5 ms·

Show HN: An e-course creator for hobbyists my wife and I built

62 points by thenduks 14y ago

zura 14y ago
You should definitely add some short video or other type of media to quickly showcase the whole process.
- thenduks 14y ago
  This is absolutely something we're working on right now. Both a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course, and a landing page video are the first things on our mind. Thanks!
  - mrchess 14y ago
    "How to make a coursecraft course" course. This would be gold. Sidenote -- the draft -> publish mechanism is very unintuitive.
    - thenduks 14y ago
      You know, we had some internal struggles with that. We originally were going for a bunch of scheduling vs manual publishing options and it got really complicated. Can you clarify what about it is unintuitive to you? Should there maybe be a way to publish right on the lesson edit page? There is a help doc on 'different ways to run a course' that suggest how you might use that option (https://www.coursecraft.net/help/running-a-course https://www.coursecraft.net/help/running-a-course). Thanks!
      - realrocker 14y ago
        Why can't you just follow the Wordpress model? They do it all right.
        thenduks 14y ago
        Interesting. I haven't used wordpress much myself, but you're right it's likely pretty well understood by most. I'll look into it.
        mrchess 14y ago
        Yes check out that or Blogspot. Their method of Draft->Preview in a lifecycle is more or less what people expect IMO, and also scheduling (you can schedule blog posts to be published at certain times).
kalid 14y ago
As an e-course creator, some quick feedback: * My very first question: What's your cut? Have a FAQ page listed prominently. * Have a public, no-login, sample course so I can see what it looks like end-to-end. How are courses branded? * How can I access my customers, esp. ones I refer from my site? Do I get an email list? Will you be sending them info on your own mailing list? * Can I sign up with Facebook/Google/Twitter (I don't want yet another account)
- thenduks 14y ago
  Hey thanks for the notes! Our cut is 5% (like kickstarter), it's on the 'getting paid' faq page which we should make more prominent (it will be a big button on the confirm-your-email page). Public no-login sample course is on the way! Accessing your customers, they are listed in the participants page you get on the 'my courses' dashboard. Probably a csv export or something would be good, yes? Working on signup with twitter. Thanks again!
  - kalid 14y ago
    No problem. I'd just add the 5% thing right on the homepage (step 3), don't make me wait until signing up :). [Or rather, I won't bother signing up until I know the cut]. 5% is really good by the way; udemy takes 30%. Customer export would be good. Might want to have some aweber / mailchimp integration but that's a good v1.
    - thenduks 14y ago
      I think you're right, there's no reason not to explain our fee on the frontpage, and just link right there to the help page that goes into detail (update: added :)). I'll also definitely add a csv export to the participants list, and do you mean some kind of mailchimp integration so you can send announcements and whatnot to your participants? That's an interesting idea we've thrown around a bit already. As for Udemy's 30%, wow! Udemy is much more of a full-service sort of thing, it seems to me. More formal, they appear to do a lot of promotion and have a ton of community tools and so on. I think ultimately while both are about e-courses, they aren't really in the same market.
realrocker 14y ago
"Preview" instead of "Visit"? Sorry, wordpress effects. It just feels better.
- thenduks 14y ago
  We flip-flopped between those two ourselves. Consider it considered :)
hipjiveguy 14y ago
super idea.... if this doesn't make you $$$, and make it so anyone who's an expert in something can sell what they know, then there's something really really wrong with... something ;-)
- thenduks 14y ago
  Haha thanks, I agree! There are some existing solutions out there (udemy, coursera, etc) but they seem to cover a different use-case and market (coursecraft being much more informal/hobbyist type stuff). I'm hoping it's just a matter of getting infront of the people who have something to teach (which is often the hardest part :)).
pbojinov 14y ago
great site, I like the layout and feel it has. Planning on putting together a lesson when I gather my resources for it. also a short video describing your vision/product would be extremely beneficial.
- thenduks 14y ago
  Sara (my wife) is very happy to hear you like the look/feel! :) Right now we're working on a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course, and a video is definitely on our xmas list, although it's a much bigger undertaking. Thanks!
arscan 14y ago
Great concept! I was just thinking about how I don't truly master something until I attempt teaching it... and it would be helpful to have a platform that provides a little structure to that process. As an enthusiast (vs. an academic), this seems like more my speed than other sites out there which have a much more "serious" view of education. I know that the pretty "easy as 1-2-3" welcome page is all the rage these days, but my recommendation is to try to get people exposed to and using the site with as little work on their part as possible. Having step 1 be "sign up" means that many people won't ever bother getting to step 2. Ideally, they wouldn't even need to click anything before seeing the product in action. Just a thought...
- thenduks 14y ago
  On 'mastering via teaching', this is exactly what we're talking about! The formal sites look great, but it can be a bit intimidating to a hobbyist with a blog who wants to teach knitting. On the homepage. You're right. We need a 'this is what it looks like' front and center. This is early on still and we just finished the product, so next step is to make a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course which will also serve as an example of what a course looks like/what you can do with the product. Thanks for the comments!
xauronx 14y ago
Others have said it but I believe a demo of the end product would be key here. I'd like to see "hey, let's say I master their tool, what kind of awesome lesson could I create?". Very well done though! I'm curious how powerful your creation tool is. You might want to take a look at what apple did with their book creator and get some ideas from them. I think they put a lot of time into making it dynamic enough to handle all kinds of interactive lessons/books.
- thenduks 14y ago
  Hey, yea the example course is important, and in the works, as I mentioned to some other people. About the editor, it was definitely one of the harder parts of the app, and to be honest it's not exactly iBooks Author :) We based the capabilities of the tool on some of the courses Sara (my wife) has taken that used (misappropriated?) a blog engine + some plugins to make courses. Really fancy layout controls and stuff is probably a ways off, but something we would definitely love to consider eventually. Thanks!
  - xauronx 14y ago
    Thanks for the reply! Yeah, haha, I wasn't implying that it should have all of the features of iBooks Author, just an idea if you needed a muse. Very nice project and as always, congrats on shipping something!
junto 14y ago
I worked in e-learning for several years for a company that sold into corporate clients. Here are a couple of things that struck me from that experience: * How do you integrate with my Active Directory users? * I want to import these courses I've designed into my learning management system. Can I do that? * Do you support SCORM or AICC? Hint: Focus on SCORM. :-) * Can I test users at the end of the course / during the course? * Can I let users re-take a test, or block them from retaking a test? * Every client wants to track and test in different ways. Finally, when times are hard, the first thing that gets a budget cut in large companies is training (and e-learning expenditure as part of that). I've seen various "successful" businesses fail in this market niche, usually when the economy is getting hit hard. If you can make a success of this during the hard times, you'll be golden for the good times!
- thenduks 14y ago
  Hi there thanks for commenting! I think there's a bit of a disconnect between the stuff you mention here and what our target market is going to use/need. We're aiming squarely at hobbyists/independent people who want to share/sell their knowledge of things like: knitting, painting, gardening, cooking, small renovation projects, setting up a home theater, and so on. There's no testing at all, in fact! Ultimately I don't think myself or my wife are in a position to make an appropriate product for the corporate e-learning market. Long story short - neither of us lasted long at the corporate/cube jobs we had after finishing school years ago, and stuff like Active Directory and corporate training programs are pretty far from our minds at this point :)

