Progress stage 1
Posted on 07. Oct, 2010 by Marco.
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eduFire update
Posted on 18. Sep, 2010 by Marco.
Since our last blog post we wanted to give you an update.
Our users have experienced some technical difficulties with the site during the past few days. These amount to issues with sending messages through eduFire.com, students sending 1:1 session requests and difficulties posting on the community forum; all of which are giving a ‘bump in the road’ error.
On behalf of the team I’d like to apologize for all of this inconvenience. We know how important all of these things are and we are hard at work in resolving it for you. Right now planning some amazing enhancements to eduFire and this is all part of a process that will make eduFire even better.
In the short-term we are going to limit free course offerings to reduce the communications challenges–so please hold-off on creating free courses until further notice. All free classes currently listed will be deleted over the weekend so as to give teachers time to contact all your students.
Your loyalty to eduFire has been second to none and we deeply appreciate the messages of support from all our users and a big thanks to the Community Ambassadors for all that you do. We promise to deliver the best eduFire you’ve ever seen and you are central to that.
We’ll keep you all up to date as we progress so hang in there and stay tuned!
Marco C
on behalf of the eduFire team.
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eduFire is now a part of Camelback Education Group
Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by jon.
I’m excited to announce that eduFire is now a part of Camelback Education Group, a higher education holding company based in Phoenix, Arizona. We first met the Camelback team in 2009 and were impressed with their vision for creating a next-generation online university. They were impressed with the amazing community that had assembled here at eduFire and interested in the technology platform we had built. The more we talked the more we both thought there could be a great fit between our two companies.
For the most part, eduFire as you know it will stay the same and you’ll still have the opportunity to take and teach one-on-one tutoring sessions and classes. You’ll likely notice some changes of course and, as always, we welcome your feedback on what you see. We’re excited about what Camelback has in the works and we’re happy that we have been able to find a partner who shares our belief that education is an industry in dire need of some revolution.
We’ll be sharing more information with you in the future but wanted you to hear the news from us first. We have so much to be thankful for over the last several years since we started eduFire. So many of you have poured your heart and soul into eduFire. It’s been an amazing experience to date and we are so appreciative of your passion and energy. We are looking forward to this new chapter in eduFire’s history and of course to continuing to play a role in “being the change” in what we feel is the most important industry on the planet.
Sincerely,
Jon (on behalf of the eduFire Team)
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Earn Your College Credit on eduFire (a.k.a. Time to change the game)
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by jon.
On Friday I blogged about what went down at Berkeley last week. And it’s not just Berkeley. All around the country (and the world for that matter) millions of students are fed up with their higher education options. They’re taking on way too much debt to earn degrees that often aren’t worth what the students thought they’d be. And with unemployment rates historically high they’re often not making the money they need to service that debt. And the price and debt are often only the start of the problems. There are growing concerns about a whole host of issues ranging from quality to overcrowding.
We’ve spent a lot of time at eduFire thinking and discussing how we can play a role (even if it’s only a small one at this juncture) in making things better. So it’s with a lot of pride that I’m excited to announce today for the first time that we’re launching a series of courses that will allow you to earn college credit at over 2,900 colleges and universities. The best part is that the total cost will be approximately 80-90% lower than what you’d pay at a traditional college or university (or an online university like Phoenix or Kaplan for that matter, they aren’t really any cheaper than most brick and mortar unis). Here’s how it works:
Step #1 – Take any one of our new CLEP Preparatory Courses on eduFire (complete list here and more details below). The CLEP exam is administered by The College Board and is a way for students to earn equivalency credit at colleges and universities that accept CLEP credit (here’s a complete list…it’s extensive). CLEP credits are a way for people to demonstrate their knowledge of a particular subject in lieu of sitting for the relevant course at their school. You can think of CLEP kind of like “AP for adults” or as a means of “testing out” of a subject.
Our CLEP Courses are taught by amazing instructors (bios below), some of whom you may have taken classes from previously on eduFire. In addition to live lectures (which of course are available on-demand) you’ll also have a whole host of supporting materials to learn from. For instance, for the Macroeconomics course that I’m teaching you’ll also be learning from some of the top economists in the country including podcasts and blogs from Ivy League professors and some of the top luminaries in the world of economics. We’ll also be having some fantastic guest lecturers in our live classes!
#2 – Once your course is complete on eduFire then simply sit the CLEP exam. The CLEP exam will run you $72. Let’s stop for a moment and consider the cost of taking a course on eduFire plus the CLEP exam versus another popular option. The Macroeconomics course will run you $20 per session and is five sessions for a total of $100. Add that to CLEP exam fee and you have a total cost of $172 for the three credits you’ll receive.
