On Jan. 24, Hank and John Green launched their new program, Study Hall, a partnership between Crash Course, YouTube and Arizona State University (ASU). In the program’s introductory video, Hank Green described Study Hall as “a project designed to help learners prepare for, apply to, succeed at and graduate college.” This new online program provides information about selecting colleges, going through the admissions process, understanding loans, figuring out majors and considering careers through certain majors.
There are three types of video playlists that cover these topics. The first is “How to College” (posted on the Crash Course YouTube channel), a playlist that dives into “figuring out one’s college goals and a plan to get there,” as described in the Study Hall introductory video. The second playlist is Study Hall’s “Fast Guides to Electives and Majors,” which focuses on specific college majors — like business, history and computer science — and what courses one is required to take for them. The final playlist is Study Hall’s “College Foundation” series, which lets individuals take college courses online. Currently, the channel has a College Foundation playlist for Rhetoric and Composition, Real World College Math, Intro to Human Communication and U.S. History to 1865.
In Study Hall’s introductory video, Hank Green shared that “the credits you earn are usable toward an ASU degree or transferable to the hundreds of institutions that accept ASU credits. All you have to do is start watching a foundational playlist […] on the Study Hall YouTube channel. Then, if and when you are ready to dive deeper and earn ASU college credit, […] you sign up to participate in the full course [through Study Hall’s website].”
In a TikTok posted on Hank Green’s account, he claimed that “40% of people who have student loans do not have and will not get a degree, and that seems like the kind of thing that people should talk about more.” However, with the 10-year running of the successful Crash Course YouTube channel — which has amassed 14.4 million subscribers — Green was able to start a dialogue with Google and Arizona State University. “We started trying to figure out what are the big barriers to student success,” he shared. “Really, there’s three: There’s money, there’s the sort of intricacies of the bureaucracy, and then there’s the information itself.”
To help solve this problem, Study Hall was founded. Students start on YouTube, watching course content for free, and once they are ready to begin course work, they pay $25 to begin classes. However, what is truly unique about this program is that a student’s education progression is dependent on whether they are confident to move forward. It is only after “you are satisfied with the course and your grade” that “you pay $400 for transferable college credit. Less than a third of the cost of the average college class,” Green shared in his TikTok caption.
Though ASU and BC have had a past relationship through the MyPath2ASU program, it is unsure how many ASU credits will certainly transfer to Bellevue College. According to one of BC’s academic advisors, the best way to determine if those credits transfer to BC would be to request an official evaluation through BC’s website. Students are advised to read step three and complete step five.
The program is receiving lots of positive feedback, and most believe this is big for those at a disadvantage when it comes to academic opportunities.
