How Students Can Use Quora to Enhance Learning

How Students Can Use Quora to Enhance Learning
Quora is a relatively new question-and-answer site that connects users with those who have expertise about a certain topic. While there are many other sites that offer this same question-and-answer model, Quora offers many additional features that enhance the user experience. The model is both informative and social, creating a site that is a cross between Wikipedia and social-networking sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Digg.
Because of its unique model, Quora is a great place for students to learn more about a topic or to enhance their studies. Here are just a few ways that students can use Quora to enhance their learning:
Get Authoritative Answers
The most obvious benefit of Quora for students is the availability of information. If students have questions about the material they are studying, answers are just a question away. Yet unlike some other question-and-answer sites, Quora provides measures to deliver quality, authoritative answers.
Community moderators ensure that answers are not spammy or irrelevant. In addition, users can vote on the relevancy of an answer, sending it up or down in the results. The more useful and authoritative an answer, the higher it will be voted.
Students looking for authoritative information can trust the answers found on Quora. You won't be able to quote the answers in a research paper, but you will be able to use them to guide your studies, better understand the material for self-directed learning, and find additional resources to help you engage more deeply with the material.
Build Content Catalogues
One question is not enough to exhaust all the information that you will need on a subject. Quora allows you to easily create catalogues of content around a topic in two ways: By creating topical boards and by following a topic thread or a user that you have identified as an expert.
Similar to Pinterest, you can create a board on Quora around a particular topic. You can tag items that you have written or that have been answered on Quora, allowing you to put all the information you need about a topic in one place.
You can also follow the boards that other people have created, helping you to learn even more about your topics of interest. You can also follow users who you have identified as experts in your field, alerting you to new discussions on that topic. In addition, you can follow specific questions and topics.
Creating boards and following users or topics can keep you up-to-date and better informed about your topic. Not only can you learn about all the newest information related to your topic, but you can be sure that you have been thoroughly informed about all aspects of your topic.
Know What You Don't Know 
Quora has an intuitive feature that recommends related questions and answers, similar to the search recommendations featured in Google. When you start to type in your question, related searches will appear. When you get your search results, related questions will also appear there. There will even be suggestions for "best questions."
By looking through these suggestions and the related content, you can learn what you don't know. You can learn about aspects of your topic you may not have considered, and you can learn new ways of approaching the material. You get answers to questions you didn't even know you needed to ask.
In this way, Quora helps you explore a topic more thoroughly, guiding you through research. When you combine the ability to explore related content, to follow topics, boards and experts to get complete information about a topic, and to get authoritative answers, Quora provides students a personalized reference tool that can enhance learning. It becomes a sort of personal tutor, available for individuated instruction at your own pace.
Have you used Quora? What are your thoughts on how it has helped you to enhance your studies? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Audrey Porterman is the main researcher and writer for doctoralprograms.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Ohio State, with a degree in business management. Her current focus for the site involves executive phd programs and phd in higher education.


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How to be a Productive Student

