Greg Beatomarch :
(From previous issue)
It often has to be, says Nick Macey, chief product officer of Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software company. Mr. Macey has to develop products that people enjoy enough to use regularly and intensively, because that is what it takes to learn a new language. “So whether it’s through highly entertaining content or live experiences with native speakers, we’re always looking for ways to engage our customers,” Mr. Macey says.
As material becomes more enjoyable, ultimately some people begin to approach even difficult and sustained feats of learning, like achieving conversational fluency in Mandarin, as a way to unwind at the end of the day.
“Educated people love to learn,” notes Randy White, chief executive of the White Hutchinson Leisure and Learning Group, a company based in Kansas City, Mo., that helps develop things like children’s play centers and farmers markets that combine education and entertainment.
These new educational approaches offer a more structured and productive experience than watching a situation comedy or a reality show. But the experience can also be as informal as you want it to be. “There are no exams,” the Great Courses website reassures. “No homework assignments. No prerequisites.”
Still, people accustomed to a steady stream of likes, retweets and other soft forms of assessment often view exams and quizzes as good things.
Rouxbe.com is an online cooking school whose curriculum is so comprehensive that restaurants and culinary academies use it as a training tool. But according to Joe Girard, its chief executive, 80 percent of its customers are home cooks. And they want feedback.
“Not everyone thought that our customers would do quizzes,” Mr. Girard says. “But in the first six months that we introduced them, we had 500,000 quizzes completed. People love affirmation. They love to see that because they watched a video, they now know something they didn’t previously know.”
People also recognize that the Internet puts answers, experts and detailed instruction at their fingertips. And that increases their curiosity and willingness to tackle new subjects.
“Today, people learn online first,” says Jen Long, co-founder of GardenTribe.com, a California producer of online instruction for home gardeners. “There’s no driving to the nursery. It’s go to Google and type in, ‘What should I plant in my garden?’ “
That is how it worked for one GardenTribe.com customer, Odessa Criales-Smith. “I did a Google search because I wanted to learn more about succulents,” she says. “I didn’t know what I’d find. I was just searching for any information at all.”
A software reseller who works from home in Lovettsville, Va., Ms. Criales-Smith often used online courses to obtain certifications for the various lines of software she sells. So when GardenTribe.com came up in her search results, she bought access to one of its classes.
“I was just looking for a hobby to chill on,” Ms. Criales-Smith says. “Succulents was a great relaxing thing to do.” After viewing the first video, Ms. Criales-Smith bought additional classes and watched them at night in bed, projecting them from her tablet onto her large-screen TV using Google’s Chromecast device.
Over time, she says, she turned into a “succulents fanatic.” And eventually, she began attending antiques shows and flea markets to sell arrangements that she makes of succulent plants. “Taking that class gave me the confidence to go ahead and start something,” she says.
That first GardenTribe.com class that Ms. Criales-Smith took now goes for $39. The DVD version of the Great Courses class “The Higgs Boson and Beyond” sells for $199.95.
“Changing Tides of History: Cruising the Baltic Sea,” the Smithsonian Journeys vacation where you can talk about globalization with Lech Walesa, starts at $6,995.
It is not always clear if a product or event is being used as entertainment or, say, corporate training. So creditable estimates of the size of the edutainment industry are hard to come by. What is clear is that its target consumers are willing to pay for the experiences it can deliver.
“The most educated have the least amount of time,” Mr. White observes. “So when they spend their leisure time, they want it as productive and high quality as possible.
They’re looking for experiences that can permanently change themselves – going to a fitness facility, gaining new knowledge. They don’t want to waste their leisure time.”
At the Great Courses, there is a rigorous process to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“First, we write up a synopsis of what we want a title to be,” Mr. Leon says. “Then we poll that with our customer basis.” If it performs well, the company starts looking for professors to teach the course. “I have a recruiting team that scours the country for just the right person.”
Candidates travel to the Great Courses studio in Chantilly, Va., and record a lecture. “We have a variety of people test for the same course,” Mr. Leon says. The samples are market-tested as well. “Our customers are going to spend 12 to 24 hours of screen time with this person, so it has to be someone who resonates with them.”
Once a professor is chosen, a course goes into full production. In 2015, the Great Courses will release about 40 new classes.
“This year, we’ve got 550 hours of content coming out of our studio,” Mr. Leon says. Because of all of that exposure to subjects like data analytics or world’s greatest churches, Mr. Leon says, “My production team is turning into semi-geniuses.” On an unnamed tropical island, a mysterious retired polymath may be, too.
