What Education can Learn from YouTube

As I’ve told my friends, family, and colleagues over the past few weeks about leaving YouTube to take the CEO role at Quizlet, I’ve heard numerous variations of, “that sounds like an exciting opportunity! So… why Quizlet?”

We know Quizlet builds something powerful for learning: over 20 million people a month actively use us for everything from tackling medical school exams to ramping up on basic skills for the Army. But that just scratches the surface of its global learning potential. I believe Quizlet can do for learning and education what YouTube did for creativity and video.

First, like YouTube, Quizlet is all user-generated content. And like YouTube, it’s viral — spread by word of mouth and sharing, as people use it, love it, and tell their friends. YouTube also removed the gatekeepers to creativity and gave everyone a voice, just like Quizlet allows anyone to harness the world’s knowledge to learn something new. Finally, like YouTube, Quizlet is a platform that allows us to build a responsible and meaningful business.

I’ve been interested in the intersection of learning and technology forever, but as my daughters started playing Minecraft, watching videos on YouTube, and using educational games, it became even easier to see how much untapped potential remains in learning tech. Technology has brought us all closer together, yet simultaneously makes the world’s knowledge that is available to us infinitely vast and difficult to navigate. This is Quizlet’s opportunity to change the world! (Which is incredibly exciting… and a little daunting.)

In Quizlet, I see a platform for any person — no matter who, where, or what age they are — to enhance their ability to learn. It has reached a great deal of scale already, but more importantly it’s had measureable impact: 95% of Quizlet users say it helps them improve their grades, and 90% say Quizlet improves their motivation to learn. Now take that to billions of people around the world as they try to learn — a new language, safe driving, cellular biology or master checkout codes — and the potential for impact is limitless.

So the short answer is, I believe life-long learning is the foundation for progress and improvement in the world. I chose Quizlet because I believe, as the world’s largest peer-powered learning network, Quizlet has the power to truly make the world a better place.

[Read Quizlet founder Andrew Sutherland’s perspective here.]

Matthew Glotzbach is CEO of Quizlet. He served as VP of Product for YouTube building YouTube’s subscription and music business and leading global product efforts for Creators. Prior to that, he lead the product teams for Google Apps and Google for Work.