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I like the style and I appreciate the idea. In fact, I’ve been working on something in the same direction. So, here are a couple of things that I prefer to do d

I like the style and I appreciate the idea. In fact, I’ve been working on something in the same direction. So, here are a couple of things that I prefer to do differently. First, these are video lectures but without actual students present. As a result, he is essentially talking to himself. I noticed that this causes him to skip some details that students might be wondering about. I prefer to start with actual lectures and initially put them on the web as pdfs (http://users.marshall.edu/~saveliev/Teaching/Fall09/m430/updates.html http://users.marshall.edu/~saveliev/Teaching/Fall09/m430/upd...). Then I transcribe them to an online version (http://inperc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Introductory_algebraic_topology:_course http://inperc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Introductory_algebrai...). This is the second problem I have with his approach. Video just isn’t enough. I don’t’ have to explain to you what video doesn’t have and html does: searchability, cross-linking, speed of download, the ability to read and work at your own pace, etc. Certainly, my way is much slower.

pyre 17y ago
One thing that video has that HTML doesn't: single-file archive ability. Sure you can have a single HTML file as long as you keep it text-only, but most of these topics are going to be diagram (and math figure) heavy. There's just no good way to archive the content for later perusal. (Granted YouTube doesn't want you to directly download the videos, but it's not like it's that hard to circumvent -- and once you have the video you can easily find a player for it on any platform) [Note: I don't count .webarchive or .mht files as 'good enough'. .webarchive files are Safari-only, and I don't even know of a tool to be able to extract data from them. .mht files are 'sorta' supported (IE, Opera, Firefox w/ an extension), but I don't like the idea that the data is Base64/MIME-encoded. Personally I like .maff (Mozilla Archive File Format). It's only supported in Firefox with an extension (and nowhere else unfortunately), but it's basically a Zip file with the HTML/CSS/images inside of it.]
- pixcavator 17y ago
  Well, the site runs on MediaWiki, so you can save the printable version of each article. Even if you print the whole thing, the end result wouldn't be that much different from a bunch of video files for each 15-min lecture.
  - pyre 17y ago
    The point being that as long as there are external files (css,images,etc) in the page you will have to save it as 'Webpage (complete)' (or the equivalent in your browser) which saves the HTML file and creates a directory for the external files. If you are saving a bunch of sites/pages this way you end up with a lot of directory/html-file pairs. And were you to ever move these around, you would need to make sure that the directory/file pair moved together. It makes much more sense to have it all in one file (and as with MAFF a file that doesn't necessarily need a browser to extract the contents). Linking to this to the subject matter, most of the lessons have to do with math and science, in a way that requires diagrams and specific notations. Both of which cannot be represented in plain-text or HTML without external files.
    - pixcavator 17y ago
      Good point. I wish the printable version would automatically create a pdf.

pyre 17y ago

One thing that video has that HTML doesn't: single-file archive ability. Sure you can have a single HTML file as long as you keep it text-only, but most of these topics are going to be diagram (and math figure) heavy. There's just no good way to archive the content for later perusal. (Granted YouTube doesn't want you to directly download the videos, but it's not like it's that hard to circumvent -- and once you have the video you can easily find a player for it on any platform) [Note: I don't count .webarchive or .mht files as 'good enough'. .webarchive files are Safari-only, and I don't even know of a tool to be able to extract data from them. .mht files are 'sorta' supported (IE, Opera, Firefox w/ an extension), but I don't like the idea that the data is Base64/MIME-encoded. Personally I like .maff (Mozilla Archive File Format). It's only supported in Firefox with an extension (and nowhere else unfortunately), but it's basically a Zip file with the HTML/CSS/images inside of it.]

pixcavator 17y ago
Well, the site runs on MediaWiki, so you can save the printable version of each article. Even if you print the whole thing, the end result wouldn't be that much different from a bunch of video files for each 15-min lecture.
- pyre 17y ago
  The point being that as long as there are external files (css,images,etc) in the page you will have to save it as 'Webpage (complete)' (or the equivalent in your browser) which saves the HTML file and creates a directory for the external files. If you are saving a bunch of sites/pages this way you end up with a lot of directory/html-file pairs. And were you to ever move these around, you would need to make sure that the directory/file pair moved together. It makes much more sense to have it all in one file (and as with MAFF a file that doesn't necessarily need a browser to extract the contents). Linking to this to the subject matter, most of the lessons have to do with math and science, in a way that requires diagrams and specific notations. Both of which cannot be represented in plain-text or HTML without external files.
  - pixcavator 17y ago
    Good point. I wish the printable version would automatically create a pdf.