(Concluded)
– New York Times
(From previous issue)
It often has to be, says Nick Macey, chief product officer of Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software company. Mr. Macey has to develop products that people enjoy enough to use regularly and intensively, because that is what it takes to learn a new language. “So whether it’s through highly entertaining content or live experiences with native speakers, we’re always looking for ways to engage our customers,” Mr. Macey says.
As material becomes more enjoyable, ultimately some people begin to approach even difficult and sustained feats of learning, like achieving conversational fluency in Mandarin, as a way to unwind at the end of the day.
“Educated people love to learn,” notes Randy White, chief executive of the White Hutchinson Leisure and Learning Group, a company based in Kansas City, Mo., that helps develop things like children’s play centers and farmers markets that combine education and entertainment.
These new educational approaches offer a more structured and productive experience than watching a situation comedy or a reality show. But the experience can also be as informal as you want it to be. “There are no exams,” the Great Courses website reassures. “No homework assignments. No prerequisites.”
Still, people accustomed to a steady stream of likes, retweets and other soft forms of assessment often view exams and quizzes as good things.
Rouxbe.com is an online cooking school whose curriculum is so comprehensive that restaurants and culinary academies use it as a training tool. But according to Joe Girard, its chief executive, 80 percent of its customers are home cooks. And they want feedback.
“Not everyone thought that our customers would do quizzes,” Mr. Girard says. “But in the first six months that we introduced them, we had 500,000 quizzes completed. People love affirmation. They love to see that because they watched a video, they now know something they didn’t previously know.”
People also recognize that the Internet puts answers, experts and detailed instruction at their fingertips. And that increases their curiosity and willingness to tackle new subjects.
“Today, people learn online first,” says Jen Long, co-founder of GardenTribe.com, a California producer of online instruction for home gardeners. “There’s no driving to the nursery. It’s go to Google and type in, ‘What should I plant in my garden?’ “
That is how it worked for one GardenTribe.com customer, Odessa Criales-Smith. “I did a Google search because I wanted to learn more about succulents,” she says. “I didn’t know what I’d find. I was just searching for any information at all.”
A software reseller who works from home in Lovettsville, Va., Ms. Criales-Smith often used online courses to obtain certifications for the various lines of software she sells. So when GardenTribe.com came up in her search results, she bought access to one of its classes.
“I was just looking for a hobby to chill on,” Ms. Criales-Smith says. “Succulents was a great relaxing thing to do.” After viewing the first video, Ms. Criales-Smith bought additional classes and watched them at night in bed, projecting them from her tablet onto her large-screen TV using Google’s Chromecast device.
Over time, she says, she turned into a “succulents fanatic.” And eventually, she began attending antiques shows and flea markets to sell arrangements that she makes of succulent plants. “Taking that class gave me the confidence to go ahead and start something,” she says.
That first GardenTribe.com class that Ms. Criales-Smith took now goes for $39. The DVD version of the Great Courses class “The Higgs Boson and Beyond” sells for $199.95.
“Changing Tides of History: Cruising the Baltic Sea,” the Smithsonian Journeys vacation where you can talk about globalization with Lech Walesa, starts at $6,995.
It is not always clear if a product or event is being used as entertainment or, say, corporate training. So creditable estimates of the size of the edutainment industry are hard to come by. What is clear is that its target consumers are willing to pay for the experiences it can deliver.
“The most educated have the least amount of time,” Mr. White observes. “So when they spend their leisure time, they want it as productive and high quality as possible.
They’re looking for experiences that can permanently change themselves – going to a fitness facility, gaining new knowledge. They don’t want to waste their leisure time.”
At the Great Courses, there is a rigorous process to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“First, we write up a synopsis of what we want a title to be,” Mr. Leon says. “Then we poll that with our customer basis.” If it performs well, the company starts looking for professors to teach the course. “I have a recruiting team that scours the country for just the right person.”
Candidates travel to the Great Courses studio in Chantilly, Va., and record a lecture. “We have a variety of people test for the same course,” Mr. Leon says. The samples are market-tested as well. “Our customers are going to spend 12 to 24 hours of screen time with this person, so it has to be someone who resonates with them.”
Once a professor is chosen, a course goes into full production. In 2015, the Great Courses will release about 40 new classes.
“This year, we’ve got 550 hours of content coming out of our studio,” Mr. Leon says. Because of all of that exposure to subjects like data analytics or world’s greatest churches, Mr. Leon says, “My production team is turning into semi-geniuses.” On an unnamed tropical island, a mysterious retired polymath may be, too.
(Concluded)
– New York Times