How to be a Productive Student
The key to being a successful student is not working harder, it's working smarter. That means finding ways to be productive and efficient -- getting the most work done in the shortest amount of time. Procrastination and disorganization can derail the best laid plans for success. Finding ways to be a more productive student can get you on the road to success.
You can learn to become more productive by making small changes to your routine. Here are a few steps you can take to become a more productive student:
Pay Attention in Class
You are sitting in class for an hour or two hours to learn the material. Don't waste that time by daydreaming or doodling in your notebook. You'll only have to make up that time with independent study later.
Paying attention in class also helps you to learn the material better so you don't have to study as hard later. Listening to lectures, actively taking notes, and participating in class discussions can help you to process and learn the information more quickly, helping you to save time when you have to study for exams later.
Get Organized
There are many tools to help you get organized and stay that way. Apps for your smart phone can help you create to-do lists, manage schedules, and oversee project management. Online programs help you to store documents and access data.
Figure out a system that works for you to keep track of your schedule, deadlines for important projects, tasks that you need to do, and more. Getting organized will ensure that you are spending the time you have on getting work done rather than figuring out what you need to do. I highly recommend you to read the post about MindMap, it helps be more efficient and organized.
Keep a Schedule
When you schedule your time, you are more likely to perform the task at hand. For example, if you write down that you will study from 2 to 5 p.m., you are more likely to actually study from 2 to 5 p.m. If, on the other hand, you don't schedule your time, you are more likely to flit from distraction to distraction, always "meaning to" get to that project that is due but simply running out the clock instead.
When you set your schedule, remember no to overdo it. Have realistic expectations about how long a task will take so you don't schedule yourself to do too much in too little time. Remember to also maintain a balance. You need to set aside time for play as well as work so you don't burn out and you can stay energized and focused when it's time to work.
Limit Distractions
Nowadays, we do everything on our computers: Write papers, do research, chat with classmates, connect with friends. It's easy to open your Web browser to check your e-mail and then lose 30 minutes stopping by Facebook, scanning Reddit, or browsing the latest on Pinterest. In fact, 30 minutes may be a generous estimate!
Keep your browser closed when you sit down to study or to write a paper, and you will stay focused on the task at hand. If you have to open your browser for research, or if you just don't have the discipline to stay off Facebook, there are programs that will block specified sites during a certain window of time to help you stay productive.
Take Care of Yourself
When you are exhausted from lack of sleep, you can't focus, and you certainly can't do good work. The same is true when your belly is rumbling from hunger or is queasy from that fast-food lunch you just ate.
Taking care of yourself by eating a good diet, sleeping enough each night, and getting regular exercise is key to your productivity. When you ensure that your basic needs are met, you are better able to concentrate for optimal performance. Finding ways to minimize stress is also key to taking care of yourself and becoming more productive.
You don't have to chart every second of your day on color-coded spreadsheets in order to be a more productive student. Simply learning smart habits like getting organized, making the most of class time through participation, setting a schedule and taking good care of yourself can go a long way to becoming more productive.
What other ways do you keep yourself on track and remain productive? Tell us your suggestions in the comments!

About the author:
Sarah Rexman is the main researcher and writer for BedBugs.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Florida State, with a master’s degree in environmental science. Her main focus for the site involves researching all types of bed bugs info as well as showing people where they can find a bed bugs exterminator

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Top 5 APPs That Make Your iPad Even Smarter

  Top 1: iSwifter

What is the most painful thing when you consider to a buy iPad? I guess most of you will say the lack of FLASH. Exactly, iSwifter is the pill to reduce your ache. If you do not want to jailbreak your sweet-heart, this will be your must have app. If you are a online flash gamer, iSwifter will make you throw your PC away and stick with your iPad. Besides the cool functions, the UI(User Interface) is simple and nice. You can handle it easily. Give it a try and you will love it.

 Top 2: Chrome Sync Pro | Firefox Sync Pro ($0.99)

In the world of Browsers, Chrome and Firefox are the two giants standing on the top of the mountain. If you are like a Chrome fan like me, you'd better get Chrome Sync Pro on your iPad(Firefox fan get Firefox Sync Pro). It will automatically help you sync book marks/history to your iPad from your favorite browser. There's no need to say how useful this function will be in your life. iPad is the perfect tool to surf the internet, and Chrome/Firefox Sync Pro make it even smarter.
PS. You can get Chrome/Firefox Sync Pro for both iPad and iPhone(iPod Touch).

