The future of Self Directed Learning

I used to work as an Instructional Technology Fellow. Back then, of course we did not have the AI tools we have today. Nowadays, it is very easy to build the tools based on individual needs and preferences. I built Docent using Claude Code and deployed it on Vercel. The tool itself is free, unfortunately the actual AI models it uses are not. Docent utilizes Openrouter as the model provider, and you will need to enter your own Openrouter API key on Docent settings tab to be able to use the tool.

So far, a good learning session with narrated 20-30 slides and Q/A rounds is costing $2-3 dollars using Opus 4.6. However, learning is addictive and continuous use of the tool can lead to substantive AI model API costs that are charging by the token. Unfortunately, currently I do not have a good solution for individuals. Hosting your own local AI models is certainly an option, if you have the capability.

Large institutions such as corporations and educational institutions can hook up the tool into their existing ecosystem and expose their own internal AI APIs. The Docent codebase is open source and released under MIT License.

I hope you will enjoy using the tool as much as I do. If you like, record and share interesting narrated decks you generate with Docent. And comments, suggestions are welcome.

Go learn something new today!