Make OGS a platform for interactive lessons

There are two very basic lessons in Play Go at online-go.com! | OGS but the interface as a sequence of sgfs with text is pretty versitile and could support almost any kind of interactive lessons. Chess.com by contrast has hundreds of lessons.

Idk how difficult it would be to give users an interface for creating more complex lessons. but I think it would be a game changer.

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I like that!
(And moved it to #feedback:suggestions)

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Note: users can create more complex sets using the puzzle editor, and the are quite a few user generated Puzzle sets. @Atorrante did a nice writeup on here.

I’m curious, have you tried it out? And if so, what do you see as the deficiencies compared to the interactive lessons on Chess.com?

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I don’t use Chess.com but perhaps the puzzles collection lacks structure? The website https://en.1200igo.com/副本-死活 uses OGS but adds some organization in the puzzle collections.

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When thinking about interactive lessons, besides puzzles, but more of a way to interact with a teacher, this probably could be done with the review function. Just review an empty board or an existing game, people can join the review and follow the teachers lessons that way. The teacher can make comments on moves, put in variations, ask the followers what they think would be a good move etc. He can even write on the board, mark stones and such!

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I don’t think you can explore moves using Analyze during reviews, where both players can make and see trial moves. OGS analyze and review seem designed for players, not for interactive teaching. Just my opinion, based on the model of a real go board, which both sides can see and touch. Please do not attack me for having an opinion, just gently correct me.

The one who started the review can show moves in real time, share variations and also paint on the board and such. I use it all the time when teaching friends. I think when the followers of the review want to make changes or show their variations, they have to be given control over the review by the one who started it.
Of course you are right in the way that none of that could replace a real board teaching session, i enjoy these the most and the interaction is way more intense and efficient.

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I suggest that you try this out before suggesting it to others. It is so distracting to keep exchanging control over the board that my partners and I gave up each time we tried it.

Dude it is ok if it doesnt work for you. Im not attacking you in any way so dont sweat it. I have used it repeatedly and found it to be working quite good. So i suggest it to whomever is interested. If you are not, that is fine too. Over and out

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I wrote up instructions once to try to explain to a teacher in China how to start a demo board and share with a student. It took 10 steps involving complicated diagrams (you have to create an account, find the student’s account, figure out how to add them, etc.) Not practical at all for getting a new person excited about OGS.

Even making a demo board myself to experiment with some positions is kind of a pain.

A quick demo board that anonymous users could create and share by private link would be great!

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I don’t know if I would count “creating an account” as part of the steps when using a feature on a site. If you count creating an account and adding bank details etc when explaining how to order a pizza on a takeaway website, it makes it seem like there’s a lot more steps involved. Maybe one should also include steps on how to get a bank card in order to pay for the takeaway pizza etc.

Surely the steps are more like (assuming you’ve signed up to the website)

  • click the new demo board button, picked your preferred settings or just ignore it and click create if you’re happy with the default and quickly want a 19x19 board.
  • copy the url and send it to your student (because surely they have contact with the student already)

Done. No need to add them as a friend or anything else.

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The easy steps give you a public demo; the default should be private for this kind of thing but that’s a lot harder.

And yeah, requiring an account is a huge usability issue with any kind of website. I don’t think the pizza places here do more than offer you the option.

A lot harder ticking one button? I see no problem here.
And I think the default should be not private because the demo board is often used to relay games from tournaments. Else I would expect a lot of mistakes with accidentally privat relays.
If you want it private, you know what you want and can tick the button easily.

I think it’s easy to make it private, but it does require more explanations in terms of how to make the
private board accessible by other players then.

I don’t know, but in terms of using the demo board when it’s not private, they depends on whether you’re writing things, comments, chat you don’t want people to see.

Or maybe you’re expecting people might try learn from snooping through your demo boards instead of asking you for lessons.

Second ones probably not a concern, and the first one, I can imagine people just having voice calls when teaching, or using another chat system.

But of course it is convenient to see someone or several people typing in the one place beside the board.

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I’ve attended many lectures in which the teacher uses an OGS demo board, sends the link to Discord, and talks on Discord’s voice chat. People who attend the lecture can ask questions on Discord or in the chat of the demo. It works very well, the only problem being that Discord is not available in every country (China…). It would be more convenient if OGS had an integrated voice chat.

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If it’s not working, I suppose we should make a big report.

If you make it private by accident or change your mind, then it’s not really possible to make it public again after. It’s maybe somewhat of an issue in some cases

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Yes I just realized you can grant access to a registered player. As Feijoa pointed out, it would be more convenient to share a link that any guest could use. The link shouldn’t be something like online-go.com/demo/view/1735183 but something like online-go.com/demo/view/4aRrXgo0zTKG4y2fqo3kxjsoFMFQ3vd1n1EwTLAgl2zx i.e. the link should be hard to find.

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That form works - if you can figure out how to type their name properly. (Where’s the :dolphin: key?)

But after granting access you might want to message them to let them know, and you can easily get stuck there:

If access were granted by a secret link it would be a lot smoother.

Compare the lessons on Chessable to what OGS has. (If you’re not familiar give the free lessons on chessable a try) You have a streamlined lessons to quiz to review to assessment

This is not about teacher reviews that benefits one person or a small group of people. This is about providing an interactive lesson that thousands of people can access and have the feel of interactive learning and I want to emphasis again how well chessable is doing this.

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Are they similar to lichess studies?