I’ve always been a fan of lifelong learning, taking classes and, reading books regularly to keep up with the ever-changing landscape. In today’s world though, I no longer believe it’s a luxury to seek out new information, but a necessity. Think of how quickly everything changes, not only technology, but all aspects of our lives and with those changes comes a knowledge base that needs to be constantly updated.
Gone are the days when all you needed to succeed was a college education or some sort of trade to begin your career. A college education is now just the beginning if you want to keep up with a constantly changing environment. If you’re old enough (I won’t say how old that might be), you’ll remember the door-to-door salesman sitting with your parents at the kitchen table doing his best to convince them purchasing a set of Encyclopedia Britannica’s was all they needed for their children to be up-to-date with the goings on in the world. That concept now seems so quaint.
Enter “just-in-time” or on-demand education you can tap into 24/7/365 from anywhere in the world. Ever watched a video online to learn how to do something? Need to install a toilet, put in a ceiling fan, or make the perfect boiled egg? Just as “Google it” has become the universal saying when searching for information on the Internet, “YouTube it” has become the term for figuring out how to do something. Here are just a few of the ways you can now learn on an as-needed basis at your convenience:
YouTube: Started in 2005, the world’s largest video streaming channel has generated some amazing stats: 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute, YouTube has over 30 million visitors a day, and 80% of YouTube’s views are from outside the U.S. Do you want to build something, make something, or put something together? If so, you’ll most likely find a video on YouTube for how to do it. This summer I needed to install a ceiling fan, so I put the brand and model number into the YouTube search bar and voila, a video for that specific fan popped up. Easy peazy. While you may not think of this as education what else would you call it when millions of us learn how to do something at the moment we need it?
Colleges & Universities: It used to be if you wanted a college education, you had to enroll in college and pay a hefty tuition. While you can obviously still do that, more and more colleges and universities, including many Ivy League schools, are making much of their curriculum available to anyone who has the desire to learn and oftentimes for free. These include Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Yale, Emory and Princeton just to name a few. This link lists 25 colleges and universities offering free online classes and lectures depending on your area of interest.
Businesses: In a knowledge-driven world it’s imperative companies offer training to their employees on a regular basis. Just-in-time training provides employees knowledge when they need it that can be put to immediate use. To be effective, the material must be available on-demand, 24/7, the courses should be short, between five and 15 minutes, and they need to be able to be accessed on mobile devices since that’s where most training takes place these days. It takes a lot of effort on the part of a company to make courses available. And while it may not be right for everyone, it’s the future of learning and that future is upon us.
Pay-to-Pay & Freebies: There are an almost unlimited number of places now you can go to gain knowledge on the web. Udemy has disrupted the online educational world with it’s mission being to “help anybody learn anything online.” They currently offer 20,000 video courses with 1,000 more being added each month and are accessed by a student base of more than four million people watching 80,000 lectures daily. Prices range from free to the majority of them being less than $200. Competitors have jumped on the bandwagon and alternatives to Udemy include Coursera, Alison, Masterclass, Entrepreneur and even Apple through iTunesU.
If you’re still wondering if online learning/on-demand-training is worthwhile for you, consider this: According to a study by The Learning House, 44% of those who completed relevant online courses obtained a first job or found a better job. Additionally, salary increases and promotions were received by 45% and 36% respectively of those who took classes to improve their career.
And if you just want to take classes online for the fun of it or to learn something different, here are a few fun ones I found: Introduction to Dutch or Tsinghua Chinese (or any other language you can think of), Introduction to Dynamical Systems and Chaos (sounds like a hoot), Discover Dentistry (save money on your kid’s dental bills), Economic Statistics and Econometrics (good one just before bedtime), Speak Italian with Your Mouth Full (of pasta I hope), Video Game Law (never thought this would be a thing) and of course, this gem; Marx, Nietzsche and Hegel's Logic of Essence.
Learning can be fun, but in today’s world it’s also a necessity. When I was a kid, we went to the local library to read and do our homework (at least that’s what we told our parents). But with the Internet, gaining knowledge on any subject is literally just a few clicks away. It’s like Earl Weaver, legendary manager of the Baltimore Orioles is reputed to have said, “It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.” True That!
After several decades on-the-radio as a DJ and traffic reporter, Steve Woodburn MAS, stumbled, as most do, into the world of promotional products. He spent 27 years on the distributor side and the last three as a supplier, which gives him a unique perspective on this crazy business and life in general.