Greg Smith (Thinkific)
Topics Discussed:
- Greg intro
- Thinkific founding story
- The course creator's journey
- Product vs audience first
- Student Success
- Gamification
- Cohort-based courses
- Community
- Next milestone
- Closing
Relevant Links:
Reshaping Education - Online Education, Cohort-based Courses, Bootcamps, and More
Reshaping Education is a podcast all about the future of learning including bootcamps, online courses, and how the internet is changing how we learn. Guests include top "edupreneuers," including:
- Michael Chasen (Co-Founder & CEO, Class.com, prev: Blackboard)
- Austen Allred (Founder & CEO, BloomTech FKA Lambda School)
- Gagan Biyani (Co-founder of Udemy)
...and so many more
en84 Episodes
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Episodes (84)
Upchieve w/ Aly Murray
Topics Discussed:
- Aly Intro
- Upchieve operations
- Getting to 24/7 tutor availability
- Targeting low income families
- Case Study
- On-demand vs continous tutoring
- Success criteria
- Next milestones
Relevant Links:
Corise w/ Julia Stiglitz
Topics Discussed:
- Julia Intro
- Online education 1.0 vs online education 2.0
- Why MOOCs failed
- The CBC hype cycle
- Corise student experience
- Building engaging student experiences for B2B
- Student engagement & intervention
Relevant links:
Luyen Chou (Chief Learning Officer, 2U)
Topics Discussed
- Luyen Intro
- Journey to 2U
- Founding EdTech Startups
- Pearson
- Trilogy
- Understanding the role of technology and education
- How Universities can stay responsive to the market
- The Future of EdTech
- Closing
Relevant links:
Why ISA’s didn’t pan out w/ Sean Linehan (Placement)
Relevant links:
Launch Academy w/ Dan Pickett
Topics Discussed:
- Dan Intro
- Launch Academy founding
- Flaws in the traditional education model
- “Practice like you play”
- The cost of hiring junior engineers
- Measuring student success
- Systems for progress tracking
- Student Intervention
Relevant links:
Educational Efficiency
I share my thoughts on educational inefficiency and how new companies in the space are emerging to provide upskilling/reskilling experiences for professionals.
Relevant links:
Reforge w/ Brian Balfour
Brian Balfour joins the podcast to discuss his journey to founding Reforge and designing their program to enable and empower professionals to achieve the next milestone in their career journey.
Topics Discussed:
- Brian Intro
- Reforge founding story
- Problem vs Skill oriented education
- Sourcing instructors for career-oriented skills
- Developing a market-relevant curriculum
- Upskilling vs Reskilling
- The “cohort-based course” trend and terminology
Relevant links:
Microverse’s Peer-to-Peer Learning Model w/ Ariel Camus
Ariel Camus comes on to talk about Microverse’s unique learning model that consists of no classes and no curriculum- but instead, a focus on peer learning and accountability.
Topics Discussed
- Ariel Intro
- Founding story and talent gap
- Moving to Vietnam to create infinite runway
- Creating diverse learning opportunities
- Going through Y Combinator
- Microverse’s unique learning model
- The power of peer-to-peer
- How educators can employ peer-to-peer
Relevant links:
Building Lighthouse Labs w/ (Jeremy Shaki and Josh Borts)
Jeremy Shaki and Josh Borts come on to talk about how they built Lighthouse labs into a premier coding bootcamp in Canada.
Topics Discussed:
- Jeremy + Josh Intro
- Founding Story
- Going from In-Person → Online during COVID
- Building the student engagement engine
Relevant links:
The Future of Upskilling and Professional Development w/ Loren Cohen & Laura Holden (Skillful)
Loren Cohen and Laura Holden come up to share how Skillful thinks about building a world-class professional development online school and community that is adaptive to the needs of industry.
Topics Discussed
- Skillful intro
- Why CBC hype period is over
- Upskilling vs Reskilling
- How Universities fail to prepare graduates for industry
- Creating an agile educational experience
Relevant links:
- https://twitter.com/lorenabbeyc
- linkedin.com/in/laura-sheridanholden
- joinskillful.com
- Reshaping Education Podcast
Selective Admissions and Building Bootcamp Communities w/ Kai Neo (Rocket Academy)
Kai Neo comes on to talk about his journey from Silicon Valley to founding a Rocket Academy, a bootcamp serving aspiring engineers in South-East Asia.
Topics Discussed
- Kai Intro
- Rocket Academy’s admissions process
- Building a world-class community
- Charging upfront vs ISA
Linked In:
linkedin.com/in/neokaiyuan
Relevant links:
Making Online Learning More Human w/ Martin Ramsin (Career Foundry)
Martin Ramsin talks about how his experience with a poorly built online course inspired him to build one of the first fully online coding bootcamps.
Topics Discussed:
- Martin intro
- Career Foundry founding story
- Making online learning more human
- Managing 4,000+ active students
- Job placement as a service
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/martinramsin
Relevant links:
Revitalizing Mid-West Talent w/ Anthony Hughes (Tech Elevator)
Anthony Hughes comes on to discuss how he founded Tech Elevator to bring strong engineering talent to the Mid-West.
Topics Discussed:
- Anthony Intro
- Talent Gap in the Mid-West
- Maintaining Student Relationships
- 90%+ Placement Rate
- Academic System & Student Intervention
Linked In:
Relevant links:
3x Bootcamp CEO to Building an A16z Competitor w/ Harsh Patel
Topics Discussed:
- Founding MakerSquare
- Leading & selling three major bootcamps
- Going down the web3 rabbit hole
- Founding Macro and supporting web3 founders
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/HarshOnInternet
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy
Are Cohort-based Courses Dead?
Topics Discussed:
- State of Cohort-based courses
- Why the hype went away
- What’s next for online education
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy
How Pivot Helps Individuals Break into Creative Career Paths
Topics Discussed:
- Mike’s Intro + Background
- Cohort-based Communities
- How Pivot differentiates from other cohort-based learning programs
- How Pivot supports students during their transition
- Scaling operations
- Tracking student engagement
Learn more at https://pivot.ws/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/mike_peregudov
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy
How Ship30for30 Built an Automation Engine
Topics Discussed:
- Ship30 history
- What hypergrowth feels like for a CBC
- Building the “Member Ship”
- Building the Ship30 Automation Engine
- What were the most manual tasks?
- How did you automate them?
- Biggest bottlenecks for ship30 moving forward
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/dbustac
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy
How Ali Abdaal’s Team Scaled Their CBC to $2.5M in Revenue
Topics discussed:
- A New Era for Online Education
- The History of PTYA
- PTYA’s Tools, Zaps, and Automations
- Leveraging No-Code & Automations
- How Virtually fits into PTYA’s workflow
Learn more about Virtually here.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JustBhavs
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy
Scaling On Deck w/ Joe Penn (Head of Operations)
Topics Discussed:
- On Deck Growth & Trajectory
- Building a Decentralized Organization
- Leveraging No-Code
- Scaling Cohort-based Courses
- Managing Event Operations
- Tracking Fellow Engagement
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/techdetjoe
Relevant links:
Keep up with us:
Ish Baid, Founder & CEO of Virtually
Will Mannon, Course Director of Forte Academy