Formed (Development of an educational course aggregator)

2023: Development of the course aggregator "Educated"

Users are used to aggregators and use them in different situations - for example, choosing tickets for a trip, hotel or used car. Theteam of "Keda Professor" decided to collect educational courses in the large catalog "Educated" with the most complete and structured database. Below we will consider the details of the development of the online course aggregator and the results.

Development of educational course aggregator "Educated"

Task: To develop the largest catalogue of online courses, convenient for users.

Solution: "Educated" is an aggregator of educational products that can select, compare and highlight the main thing.

"Educated": what it is and what it can do

"Formed" - the largest catalog of training courses in the country. It helps users select educational products with minimal risk, as it carefully analyzes each of them. How this is done, we will tell you below.

"Educated" shows not only paid courses of the most famous online platforms and universities. The user can also choose educational products from little-known studios and free programs - many of which are no less useful than expensive courses.

The user can compare products using the portal - "Educated" has the appropriate functionality. Comparison is possible by:

• topics,
• the tools and skills being studied,
• price,
• ratings and independent reviews.

A comprehensive comparison on all these metrics helps to avoid a situation where the user buys something beautifully packed, but inappropriate for him or useless at all.

The reviews deserve special attention. The robot "Educated" finds all reviews of a specific course on the Internet and pulls them up to the site. Analysts check these materials for accuracy, and as a result, the user receives the most reliable information.

User survey

Before starting to develop, "Keds Professors" interviewed graduates of online courses. For this, the Yandex.Vzglyad service was used, where 100 people who graduated from any educational online programs answered three questions:

• How much did you pay for the course?
• Did the course help you?
• What was the theme of the course?

In the first question, we left specific amounts, since the concepts of expensive and cheap are different for everyone, and the cost of courses depends on the subject area. Respondents chose one of three options: "A lot," "A little," "It was a free course."

The usefulness of the course was also proposed to be assessed subjectively: the answer options were available "Definitely helped," "Helped, but my expectations were greater," "No, the course was useless."

Analysis of the data showed that:

• only 20 percent of respondents are satisfied with expensive courses,
• for more than half of the respondents, online courses turned out to be a waste of time and money,
• 70 percent of respondents who chose paid blind courses were unhappy with the result.

It follows from these data that respondents did not have enough information to assess the potential benefits of study. Obviously, an aggregator of online courses would be a popular and useful product.

Database Design and Development

To help users navigate the variety of courses and choose the most useful, "Educated" allows not only to find available courses in the desired direction, but also to compare them with each other, as well as show what advantages a particular educational product gives. For example, some courses guarantee internship or employment, others allow you to form a relevant and relevant portfolio. Some online schools issue a government-issued certificate.

This is not a self-search in the browser. While the search engine gives out primarily promoted brands and pages optimized for the search engine, "Educated" shows the entire selection of courses on the topic from a variety of suppliers.

Directory search adjusts to a specific user. You can weed out options that are not suitable using fifteen filters.

The course cards contain a detailed description of the program and information about teachers.

Key characteristics and acquired skills are highlighted in the course cards.

Another advantage of the "Educated" aggregator is the quick updating of information. The data in the catalog is updated every day. This is convenient: the user receives information about courses with current prices and conditions.

Information about courses from supplier platforms is collected by robots. Then the algorithm brings the received data to a general form. If in the process of processing the algorithm "sees" something ambiguous and doubts that the information is reliable, the course is processed manually - the analyst considers it in detail and transfers it to the general database.

Result

"Educated" is the only aggregator on which there are full-fledged course cards with a program, teachers, skills, reviews and rating. Inside "Educated":

• more than 8,000 courses - commercial and free from different sites;
• smart search technology, daily data updates;
• more than 15 filtering and sorting methods;
• about 20,000 independent reviews;
• unique services: selections, ratings, course recommendations.

The entire "Educated" directory is already available in the web version and through mobile applications for iOS and Android.

2022: Educational telegram bot "Bot scientist"

Modern education requires modern solutions, and one of them is Telegram bots. The Keda Professor team, which develops online services for such higher education institutions as,, and MIPT HSE RUDN many others, spoke about the Bot Scientist telegram bot: he lectures, monitors academic performance and examines students right in. messenger

What is a telegram bot

Telegram bots are mini-programs inside the messenger. A similar technology existed in the ICQ messenger at the end of the 2000s: bots sent horoscopes, jokes and even translated texts.

Modern telegram bots are controlled by text commands in the chat on a question-and-answer basis.

Types

The scope of telegram bots is incredibly wide. Bots are able to recognize speech, work with graphics, conduct quizzes, analyze data and much more.

