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Comment by stuartk | Hacker News Reader

Thanks Mike! Would you be able to give me some feedback on a product idea I'm working on?

Its a platform for video tutorials where the student gives their response for a lesson via video also. The first use case that comes to mind is guitar teachers. Students can post video responses to lessons and be corrected/ advised. The teacher would pay for the platform and perhaps charge th students through the site, or even off site.

Do you feel this has legs? Any thoughts or ideas welcome. Thanks! Stuart

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I think it's a really good idea if you made it easy enough to record and reply. The majority of your value will be based around those specific interactions. (Video hosting is pretty much solved.) I would focus a lot of your effort on the UI/UX end of it. If you're green on UI/UX, read: http://designingfortheweb.co.uk/book/. Alternatively, hire someone who rocks.

Additionally, I'm not certain online music teachers would be willing to pay for such a product. Have you talked to any yet? Make some interactive mockups (Balsamiq or Keynotopia) and visit a few schools. Try to find people who are already sharing tutorials online and ask them.

Thanks Mike, that's helped me see where I need to focus my attention.

I was looking at direct webcam recording, but was going to add that later. But given your comments I think that is a must now, to enable quick and seamless video comments and feedback.

Regarding music teachers paying, I mentioned in the other thread to Matt that I may be thinking more towards making it free for teachers, charging students per course, and taking a percentage.

Re mockups, I am creating html mocks, but I'll look at the quick prototyping mockups so I can pitch to various music schools.

Thanks for the advice, you are a true gent!

My pleasure! ;)

I would use this...especially if you can get some talented teachers interested in it. Good UX and interaction features will be key to convince people to move past Youtube.

Also, the idea reminds me a bit of guitarmasterclass, but that is more a repository of videos than a back-and-forth learning place.

Thanks for the comments Matt. Having at least one person say 'I would use this' is a nice boost!

I wasn't going to have it exclusively for guitar, but musical instrument lessons are an ideal fit for video feedback. I'm sure there are other niches too where video is the ideal medium for this.

I've had the domain lessonboss.com for a while, and I was going to use that for this.

Perhaps I could have the feedback videos viewable by all, and allow peer review/feedback. It would take the pressure off the teacher to feedback, especially in larger class sizes.

And I'm still undecided about the revenue model, whether to charge the teacher, students or both. Moving more towards free for teacher, charge the students, take a percentage. It would be difficult to have a free option due to the cost of hosting video.

Think hard about making peer review work well. My piano teacher (bless her) sometimes has to show me two or three ways to think about something and then BAM it clicks. Some sort of reward system to fight the natural urge to show off and be the 'best' student.

If you can trick people into being helpful via gamification, it almost redeems that concept. :)

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