The Monster opportunity in eductaion is waiting.
I’m diving head long into the elearning market with OpenStudy and it’s a fascinating space. More than anything it’s prime for massive disruption – Kevin Maney in his Business Week article, “Next: An Internet Revolution in Higher Education”, digs into this very well.
The essence of Manley’s analysis …
- “Currently there exists no higher-education version of MP3 music files—no way to get a “good-enough” BA or master’s degree that’s accepted by professional managers, yet obtain it in a way that’s cheap, easy, and convenient. This is a terrible imbalance. That’s like putting up a giant neon sign announcing: Monster Opportunity Inside”
Along with Manley’s “monster opportunity” is another skulking behemoth: the “socialization” of education. In much the same way that we’ve seen peer-to-peer interactions happen in personal relationships (Facebook), professional interactions (LinkedIN) and music (ilike), it has yet to visit the campus. Much of this is a result of establishment inertia agreed but much of it is also down to a lack of tools. There enter OpenStudy.
OpenStudy is a peer to peer study platform that allows students to study with each other in a new “social” way. By setting up virtual study rooms with friends or anyone from the network, students can collaborate on assignments, projects or answering questions. It’s big point of difference, is the way in which it promotes the “social” aspect to learning by matching those who want to GET help with those who want to GIVE help. With OpenStudy, students have a unique way to collaborate that is more engaging, fun and effective and is based on studying when and where the student wants. Try thinking, Webex-meets-Facebook-meets-match. com. Further more, OpenStudy is content agnostic – it’s not about ‘what’ you learn or even ‘where’ you’re at school, instead, it’s about the ‘who’ you learn with. OpenStudy’s emphasis is providing connections between the “people” and not on serving the content.
Fundamentally, the goal is to flatten – and disrupt- education by distributing the responsibility of learning to the online crowd, making it accessible regardless of location, expertise or socioeconomic background. By “socializing” the collaborative learning process whether in study groups, lectures or tutoring, OpenStudy leverages peer validation as a motivator to drive student-to-student learning and create an environment where students teach each other.
Time will tell how the socialization of education will shape up.
