[Apps Appreciation Project] MIT OCW

No need to introduce, MIT OCW is one of the biggest open course community/organization for people to learn for free. I’d really appreciate MIT OCW for giving people like me a chance to take classes if they want to learn.

I downloaded MIT OCW app on my iPhone about 4 months ago and I’ve been using it to take Intro to Computer Science and Programming taught by John Guttag and some other classes.

[Markups]

See the markups here (a link to my Flickr photo set)

[Download Class]
If the user wants to download class materials (e.g. a video) she has to tap “Download Class” first, then select a lecture. This is contradictory to the normal user behavior.

Suggestions:
Put the “Download Class” button in the lecture detail view. Also, allow the user to download the complete materials for a class (which might include 10 lectures, for example) at the same time.

[Add to My Classes]
Currently the user can only add one lecture at a time to My Classes

Suggestions:
Allow user to add a class (which might include 10 lectures, for example) to My Classes

[Sorting and Grouping]
In My Classes tab, the lectures are organized by the time they are added. Traditionally, students see lectures as components of a class and usually do not treat them as single sessions.

Suggestions:
Group lectures by classes to make it easier for the user to find the desired item.

[Misc]

The current design uses orange to inform the user that the class materials had been downloaded and white for not downloaded.

Suggestions:
An easier way would be showing Play when already downloaded and Download for not downloaded.

Catalog and MyClasses are the 3^rd and 4^th tabs in the TabBar respectively.

Suggestions:
Those two are the ones that are used most frequently in this app. Move them to the front.