Hank Green and his brother, John, the best-selling author of The fault in our stars and other young adult novels, have posted endless hours of educational content on their brothers vlog YouTube channel, which has more than 3.5 million subscribers. Now they are expanding their mission: Yesterday the Green brothers announced a new initiative, study hallthat allows users to earn college credit at a very reasonable price by taking classes on YouTube.
Study Hall is a partnership between Crash Course, a YouTube-based educational channel produced by Complexly, a company created by the Greens; Arizona State University; and YouTube. The video program walks users through key questions, such as whether college is right for them and, if it is, helps them learn what they can major in and how they can enter the world of work afterward.
More importantly, Study Hall allows users to take online courses for college credit accredited through ASU. That means those credits can be counted toward a degree at ASU or at hundreds of other universities that recognize ASU-developed programs.
“We watch a lot of what we do at Crash Course and feel really good about it,” Hank Green told BuzzFeed News. “We had intentionally said, ‘We create content, and that’s what we do.’ But the idea comes when you’re creating high-quality educational materials. You start having those thoughts about providing credentials for people.”
The project was launched over three years ago, at an educational content creators event where YouTube connected Complexly and ASU. The idea crystallized when the Crash Course team realized that 43 million Americans have some form of student debt, for a total of 1.75 trillion dollars. Of those 43 million people, 40% do not have a degree, because they never graduated. Some may realize halfway through their studies that a college education is not for them; for others, life just gets in the way.
“We decided to look at what the hardest parts are for students, and one of them was the cost barrier and the bureaucracy barrier to higher education,” Hank Green said. He noted that almost anyone can take the courses, including high school students.
Viewers can watch the educational videos on the Study Hall YouTube Channel free. Then, if they want to earn college credit, they can go to the Study Hall website and buy access to the full class, where they’ll be given courses and get feedback from professors. The initial cost of the program is $25, which allows one person to have access to teachers and assessments.
Once someone completes the assessments and earns the score they want, they can pay $400 to receive college credit. Users can choose not to take the credit, which means they have only spent $25.
“Fear is a huge barrier,” Green said. “Having a bit of skin in the game is nice at $25, but it’s not an amount anyone would think is a huge amount for a college course. But it’s important to lower that initial barrier of paying $1,200 for a course you could fail.” Taking four courses and earning at least a B in each would entitle the student to enroll in an official ASU campus or online program.
Green said he appreciates the fact that ASU doesn’t play games with college ranking systems in the US by aiming for a low acceptance rate. “A long time ago, they turned that around and said, ‘We’re going to judge our school not by who we exclude, but by how many people we actually help.’ That philosophy is really inspiring to me and one of the reasons I was excited to work with them.” Such collaborations are rare, Green said, adding: “I am very precious to my baby.”
