Re: incentives being weird in higher education: we once overheard the director of the CS department respond to complaints about the program not being a good fit for industry by saying, "our job is to create researchers." I recall something like 7% of students going on into research, meaning that they weren't even trying to meet the needs of 93% of their students.
Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
11–20 of 209 posts
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#12The site was impossible to use on FF mobile without using desktop-view. https://www.explanations.app/dat153qkJtTcHf9Fbm1B/overview, for example has the content frame as a slither on the right.
Signing in with Google and getting a different name is disconcerting.
It's not clear what a "server" is?
I searched "electromagnetic" and "electro-magnetism" but got no results ... "Electricity and Magnetism" is one of the videos though. Robust search is essential.
On one page there were a few "untitled" blackboards; allowing them to be untitled seems bad. They were empty, suggesting some moderation/UGC vetting will be needed.
It's important for college-students to be able to determine the college-level content from the other content. You say it's an open platform, how does one readily see only college-level content?
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#13Re: incentives being weird in higher education: we once overheard the director of the CS department respond to complaints about the program not being a good fit for industry by saying, "our job is to create researchers." I recall something like 7% of students going on into research, meaning that they weren't even trying to meet the needs of 93% of their students.
What would be the percentage of researchers left if they weren't trying this hard to create them? With a good theoretical background in CS, most of what you need for the industry can be learned more easily throughout your career. That universities are not dedicated to teaching how to be an immediately productive economical actor makes sense. That's of course assuming you don't have to take on 300k of debt to get a de…
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#14Anyway I've given and received actual tutoring and imho it just can't be done on video. E.g. in a real session, the tutor might give you a problem to solve (pen and paper) while they sit next to you. You start working on it and when you hesitate somewhere, or if your approach to the solution starts going wrong, the tutor immediately notices what is happening and gives you some guidance.
I suppose this video product could be of some use to some people but I can't imagine it being like tutoring.
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#15Re: incentives being weird in higher education: we once overheard the director of the CS department respond to complaints about the program not being a good fit for industry by saying, "our job is to create researchers." I recall something like 7% of students going on into research, meaning that they weren't even trying to meet the needs of 93% of their students.
I have always had programming jobs (job title: software engineer) that required the 'researcher' mindset. We didn't mind teaching them our stack or even good coding practice, but if they didn't have the 'explorative/innovative mind' of a 'researcher', we could never train them up to the level they needed to be.
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#16Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#17Re: incentives being weird in higher education: we once overheard the director of the CS department respond to complaints about the program not being a good fit for industry by saying, "our job is to create researchers." I recall something like 7% of students going on into research, meaning that they weren't even trying to meet the needs of 93% of their students.
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#18Anything to democratize education is a good thing, so I'm really happy to see this and hope it takes off!
Agree with your point though.
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#19Re: incentives being weird in higher education: we once overheard the director of the CS department respond to complaints about the program not being a good fit for industry by saying, "our job is to create researchers." I recall something like 7% of students going on into research, meaning that they weren't even trying to meet the needs of 93% of their students.
University was meant to be the destination of future scholars.
Re: Show HN: I made a cheap alternative to college-level math & physics tutoring
#20https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/professors-as-creators-h...