Udemy, Coursera, Udacity, Masterclass, Teachable, etc... We all thought that these platforms would dramatically disrupt higher education and job training- but they didn't.

And it's because they lacked 3 essential components that you need for online education to work:

Community: While most people will enroll in courses for the curriculum and content; only a sense of community will keep them coming back for more. Big props to @beondeck for nailing this piece.

Cohort-based: To get students to want to take advantage of your program's resources, you need to create a sense of urgency. A high-intensity period in which each student will be incentivized to participate due to the ephemeral nature of the program. @ycombinator is proof of this

Collaboration: Passively consuming content by watching pre-recorded videos is *not* enough to learn. You need to be hands-on. You need to practice what you learn. Shout-out to @AcadiumOfficial for innovating in this space.

Two flagship online courses that have all three of these ingredients baked into its DNA are "Building a Second Brain" and "Write of Passage"- both put together by the team at @fortelabs.

Recently, I had an energizing conversation with the course manager of both programs, @will_mannon, about cohort-based, online courses and what they mean for the future of education. Listen to the full conversation here -> https://virtually.transistor.fm/episodes/w-will-mannon-forte-labs