  Top 3: HD Battery Doctor (Free)
You may know what the "HD Battery Doctor" is just from its name and logo. Battery Doctor is an awesome assistant to help you keep your iPad battery healthy. Do you charge your iPad every 3 days or even less? I know it is stinky when you are on Facebook, iPad shuts done automatically. Battery Doctor is the solution. Most of us do not really have good habit of charging electronic device because we do not even know what the healthy charging habit is. No one would like to spend hours to research what it is, how to keep battery healthy. You may would rather spend less than 3 minutes to download HD Battery Doctor instead. The next thing you need to do is just to follow the notifications from the app. It will help remind you charge your iPad at the proper time base on their research. You can also find all kinds of tips to save battery. It will keep tracking your charging habit and give you the advice when you should charge iPad in a full cycle and make your battery's life longer. Another useful tool in HD Battery Doctor is that it will help you to predicate how long will your battery last in "Video Playback," "Games," "Photo Taking"mode...
Not like other battery assistants, HD Battery Doctor is totally free not just in price but also free of annoy advertisement.

Top 4: News.me

News.me is basically an app that help for those twitter fans who are overwhelmed by thousands of tweets everyday. It will help you find the most valuable/ most tweeted tweets for daily reading automatically. In other words you will save more time and be more productive in your precious life. Here is one post describing News.me specifically. It will help you get more familiar with this cool app.




  Top 5: iThoughtsHD ($9.99)

If you are MindMapper and also a user of iPad, then this will be another must app for you(if you don't know what MindMap is, I highly recommend you read the post here, you'll find MindMap will help you be more productive in organizing your life, work, brainstorming... ). I have tried many different MindMap apps for iPad, but finally I chose to stick with iThoughtsHD because of its simple UI and powerful function. You can sync your MindMaps with Dropbox. I like this function a lot and almost through my cable away. Another feature is that it supports many different formats of MindMap. Whether you are a Mindjet user, iMindMap user...on PC/Mac, you can use iThoughtsHD to view and edit MindMaps made by them. Furthermore, iThoughtsHD has all the key functions that you can find from the MindMap software on your PC/Mac. Here are some pretty screenshots below.

Those are the top 5 apps I recommend to you, and I am looking forward to hearing what you guys think. If you have any other neat apps you would like to share, please comment below:)

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The Best Way to Find The Most Tweeted Tweets

Because of the massive information we received daily, people want to pick up the most important news we need. There are many people asking how to find the most tweeted tweets in Quora lately.
I used to have the question until I found News.me.
The best way to find the most tweeted tweets in twitter is to use the service on News.me. It is a new successor to Summify which is bought by Twitter lately. News.me will give the customers the most tweeted tweets from the guys they are following. The service is free and neat. You can view your daily digests on Email, iPhone and iPad(no Android App Currently). The interface of News.me on iPad and iPhone is simple and clear. You will get used to it within three minutes:)
That's a short answer to the people who have that needs. Enjoy your journey with News.me. I would like to here more suggestions from you guys.
Those are some screen shot below.

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How to Make Good Use of MindMap

After I spent several days in learning how to make good use of MindMap last week, I made a MindMap which integrates all the note from my researches and readings. It is very clear, useful and organized. Take a look at it.

If you guys want to know more, I recommend you read the post below. Of course you can skip it, if you it is too long. It is the one that I feel pretty useful in my research. Although this post is kind long/ redundant, after you read this post, you will get more closed to MindMap at least.

Mind mapping is a revolutionary tool used for creating, thinking, organizing, note taking and brainstorming.


The modern iteration of mind mapping is claimed to have been created by Tony Buzan – but who really knows. If anything, credit definitely goes to Tony for popularizing the method and bringing it to the masses.


Here at Asian Efficiency, we like to think of ourselves as avid users of mindmapping, rather than “certified experts”. We use mind mapping for all sorts of things in our daily lives, and we want to share some of that with you.
Quick note: in Commonwealth countries, mind maps are often referred to as spidergrams or spidergraphs. They are also knows as concept maps or concept mapping in other parts of the world.
What is Mind Mapping?

Central Idea of a Mindmap

All mind mapping begins with a central idea in the middle of your map. Like this:

A simple mindmap of fruits.

You then build branches or nodes around the mindmap, with the first layer being one hierarchical layer of thought down. Further layers and subsequent branches are then further levels down in logical thought. For example:

A callout describing a type of apple.

