Educational websites
About
I have created several educational websites to improve Computer Science education.
Motivation
Computer Science courses often lack high-quality educational resources, leaving students struggling to grasp complex concepts. Through personal observation, I noticed that many lecturers at my university struggled to effectively explain topics due to a combination of high intelligence and a lack of empathy for beginners. Their slides were chaotic, poorly structured, including an overwhelming amount of irrelevant information and yet omitting crucial details. The hurried pace of lectures left students feeling lost and afraid to seek clarification.
Three key challenges in current education are:
- Lack of quality education:
The absence of well-explained lectures and comprehensive course materials hindered students' learning experience. - Declining engagement:
Students frequently disengaged during lectures, relying on external sources like Google, YouTube, and peer support to comprehend the subject matter. - Flawed supplementary resources:
While alternative resources were available, they had drawbacks such as difficulty in finding relevant information, assuming prior knowledge, poor explanation quality, and lack of structured content. This made it time-consuming to keep up with the courses.
As a result, many courses become artificially difficult. Although one might expect university lectures to be complex, they are unnecessarily more challenging due to the poor quality of education. The level of difficulty assigned to the material is often mistaken as an indicator of quality, whereas in my experience, it should be seen as a reflection of inadequate educational standards.
Recognizing that these challenges artificially inflated the difficulty of courses, I became frustrated with the impact on student dropout rates. I realized that I possessed the ability to explain concepts more effectively and help others understand. It became my mission to provide accessible and easily discoverable resources.
Solution
To address these issues, I embarked on creating educational websites dedicated to explaining algorithms. Each website corresponds to a specific algorithm, featuring a user-friendly URL for easy access. Additionally, these websites incorporate interactive calculators that display step-by-step computations, empowering students to practice and comprehend the algorithms thoroughly.
By offering well-structured explanations where we only focus on what is relevant, I aim to make complex topics more approachable and understandable. This way, even comprehensive examples become more accessible, ensuring that all students, regardless of their natural talents, can understand them. Ultimately, my goal is to enhance the learning experience for as many students as possible and mitigate unnecessary dropouts.
Through these efforts, I aspire to bridge the gap between existing educational resources and students' learning needs, fostering a more inclusive and supportive learning environment. By doing so, I hope to empower and help a wide range of individuals, enabling them to overcome the challenges posed by substandard education.
Below are screenshots from two examples of my educational websites.
ExtendedEuclideanAlgorithm.com
This website offers a valuable resource for learning the (Extended) Euclidean Algorithm. One of its standout features is the inclusion of a calculator, which supports the Euclidean Algorithm, the Extended Euclidean Algorithm, and the calculation of the multiplicative inverse. When selecting an algorithm, the website generates a comprehensive calculation that includes intermediate steps, allowing students to grasp the underlying process and verify their results. Through this interactive approach, students can gain a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the algorithm, going beyond what is commonly taught in lectures or found on other websites. It's worth highlighting that this website is the first of its kind to provide a calculator for the Extended Euclidean Algorithm, showcasing step-by-step calculations to support students in their learning journey.
Although the calculator is highly valuable, its functionality may not be immediately apparent to users. This could potentially discourage students, which is contrary to the website's goal of providing clear and simplified explanations. To address this, the website offers dedicated pages that comprehensively explain the algorithm's inner workings and provide instructions on utilizing the calculator effectively. By encouraging students to read these pages first, they can follow a structured learning path, in contrast to the often disorganized and fragmented approach used by some lecturers when delivering course material.
The website is designed to be responsive, ensuring its usability on mobile phones. Below are screenshots captured from a small phone, showcasing the calculator's output for a multiplicative inverse calculation.
As you can see, the calculator recognizes instances where the user could have provided smaller numbers to simplify the calculation. In such cases, it offers suggestions to the user along with a convenient link that automatically inputs the revised numbers into the calculator and performs the calculation. Additionally, the website provides guidance on verifying the accuracy of the calculation.
ChineseRemainderTheorem.com
The Chinese Remainder Theorem can be especially painful to practice, as it is a lot of work. When performing the entire calculation manually, it becomes easy to make errors along the way, leading to a time-consuming process of identifying and rectifying those mistakes. Moreover, it can be difficult to discern whether any difficulties stem from a lack of understanding of the algorithm or simply from minor errors. In such situations, having a calculator that displays the complete calculation with intermediate steps can be immensely beneficial. While there are existing calculators for this algorithm, they often lack the provision of intermediate steps. Additionally, many of these calculators have limited flexibility, restricting the number of rows that can be used. This limitation renders them ineffective when the desired numbers do not align with the preset row requirements. However, in this calculator, you have the freedom to adjust the number of rows as per your needs, enabling a more customized and accurate calculation. Let's take a look at an example calculation:
To maintain clarity, the default display does not show the calculations for the multiplicative inverses. However, users can easily expand any of these calculations to reveal the step-by-step process of how the multiplicative inverse is computed. Additionally, a convenient link is provided to the calculator on ExtendedEuclideanAlgorithm.com, prepopulated with the corresponding numbers, allowing users to view the calculation directly on that website as well.
Unlike the Extended Euclidean Algorithm, inputting random numbers into the calculator often results in calculations without a solution. This is because there are specific requirements that the numbers must meet for a solution to exist. Generating such numbers manually can be challenging. However, this website offers an additional highly valuable feature. By clicking the "Use random numbers" button, users can define the range of random numbers, and the calculator will automatically populate with random numbers that do have a solution. Not only does this feature prove exceptionally beneficial for students seeking to practice, but it can also be a convenient tool for teachers who wish to create homework assignments efficiently.
Statistics
ExtendedEuclideanAlgorithm.com initially faced a period of search engine recognition as it took some time for platforms like Google to ascertain its relevance. However, after a year, the website's position in Google search results has consistently improved. For highly relevant keywords like "extended Euclidean algorithm calculator," it now ranks first among the search results.
Interestingly, visitor numbers on the website experience seasonal fluctuations, with notable peaks occurring in October, November, March, and April. During these periods, the website attracts over 10,000 monthly visitors, and the calculator sees a usage rate of 600-800 times per day. These patterns can be attributed to the algorithm's coverage in university curricula during these semesters. As anticipated, visitor counts decline significantly during the summer and Christmas breaks, aligning with the reduced academic activity during those periods.
Please note that this figure only reflect clicks originating from Google search results. In addition to these, the website receives substantial traffic from social media platforms, YouTube, and direct visits. The notable short-term fluctuations in visitor numbers can be attributed to a trend where website usage peaks on Tuesdays and gradually declines throughout the week, reaching its lowest point during weekends.
As chineseremaindertheorem.com was recently launched in August 2023, there is currently insufficient data available to make conclusive assessments regarding its performance or impact. It will take time to gather data and evaluate the website's progress and relevance within its intended domain.
What the visitors say
Below are reviews I've received from individuals whom I do not know. They reached out to me via the integrated chat on the websites, through email, or by leaving comments on my YouTube videos.
I found your pages to be very clear and helpful.
Many thanks,
Very clear and informative, thank you.
Hi, I found the website really useful, how would I be able to cite it in some school work (i.e. what do I put for authors name and date of page)
VERY useful video, you explained it with such simplicity and don't just assume we know anything in the content attached!
Thanks A Lot. Hard to find this video. But glad found it
♥♥♥♥♥♥ tytyty
It doesn't have to be difficult if someone just explains it right. - Good Explanation