Show HN: AcademyReady helps you finish online courses, punishes you if you don't

I realize the 'profits' are donated to Teach for America, but doesn't using any part of the $10 warp your incentives?

If you have a list of improvements to make to the site and it turns out one of them indirectly helps students avoid the $10 charge without them realizing it, aren't you going to move it down on the priority list relative to something that doesn't make paying your expenses harder?

I love this idea (with some reservations re: gibybo's comment), and it brings to mind an important quote from Thomas H. Huxley that has been with me for a while:

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."

The issue of motivating people to learn is often neglected in online and/or self-directed education. This is an interesting take on the issue—and, at least, an acknowledgement that this disconnect exists between the "no degrees necessary" zeitgeist and socioeconomopolitical structure (or whatever) of university degrees: on some level, your degree is also "free" (or profitable, rather) if you finish your courses, and costly if you don't.

Man, I need to set me up one of these. Step right up everybody, lose 20 lbs or pay me $100. Thanks for signing up, ma'am! Oh, how do you lose 20 lbs? Heck if I know lady!

Negative reinforcement might get the students to finish the course, but they will not enjoy what they're learning if they're doing it just so they avoid paying money for it. The best learning happens when you want to learn because you're curious and interested in the what you're learning, not because you'll have to pay money for not learning.

I love this because I feel like one of the biggest problems that I can see in taking these online courses are that people think "Oh this looks cool - Let me try it out." Soon enough they forget to stay on top of the lectures and other course material because there's nobody there to force them, we just do not keep going. Out of general laziness. I'm sure these constant reminders and schedules would help many of keep on track - but adding the $10 charge really ups the motivation, nobody wants to lose money.

I like the structure (schedule) it gives to Khan Academy classes. The reminders reminded me of an SAT prep site I used before (number2) that would remind me every other day for a month to come back after I started slacking off. Highly annoying but effective :)

Feature recommendation: use the Khan Academy API to allow users to mark videos they watched before as viewed on the website. I've watched a bunch of scattered videos already, so I guess I'll have to mark off as I go.

I'm not convinced that these type of commitment devices work unless the monetary fine is significant to the user. The problem is that 1) people have varying levels of what "significant" means, 2) if the fee is more than one can afford to spend, then one would not sign up for risk of losing the sum and 3) if the fee is easily affordable, it's not too difficult to justify in one's head losing the fee -- especially if it's donated to charity. It would take a lot of calibration to find the perfect amount to charge, if a general 'perfect amount' exists.

Personally, I think more companies should bring in more 'social' commitment devices, like setting up an e-mail that goes out to all my closest friends, my boss, and that girl I like -- when I fail to complete something. Social pressure, perhaps along with monetary incentives, are quite powerful and nuanced in a way that money could never be.

EDIT: Wanted to point out that qntmfred made the same point on social pressures 3 hours ago -- didn't see it until I posted.

Well the website is down for me, can someone say what it actually does?

I've done customer development on things along these lines and I basically have the following to share with the class:

Any app that is at its core assisting people to hack their current behavior is inherently asking people to change their behavior beyond that point at which it would be reasonable given the difficulty of such a task to attempt this feat.

The text could use some more contrast against the picture background, can be hard to read. Other than that, I like it.

This is neat!

Can you implement a SuperMemo type quiz? I think that's a good killer feature for good performance from students for both udacity and coursera.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperMemo

Subjecting yourself to social pressure rather than financial pressure is another good approach to disciplined self-directed learning.

Umm...why does the delete account button links to /checkout, and asks me for my credit card info?