This was a really interesting piece. I believe that a lot of what is missing from most online experiences is relationship. Effective learning is not a passive activity. It must be active and the most effective learning experiences for me have always been ones where the instructor was much more of a facilitator than a lecturer. There was so much learning between the students guided by the instructors facilitation…this is a difficult nut to crack in an online model. However, it is possible and it seems like you have incorporated the principals well using a cohort model and technology to encourage the peer interaction as a key component of the learning method. Well done. So much good work to do in this exciting space.

I have two kids 1 and 5 yrs. I hope that by the time they are going through the bulk of their education that we are incorporating the learnings like these into our primary and secondary education systems. Standardized testing is an abomination and counterproductive to real learning.