They LOOK Like Education, They FEEL Like Education, They’ll Likely Only Inform.
Internet based business owners are making millions of dollars selling information that is readily available at a local community college.
Trends in Education
How is this possible? They are exploiting 4 major downward trends in education.
- College Enrollment and degree attainment is declining. The overall college enrollment rate for 18- to 24-year-olds decreased from 41 percent in 2010 to 38 percent in 2021; Over 60% of Americans age 25 and older do not hold a bachelor’s degree.
- Illiteracy proliferating. Forty-three (43) million U.S. adults possess low literacy skills.
- Siloed Education increasing. Fewer people are pursuing a liberal arts education which will expose students to a broad range of knowledge.
- Research skills declining. According to Carnegie Mellon University’ Eberly Center, many students don’t have the prerequisite knowledge and skills, but think they do.
Trends in Self-improvement
Not only is educational attainment trending down, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, Americans are reading less, people are reading less and their reading skills are worsening.
Entrepreneurs
Together, these trends create incongruities in the intellectual environment. That’s where Internet Entrepreneurs come in. They take various areas of study like computer programming, multimedia design, and finance and turn them into easy to follow videos and/or tutorials; they make many of these items available at a freemium. Therefore, people can avoid paying $200 to $300.00 per course, excluding books.
Caveat Emptor
Although these tutorials and videos are highly accessible, one must remain skeptical of their content. Before relying on these instructions as a valid source of information, one must ask oneself the following questions:
- Is the author using phrases like “They should teach this in school” or “They don’t teach this in school” to make me believe they are the only source for this “hidden” or “new” knowledge?
- Is the author exploring the entire subject? Or, are they giving it to me piecemeal to keep me coming back.
- Is there a guarantee of accuracy?
- Is the information based on experience, credentials, and/or research? Or, is it the author’s opinion?
- Am I presented with a safe environment to explore and test the information provided? Or, must I learn in real-time, using real resources.
- Will the information provided remain useful to me should circumstances change?
- Could I pay to audit this course at my local college and get my questions answered directly from an instructor?
What do you think?