Now compare that to the cost of three credits of The University of Phoenix. U of P is typically between $400 and $500 per credit (depending on your location). So those same three credits at Phoenix will run you at least $1,200. You’ll save at least 86% by taking the course on eduFire and sitting the CLEP exam. That’s a lot of money and perhaps as importantly, a lot less debt to take on. Not bad…
Here are a few of the courses we’re starting with on eduFire.
CLEP College Mathematics – College Mathematics is taught by Mair Lloyd. Mair graduated from Oxford (yes, that Oxford!) and has been teaching on eduFire for over a year. She has a huge list of credentials including a post graduate teaching qualification. And you can even follow here on Twitter here.
CLEP Introductory Psychology – Marco has been on eduFire since the very beginning and is the heart and soul of our community. He also happens to be an expert in the field of psychology. He has a BSc. Honours Degree in Psychology from the Open University and is a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society.
CLEP Spanish Language – There’s no better to teach the Spanish CLEP prep course than Ximena Rojas. Ximena has a Master of Arts from The University of Tennessee (Go Vols!) and a law degree from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres. She has been a professor at the Universidad del Valle in La Paz, Bolivia and has decades of teaching experience.
We have several other courses on the schedule already including English Composition (taught by Karen Weil), College Algebra (taught by Kamal Das) and Macroeconomics (taught by yours truly!). You can find the complete list here. More to following in the coming months as well!
I’d love to wrap this up by sharing a bit about why we’re doing this. Way back when eduFire was just an idea we blogged about making education more equal and accessible. The launch of our CLEP courses and the ability for people to save thousands of dollars by earning college credit through classes they are taking on eduFire is yet another step in that direction. We think it’s ludicrous that we as a society are asking young adults to take on crushing amounts of debt simply to get an education. We think it’s equally ridiculous that students all around the world shouldn’t have an opportunity to pull together the best educational resources and thread them together into something that gets them significantly closer to a degree.
So that’s what we’ve been done. We’ve been inspired by a lot of other amazing people that are shaking up higher education like the folks at University of the People, Straighterline, Tech University of America, Peer2Peer University, Academic Earth and more. And we’re incredibly excited to join these pioneering institutions and change the game for millions of students around the world. If you want to help in any way just drop us a line. We’d love to have you onboard.
(P.S. A HUGE debt of gratitude to Josh Kaufman at PersonalMBA.com for providing a huge amount of inspiration for this in the form of blog post “Hacking Higher Education, Part 1: How to Obtain an Accredited Undergraduate Degree in 1 Year for $4,000“. We owe you a round Josh!)
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Don’t think there’s a big problem with education? OK, watch this video…
Posted on 20. Nov, 2009 by jon.
What happens when you hike tuition on students 32 percent in a single year and cut salaries for some of your best and brightest teachers?
Near riot conditions at Berkeley today.
I haven’t read all of the stories so I don’t want to comment much on what’s going on across the Bay Bridge from eduFire HQ. But I can say this. There’s most definitely something going on right now in education.
Students are being saddled with unnecessary debt to gain degrees of questionable value.
A nation that prides itself on having the highest quality higher education system is flat out not meeting the needs of millions of students. And there’s a lot at stake here. Because those students who will drop out of school because they can’t afford tuition or taking empty, meaningless jobs after graduation instead of pursuing their true passion because they need to pay back the huge student loan debts that took on during school represent a tremendous lost opportunity.
To all those who are out there on the front lines fighting to create a better educational system (you know who you are), we here at eduFire salute you. And to those who are more interested in maintaining the status quo, well, go watch that video again. The status quo ain’t working and we’re in dire need of change. I haven’t been blogging much lately in part because I’ve already shared a lot of my thoughts on eduChange and in part because we’re working day and night here at eduFire to actually be a part of that change.
My hope is that what’s going on at Berkeley right now will be a wake-up call to many people that a lot of work needs to be done and that future generations won’t have to riot to call everyone’s attention to the fact that the most important thing that we can do to ensure that we have a prosperous society is to focus on improving the education of our youth.
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Relive the Glory Days with eduFire Class Recordings
Posted on 05. Nov, 2009 by Koichi.
If you’re like me and you wish you had something to watch now that the World Series is over (and you’re also sad that the Seattle Mariners didn’t make it to the playoffs), you’re definitely in luck. We’ve been secretly asking people for permission to take the recordings of their classes and put them up for your viewing pleasure. [...]
