Introducing the Collins Institute: Revolutionizing Education as We Know It

Free Login: https://parrhesia.io/student-signup Join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/EGFRjwwS92 In this video, discover the groundbreaking Collins Institute, a revolutionary educational platform designed to compete with traditional schools. Learn how this tool functions as a directed learning engine akin to Wikipedia, but organized into an interactive skill tree. Find out how to navigate the interface, take assessments, and benefit from features like free tutoring and AI grading. Explore the theory behind the design decisions, including making education more engaging and self-paced while eliminating biases. Join us at the forefront of transforming education for students of all ages and backgrounds.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello everyone! I am so excited to be here with you with Simone today. This is going to be an explanational video.

First on how to use the Collins Institute, our hopefully sort of competitor to existing educational models. And then the theory behind how we built it and why we made the design decisions we did, because what is coming to the public is evolved a lot as a model from what we originally thought we were going to make.

So the first thing before we go into the school system itself, if you're like, okay, what is this? Is this a replacement for public? Cool. Is this a teaching aid for people who are already in the school system? Is this just for kids, or is it also for adult learners? The answer is, in terms of how you contextualize it, the role it's filling in your head, is sort of all of those.

Think of it like Wikipedia. But transformed into more of a [00:01:00] directed learning engine. So a question with something like Wikipedia. Is Wikipedia you know, something that helps people who are already in school? Yes, of course. You know, is Wikipedia something that would help a homeschooler? Of course. Could a person realistically educate themselves to quite a high level using Wikipedia?

Yeah, they could. It's just not really designed to be used that way. So you can think of this as us redesigning a Wikipedia like system, or collation of all human knowledge, so that it can be used in a directed way. And we have tried to include everything in this. You know, from how to lay drywall, to aquaculture pharmacology, To tax policy as it relates to investments, to what you would study in a subject from when you can read in that subject to midway through a PhD in that subject.

Simone Collins: I'm just incredibly excited about this tool. And both Malcolm and I wish that we had access to this when we were kids.

Malcolm Collins: Oh yeah, yeah. No, as somebody with an MBA from Stanford and an undergraduate degree from [00:02:00] St. Andrews, which are two really good schools I would have So, I was actually being so much better educated had I been using this platform than the educational system I actually went through.

Simone Collins: Yeah, to a great extent, it combines a textbook with Wikipedia in the sense that when I used to study, I would go through a textbook's quizzes before I would go through a chapter because I found that I was a little bit more attentive in my learning when I was wondering if I got questions right or if I got a question wrong.

And that is something you can do with this tool,

Our goal was the Collins Institute was to divide all human knowledge into a skill tree. Like you might see in a video game. You progress through this skill tree unlocking nodes, which gives you the ability to tackle more advanced nodes. Here, you can see the classic vertical style skill tree.

Like you might see any video game. However, if you prefer other form factors that we also have a radial view where the skills all radiate out from a central node. And a collapsible view. Where you can collapse all of a.

Single [00:03:00] skill tree path using this double arrows or specific pathways using this single arrow here. Today we will be focused on the vertical view because, well, frankly, I find it to be the easiest to use.

To navigate this tree, you can click and hold to drag up or down. You can scroll in and out using your middle mouse button. And if you are on a tablet, you can use this. At the bottom right of the screen to control how far zoomed in and out you are. And on the far left bottom of the screen, you can use this thumb joystick. When you see a skill you want to attempt to master, you can click the skill and then click see more to go into the scale. Within the skill that you will see a description of what you need to know to pass the skill and below it, you will see a list of the best sources online for studying this subject. If you click add a source right here, you can add your own.

You can upvote and downvote sources here. If you notice that any of these sources have issues with them and should be reviewed, [00:04:00] you can click right here and flags the source for our admin team. You can also offer yourself as a tutor in this particular subject, David. And it's something you like talking to others about?

When you are ready to take the assessment, you can click the, take the assessment button up here at the upper, right.

It will give you eight questions. That is not meant as an absolute test of your skill, but more to keep you honest with yourself about whether or not you actually took the time to study this particular skill. Right here. There is a question bank button. This can be used if you wanted to edit the question bank for this skill.

, and up here, there is an edit button which can be used if you want to edit the mastery requirements for the skill. Note, if you are a student. Your edits will be put in a queue and then an admin will review them and approve them if they are good. However, if you would like to become an admin, you can always just reach out to us and join our team that is helping to improve this tree.

If you want to, you have the ability to review skills that you haven't unlocked yet. [00:05:00]

However, when you open one of these skills, instead of seeing an option to take the test, you will see an option to go to the nearest unlockable skill. Just click this and it will take you to the nearest unlockable skill within this test street.

Here you can take the assessment and eventually unlocks the skill that you were looking at.

You will notice a few different types of skill pathways. Some are simple, like the ones we just looked at, but occasionally you will get to skills that are called cluster nodes. Cluster nodes are when a skill involves a number of sub skills to pass. Here's some good examples here of the Roman Republic. So when you get to a cluster node, you will notice this.dot dot line that leads to the central cluster node.

And then the outer cluster nodes to pass a cluster node. You actually need to pass it the outer cluster nodes before you can pass the inner cluster node, which will include questions from all of the outer cluster node tests.

This becomes particularly relevant when a cluster node must be passed to [00:06:00] pass a nodes above it. As we see right here with physics and chemistry, one. Here you would need to pass the properties of water. It states of matter. matter. basic concepts, basic reactions, volume, mass weight, simple machines, and measuring systems.

Before you could take a test that that covers all of those subjects and moves you to the physics and chemistry. Two section. Right here. Once those are done, you can then unlock the center of the cluster node here, which then unlocks the next stage of this particular subject physics and chemistry. Three. Occasionally, you will come to a section in the tree where there is no node right here. You can see this at the branching point of physical science.

When you reach one of these, the. It can