The Gonit IshCool Project

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Zawadx
Posts:90
Joined:Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:35 pm
The Gonit IshCool Project

Unread post by Zawadx » Thu Mar 23, 2017 12:14 am

((Posting this to site support since it's the only sub-forum with a topic close to meta discussion ._.))

This is a project I thought up about a month ago, as a way to teach people specific topics in problem solving which can't be traditionally learned. For example, functional equations aren't really properly learned from a book, but by first trying out several problems and reading the solutions to get attuned with the concept, then learning a few basic tricks/ideas and slowly developing with practice. So the best way to learn such a topic would be to expose yourself to good problems and to try to solve and write solutions.

And that is the goal of this project. We'll start off with a small pool of tutors/mentors, and a list of courses/topics the students can learn about. Each student is assigned a mentor for his chosen topic, and the mentor will provide the student with problems to try and offer guidance on stuff to check out. And most importantly, the mentor will check the student's solutions and provide constructive feedback.

And as repayment, I was hoping that some of the students would also return as mentors and help others out. Thus we'll be able to slowly expand and teach a lot of people at once.

If we want to start this project, we need to get some mentors and students to go through a beta phase where we sort out the proper amounts/materials for coursework. I was thinking that we'd give freedom to each mentor on how they want to teach, but provide a guideline of coursework for them to fall back on. We'll also have to decide on the pace for topics, which topics to include, and whether the students become mentors pyramid model is a good idea.

So please post about your thoughts on this. Tell me if you are interested, and what you'd like to see from such a project. All suggestions are welcome!

rah4927
Posts:110
Joined:Sat Feb 07, 2015 9:47 pm

Re: The Gonit IshCool Project

Unread post by rah4927 » Thu Mar 23, 2017 2:12 am

Hey zawad this is a great project and I would be happy to collaborate on this one. However, how do you propose students and mentors communicate with each other? Are you confident the PM system on the forum is good and friendly enough for users to communicate? There isn't a chat system which I feel might be essential for learning. I suggest contacting the mods to do something about this .

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Zawadx
Posts:90
Joined:Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:35 pm

Re: The Gonit IshCool Project

Unread post by Zawadx » Fri Mar 24, 2017 12:00 am

Why do you think a chat system is essential for learning? Real-time chats are quick and easy, but they can get messy sometimes and might make it harder to get the point across. Often it's better to take the time to think and type a proper response without the pressure of real time.

My plan was that either lessons would be done in a specific thread (which would allow everyone to learn from mistakes, and provide reference for future mentors) or in PMs (if the student really wants privacy). Thoughts on a public system?

And setting up a chat system shouldn't be too hard, though we might have some issues installing it if it requires access to the forum server. Blab and IRC are pretty good chat clients which we could try for forum integration. Or we might just set up a Discord server.

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ahmedittihad
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Re: The Gonit IshCool Project

Unread post by ahmedittihad » Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:21 pm

How and when would you start? I'm interested in this project.
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

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