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Looking for a Lead UI/User Experience Designer at eduFire.com
Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by Koichi.
Do you want to change the world by making learning fun for students and empowering teachers around the world? Are you fanatical about delivering world-class user experiences? Would you like to join a small team where you’ll be the lead UI/UX designer working closely with marketing, engineering and a customer-focused CEO to create the best learning experience possible?
Here’s the kind of thing we’re looking for (plus a little more about ourselves!). [...]
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Learn From Successful Entrepreneurs for Free
Posted on 22. Sep, 2009 by Koichi.
We are so excited to present to you the eduFire Business Channel. It’s kind of like our language section or our test prep section except now we’re finally “getting down to business.” Subjects you’ll find here include marketing, entrepreneurship, business development, management, career development, and more! Better yet, to kick things off we’ve partnered with twenty entrepreneurs (and growing) who will share their stories and strategies of success with you. Don’t miss out on their classes. There are several up in the business listings already and more to come soon. Here is a sampling of some of the classes available right now. [...]
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3 Quick Tips on Becoming a Successful Learner
Posted on 10. Sep, 2009 by Koichi.
I found this image in a great blog post that I was reading, and it really struck a chord. How about you? You certainly aren’t one of the 99%, right?
In all before-and-after success stories, there’s one thing that they didn’t tell you about: perseverance. Every one of these people had to work hard to be successful, and even though they make it look easy, it wasn’t! Nothing is as easy as we want it to be, but in the end, if you try hard and take the leap you will make it. Then you will be the one to make it look simple. Today, let’s look at three things you can do to increase your learning potential and be one of these success stories. [...]
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What is the Future of Teaching?
Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by jon.
Great article from Josh Catone in Mashable yesterday entitled What is the Future of Teaching? I posted a follow-up in the comments and wanted to share. Here it is. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments!
Great article Josh. I’ve spent *tons* of time thinking about this over the last decade. Here’s my quick take:
#1 – Online vs traditional learning can be viewed across three vectors: Cost, convenience and quality.
There is little doubt that its cheaper to run classes online (no facilities costs, less personnel required, etc.). There is also little doubt that online classes are more convenient. You can take them from home, office, etc. and likely have a more flexible schedule than traditional classes offer.
However, the big question is around quality. I’d offer (and this is coming from the CEO of a company that specializes in online classes) that on quality alone traditional classes are still better. But what’s interesting is that the gap is narrowing quickly. It’s not at all unrealistic to envision a future in which the online class is significantly more engaging and effective than its offline equivalent. If that happens then guess what? Game over for the traditional class model (after all, why would you choose something that is more costly, less convenient and lower quality?).
#2 – I do disagree with the notion that the price of education is going to zero.
I believe in The Grand Unified Theory of the Economics of Free (I think that’s the right title…it’s a TechDirt post from back in the day) which states while abundant resources will trend towards zero (their marginal cost), the spreading of those very same resources will drive up the prices for scarce resources. In music, a band gives away MP3s (abundant resource) and makes more money from concert tickets. MIT gives away OCW material but more people hear about MIT (especially in developing countries) which leads to more demand for MIT degrees.
The abundant resources (e.g., textbooks, audio/video recordings of lectures, etc.) will tend towards free. That makes total sense. What will not tend towards free will be things like the value of a scarce degree (Ivy League degrees are likely to become valuable not less), a teacher’s time or the attention of the students. To say that education will be free assumes that the marginal costs of those things are zero which is almost certainly not true. Sure you’ll always have people who might volunteer to teach a free class (just like a band might play a benefit concert for free) but that doesn’t mean this will happen at scale anymore than any other industry can expect to draw talented people in if they aren’t being paid.
#3 – Flat out, we need better tools.
And to get better tools we need more innovation and investment. While education is a huge industry ($2 trillion by many estimates) I think it’s safe to say that social gaming has received more investment in recent years despite being a much (much!) smaller industry. The problem is that while it’s easy to look at a social game and figure out how to squeeze out some short-term cash it is much (much!) harder to look at a big industry with huge structural problems and figure out how to improve it. And improving it likely will take a lot of time and patience. It won’t be a “Build one thing in year 0. Have billion dollar company in year 3.” scenario.
But there are a lot of great people trying. Check out places like 2tor, Academic Earth, Cramster, Grockit, Knewton, LiveMocha, PrepMe, School of Everything, Smart.fm, TeachStreet, Tutor.com, Tutorvista and a whole host of others that I’m sure I’m forgetting to see what I’m talking about.
Oh, and of course us. :) (http://www.edufire.com)