Mind maps also often include callouts, which provide “meta” commentary on a branch or idea – these comments are belong “across” in the hierarchy of thought, rather than above or below.

Relationships within mindmaps show how concept links together:

Relating two different fruits.

There is a lot of talk about mind mapping activating “the whole brain” or “both hemispheres” or whatnot. In general, we like to take the practical approach here at Asian Efficiency: does it help us get things done better and more efficiently? If yes, then we’re all for it.

Getting Started with Mind Mapping

Getting started with mindmapping begins with choosing how you’re going to draw the mind map. You can use pen and paper to keep things simple, but we much prefer a quality mind mapping application, such as Mindjet MindManager for Mac or Mindjet MindManager for Windows.

Here are the articles that we have written about the different aspects of mind mapping:

• Mindmaps, notes and spreadsheets. How to use different types of information storage (including mindmaps) effectively. What type of information is best suited for each type of storage.
• Goals and Task Managers. Thanh shows us how he uses mind maps to formulate his goals.
• Goal Setting the Asian Efficiency Way. How to use mindmaps to track your goals as they progress.
• Agile Results. Our series on implementing Agile Results relies heavily on mindmaps as a way of tracking outcomes.

Types of Mind Maps

There are many different types of mind maps. Here are the more common ones that we use at Asian Efficiency.

The Straight Mind Map

A straight mindmap about vegetables.

This is a mindmap with one central idea, and hierarchical nodes.

The Meta Mind Map

A mindmap showing meta information.

This is like a straight mindmap (one central idea, hierarchical nodes), but also includes callouts and highlighted nodes to provide additional commentary and information. When we do work for consulting clients, these are the mindmaps that we use the most often.

Multi-Idea Mind Maps

This type of mind map contains multiple central ideas, and shows the relationship between all the central ideas and their hierarchical nodes. A good example of this type of mind map are mind maps for designed business or computer systems.

A multinode/multi-idea mindmap about information systems.

These kind of mind maps tend to be hard to generate with Mindjet MindManager, and we prefer to useMindNode for these.

Common Uses of Mind Maps

Mind mapping has a lot of different uses – much more than most people think are possible. You can use mindmapping for:

• Brainstorming. Mindmaps are great for brainstorming project ideas, or coming up with solutions for business problems (the problem being the central node).
• Note Taking. We use mind maps to take notes for books, lectures or seminars. The advantage of a mind map is that you get to sort the ideas in a way that makes sense to you, rather than in the linear form presented by the source material.
• Organizing and Reorganizing. Mindmaps work equally well for organizing your life – just see what we’ve done with Agile Results and Mind Maps. You can also take existing information, and reorganize it within a mindmap, to create new relationships between ideas and concepts.
• Creating. All the articles on Asian Efficiency (including this one) begin life as mindmaps.

The uses for mind mapping are pretty much endless – the tools available to us are pretty much open-ended and infinite in capacity!

Mind Mapping Tools and Applications

The simplest way to mindmap is to use pen and paper. We still occasionally sketch simple mindmaps into a Moleskine Notebook.

When it comes to Apps and Software, we prefer Mindjet MindManager for daily use. It’s fast, it’s stable, it has a real company with real support behind it (not just a lone developer), and it also has accompanying iOS applications.

Check out Mindjet MindManager here.

A great alternative to MindManager is MindNode, which is useful for multi-idea mind maps. It’s not as slick as MindManager, but it still works quite well.

We’re making it a point to re-review a lot of mind mapping software, and we’ll let you know more about others as we take a look at them.

Mind Mapping Resources

Here are some other great places to find out about Mind Mapping:

• MindJet. A great company that really embraces the use of mindmapping for business and professional use.
• Sciplore. For those interested in the science behind data organization and mind maps.
• Efficacy of Mind Maps as a study technique. Interesting study about how motivation plays a significant role in the ability to use mindmaps effectively.

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