Movement Trends: Online Education

“I never thought I’d find a job where I could exercise all my interests,” says Roman Hardgrave, with a smile. “It always seemed like I could pursue web development, or economics, or filmmaking. . . But even before starting this project, I couldn’t help but look at these complicated economic ideas and think, ‘Why isn’t anyone putting these into a format that’s easy for people to understand?’”

He isn’t the first to ask the question. MRUniversity, the project he directs for the Mercatus Center, is one of several online education initiatives aimed at spreading the ideas that lead to free and prosperous societies. The Cato Institute, Federalist Society, Leadership Institute, and Foundation for Economic Education have all taken similar advantage of the online space’s potential to break geographic and cost barriers to reaching their audiences. Learn Liberty, a project of the Institute for Humane Studies, was created upon the organization’s celebration of its fiftieth anniversary and careful consideration of the future. Since its launch in 2011, the project has garnered over 100,000 YouTube subscribers and almost 22 million views of its videos on topics such as history, economics, and philosophy. While demand for these resources continues to grow, content producers like Roman Hardgrave must work tirelessly to integrate innovations in technology to build and improve upon their capabilities.

When Hardgrave, now Director of Online Strategies, first joined the Mercatus team in May 2012, a lot of work still needed to be done on the website before its launch five months later. A cursory glance at the website illustrates why- MRUniversity’s Development Economics course, just one of twelve offered on the website, is comprised of 245 videos, approximately 25.5 hours of content. In addition to perusing the free online educational material, users can ask questions, vote on topics they’d like to see covered, and complete optional exercises on the website. “One of the biggest surprises for me was how much users wanted to engage,” says Hardgrave, citing users’ interest in solving practice problems and receiving certificates of completion.

Modeled after Khan Academy, the decision to make MRUniversity’s content available for free was a no-brainer to Hardgrave and his team. “The Mercatus Center is a non-profit organization, our vision is to bridge the gap from academia to the world of public policy. A lot of what our organization does is research, which is what we’re best-known for. Our organization believes that increasing economic literacy will help to make the world a better place, and so MRUniversity is a natural fit for that vision.”

So far, the method seems to be working. “The third country from which we receive the most traffic is India,” says Hardgrave. “That excites me: we’re bringing these ideas to people who may not otherwise be able to access them.” He also sees ample opportunity for innovating creatively in the online space. “So often when people are communicating economic ideas, their message falls flat because they’ve crammed it full of facts and data that are difficult to comprehend. With high-quality video production and good professors, we can tell stories that actually engage our viewers.” For example, he points to the first video of MRUniversity’s Everyday Economics course, “ The Hockey Stick of Human Prosperity.”

“I didn’t want to just say, ‘the average GDP has risen x amount since y year.’ Before the Industrial Revolution, one out of every four kids died. That speaks to me as a parent. I want to show people how economics affects their lives.”

Content producers aren’t the only ones who see promise in the online arena. Gerard Alexander of the Searle Freedom Trust explained the foundation’s giving to online education projects. “The past thousand years, teaching has meant an instructor standing in front of a group of students, often repeating the same lecture several times a week or year. Online education allowed for industrialization.”

Inspired by content providers like Shaw Academy, when the Searle Freedom Trust first considered funding web-based educational programs in 2012, some members wondered if it was too late to be entering the space. Alexander laughs now at the memory, “We were possibly too early. Back then, it seemed like MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) would be the future of online education. Now we’re seeing that they have massive attrition rates. It’s less obvious now what shape online education will take in the future.”

Given that uncertainty, I inquire as to how the foundation decides in whom to invest, and what success looks like in his eyes. “Quality and impact,” he says without hesitation. “We look for that in every investment. Audience numbers are an important metric, of course- it’s important to know we’re reaching people. So, it’s partly about content development. But it’s also about talent development. In the long-term, we hope to build up a body of people who are good producers of this material.”

At this point, Alexander addresses me directly. “Just like America’s Future Foundation is investing time and resources into you currently to help you become a better writer in the future, the Searle Freedom Trust wants to help develop a community of people adding diversity to the intellectual arena years from now.”

Online education is still a new frontier for innovation, experimentation, and sometimes failure. By freeing access to ideas and advanced education, the internet has allowed for something truly revolutionary: giving people the knowledge and power to make the best decisions for their own lives.

This is the first article of the AF Movement Trends blog series. Sloane Shearman is a writer for a  non-profit organization in Arlington, VA and an AF Ambassador. You can follow her on Twitter: @SloaneSays.