62 points by thenduks 14y ago

zura 14y ago

You should definitely add some short video or other type of media to quickly showcase the whole process.

thenduks 14y ago
This is absolutely something we're working on right now. Both a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course, and a landing page video are the first things on our mind. Thanks!
- mrchess 14y ago
  "How to make a coursecraft course" course. This would be gold. Sidenote -- the draft -> publish mechanism is very unintuitive.
  - thenduks 14y ago
    You know, we had some internal struggles with that. We originally were going for a bunch of scheduling vs manual publishing options and it got really complicated. Can you clarify what about it is unintuitive to you? Should there maybe be a way to publish right on the lesson edit page? There is a help doc on 'different ways to run a course' that suggest how you might use that option (https://www.coursecraft.net/help/running-a-course https://www.coursecraft.net/help/running-a-course). Thanks!
    - realrocker 14y ago
      Why can't you just follow the Wordpress model? They do it all right.
      - thenduks 14y ago
        Interesting. I haven't used wordpress much myself, but you're right it's likely pretty well understood by most. I'll look into it.
        mrchess 14y ago
        Yes check out that or Blogspot. Their method of Draft->Preview in a lifecycle is more or less what people expect IMO, and also scheduling (you can schedule blog posts to be published at certain times).

kalid 14y ago

As an e-course creator, some quick feedback: * My very first question: What's your cut? Have a FAQ page listed prominently. * Have a public, no-login, sample course so I can see what it looks like end-to-end. How are courses branded? * How can I access my customers, esp. ones I refer from my site? Do I get an email list? Will you be sending them info on your own mailing list? * Can I sign up with Facebook/Google/Twitter (I don't want yet another account)

thenduks 14y ago
Hey thanks for the notes! Our cut is 5% (like kickstarter), it's on the 'getting paid' faq page which we should make more prominent (it will be a big button on the confirm-your-email page). Public no-login sample course is on the way! Accessing your customers, they are listed in the participants page you get on the 'my courses' dashboard. Probably a csv export or something would be good, yes? Working on signup with twitter. Thanks again!
- kalid 14y ago
  No problem. I'd just add the 5% thing right on the homepage (step 3), don't make me wait until signing up :). [Or rather, I won't bother signing up until I know the cut]. 5% is really good by the way; udemy takes 30%. Customer export would be good. Might want to have some aweber / mailchimp integration but that's a good v1.
  - thenduks 14y ago
    I think you're right, there's no reason not to explain our fee on the frontpage, and just link right there to the help page that goes into detail (update: added :)). I'll also definitely add a csv export to the participants list, and do you mean some kind of mailchimp integration so you can send announcements and whatnot to your participants? That's an interesting idea we've thrown around a bit already. As for Udemy's 30%, wow! Udemy is much more of a full-service sort of thing, it seems to me. More formal, they appear to do a lot of promotion and have a ton of community tools and so on. I think ultimately while both are about e-courses, they aren't really in the same market.

