New School

  The University of California, Berkeley, is taking a great leap forward—a move that, mark my words, will set a new standard among public universities.  In a statement released last week, the school announced that it has partnered with Google Video to make several courses available online, free for the entire world to view.  The union between Google and Berkeley is the logical extension of the university’s webcasting program, which has offered streaming video, live and on-demand, of select courses and symposia on its website since 2001.

  In a time when, more and more, entertainment is becoming available on-demand, it’s interesting to see the same approach taken with education.  In our broadband age, more music, more television shows, and more films are becoming available online.  Entertainment companies are working around the clock to figure out how to make their products instantly available to a broader audience, and how to do it profitably.  And soon, I suspect, we’ll begin to see more universities striving to provide education on-demand, a trend that has been dubbed “coursecasting.”

  Berkeley is not just blazing the trail of education on-demand; the university has figured out how to do it without lessening the value of its product.  It’s no secret that education is free—universities sell credits and degrees, and Berkeley is no different.  By making select courses available online, even in their entirety, is not exactly giving away the farm.  On the contrary, the merger with Google helps strengthen both brands.

  Googlers probably won’t have access to Berkeley’s advanced courses in nuclear engineering, but currently a half-dozen courses are available in their entirety.  Among those are “Physics 10: Physics for Future Presidents,” and an information systems course called “Search Engines: Technology, Society & Business.”  The latter offers a lecture by Google CEO and Berkeley alum, Eric Schmidt, who is particularly excited by the partnership.  “Google appreciates the opportunity to partner with progressive universities like UC Berkeley to make undiscovered lectures and entire courses available to our users,” Schmidt said in the company’s statement last week on coursecasting.  “UC Berkeley’s content, much of which wasn’t easily accessible online, will enhance the comprehensive and diverse range of offerings by Google Video.”

  The attention that Google is receiving from this merger couldn’t come at a better time.  As online video content is seemingly dominated by music videos, groin-kicks, humorous lip-synching videos and television clips, Google seems to be broadening its appeal.  According to a report released in May by Hitwise, a company that tracks online traffic, Google Video has consistently come in fourth among online video sites.  As YouTube has climbed to the top spot, MySpace has slipped to the number-two spot, with Yahoo! Video coming in third.  This could be the kind of unique content that could help Google tighten the race.

  To view the Berkeley classes and symposia currently available, log on to http://video.google.com/ucberkeley.html. 

-From Pulse
   October 5, 2006