(Excerpt from Monday Musings 6 Jul 2020 by David Perell)
Some observations on the future of education from Tiago Forte:
- Most online courses until now have been performance-driven, as in “direct response performance marketing.” This is the world of sales webinars, evergreen funnels, countdown timers, and endless bonuses. It’s an inherently scammy culture because the only thing that matters is endlessly optimizing around short-term sales, not the long-term customer relationship. This is mostly where online courses get their bad reputation.
- In general, a performance-driven approach means better short-term conversion, but worse long-term brand equity.
- With AltMBA, Seth Godin built one of the first brand-driven courses. He didn’t offer discounts, didn’t use Seth’s photo in any paid ads, didn’t use affiliates or referral programs. (For more on this, read this excellent article by Wes Kao).
- Skill-building is like vocational or trade school – you have a problem, you need a skill to solve it. It’s factual, how-to, practical, and measurable.
- “Edutainment” focuses on inspiring and entertaining learners. This word has often been used with derision, but it doesn’t deserve it. It is just as important to inspire students to learn, otherwise all the how-to content in the world won’t help.
Here’s how Tiago characterizes the education landscape:
- Skill-building, Brand-driven: Teachable/Thinkific, AltMBA, SPI, Udacity.
- Skill-building, Performance-driven: Udemy, online certification courses.
- Edutainment, Brand-driven: Masterclass, Marie Forleo’s B-School, Coursera.
- Edutainment: Performance-driven: Skillshare, Mindvalley.