eduFire - Live Video Learning

This idea was inspired by the “Why $29.95 for SuperPass” thread in the “Talk with eduFire” section of the Forum.

Koichi posits a time when classes reach sizes of 500 – 1,000 students, resulting in the teacher making $1500 – $3,000. I think that the following structure proposal is more realistic, and more fair for classes attended by even as few as 10 students, assuming that it is “lecture” style with some questions, rather than an interaction-dependent class requiring sizes of 1 – 4 students.

Just for fun, once it is established that there is enough of a student base on eduFire to make it work, why not flip the payment structure?

Each student pays an initial deposit of, say, $30.00. Each teacher is paid a fixed amount for each lecture. If more students attend a given lecture, the price per student is less, and that is the amount withdrawn from the students’ standing account following the class. The standing account would have to have a required minimum balance before entering the class, against the maximum possible individual charge.

There could be established one or more attendance break points, past which the teacher earns slightly more per class. It results in the students paying more for a learning a subject that is in less demand, a situation that is consistent with any consumer purchase, and the teacher is not penalized for teaching a smaller class by having to accept less remuneration for his teaching a valid subject that has less popular appeal.

This alternate plan could still be run in parallel with the current SuperPass plan; it would be interesting to see how one would perform against the other. This is consistent with the online teaching revolution promoting world-wide general education at accessible prices. (And I’m sure the possible revenue outcomes for the platform corporation are obvious.)

Well?