Most often they are used:

• for analytics,
• drafting and publishing posts,
• drawing and polling,
• monitoring the number of subscribers,
• tracking channel references,
• delivery of entertainment content,
• much more.

Development

It was decided to use the telegram bot for the educational course "Digital Economy." So appeared "Bot Scientist." He knows how not only to lecture and conduct tests to assess knowledge, but also to look at users reproachfully if they miss classes.

Packing the course in a telegram bot is not an easy and creative task. The team decided to build on the convenience of users: different groups of students prefer different ways to consume educational content.

Provided a choice between text and video format. Thus, each user can decide what they like more: watch a video with speakers or read the text.

Telegram allows you to sew an unlimited number of links to any external resources into messages, and videos can be played inside the messenger itself. After receiving a message from the bot, the user can follow the link and watch the video.

Some people don't like watching videos and prefer text. For such students, the texts of the materials were felt so that they were easy and pleasant to read. The course is visually divided into perceptually convenient modules and illustrated with infographics.

LMS-based chatbot

From a technical point of view, stitching up a whole course in a telegram bot is also not so easy. Here LMS - Learning Management System comes to the rescue. The key principles of LMS operation are encrypted in the abbreviation itself:

• learning - training,
• management - management,
• system - electronic system.

In everyday life, you can often hear the name "LMS system."

In LMS, you can create a single database of training materials. It will not be just a dump on file sharing, but an organized and structured system of knowledge, tests, questionnaires, memos. LMS automates all the most boring and monotonous "manual" work: checks tests, collects statistics and prepares reports. There are many LMS systems, you can choose any one based on your needs.

Using the capabilities of LMS, they added gamification and interactive to the "Scientist's Bot." At the same time, they adhered to the principles formulated by Scott Ostervale, creative director of the educational center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here they are:

• freedom to make mistakes,
• the ability to experiment,
• search for non-standard solutions,
• the ability to pause and reflect on completed tasks.

Thanks to the observance of these principles, the "Bot scientist" turned out to be friendly and cute. He involuntarily evokes empathy and a desire to please in response - that is, diligently learn and not upset a virtual friend with absenteeism.

Another tool that involves students in the process is lost profit syndrome. As the course progresses, students earn points that are removed for "absenteeism." Thus, "Bot Scientist" reproachfully looks at those who are not diligent enough.

No one wants to lose progress and spoil their statistics, so users are interested in continuing to complete tasks and study materials.

Notifications and Reminders

To prevent the user from missing anything, the bot sends notifications. Some of them are neutral, others warn of imminent trouble if the student does not devote time to classes.

And, of course, the bot controls the time spent teaching.

Personalizing Training

At the same time, "Bot Scientist" is not so harsh and is ready to adapt to the individual needs of the user. If there are not enough points to successfully complete and close the course, the bot will give the student additional tasks.

Completing these tasks will help you get the missing points.

Interactive learning experience and gamification

Training with the "Bot scientist" is carried out taking into account the specifics of the messenger. This is a simplified format compared to the usual learning, short modules, texts equipped with infographics.

The course is divided into thematic blocks. It takes 10-15 minutes to complete one session.

Each block includes different types of content: videos, texts, tests. Thus, the material turns out to be diverse, it is interesting to study it. This approach allows you to revive the supply of material and stimulate users to learn.

Chatbot functionality

Let's analyze what training with a Bot scientist looks like.

First, the bot will offer to connect to your studies and talk about the rules. Then the bot will send the first topic to study.

This will be followed by the first check. The bot will offer to assess how well the user has mastered the material: he will ask questions about the material passed.

The bot will earn points for the right points. In case of an incorrect answer, the bot will give the right to make a mistake: it will offer to think a little more and ask the question again. The student will be able to return to the materials, read them again or view them, and then reply again.

At the same time, the glasses will not burn. This creates a safe environment that pushes you to learn, engage and try again.

Then it's time to count the points. Using a separate command, you can find out how many points the user has now and how many are needed to complete the course.

When the course is successfully completed, the "Bot Scientist" will issue a registered certificate to the user.

Conclusions

Telegram bot is a flexible tool that can be configured to solve a wide variety of communication problems. "Bot scientist" is an excellent technology for the so-called micro-training. In today's world, where technologies are developing incredibly dynamically, it is extremely important to design training formats that allow you to gain knowledge quickly and in a comfortable environment without wasting time adapting.

You can test the bot by taking a free authorship course for the Keds Professor team. And the "Bot Scientist" received bronze in the category "Best Chatbot and AI Technology" at the Tagline Awards 2022 - the largest Russian-language digital prize.