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As a business model it is quite interesting. I don't think the spin of being an alternative to university is fitting though. It's either a service where you tak
by lumberjack 6y ago
As a business model it is quite interesting. I don't think the spin of being an alternative to university is fitting though.
It's either a service where you take classes for fun. I can see that working if marketed to the right people. Or it is a service where you take classes to improve your skills. I can see that working too. Lots of people in tech especially want to make the switch from DevOps to SWE to Data Science to Quant ...etc
As for the whole "professor" thing. A professor does research and a big part of the appeal of taking their (graduate) classes is to be able to have a glimpse of the research they do and maybe get an opportunity to work with them. This seems to be missing here.
I am not saying this to downplay the idea. I actually like the concept.
- jmrphy 6y agoJustin here, thanks for your interest. ;-) On the point of professors attracting grad students interested in seeing and participating in the prof's work... That's true and it is a major element of what I'm doing. Many of the people who take my courses do so to stimulate/improve some kind of personal creative or intellectual project; I write books and such alongside the courses, and we occasionally discuss strategy, tactics, workflows, etc. So it is very similar to the working relationships I had with grad students in the university. The only difference is now my students aren't hoping to land academic jobs, they just want to do meaningful work and make their dent on the world through the internet.