Question

OpenStudy feedback - What do you think we should change or add to make your experience better?

Answer 1

First, I appreciate that this is here at all. Thanks!

The issues I've noticed are small and odd. I'm viewing in Firefox 3.6.13, and I notice two main functionality issues. First, immediately after I post something, the timestamp says it was posted 6 minutes ago.

Second, I see a number of questions in the sidebar on the course page at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/index.htm that do not appear on this page. It's as if there are threads I can't see.

Lastly, I'm not sure how many OCW courses have OpenStudy groups, but it would be cool if there was some kind of directory page listing all of them.

Again, I'm grateful that this resource is here.

Answer 2

Thanks for the feedback, Somnamniac. Regarding #1 and #2, those are both known issues, and we are working to fix them. As for #3, there are a few other courses from OCW on OpenStudy. We are planning to release a feature that will let you discover them soon.

Answer 3

One helpful feature would be a way to be notified (email, text message) when someone replies to a post.

Answer 4

@radly, we already send email notifications if someone replies to your items, or others' items that you have replied to. If you are not getting them, you should check your spam folder.

Answer 5

@radly Thanks for the feedback. Please let us know If you either never received the emails or they are in your spam folder. Regards!

Answer 6

I think it would be helpful if there was a way to structure or categorize threads. For example, there are quite a few threads that have been started regarding Problem Set 1. It'd be nice for those searching for help with Problem Set 1 to be able to start there, and it'd be nice for those who are looking for something else to have the option to skip over those threads.

Answer 7

Just a quick PS-- I second somnamniac in that this is a great resource and that it adds a very helpful dynamic to workings of OCW

Answer 8

Thanks for the feedback all - it's very helpful. Agree on categorization. Do you think search or tagging would be more valuable?

Answer 9

Also - did you all know you can submit avatars via profile settings? We feel avatars add more character (real people) to the study group. Should we offer the option up front/on signup?

Answer 10

@somnamaniac That FF 3.6 issue is odd; I'll have a closer look when I get a chance, definitely should not be happening.

Answer 11

bump, we're listening now, feedback encouraged!

Answer 12

I think search and tagging would both be cool, but if I had to pick one I'd prefer search.

I've also noticed that I seem to miss both people who could help me and people I could help, and it occurred to me that one feature that might alleviate that is an optional profile field users could fill out to note their availability--either something like "I'll probably be back around 5pm EST," or something more general, like "I'm usually on for a couple hours between 7-11pm EST during the week." If it was just a text field, people could use it or not as they liked, and update it as frequently or infrequently as they liked.

also, file under bug report: The email notifications I get all state that the last person to contribute was the original poster in the conversation. For instance, I just got an email that "chris responded to chris's conversation" even though darthsid started this thread.

shadowfiend: the timestamp thing isn't happening any more. The other thing, with the threads on the sidebar on the course page at MIT still is happening--could it be pulling thread titles from the old version of the study group? That sidebar doesn't seem to be updating, or is doing so infrequently.

Answer 13

wow. excellent feedback somnamiac

Answer 14

would you mind doing me a favor and emailing chiris.<removethis>sprague@openstudy.com ? We'd like to get you involved in an advisory council we have.

Answer 15

@somnamaniac Indeed, we know about the missed threads on the OCW page. We're working on it :) Good to know the other issue is gone. Bugs are being fixed/features added at a pretty fast pace.

Answer 16

I'd like to see some way to rate good/helpful answers. Or I just want my answers rated :p

Answer 17

I second Julie, I think that'd be really helpful. Perhaps even having a slot at the top of each thread for "best answer" and then below giving the whole thread in order. I think tagging could potentially be really useful, but the only problem is that people (sometimes) abuse tags and that might defeat the purpose. Either would be a nice perk though.

Answer 18

great feedback julie, k1e4v. Please keep it coming. K1e4v - are you a CS major/current student? Or are you wanting to mainly learn programming?

Answer 19

@darthsid, @sandra: I have scoured my entire email archive (I use Thunderbird) for any email containing the text of a couple of samples of responses to one of my posts and can't find any trace of them. I'll keep looking and see if I've overlooked something. Would the sender domain be openstudy.com?

Answer 20

How about timestamps on the Group Chat window? Or maybe if you'd just confirm that the number on the window is the count of logged-in users? What I'm looking for is an indicator of activity; I hate being the only one in the room. :)

Answer 21

Never mind. I see now that the number on the Group Chat window matches the "Online" number. That's okay.

Answer 22

We do have some more improvements in the pipe, but right now you can hover over a message to get a timestamp in the top right of the message.

Answer 23

Cool. That's totally adequate. And, as we all know, adequacy is sufficient. :)

Answer 24

@radly: Yes, the sender domain is notifier(at)openstudy(dot)com. The sender's name should say "OpenStudy Team".

Looks like we might have had a bug with emails not going out, but I believe we have fixed it. Let us know if you start getting the emails or not.

Answer 25

I'm getting emails. One minor thing: the number of "new notifications" doesn't refresh when I click links through the notifications area until I reload the page.

Answer 26

@darthsid: Yesterday I set up a filter that would route anything from "openstudy.com" or "mit.edu" to an MIT folder, and it is still empty. I have a bazillion other such filters that all work nicely. So I have to infer that I'm not getting any. MIght this also be related to my username starting with an uppercase letter? :)

Answer 27

@somnamniac -- yeah, that's a known bug. We're working on it.

Answer 28

@radly -- Well caught :) We're internally testing a bunch of fixes to do with username capitalization, should be out soon.

Answer 29

No worries. Life's too short to be impatient.

Answer 30

@radly We just pushed our fixes for capitalization issues, so (a) you have an avatar and (b) you should be getting emails!

Answer 31

The new notifications link from the profile settings page appears to be broken.

Answer 32

Indeed, good catch. We'll have a look at that soon.

Answer 33

@shadowfiend: I guess I'm really connected now! Both email and avatar are working as expected. Well done.

Answer 34

Awesome! Good to hear!

Answer 35

I've spent a lot of time trying to follow programming tutorials on youtube, but I forget what I learn. Primarily because they tell me what to type where, but not why. So I have to say I appreciate this a Lot. My learning has accelerated 10x since I started following these lectures and taking notes.

The only request I have for myself is higher resolution video and perhaps video capture of the profs computer screen edited into the lecture instead of pointing a camera at the projector screen.
Also you may think about making or linking to some short tutorial on getting python and some IDE installed and the basics functions of the IDE. Just to bootstrap those who are completely lost from the start.

Answer 36

I wish that the page would not refresh and wipe out posts before you finish them ;-)
It would be nice to have a search function, for questions already asked, or discussed.
Also, I don't much like having the Group chat keep history. I don't find that much use - instead have a SAVE CHAT BUTTON, where the user can simply copy the chat to text file. Become a Fan is neat - but you should have a way for a user to undo that option. Perhaps a simple forum type webpage would serve better...where you can add tags, or threads for any topic. It would be much more user friendly, in that sense, and easier to rifle through past entries. Also, this "post box" is way too small.