The co-founder of the high-end skills class startup Masterclass has launched a new education company called Outlier.org. Despite .org the domain, it's a for-profit venture that aims to replace universities' introductory-level courses with highly-produced educational online content.
"I think that the first two years of college — so the first 25 courses — amount to about a $50 billion-a-year spend by students. In those first two years, the brand name really doesn't matter that much. They're very skills-based competencies that you're going for," the company's founder and CEO Aaron Rasmussen told Cheddar.
"There are a million students a year taking Calculus I at an average of $2,500 per course. That means Calculus I is a $2.5 billion a year industry, and 40 percent of those students fail. So we're wasting a billion dollars a year."
In addition to video lectures, Outlier promises interactive content, unlimited practice questions, and a full refund of the $400 per-class price if the students don't pass. Outlier says its course credits are granted by the University of Pittsburgh, making them transferable to other schools (that recognizes that university's credits).
Class can be taken at any time and from anywhere, but the company says that students will be matched to study groups based on their time zones. The courses will begin this fall with two classes: introductory psychology and introductory calculus.
Students also have the option to switch between lecturers and styles. For instance, calculus students will be able to watch lectures from the British mathematician Hannah Fry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student John Urschel (also a retired Baltimore Ravens football player), and Professor Tim Chartier at Davidson College.
But why would the top schools help facilitate a startup that aims to eat up its bread-and-butter introductory courses?
"It's probably not going to affect the top 100 universities that much. In fact, not a ton of those students are even taking calculus because they will have taken it in high school. I'm worried about the other 3,500 universities," said Rasmussen.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
