There are an increasing number of educational resources available online, but the challenge today might be less a matter of finding something that you want to learn than it is a matter following through with the actual learning itself.
Fitango wants to address that by offering its users action plans, step-by-step guides on how to accomplish their goals. There are hundreds of plans on the site, including “How to Grow a Vegetable Garden” and “How to Winterize Your Vehicle.” Some of the action plans are free, but many cost money – about $10 on average.
What comprises the plans depends, obviously, on what you’re learning: some include videos, some are text. But they all include some way to track your progress and maintain a checklist of how you’re doing.
That tracking is also highly social, so you can share your progress with others. You can find your friends via Facebook and email, for example, and you can push your updates to your social streams, should you choose. This is meant to help you keep yourself motivated, not just with a checklist of what you need to be doing in your action plan, but by having others become your tracking your progress as well. You can invite others to become your motivator so they can keep you on task and give you feedback.
In addition to selecting an action plan from Fitango’s marketplace, you can create your own plan as well. You can distribute these via the site, although these plans can’t be sold for money, as the company wants to keep the quality of its expert advice high. Like many companies that are moving into this growing space of online learning, that will be the challenge for Fitango – making sure the content on the site is worthwhile and its users’ experiences positive.
Fitango launched in December, just in time to catch the New Year’s Resolution crowd. No surprise then, many of its initial plans emphasized health and self-improvement. But since then, the company has expanded into other areas, most recently with action plans from the language-learning company Berlitz.