Many people have hated zoom school — and many of their reasons are completely legitimate. But after teaching 22 cohorts of zoom school courses (classes run entirely on zoom), I am convinced the future of education is more (not less) of zoom-based learning. A thread.

Let’s start with the bad: most college or grad level zoom classes have simply been the same material and content from a classroom just delivered via zoom. It’s no surprise that sucks. Researchers find we retain about 10% of an in-person lecture; take that online & less than 5%.

There’s a negative stigma already about online learning — and then it’s worse when you take the same test that seems way harder because you retained 50% less than you would have if you heard the lecture in person. No wonder it feels subpar: it is.

The truth is Zoom school is better than watching the lecture online without your fellow students. That community or cohort of fellow learners matters... but it’s not enough to fix the fundamental problem of information delivery. Push based learning isn’t good; & worse online.

My first cohort of Zoom school in the summer of 2017 was eye opening. Normally 95% of my students would successfully complete the requirements in person. That summer, only 20% did. Definitely an eye opener. Realized that I needed to reimagine the experience.

From there, I recognized that three things mattered to improve the learning outcomes: 1) Structured Coaching. Students needed me to reach out to check in — in person there was less of that, but when virtual they needed one-on-one engagement outside the class sessions.

2) Weekly progress tracking; monthly assessed progress. There’s a balance here - weekly assignments felt like “high school” so targets for each week with assessments monthly was the right balance. Otherwise I found too many people fell behind...

3) In Class, Small Group Engagement. I found zoom “all class” discussions to be hard for everyone. The unmute and calling on people makes it feel like a terrible work conference call. But each class we did “Circles” of 3-5 students with a specified discussion. They self managed.

I began to realize that a focused hour of zoom school was more effective than 3 hours of lectures. If you create the right “out of session” work, they can do more in less time. But it forced me to re-examine everything to do it.

I am extremely bullish on the future of Zoom U — cohort based experiences. Less time lecturing, more time coaching and space for students to collaborate. Plus forcing myself to tighten the lectures from 3 hours to 20-40 minutes was remarkable. Lots of wasted time...

Virtual cohort-based learning is powerful because you can take niche subjects where there isn’t enough dedicated interest in 1 school or location and suddenly fill a “global classroom”. The right people are there... making the community unique.

And now that so many people know what doesn’t work (ie, a bad experience), the opportunity for great experiences is massive.