How to launch a successful coding tutorials site?

Question

Myself and a few others are currently working on a coding tutorials site as a hobby project, which we are hoping will be a good complement to Sololearn.

Technical concerns aside (the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SQLServer v 3.0.0 nuget telling me it's not compatible with dot net core 3.0 despite all logic and Microsoft's own docs telling me it is) we don't have much budget and I am worried about putting time into something that even if realised technically could still sink. Without trace.

Which leads me to the question: what other things do you need to do if you want your coding app to be successful, beyond technical functionality and positive user experience? Without significant financial backing how do you ethically drive an audience to your site?

Answer 1

Hi my friend.
Short answer: Get help from an "educational technologist" or read up on these topics: collectivism and social constructivism learning theories, modern learning design models such as Addie or Merril etc. And definitely look into gamification for learning.
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Okay.
Glad that there are people out there with a passion for education.
I have been working in educational fields for sometimes and I'd be glad to be of assistance.
One of the common areas that are overlooked in the modern learning environments is overlooking educational sciences.
In the end what a good website, a good app etc.. is, is just a tool. And what do you plan to do with that tool?
We all know that there is no abundance of information out there. So why learning is still difficult?
There can be pages after pages written on this subject but I'll try to point out to the most important aspects:
1. Motivation: you have to have a clear plan to motivate your students. You need to have both external ( like certificates and badges ) and

Answer 2

Internal motivation. Gamification is one of the keywords that i can point out to, for this. If you want i can send you a few books and articles on this subject, but start with searching for octalysis gamification framework.
2. Identifying the audiance:
There should be a clear objective based on who you are creating your app for. You mentioned you want to create a complementary site for sololearn? Then make a persona of the people who just finished a sololearn course. What do they lack? I'd say for example , a project based tutorial is one of the ways to go
3. Learning vs education: it's a good idea to use scaffolding design, in which you help your learners step by step at first, and then letting the deal with more difficult situations alone.
4.dynanic content: it's a good idea to create such educational content that the target can have a hand in creating and updating it.
5. And so many things more.
If you have any questions on this subject, I'd be glad to help.