Learnist is a crowd sourced online learning platform, much like Udemy or Codecademy, but not as specific. It lets users create lessons for any topic, with focus on curation rather than creation. We live in the times of information overload, with thousands of blogs writing about the same topic. While that’s a wonderful thing, finding good content from this stack can be overwhelming. The curators at Learnist take a topic, arrange the content in a logical manner, link relevant content – like YouTube videos or an NYT article explaining the topic, and then sort everything with a table of contents.
Learnist consists of boards. The homescreen is a collection of the best learning boards Learnist has to offer. You can access a list of categories by scrolling down. Curated lessons are either free or cost a nominal fee like $0.99. When you like something, just tap the Add to Reading List button. The reading list can be accessed by tapping the bookmark icon from the homescreen.
For first time users, Learnist can be as confusing as it is beautiful. It has a confusing history as well. It started out as a Pinterest style instructional website and has now developed into a crowd sourced learning platform. While the table of contents for each topic with a brief description from the author is helpful, the content is merely linked. You have to tap the Read Full Article to be taken to the website or YouTube which opens in the in built browser. Learnist is has also roped in some celebrity curators to get some press attention. If you ever wanted to say you were learning about “Bassdass Women Fighting for Justice” straight from Olivia Wilde, now is your chance.
Between a clean UI with smooth animations (much like Pocket Casts) and iOS 7 styled blurred backgrounds, Learnist has a lot going for itself. And while the app is still new, the collection of lessons across more than a dozen categories is impressive. Learnist is a free app available for iPhone, Android and is also available on the web.
I tested the iPhone app but the experience on web and Android should be similar.