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"We\u2019ve come to a moment in history where exploring new skills and expanding our knowledge isn\u2019t confined to a specific place or time \u2013 an evolution of correspondence courses due in large part to the World Wide Web. It is now not only easier to acquire knowledge in a variety of areas, but it is becoming less expensive in so many ways.\r\n\r\nNew pricing models are being tested \u2013 according to an article at Lifehacker, Stanford is going as far as to offer \u201Conline access to full courses in the school\u2019s engineering program\u2014including classes in computer science and artificial intelligence\u201D through the Stanford Engineering Everywhere program. No longer are educational institutions confined to sending courses by snail mail or hosting courses only on campus. Technology has allowed education to come to the masses like never before \u2013 and allowed new opportunities to bring education to the masses as well.\r\n\r\nBack in 2010, Chase Jarvis co-founded creativeLIVE, a truly unique live online education experience. What Jarvis and his time have done is turn the pricing model of the courses offered \u2013 some of which have been taught by Lewis Howes, Ryan Holliday, Ramit Sethi, and Tim Ferriss \u2013 by allowing users who are willing to set aside the time during the live session to be able to watch the broadcast for free.\r\n\r\n\u201COne of the things I\u2019m most proud of is that (starting creativeLIVE) came from a great need,\u201D Jarvis said when asked what the impetus was to start such an ambitious e-learning business.\r\n\r\nJarvis is widely known as an incredibly skilled \u2013 and self-taught \u2013 professional photographer. But it didn\u2019t start out that way. He was initially set to work in the medical field, but came to the realization that he was an artist. After quitting school, he took up photography and really wanted to hone his craft, so he began looking for a mentor by \u201Cknocking on doors\u201D.\r\n\r\n\u201CYet all of these creative pursuits were very, very closed,\u201D Jarvis explained. \u201CIt was long before it was cool to share information. And it sucked. I literally went from door to door to door and no one would take me in and mentor me. So I said to myself at that point that if I was ever in the position to change all of that, I would.\u201D\r\n\r\nThe creativeLIVE experience is unique not only in its pricing model (which also allows you to buy the recorded version of sessions in advance at a discount, and then after the live sessions have taken place you pay the full price for archived sessions), but in overall setting. As I watched Tim Ferriss conduct his session called \u201CThe 4-Hour Life\u201D, I noticed that there were a very limited amount of participants in the \u201Cstudio audience.\u201D So while the overall creative live experience allows for a mass quantity of people across the world to get the education and the skills that they desire, only a precious few can be there to get them in person. Actually, in order to be an audience member\u2026 you have to audition.\r\n\r\nThose who teach through the online medium are also starting to see the fruits of their labour rewarded. More and more online specialists are releasing e-products designed to educate their audience \u2013 and reach new audiences \u2013 in their areas of expertise. These specialists aren\u2019t just limited to selling these courses on their own websites, either. They are able to submit proposals to online educational hubs that give them exposure to a much wider audience. In fact, as the teaching, learning, and earning opportunities have increased, many of these independent instructors are being recruited by platforms such as AppSumo and Udemy.\r\n\r\nThese platforms are also doing very well, as evidenced by more online learning platforms popping up all over the web \u2013 and some facilitators are making great financial gains through these platforms.\r\n\r\nTommy Griffith is one such success story. According to an article over at ClickMinded, Griffith states that in just 8 days, his SEO training course generated over $21,243 in gross revenue. This is definitely more of an exception than the rule \u2013 but this example shows the power of pairing up a niche product with a great promotional engine (in this case, AppSumo) can really pad an online instructor\u2019s pocketbook in ways that seemed unfathomable only a few years ago. These sites show no signs of slowing down, either. We\u2019re seeing more and more of them pop up every day \u2013 even The Next Web has entered the space with TNW Academy.\r\n\r\nSpeaking of the future, what does it hold for creativeLIVE? Jarvis says that while the term \u201Ccreative\u201D may imply creative arts, he suggests there\u2019s so much more to it than that.\r\n\r\n\u201CCreative is a term that captures zeitgeist,\u201D he explained. \u201CFor example, if you read a Seth Godin book he describes all of the business people as \u2018artists\u2019.There\u2019s the rise of the \u2018right brain creative thinker\u2019, as the world moves from being linear to very, very dynamic, that there\u2019s sort of a right brain creative approach to anything. The vision for creativeLIVE has always been to be able to be in many places and do many things for many people. Since this is \u2018real life\u2019 skill-based learning and not a bloated degree model we have the ability to listen to our audience, which most brick-and-mortar institutions can\u2019t do.\u201D\r\n\r\nWhile it seems like some brick-and-mortar institutions (such as the aforementioned Stanford) are listening to the way that technology is shifting the way we both teach and learn, there are far more that aren\u2019t moving into the e-learning realm efficiently and effectively. And if that trend continues, then there will be far fewer brick-and-mortar institutions out there in the future \u2013 and that\u2019s not necessarily the best news for education either. Educational instituions need only look at the music, print, and film industry to know that if they don\u2019t move to keep pace with what technology will allow, then technology \u2013 and ultimately, society \u2013 will them behind.\r\n\r\nImage Credit: STR/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/15/an-education-in-e-learning/>