First Look At – VidSchool.com

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Kirsten Winkler

There is so much happening on the education 2.0 market right now. I already have a giant pile of tools, companies and services I want to share with you. So here we go with a new category on my blog: First Look At…

In here I will present you very quickly all the interesting stuff I come along. As the category name says, a first look.

vidschool

And the first company is VidSchool.com.

VidSchool.com is a Dublin, Ireland based company that allows teachers to sell videos of their courses. They have also an option where the teacher can share a PowerPoint presentation related to the video, a little multiple choice test at the end of the video and a FAQ of the topic, so the teacher does not need to answer all upcoming similar questions over and over again.

VidSchool.com offers all the classic school topics from Chemistry to Biology, Mathematics to English.

Students can rate the courses, similar to other platforms like Myngle, eduFire, italki etc with the goal that the best teachers and courses will benefit.

The site is in its Beta stage. I like the concept. Teachers can earn money with their once recorded courses over a long term and students can learn at their own pace.

The site is fairly new, so there are not a lot of courses listed, but I think this will change rather quickly.

Therefore, check out VidSchool.com and tell me, what you think.

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About Kirsten Winkler

Education 2.0 Blogger at KirstenWinkler.com, Interviewer at EDUKWEST.com, Consultant at WinklerMedia.com.
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  • Thanks for some really interesting feedback guys!

    We're still very new since we only released the site on Tuesday so any and all feedback is really appreciated.

    We wouldn't see ourselves as competitors of WizIQ but a different learning option, as you've pointed out.

    Thanks for the post Kirsten and you can e-mail me any follow on questions you might have to sean(at)vidschool.com and I'll get back asap.
  • chinamike
    This product is a broadside directed at companies like WizIQ. The idea in a nutshell is to take a presentation heavy product, record the experience, and then time-sift the presentation to whenever you want.

    Direct competitors to this product probably don't really include 1-to-1 instruction, where students usually pay to be able to interact with the instructor. This is directed at other forms of what might be called "broadcast medium instruction".

    If will be interesting to watch how "broadcast medium instruction" tries to become more interactive and evaluative in the future.

  • It can be a revenue stream for WiZiQ teachers. If you are doing a classic course on WiZiQ, edit the recording of the class and then upload it to VidSchool.
  • chinamike
    Do you charge more or less per person for the first instance (WiZiQ) or the second?

    Who owns the rights to the broadcast on the WiZiQ site? Will a teacher retain all rights so they can do a rebroadcast (or remix) on another site?

    If I were a student would I prefer to listen to the original broadcast or the rebroadcast, if the rebroadcast were cheaper?

    Hmmm....
  • As you can download the video of your session you should be able to do with it what you want :).

    This is the same question with universities like Harvard, Oxford, Yale and all the others which are now offering recordings of the lectures for free on YouTube or AcademicEarth etc.

    There are pros and cons for both sides :)
  • Youtube, Teacher Tube and Academic Earth are already doing recorded lectures feature pretty well.

    They have the penetration to start charging per view too....
  • Nice looking site but been up since March 09 and not one English course on there...which is a shame as I like the idea and functionality of the site, but, it strikes me they are asking already busy teachers to invest a lot of themselves before they can earn any money...create a video and upload, create a powerpoint and upload and do it for a whole course so people can follow it...that's a lot of content and time and effort. I hope they get going as I'd like to see how it goes.
  • Interesting indeed. It is good to note that there is this growth in online education. This will help bring focus and attention.

    The concept looks nice. The real challenge however, like others who are already there or would come later, is getting traction. Now, what is that big viral hook here?
  • I think VidSchool could be a very clever niche product. If you are watching the videos they seem to target the private lesson market for younger learners as there is an interface for the parents where they can follow the progress of their children.
    So I think VidSchool wants to sell its product to the parents, not to the individual learner.
  • What if I have a problem and want to contact my teacher? How do I do that? If it is not already possible, I would think that is the next step that would need to be solved.

    I personally believe, Learners especially young learners, need interaction and not just some asynchronous content put together - sure it can work in some cases like management training but for something like languages - it could double the time needed to learn something. Purely my thoughts though :)

    I think it is a neat idea too, and over a period of time, I think they will do well.
  • As I said, this is just a first look :). I already contacted them and hope to get a deeper inside view, soon.
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