realrocker 14y ago

"Preview" instead of "Visit"? Sorry, wordpress effects. It just feels better.

thenduks 14y ago
We flip-flopped between those two ourselves. Consider it considered :)

hipjiveguy 14y ago

super idea.... if this doesn't make you $$$, and make it so anyone who's an expert in something can sell what they know, then there's something really really wrong with... something ;-)

thenduks 14y ago
Haha thanks, I agree! There are some existing solutions out there (udemy, coursera, etc) but they seem to cover a different use-case and market (coursecraft being much more informal/hobbyist type stuff). I'm hoping it's just a matter of getting infront of the people who have something to teach (which is often the hardest part :)).

pbojinov 14y ago

great site, I like the layout and feel it has. Planning on putting together a lesson when I gather my resources for it. also a short video describing your vision/product would be extremely beneficial.

thenduks 14y ago
Sara (my wife) is very happy to hear you like the look/feel! :) Right now we're working on a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course, and a video is definitely on our xmas list, although it's a much bigger undertaking. Thanks!

arscan 14y ago

Great concept! I was just thinking about how I don't truly master something until I attempt teaching it... and it would be helpful to have a platform that provides a little structure to that process. As an enthusiast (vs. an academic), this seems like more my speed than other sites out there which have a much more "serious" view of education. I know that the pretty "easy as 1-2-3" welcome page is all the rage these days, but my recommendation is to try to get people exposed to and using the site with as little work on their part as possible. Having step 1 be "sign up" means that many people won't ever bother getting to step 2. Ideally, they wouldn't even need to click anything before seeing the product in action. Just a thought...

thenduks 14y ago
On 'mastering via teaching', this is exactly what we're talking about! The formal sites look great, but it can be a bit intimidating to a hobbyist with a blog who wants to teach knitting. On the homepage. You're right. We need a 'this is what it looks like' front and center. This is early on still and we just finished the product, so next step is to make a 'how to make a coursecraft course' course which will also serve as an example of what a course looks like/what you can do with the product. Thanks for the comments!

xauronx 14y ago

Others have said it but I believe a demo of the end product would be key here. I'd like to see "hey, let's say I master their tool, what kind of awesome lesson could I create?". Very well done though! I'm curious how powerful your creation tool is. You might want to take a look at what apple did with their book creator and get some ideas from them. I think they put a lot of time into making it dynamic enough to handle all kinds of interactive lessons/books.

thenduks 14y ago
Hey, yea the example course is important, and in the works, as I mentioned to some other people. About the editor, it was definitely one of the harder parts of the app, and to be honest it's not exactly iBooks Author :) We based the capabilities of the tool on some of the courses Sara (my wife) has taken that used (misappropriated?) a blog engine + some plugins to make courses. Really fancy layout controls and stuff is probably a ways off, but something we would definitely love to consider eventually. Thanks!
- xauronx 14y ago
  Thanks for the reply! Yeah, haha, I wasn't implying that it should have all of the features of iBooks Author, just an idea if you needed a muse. Very nice project and as always, congrats on shipping something!

junto 14y ago

I worked in e-learning for several years for a company that sold into corporate clients. Here are a couple of things that struck me from that experience: * How do you integrate with my Active Directory users? * I want to import these courses I've designed into my learning management system. Can I do that? * Do you support SCORM or AICC? Hint: Focus on SCORM. :-) * Can I test users at the end of the course / during the course? * Can I let users re-take a test, or block them from retaking a test? * Every client wants to track and test in different ways. Finally, when times are hard, the first thing that gets a budget cut in large companies is training (and e-learning expenditure as part of that). I've seen various "successful" businesses fail in this market niche, usually when the economy is getting hit hard. If you can make a success of this during the hard times, you'll be golden for the good times!

thenduks 14y ago
Hi there thanks for commenting! I think there's a bit of a disconnect between the stuff you mention here and what our target market is going to use/need. We're aiming squarely at hobbyists/independent people who want to share/sell their knowledge of things like: knitting, painting, gardening, cooking, small renovation projects, setting up a home theater, and so on. There's no testing at all, in fact! Ultimately I don't think myself or my wife are in a position to make an appropriate product for the corporate e-learning market. Long story short - neither of us lasted long at the corporate/cube jobs we had after finishing school years ago, and stuff like Active Directory and corporate training programs are pretty far from our minds at this point :)