YouTube announced a collaboration with theArizona State University (ASU) and the educational video company Crash Course to launch a new program that allows students to get college credits. The new program, called College Foundations, wants to offer an affordable and accessible way to earn college credits and obtain a degree. Allowing you to graduate by watching videos on YouTube (or almost).
Watch YouTube to get college credit
Under the new partnership, students can enroll in four courses starting on March 7, 2023 and which allow you to obtain university credits. The program does not require a GPA (Grade Point Average) minimum for entry: in other words, you don’t need high grades to enter. In the program, there are common first-year college courses in the United States, such as Introduction to Human Communication, Rhetoric and Composition, Real World Mathematics, and United States History to 1865.
The program should expand to 12 courses by January 2025: by doing so, it could give students the opportunity to receive credit for the entire first year of college. All while staying at home in front of YouTube.
Furthermore, it is particularly convenient, especially considering the cost for American colleges. There is a fee $25 for membershipwhile they serve $400 to receive college creditsi for each course. If you sign up by March 7, however, you’ll get a $50 discount.
Students can also retake the course as many times as they like if they are not satisfied with the exam grade. And they can then use i transferable credits received in all institutions that accept credit from Arizona State University: in fact, they can get YouTube credits for other universities as well.
Crash Courses for college
College Foundations expands an existing partnership between Arizona State University, YouTube and Crash Course. If you haven’t found it on YouTube yet, Crash Course is an educational channel with over 14 million of subscribers, founded by John e Hank Green (which also publishes a lot of educational content on TikTok). These are short but dense videos, which expose complex concepts in simple terms and are arranged in playlists like a real course of study. If you’ve never tried it, we recommend it.
The great advantage of Crash Courses lies in the fact that all videos are structured and approved by professionals, despite having a simple language and a compelling narrative. As YouTube explains in its blog: “Developed and taught by the same faculty who conduct research and teach students on ASU campuses, the classes combine the academic excellence of ASU with the compelling storytelling of the Crash Courses, all on the vast platform of YouTube.”
Also interesting is the possibility of having a “taste” of the course of one’s choice, to understand if it is really interesting. But once you start, the course is more structured than the simple Crash Course videos (which you can watch for free). Once a course has started, students can in fact contact a coach via email to get help with homework. Furthermore, they can complete courses without weekly deadlines for most of the teachings. And some instructors maintain optional office hours, should extra help be needed.
YouTube wants to become a university
YouTube has been hosting educational content for some time now: Crash Course courses, for example, have been around for years. However, the ability to earn college credit provides students with a direct path to formal education. In other words, if previously they were only for personal curiosity, now they can help students who don’t have the time or budget to enroll in a traditional college.
YouTube recently also has the “Courses” program started, che wants to provide a structured teaching experience in India. In fact, teachers can upload and publicize their videos, as well as provide written background material and questions to be answered through the YouTube app.
In short, it is really true that on YouTube you can find everything – including a digital university.