EA Online Learning Buddy Platform
Summary:
Part 1. introduction to MoocLab: a platform that facilitates learning by helping its members find people to learn with on a given topic.
Part 2. proposal for the implementation of a similar platform within EA.
What is MoocLab?
MoocLab is an education resource that lets users pair up with Study Buddies to discuss concepts, work together on courses, etc. It also offers Study Groups — virtual spaces for group discussions, content sharing, etc.
Why learning with a buddy?
In my own experience, trying to take advantage of COVIDlock-downs to learn about new topics, MoocLab has proven to be much more effective than other methods such as setting goals for myself and using applications like beeminder to motivate me to meet them. Having to give weekly reports to a person has personally been more motivating, rewarding and satisfying than losing money. This is however something agreed between the “buddies”
Current Online Learning in EA:
Today the main platform for learning about EA-related topics is the EA Virtual Programs.
Having participated in most of these programs, I cannot recommend them highly enough.
However, they do have a couple of limitations:
Few topics covered compared to the vast amount of topics EA can cover. To give an example here is the list of topics covered in the current VP In-Depth:
ethical positions which inspire effective altruism
developing a clearer picture of the world and improving our thinking both for ourselves and our work
Community Building for Effective Altruism
Heavy Tailed Impact
Decision Theory
Uncertainty
Using Forecasting Tools
Global Catastrophic Biorisks
Artificial Intelligence; Predictions and Capability
Limits of Evidence and Cluelessness
Something Else
Many of the topics mentioned in the list are suggestions for participants to choose from.
At the end of the list there is an option to talk about other topics but in my own experience this is rarely more than one session. I would be surprised if many groups spend most sessions talking about “Something else”, but feel free to leave a comment if I’m wrong. :)
- Occurrence: Even if they occur very frequently (every couple of months), the availability of VPs could be much higher.
I am sure there are other things that can be improved in the VPs, but my objective here is not to criticize them. As I have said before, after having participated and facilitated several VPs, I find them a very good platform for EAs to learn and discuss different topics.
Having said that, I personally see that much of it could be automated with a platform like MoocLab for EA topics.
The EA MoocLab:
The simplest version would be a giant spreadsheet with a list of EA related topics. Within each topic there would be a possible list:
articles, recommended videos
books
courses on Coursera, …
...
and also a series of questions that could be discussed in the different sessions.
People could post their interest in related topics (maybe together with experience, availability, …) so other people could contact them directly.
This “EA MoocLab” (probably a better name would be “EA LearnLab”) would be a considerable amount of work for two groups:
platform developers
organizers who would be in charge of filling in the lists for each topic.
Other things could also be considered, such as participants being able to add readings to the lists (with admins to vet if necessary), leave comments,…
The platform could be very complex but the MVP seems relatively easy to implement and would allow whoever to learn about a given topic at their own pace together with other EAs who share their interests.
Conclusion:
The benefit of the MVP to increase motivation and knowledge within EA personally seems to me to outweigh the costs of money/effort/time invested in such a platform. That being said please feel free to:
leave a comment with criticism, suggestions, …
register your interest for such a platform in this form. Note that at the moment there is no MVP and it will only get started if enough “buddies” register their interest :)
collaborate and help build the platform (the project can be found under “EA LearningLab” but feel free to message me directly)
Finally, I would like to thank Aaron, Yi-Yang, Mike and others for their comments and contributions.
Hey, how about starting with an MVP which is an existing platform, such as a Facebook group, Slack channel, discord, or something like that?
(Instead of developing a new platform)
It could be an option. However, here some points to the existing platforms:
Facebook: as far as I know you cannot have in a group different pages for different topics. Scalability would also be a problem in the future for example to add new features
Slack: in the 10+ EA slack groups I am in, most of them people go to introduce themselves and never come back
Discord: similar to slack
a small MVP would be I think fairly easy to implement. But if the platform development seems to be a constraint sure an existing platform shall be considered
Perhaps have one group for one topic as an MVP?
Do you think this is a problem with the features in Slack/Discord?
This is not my intuition, especially since the features of Facebook/Slack/Discord don’t seem to be enough. Maybe I’m not in sync with what you imagine as an MVP?
My prior for this kind of project is that the bottle neck is something between “critical mass of people” and “some idea [product market fit?] on what to do together (such as meet-once-a-week or whatever)”, and not the technology. In other words, it’s not like this project will succeed-or-fail based on having an extra click to find a document, or having a slightly better filtering mechanism.
But this is only a prior, I expect it will either really resonate as true or that I’m missing something
Facebook: not optimal but as MVP might do
Slack/Discord: it has nothing to do with the features but with how little people use (or are comfortable using) slack/discord outside their already existing EA Groups/Projects. In Facebook people are more active in general but if you have data to prove my wrong happy to be wrong :)
what I imagine as MVP as mentioned in the post is a simpler MOOCLAB: https://www.mooclab.club/members/?key=study_buddy_members
I think also the critical mass of people is important. The post has not reached many people so probably Facebook is the best alternative to make it easier for the people to find and start gaining members fast in the corresponding pages, even if the pages idea seems far from optimal.
Even if they use slack/discord very little: They use a new [a new platform that doesn’t exist yet and nobody ever used and everyone knows that nobody used] even less. No?
I agree, and again, this is an advantage that a new platform will never have. (right?)
Do you mean “Facebook Group” (where you wrote “page”)? If not—then I didn’t understand, could you explain in other words?
The platform, as MOOCLAB, is thought to be for the first contact to find the buddy, after that you share your email/fb/… with your buddy and coordinate however you want. In the new platform you would automatically get email notifications when someone replies to your message or sends you a message so the interaction with the platform itself is minimal. I know in slack you can also specify different settings in different groups, …. but less intuitively and there are so many EA (and non-EA) slack groups that many people feel overwhelmed and stop reading messages at all.
If there would be an efficient way/channel to promote (new) EA Platforms to all EAs I would say “never say never”, but at the moment there is not
I am not into Facebook and do not know the difference between “Facebook Group” and “Facebook Page” but whatever works better for this ends.
P.S: I sent you an email cause I rarely read this
Great idea! Note also the existence of The University of Bayes on Discord. This doesn’t focus specifically on EA-aligned subject areas, but it is doing something similar to your proposal: ie you can freely join classes, and learn with other members of the Discord topics like Bayesian statistics, calculus, and machine learning.
Bring on the MVP—I’ve been meaning to investigate finding an EA accountability buddy, this sounds like a great platform for it. Maybe we could create a list of interested people to start doing these buddy meetings
You may have already considered this, but how about setting up an EA group in MooCLab?https://www.mooclab.club/groups/
Thanks for the comment Alex. As far as I see the MoocLab Group would be not topic specific unless the topic is general EA. So there would be a mix of people who might be interested for example in Animal Welfare but not AI or the other way around, so it would not be easy to find a buddy. I do not have much experience with these MoocLab Groups though so if it is possible to set different topic-pages inside a group let me know because then I think it would be interesting.
Regarding the MVP probably it will be Facebook Pages/Groups (one for each EA Topic) but I will update when it is done or maybe announce it in a different post. In the future there is still the possibility to move everything a new independent platform if needed
Will keep an eye out for future posts! :)
I love this idea! Let’s connect and chat about it—https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-barnes-toronto/
Can you build it on Gather Town?
Invitation sent in Linkedin ;)