Classroom.tv, which was founded based on the idea to become a platform for self-learning, and to bring the best courses to students everywhere, takes big steps in Latin America.
“We have been able to engage with the best professors in this region. This has reinforced our belief that the future of education is online”, Eduardo Abeliuk, founder of Classroom.tv says.
Thousands of students have been actively using Classroom.tv’s platform.
The company has been quietly partnering and establishing pilot programs with different institutions in the continent, experiencing a 1000% increase in monthly traction, compared to last year.
The platform has already aggregated and indexed more than 1000 hours of exclusive content in Spanish, around topics such as math, physics, biology, economics, engineering, computer science, history, innovation and entrepreneurship, among others. And it has also expanded the communication systems among the community by offering school consultations, forums and internal messaging between users.
Many of the courses are still being studied privately for college students, but it is expected that soon they will begin to open a series of courses and videos of renowned professors to the general public.
Classroom.tv has developed a knowledge management system to create and easily make content curation as videoconferencing, which can be synchronized with slide shows and organized within a digital curriculum to guide students through their learning experience.
Universities by 2020
When asked if they believe that universities can become obsolete in the near future, Abeliuk says:
“Undoubtedly, the universities of 2020 will be very different as we know them today. The change is already happening and we want to help these institutions reinvent to change their traditional paradigm incorporating the online component that allows massively and customize the study of different subjects, but much of the work also passes through them.“
How Classroom.tv works
With over ten thousand open classes, all in the form of video lectures, users can enter and learn at their pace, organize their own content through subscriptions which courses will receive email notifications, add courses to their “Favorites” classes or leave the list of “Watch later.” They can also access video lectures that feature video with synchronized slides, exercises that are automatically corrected and a system where they can interact with each other.
To navigate through videolectures among different topics video concepts were created, which are the smallest element of knowledge within Classroom.tv. They generate an index for each video class to facilitate content search. They typically have a duration ranging from 5 minutes to 20 or 25 minutes.
Classroom.tv is an entertaining and convenient tool for learning.
On this platform, users can track their progress automatically and instantly discover their weaknesses and strengths.
The institutions, in turn, can easily collect different statistics from the results of student learning, and to identify individuals who are having a high or low performance. Integration with social networks like Facebook and using a set of questions and answers patented allows students to motivate and help each other.
Experience in Chile
Classroom.tv is working with top universities throughout Chile (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and University of Chile) and one of the best private universities in Chile (Universidad Diego Portales). Their tools are being used for math and physics classes (PUC / UChile), education (PUC), biology and anatomy (UChile), humanities (UDP) and entrepreneurship and innovation (Endeavor/Start- up Chile / RASU). Their traction continues to grow.
“We believe that the work that has been done with Classroom.tv help break several barriers that we have to reach more students, delivering quality education with equity” Alejandra Avila, Deputy Director of the Summer School of the University of Chile (EdV) says.
Courses for entrepreneurs
Classroom.tv world has just launched two courses on entrepreneurship in association with the RASU (Reset and Start Up) institution: Rasu Fest 2012: 6 Lecciones de Coraje (6 Lessons of Courage) and RASU Starter – Negocios Digitales (Digital Businesses)
“We are very pleased to contribute our bit to promote entrepreneurship in the region, and in particular by this alliance with RASU. We will be broadcasting many more lectures of renowned professors and executives, some are more academic, some are more practical,” Classroom.tv general manager Nicolas Velasco says.
Speakers of RASU Fest 2012 were: 1. Andrés Moreno, 2. Sebastián Valin, 3. Álex Torrenegra, 4. Franco Silvetti, 5. Nicolás Szekasy and 6. Nicolás Shea. While the speakers of RASU Starter were: 1. Enrique Barreira, 2. Alex Torrenegra, 3. David Assael, 4. Eduardo Abeliuk and Nicolás Velasco, and 5. Gabriel Cid. Both courses were released on the RASU page in Classroom.tv.
“RASU is a cause. We seek the full democratization of value creation. We believe we can increase tenfold the number of young people choosing to pursue and develop new digital solutions to global problems. In 2011, we reached 1,500 young people. In 2012, we doubled our presence in Chile reaching 3,000 young people,” RASU Director Iván Vera explains. And notes: “In 2013, we uploaded RASU conferences to Classroom.tv and we have reached over 30,000 young people from Arica to Magallanes, and beyond our borders. Our recognition and admiration for the work of Classroom.tv!”
Another recently opened course related to the entrepreneurship world is co-organized by Endeavor.
Some of the entrepreneurs are Fernando Fischmann (founder of Crystal Lagoons), Leo Prieto (founder of Betazeta) and Alan Farcas (founder of Nazca Ventures and director of Endeavor).
“Classroom.tv can massively impact on programs like it did with Endeavor. This multiplier effect would have been very difficult without the platform” Farcas says.
