The Next Revolution In Online Education

Posted: June 4th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Education, Thinking Out Loud, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Clearly online video is changing a hell of a lot. But the industry I think it’s changing most is education. Khan Academy gives young people worldwide the ability to have a quality education at the cost of a computer. Thousands of teachers are recording their lessons and putting them on YouTube. The top universities in the world are recording all lectures and putting them on YouTube. This is pretty incredible, right?

Just an example of how online video is helping me personally. In the past couple of weeks for various reasons I’ve missed quite a few periods of economics (my favourite subject). We’re studying the “theory of the firm” and it’s a topic which is challenging but which I’m really enjoying. It covers things like market structure and marginal costs and profit maximisation theory. Reading a textbook to catch up is all very well, but there’s no denying that having a good teacher explain the concepts to you increases your understanding tenfold. So I did a YouTube search of “Perfect Competition in Long Run” (a part of the topic that I missed yesterday) and up comes lots of different teachers who have recorded their lessons. I watched a few, and found one I really liked – view it here. It turns out that the guy who creates the videos is a teacher at a school in Greece, and he has videos on all different economics topics. He explains things very well and very simply, and I understand what he’s saying.

Previously I would’ve had to try and catch up simply through the textbook, or ask the teacher to give me a quick explanation at the end of class. Now, in my own time I can receive private lessons. This is so, so powerful.

But these concepts have been around for a few years. People have been doing online lessons really since YouTube came about. There’s another revolution just waiting to happen. And I think it’s about to occur.

This next revolution in online video lessons is providing both parts to an education. Currently we have the lessons available online. We have the explanations and the theories. But we don’t have an actual education system where people can study, practice, be tested, and receive credit for their work.

Khan Academy is probably at the forefront of this revolution, because they provide a platform for people to study what they’ve learned. But they’re currently only providing this part of their service to young children studying basic maths. At the same time, they don’t have an actual qualification for people completing online activities.

What we need for this revolution to occur is Khan Academy to build out their lesson platform, and for actual education institutions to provide a form of qualifications to people based on work they’ve completed online. There really are three aspects to education – learning the theories, practicing them so that you understand them, and then getting a qualification to signal to others that you understand it. Khan Academy is doing very well because the first is almost mastered – now they need to build out the second one, and find a way to offer qualifications.

Education will eventually be done mainly through the Internet. Physical schools will be a place where students go to get help with what they’ve learned online at home. And this is probably Khan Academy’s goal. I feel they’ve really got the vision right, but they need to focus on both of these aspects I’ve discussed equally to really succeed and enter this next revolution in online video education.

But don’t for a minute think that Khan Academy have won and are here to stay. If you’re an entrepreneur and are thinking of getting involved in this area – there hasn’t been a better time.

  • Quentin Todd

    I have learnt heaps form YouTube pieces that I wanted to use for Political Science but it was “not scholarly” or “academic” enough. It’s the core problem with our education system – that their prescription for learning does not inspire creative thinking. . For example, Wikipedia is not an acceptable resource. I wonder how to create qualifications that mean benefit and when older systems of qualifications become irrelevant to the ever increasing new paradigm of 21st century learning? 

    Intellectual capacity is not sourced as a qualification – except in matters pertaining “Learning Outcomes” that often don’t reflect intellectual capacity to grasp and solve problems etc. This is usually done by a system of points or grades; most grades I got, did not reflect my own intellectual capacity because the goals of the learning outcomes were too high.

    This is where I feel you are right about the Internet is changing that. It is empowering me as reading books does, therefore it will certainly challenge universities.

  • http://twitter.com/alwestnz Alistair West

    Yes indeed. Like many of this concepts, it’s there but hasn’t been fully utilised yet.  I believe a good analogy here is banking. It’s not that long ago (for us over 40) that you could only bank between 9am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Before ATMs people used cash, and wrote cheques(A piece of paper saying I’ll give you the money later -I promise!!) that were cashed by the local shopkeeper.   Going to the bank generally meant losing a lunch hour, the lines were so long.  We can now bank 24/7 and pay our bills on line. Now who goes to a banch branch unless you’ve lost your ATM card or need to borrow money?  In the future will we change ‘bank branch’ to ‘classroom’. Will all our learning take place online and we only visit the classroom phyiscally once or twice a year?

  • http://twitter.com/andryrabiaza Andry Rabiaza

    I like the analogy used by @twitter-138294173:disqus about bank. However, I think education is a very special subject.

    Why ? When we talk about online education, we touch a more larger debate which is at the heart of our society. A debate about pedagogy and knowledge. A more larger debate which has been opened many years ago by our government.

    In my opinion, technology will never take the place of classroom like online banking and ATM is taking the place of bank branches. However, technology will be at the heart of our way to educate people : young and old, in school and out of the school (@mmoorejones:disqus  you show us this with your website TDTYTIS).

    For me, technology will replace our books and papers. Everything will be online, in a shared cloud between all members of each education community (each schools, each colleges will ave its cloud interconnected with each other). This is the way taken by many education institution especially by universities. And I think there are right.

    In the same time, the classroom will stay as today and will be the daily place where teachers will guides their students in the online world. Also, the second purpose will be exercising. I think an exercise is better when it’s interactive. And there are no better interaction than in face-to-face. And I think, no technology will compete versus face-to-face interaction.
    So, classrooms have to be a social room where students and teachers are here to exchange and only for that.

    Complete online education is not the best way for the majority of student but it’s a good way in some circumstances (rural and other less densified area).

  • Manuel Landa

    The current LMS (Learning Management Systems) from established vendors like Blackboard, are based on a flawed premise: that there is a controlled source of information from validated teachers (an “education hub” that curates the content), and based on this LMS platform, the organize the content in structured educational programs, follow up progress, facilitate interaction among students and teachers, and finally certify your accomplishments. There is a need for a new type of LMS that coming from an unstructrured source of content from multiple sources (i.e. YouTube infinitely availability of educational material) , organizes it, curates it (by user-ratings and expert opinions), facilitates interaction, and finally certifies a minimum knowledge and experience level (and on the experience side, there is a whole new world of assesing the practical experience from people, based on references from previous employees, co-workers, etc.)
    The key area for a new generation LMS is how to move from a central-hub model, to an unstructured source of content. 

  • http://mmoorejones.com Michael Moore-Jones

    Completely agree with that analogy! Describes it so well.

  • http://mmoorejones.com Michael Moore-Jones

    Interesting! I can’t wait to find out more about this new type of LMS.

  • http://mmoorejones.com/2011/06/09/why-how-tdtytis-aims-to-be-the-other-side-to-education/ Why & How TDTYTIS Aims To Be The Other Side To Education –mmoorejones

    [...] written a lot about how I think services like Khan Academy are the future of education, and how I believe in the [...]

  • Betsy Lowe

    I don’t know if I agree if a new LMS is a step forward for online education resources. Personally, I hated Blackboard, when I was in school. It was geared more for teachers than students. I think if we are going to move forward with technology and education, a transition to complete online learning would be beneficial. Or I think the use of technological tools, iPads, iTablets inside a classroom environment would be better. 

  • http://ideas.upskill.me/2011/06/05/the-implications-of-how-one-16yo-is-using-online-lectures-to-augment-his-education/ The Implications of how one 16yo is using Online Lectures to Augment his Education | UpskillMe Ideas

    [...] demonstrates how, as a student, he is using video material posted by an educator in Greece to catch up on economics material he missed at his school in New Zealand. Michael, and the teachers using Khan Academy, are [...]