Question

hello.. i'm just getting the hang, here. so far, so good. nice, clean format. found some little extra gems, thanks to folks' response.

however, i do have some needling questions, that are not easily discoverable—some revolve around functionality that isn't documented (at least i can't find it).

my most pressing question is: who creates/adds subtopics, and university associations? the online computer science courses from stanford/coursera are F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C. would love to follow along w/this forum as extra support. thx!

Answer 1

Subtopics are added by Admins when they feel there is a necessity.

Answer 2

good to know. thanks for the reply.. for what it's worth, coursera is hugely popular, and very well organized. are there specific metrics the "admins" look for? i'd be happy to volunteer to research, "what makes sense" for this forum—it seems so 'natch!

btw, i just upticked someone in this forum requesting a coursera entrepreneurship class.

Answer 3

I will bring this to the notice of the CEO @Preetha. Lets see what she has to tell about it :) Happy learning!

Answer 4

yay. : )

Answer 5

The site administrators who actually work for OpenStudy as a company (unlike the moderators, who are essentially ordinary users who are trusted with a limited set of disciplinary powers) decide on groups and subtopics.

The topic/sub-topic creation system could be amended in my opinion to make it more successful. We have not always had subtopics - they were established to better organise each group, but many of the groups don't have them and many users tend to ignore them. Perhaps a 'by consensus' approach by members of each group to subtopics would be better?

With respect to more integration or cooperation with Coursera/EdX/StanfordX - I am all for it. I am also a dedicated EdX and Coursera student (quite a few new courses starting in January - I am looking forward to my winter term) and would like to see the site move in that direction.

Answer 6

@blues YES!

the coursera (upenn-mod poetry course) had 40,000+ subscribers. the prof utilized all sorts of media to engage, including live webcasts, where people from all over the world called in questions, and discussion points. i don't wish to further spam openstudy with my evangelism, but really.. it is draws sticky eye-balls, and offers quite sophisticated courses. meetups get organized around these courses, as well. ok. 'nuff said.

thanks for supporting this suggestion.
mazal

Answer 7

Ur Qs?