askini

Askini

Askini (originated from "saqsini" in Algerian dialect which means Ask me) aims to simulate the physical class experience where you can ask questions and start discussion during the lecture for online classes by allowing students (or anyone watching the video) to ask questions at anytime during a video lecture.

How it works ?

Askini adds a button to the video controls to allow users to ask questions anytime during the video, clicking the button will trigger a window to pop up with a comment system widget with a different discussion for every second.

The commenting mechanism is based remark42 which offers a bunch of cool features:

• Markdown support
• login with Google/GitHub/Email/antonymous
• up vote down vote comments
• unlimited nested threads
• ....

Note that Askini needs a remark42 instance to work, you can use the demo instance at https://askini.sereel.com/web or install your own instance following instructions in remark42's docs.

Why not comments ?

• The fluctuation between the video lecture and comments make it harder to ask real/specific questions and get real/specific answers
• Usually comments are overwhelmed with non-question comments, it's not designed for asking/answering questions

Quick Setup

<video id="player" playsinline controls>
    <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

<script src="path/to/askini.js"></script>
<script>
    const options = {
        host: 'https://askini.sereel.com', // hostname of remark server
        base_url: 'http://example.com/video1', // Used to construct the url passed to remark
        site_id: 'demo',
        max_shown_comments: 15,
        theme: 'dark',
        locale: 'en'
    }
    const askini = new Askini("#player", options);
</script>