[ibimage==38160==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
There's no shortage of jokes about the futility of the art major. Parents or students spending $30,000 to study something that has never created a historically easy path to employment doesn't all seem like the best idea.
But what if students could try out the artistic education path before financially committing? A few Cal Arts grads may have found the solution to bringing art education online.
Kadenze, an online learning platform for the arts, launched last week out Valencia with a freemium model geared towards prospecting arts students.
Pairing world-class instructors with an engaging platform, Kadenze has created a way for students to watch lectures, interact with students, and, most importantly, discuss their work.
Their “passive” learning program allows users to watch videos and engage in forums at no charge, whereas their premium models allows for full academic engagement with any number of classes — and it’s only $7 a month. For students seeking actual college credit, the site offers transferable credit beginning at $300.
After frustration with online course restrictions that catered specifically to math, computer science, and engineering, co-founders Ajay Kapur and Perry Cook decided to build their own affordable platform to engage the art community.
“In order to really change online education we had to do more than build a platform,” Kapur said. “A lot of other places are putting a camera in the back of the lecture hall or in their office— we took filmmakers, animators, and musicians and had them turn a curriculum into a story. Now our teachers from around the world come to LA to meet our design team and make a movie.”
Sixty percent of the 45 person company are art school alumni and most hail from local LA schools. Of the 17 international arts schools the company has partnered with, three of them are local (UCLA, Cal Institute of the Arts, and Cal College of the Arts).
Online education has been a highly debated topic over the past decade, but with universities such as ASU and UC San Diego moving towards cheap online classes for freshman, it appears as though taking courses online is the affordable future for education.
“It’s a win-win,” Cook said. “Universities could extend their student body size by ¼ without building a single building.”
With introductory learning online, Kadenze hopes it will encourage more students to test the waters of higher education without being scared away by the price tag.
“The way prices are going, education will only be for the elite,” Kapur said. “In order to solve that problem we need to begin by giving students an affordable choice.”
Do you know a tech startup that deserves coverage? Email us via [email protected]
