The Dilemma of Online Courses and Whether Short Videos Can Still Be Taught

Yesterday, when I published an article, I received many private messages. First of all, I have to apologize to everyone. Perhaps my use of the term “ripped off” was too sensational. I still want to clarify some thoughts to avoid misunderstandings:

Some people have told me that the threshold for online courses is getting lower, with a mix of good and bad, and it’s no longer feasible to create them. Firstly, online courses are definitely not beyond saving. Actually, whether a course can be offered depends on whether its content justifies its price, making users feel that it’s irreplaceable or offers excellent value. However, being irreplaceable is basically impossible now, mainly because obtaining information has become too easy. In recent years, the pace of environmental change has been too rapid, from the pandemic to the emergence of AI. Drastic changes are occurring in various fields, and the process of diligent production has begun to disappear.

If you can’t be irreplaceable and only rely on simply delivering knowledge, and this knowledge can’t be verified through environmental changes, it will be easily eliminated. Since the former cannot be achieved, we can only rely on the latter. This is what I believe all courses in the future need to pay attention to. Whether it’s online courses or offline courses, they all need to understand: what students value now is not just “knowledge delivery.” It may be the community after the course, or the instructor’s ability to stimulate students’ deep self-reflection during the course, and so on.

I can’t tell you what you should do to resolve the situation (if I could, I would be the one selling courses now QQ). I can only offer my own insights as a consumer who has spent at least 300,000 to 400,000 on courses.

The main point of this paragraph is that I want to let the capable teachers around me who are creating online courses not to be too desperate about the environment, because as long as there are profits to be made in a field, it will never be a calm lake forever. We should be optimistic~~~ Otherwise, when the Marleyans encounter the Rumbling, they should all jump off a cliff. Why bother living? (Attack on Titan reference)

I can only say that, to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a single short video course in Taiwan that can significantly improve one’s skills after completion (if there is, please let me know, it’s also possible that I have limited knowledge).

I believe everyone who takes a short video course has one thought: after completing these courses, the next viral video will be mine. This is also the main reason I wrote the previous article, to tell everyone that “this is simply our fantasy.”

Telling everyone this is not to discourage you from taking courses, but to prepare you that they may only deliver some “basic knowledge.” Because I believe there are definitely people who grit their teeth and endure the pain of their wallets to take courses. If it’s for a short video course, hold off for now.

So what can we do in the field of short videos? I think continuously producing content is the iron law of self-media. Additionally, I’ve seen some articles discussing this, among them: Teacher Xiao Guan from Inosine mentioned that “a lot of practice in filming and editing is very important.”

And Teacher Sharon mentioned, “It’s better to spend time thinking carefully about your business goals and all business models and strategies.” Both of these points are very important. If you’re interested, you can read their posts. I hope my thoughts can be of some help to everyone.