There’s a grain of truth in every joke… (Source: Reddit)
One of the most viral memes at the outset of the pandemic was the image above that compared the annual prices of streaming services.
Without the on-campus component, Harvard’s lofty education is reduced more or less to pre-recorded lecture videos.
While obviously a joke, the meme is a pointed jab at how little online education has progressed.
One way of improving online ed…
… is by making the experience live and interactive. Gura — a livestreaming platform for premium learning experiences — just launched with exactly this value proposition.
Per Influencive, Gura turns a 2-3 month process to create a pre-recorded curriculum into a turnkey experience for any creator looking to sell their expertise.
The platform has the tools to host live sessions, sell virtual tickets, and connect with students.
Live isn’t the only value prop, either
Maven is also a live education platform, but with a specific emphasis: cohort-based learning. The startup raised $20m in May, per TechCrunch.
According to co-founder Wes Kao, cohorts pair educational content with “community and accountability” that comes from peers. (Maven’s other co-founder and CEO, Gagan Biyani, helped teach The Hustle’s first Ideation Bootcamp).
If live online ed cracks the code and makes the Harvard streaming meme obsolete… we’ll always have this joke to fall back on:
