You might know Hank and John Green from TikTok, from their best-selling books, or their vlogbrothers YouTube channel — but at one time or another, they were probably teaching you vital curriculum in high school through Crash Course, their platform dedicated to providing free, high-quality educational content.
Now, Hank and John have announced a big partnership with Study Hall: a platform that provides a path from YouTube to real, transferable college credit.
Crash Course, Arizona State University, and Google partnered to create Study Hall
Along with Complexly (the company that owns and produces Crash Course), Google and Arizona State University have partnered to help solve some major barriers to entry in the education system.
According to Hank, they focused on three main concepts: The cost that prevents people from pursuing higher education, the confusing bureaucracy of higher education, and the meat of it: That learning can be hard!
First launched in early 2020, Study Hall offers guides to, well, studying, as well as learning how to navigate college and higher education systems (because, let’s be real, no one’s parent’s actually knew how FAFSA works).
Today, in a statement, it was announced that you can now take your fundamental courses right through Study Hall. (!!!)
To begin, the platform is offering English Composition, US History, College Math, and Human Communication.
“Our college fundamentals courses exist to guide students through classes they’re likely going to need to take in their early college, to decrease the number of people failing and either needing to retake classes or drop out,” Hank tweeted.
All the videos are available to watch for free, but if viewers would like to enter a class with classmates and a faculty member it costs $25.
Then, you can even up the ante and get real college credit, paying $400 to receive credit that can be accepted by Arizona State University — or at any of the hundreds of institutions that take ASU credit. (That’s roughly a third of what it costs an in-state student at a state university).
“Our college foundations series gives you a chance to actually take college classes online and earn credit from a top university at a fraction of the cost,” Hank says in a video announcement. “Study Hall gives you access to college courses on YouTube, and the best part is that you don’t pay for the course credit until you’re satisfied with your grades.”
The first four courses will launch on March 7 of this year, and folks who register before the launch date will get a discounted rate of $350 per course credit.
“We’re excited because ASU and Crash Course are two of the most compelling partners that we could have chosen to work with on this,” Katie Kurtz, managing director and global head of learning for YouTube said in a statement. " It speaks to the power of their mission to democratize access to educational content, and both partners have a long track of doing that.”
How to sign up for Study Hall
To start earning college credits with Study Hall, all you have to do is start by just watching videos on the Study Hall YouTube channel. For real, it’s that easy.
If you’re feeling good and ready to dive deeper, you can then visit GoStudyHall.com to pay the fee to begin faculty-led coursework. Just like you would in any other course, you’ll then engage in projects and assessments, work with other classmates, and get instruction and feedback from faculty members.
Each course can be taken more than once, and you only pay for your credits when you feel satisfied with your grade.
Making higher education accessible to all
Chances are, if you’ve been a student in the last decade, you’ve turned to Crash Course to help you study anything from biological polymers to political economies. Over the last 10 years, the channel has amassed over 1.6 billion views, “transforming the traditional textbook model,” with free and engaging videos.
Study Hall is an extension of this mission, developed to create a response to the overwhelming student debt crisis in America. Like Hank outlines in the announcement of this new program, there is over 1.75 trillion dollars of student debt in America held by around 43 million Americans.
Something’s gotta give, and Study Hall hopes to be part of the solution.
Although there is still a fee for these fundamental courses with ASU, the cost is significantly reduced and helps democratize the future of higher education.
“We want people to help people make good decisions and to lower the cost, especially in the early portion, so that people can get this info and this knowledge without taking big, dangerous risks,” Hank said in a statement. “Everything you can do to lower the barrier, even a millimeter here or a millimeter there, is so valuable because there are so many people trying to better their lives.”
By meeting learners where they are (on YouTube), this platform brings accessibility to the forefront, and hopefully, makes learning less scary.
Doing more good with Hank and John Green
Besides reshaping the future of higher education, Hank and John Green do a lot of good in other ways every single day.
Their two social enterprise companies, Awesome Socks Club and Awesome Coffee Club, were developed to help build a hospital in Sierra Leone.
Fundraising efforts also extend to the annual Project for Awesome, which has raised over $17 million over the last 15 years; and Pizzamas, an annual internet “holiday” that raises funds for Partners in Health through the sales of limited edition merchandise.
