OpenAha: Learn math and science by doing
openaha.org
Free, interactive lessons in math and science: 142 courses, from fractions to quantum computing. Learn by doing, with instant feedback. No account, no ads.

Hey everyone! I really like how websites like Brilliant try to teach in an interactive way. But it’s like $160 (or more depending on the region) a year so I’ve been making a free one.

It’s called OpenAha. right now there’s 140+ courses and 1000+ lessons in math, physics and chemistry. no account or ads.

A few to try if you only have a minute:

This project is mostly implemented with claude: I planned every course, then wrote the lessons with AI. so far only about one third of the pages have been carefully reviewed by a person. That’s why I’d really like people to poke at it. If a lesson is confusing or sth’s wrong, make a PR or hit the flag button in the lessons. Also feel free to contribute on github to make this even better.

code: https://github.com/open-aha/open-aha.github.io

Edit, to clear something up: OpenAha isn’t affiliated with Brilliant and doesn’t use any of their content. I don’t even have a Brilliant account. Brilliant just uses the style of learning I liked (try things first, explanation after). every lesson was written for this project, and we’re improving it as an open source community.

And yes it’s not finished, there will be mistakes. That’s what the flag button on every step is for, every report gets fixed in public on github

  • kiarash@lemmy.worldOP
    15·
    1 day ago

    Thank you for your feedback. Honestly many of the best IMO books I came across challenged readers in similar ways, but that style isn’t suitable everywhere of course. And yes, so far I’ve found and corrected many such stupid mistakes 😄 That’s why community contribution will be really important here.

    Regarding my background, my full name is publicly visible on github. You can search that up to see some of my background, education and activities. I have talked to some teachers about this and used their feedbacks, but there’s still a long way to go. I can’t foresee the future, but I’m serious about exploring this projects potential.

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
      14·
      1 day ago

      That’s why community contribution will be really important here.

      requiring a github account to contribute is a major friction point; i highly recommend that you build something to allow people to give you feedback without requiring them to make an account with microsoft or anything else.

      also, the website says:

      AI tools helped us build this many lessons quickly. What turns a good lesson into a great one is human insight: the moment a step confused you, a clearer example, a mistake only a careful reader spots. OpenAha is open source, and every suggestion is read.

      but you go much further in this lemmy comment and acknowledge:

      I’ve already read through at least 30% of all the pages myself.

      I think you really need to clearly disclose early - not only in this lemmy post but also on the website itself - that most (or any at all, if/when you’ve read most) of the lessons have not yet been read by any human at all.

      Asking teachers to try this with their students without disclosing this crucial fact is not really OK.

      • someone@lemmy.today
        32·
        1 day ago

        I agree with this. I like AI and really don’t like people labeling anything AI-created as slop. But in order for something to not be AI slop, the developer needs to review the output and provide feedback to the model. If this is “draft 1” of the content and the dev only reviewed parts of it, I understand dev’s excitement and wanting others to see it, but it seems like dev should be beta testing draft 1 with the model and doing some revisions before asking others to check it out.

        Because some of the phrasing is unclear enough in its explanations that a typical person might not be able to follow it. And I feel like if dev had read more of it, dev probably would have noticed that…

        • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          I agree. I’ll make the modifications later. Thank you.

          Thanks, glad to hear it.

          How much later, though? If it’s not soon, I think I will delete this post for now (i’m an admin on the home instance of this community). You can still edit it while the post is deleted but only you and mods and admins will be able to see it; send me a message after your edits are made and I’ll undelete it.

          To be clear what I am asking for is an early/prominent/clear disclosure, both on the website and in the body of this lemmy post, of the percentage of the lessons which you estimate have not yet been carefully read by you (or presumably anyone else).

          Thank you, and I hope this isn’t too discouraging!

    • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      Regarding my background, my full name is publicly visible on github. You can search that up to see some of my background, education and activities. I have talked to some teachers about this and used their feedbacks, but there’s still a long way to go. I can’t foresee the future, but I’m serious about exploring this projects potential.

      I'm going to interpolate that answer into answers to my questions, let me know if i've gotten anything wrong:

      Are you an educator?

      No.

      And/or do you have connections with educators who plan to use this with students?

      None with plans to use it.

      Is this a solo project so far?

      Yes.

      What is the likelihood that you’ll get bored and abandon this project in a week or a month from now?

      High.

      I’m sorry to be so negative here; from what i can tell what you’ve built seems quite impressive for a solo project in such a short time. Maybe I’m wrong and this is the next Khan Academy, but I am sadly not optimistic about this evolving into something which is useful for many people.

      … but speaking of Khan Academy, why not try to build things with them instead of starting a new thing from scratch? (i don’t actually know much about them besides that they’ve been around a long time and have a good reputation from what i can tell)

      • kiarash@lemmy.worldOP
        24·
        1 day ago

        Since all the lessons here are CC BY-SA, anyone, Khan Academy included, can use them as long as they keep them open. I’m also aiming to build this project in a way that it doesn’t really need me to stay alive. It’s a static site with no servers or accounts, so it costs almost nothing to run. If by any chance I ever stop, anyone can copy the repo and keep it going, lessons included. That’s kind of the point of making it open source.

        • someone@lemmy.today
          21·
          1 day ago

          How can it not be on a server? Does that mean github hosts it and you just own the domain? (I am reading your privacy policy.)

          So it involves both Github and Cloudflare, which means really not only is an IP being logged, but also other things like packet latency, mtu, packet header characteristics, and an overall network fingerprint.

          This is also the same Microsoft that helped use Microsoft Azure servers for various war activity, so this does mean data about anyone marginalized who uses this will be captured and used however… Most people don’t care about data privacy, but still it isn’t ideal.

          • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
            3·
            1 day ago

            They mean you can git clone it and use it locally, offline on your computer or on your own server for others to use over the internet (or over some non-internet offline network).

            When you use it on the web, there is a server serving it (the static files) to you.

            • someone@lemmy.today
              11·
              1 day ago

              Are you sure? The privacy policy says “This site is hosted on GitHub Pages by GitHub, Inc. (USA). When you visit, GitHub logs your IP address for security purposes (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR: our legitimate interest in a secure, working website). The site cannot be delivered without it. GitHub keeps these logs as long as it needs them for security and publishes no fixed period. GitHub takes part in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework; see the GitHub Privacy Statement.” I think the server itself may actually be GitHub somehow?

              • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlEnglish
                4·
                1 day ago

                Are you sure? […] I think the server itself may actually be GitHub somehow?

                Yes, as i said:

                When you use it on the web, there is a server serving it (the static files) to you.

                And that server is github pages - one of microsoft’s free static web hosting services.

                This is might seem inconsistent with what OP said:

                It’s a static site with no servers or accounts, so it costs almost nothing to run

                … but it isn’t really imo. You always need some kind of server to put something on the web for the world (using a normal web browser without installing something else) to be able to access it; what they mean by “no servers” here is that (1) there is no logic on the server, the server just serves a static web page, and (2) you can easily get the static files yourself and serve them yourself (or browse them from your filesystem without even serving them).