground up, with the same bonus added. Everybody thinks they're good at something, and this can be the medium through which they prove themselves. The information is almost literally out there wanting to write itself. Harness traffic, profit.

Chalibaeus the idea is entering into direct competition with lot of existing resources online... if you can stand out of all these established sites yes you have hope, but then till then think of adding some more spice into it!

This is one of many similar ideas that have appeared on this site over the months... I'd suggest trawling the archives and trying to find some of them. Perhaps you could iron out your differences and work together to actually produce something?

Why not. It might work, but you will need to go this extra mile to get noticed. Maybe a commercial version would stand a better chance?

"professors only teach for the pay. "
Well, if you think about it. They are doing work here full time they should be getting compensated for there work. I just don't see this ever becoming a totally free service when you are going to have to hire people full time.

Maybe, you could set up something non-profit. Right now this idea is going to fall into the already implemented ( ex. http://www.ocw.mit.edu ) or can't be done budget wise if you look at the numbers area.