Show HN: Moocable – find people studying the same online course/book | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Moocable – find people studying the same online course/book

moocable.com

161 pointsjunaid_9738 comments

Hey, everyone

I made a website that lets you find study partners/groups based on the specific course/book you are studying.

It's 100% free + no registration required.

Why: I know there are many subreddits for finding study partners. But, one of the biggest reasons we can't find the right partner/group is lack of clarity.

Most posts that I read on Reddit were something like: "I'm interested in programming. Let's study Python together..." - That's not a clear goal.

But, when you say "Let's study the Python for Everybody course on Coursera. I'm from Mumbai, India, and I'm looking for study partners in the* timezone (UTC+5:30). I'm fluent in Hindi language. I have 2 years of experience in C++, so I understand the fundamentals of programming. Happy to host the group and contribute" - that will lead to higher quality engagement.

It's also difficult to search + filter posts on Reddit, based on my learning requirements.

Keeping all these pain points in mind, I've built Moocable, where you can search & filter posts based on the course/book you're learning + timezones + languages + level of experience.

Lastly, you can use it to discover new learning materials. Some of you might have used https://www.classcentral.com/

I'm building a similar library for Moocable, you can easily search and discover new learning materials.

If you are looking for study partners, give it a try!

P.S.: I've manually filled the first ~100 posts. Each post is 100% authentic, scraped from subreddits/Coursera forums/niche websites.

Open articleView on HN

I've been trying to put together a study group all week!

Is it possible to add a new course to the library? I'd like to make a group for CSS for JavaScript Developers by Josh W Comeau [1] but it seems like I can only make a group for courses in the library.

1: https://css-for-js.dev/

Added the course: https://moocable.com/mooc/view/css-for-javascript-developers...

Awesome, thanks so much!

:)

What a great idea.

I literally had this idea in the last week.

I have an abundance of helpers (friends, local meetup, IRC, Discord) for what I’m learning, but I’m driving them tired. LLMs help but hallucinate.

Thanks :)

I have come across multiple subreddits + niche forums/websites that try to solve this problem. But, I felt something was missing. I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then, I realized...it was "specificity". By adding constrains (course/book, timezones...) you can have clear goals - and, hopefully - better outcomes.

Moo-cable

ha!

I keep explaining the name to my friends. I guess most people don't know the abbreviation "MOOC".

They are like "Oh, it's Moo-cable?..."

I'm like "No, it's MOOC-able"

Cause you are able to complete the MOOCs.

Then, they ask "Oh, I see. Now, what's a MOOC?"

We had electric sheep, why not electric cows?!

Maybe it would help some folks if you consistently capitalized MOOC and only MOOC in the name of your website (in the text and logo).

Yes, I considered it. But, MOOCable didn't look good as a logo. I guess with time, there will be more awareness about it

Are there any established alternatives to this? I couldn't seems to find them even though it's such a good idea and I think there is demand for this. Thank you.

For finding study partners -> Reddit. For directory (courses) -> https://www.classcentral.com/ For directory (books) -> https://www.oreilly.com/search/ Also, Goodreads.

These are the closest established alternatives.

Then, there's - https://www.mooclab.club/ - https://my.cuddy.app/

These are niche alternatives.

Congrats on the launch. Have you personally ever had success getting a study partner on one of these sites? Might work for you if you get a subreddit to recommend your site as a way to find study buddies.

I've personally experienced the problem of search + filter. As mentioned, I manually found and scraped the first 100 posts on Moocable, and finding/filtering them wasn't super easy.

Thanks for the subreddit idea. I intend to share Moocable on multiple subreddits. Don't know if a subreddit will recommend us, but I'll try :)

cool, but I can't post [Crafting Interpreters](https://craftinginterpreters.com/)

just added to the library: https://moocable.com/mooc/view/crafting-interpreters-101599

wanna team up? https://moocable.com/groups/view/crafting-interpreters-150

Haha, exactly the book I was searching

I added the book :) It seems you two can make study partners

thanks

In the early days, MOOC's were provided synchronously and there was a cohort. When MOOC's scaled, that mostly fell by the wayside. So I can see why someone would want this to exist.

They hard part will be building critical mass. Good luck.

Exactly. What's more, you can potentially study books as a cohort-based course: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/studying-books-courses-junaid...

Regarding critical mass - you are right, it will take time.

I'm also trying to provide users a solo-player experience, where you can Moocable as a directory/search website for new learning material, just like Classcentral.com

Hopefully, that will bring decent traffic and users can start posting study groups

Some kind of rating / ranking system could be a nice enhancement for the solo-player experience. But best focus on the marketing for now so we can find the study partners :)

Rating sounds good. I intentionally didn't build it for this version, because I wanted to stay lean + really dial on our value proposition (finding partners).

As you said, I now want to focus on marketing and getting more users.

Great idea, I hope this takes of big time. I'll be sure to add a post, as I'm trying to learn PHP by reading the "Programming PHP" book

Thank you so much! Definitely add the post :)

Hey Junaid, I'm working on a similar idea, but with AI matching, do you want to meet?

Sure :) Here's my LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/junaid-ilmtech/

Hey Junaid can I have your email so we can schedule a meeting? Mine is spaceshipxsun@gmail.com.

junaid@theilmtech.com

I’m stuck with the “checking your browser” message on Safari for iPhone.

I looked into this - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6812709?sortBy=best - https://thegeekpage.com/how-to-fix-checking-your-browser-bef...

I believe this is done by Cloudflare, for protection against DDoS attacks. Let me know if the problem persists. And, can you possibly try with another browser? That will help me understand the problem better.

Well, cross off another from my ever-growing list of “someday” projects. Looks excellent, well done!

Thanks :)

This is awesome. Thank you!

:)

I'm so happy with all your responses. Thank you.

This is a cool idea. Good luck.

Thank you so much :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com