Online Learning Has a Platform Problem

Online learning was supposed to open the doors of education.

An experienced professional could share what they knew with people around the world. Learners could gain practical skills without returning to school, relocating or spending thousands of dollars.

That promise was real — and online learning has helped millions of people.

But somewhere along the way, many online learning platforms began optimizing for something other than learning.

They optimized for catalog size, subscriptions, discounts, watch time and transaction volume.

The result is an industry with more educational content than ever before, but one in which good instructors can still struggle to be discovered and learners can struggle to turn purchased courses into useful skills.

More Content Does Not Always Mean More Opportunity

The largest learning platforms now contain enormous course libraries.

That sounds like an advantage, but it creates a difficult environment for independent instructors.

A knowledgeable teacher may spend months creating a thoughtful course, only to find it buried beneath established instructors, heavily reviewed courses and whatever the platform’s algorithm is currently promoting.

Once a few courses gain momentum, they collect more enrollments, more reviews and more visibility. Newer instructors face the familiar problem of needing students to gain visibility while needing visibility to attract students.

This does not necessarily mean the most visible instructor is the best instructor.

It often means they arrived earlier, already had an audience, understood the platform’s promotional system or were fortunate enough to gain early momentum.

There are thousands of people with valuable knowledge who are good at teaching but not particularly good at algorithms, advertising or personal branding.

A healthy learning marketplace should help learners discover those people too.

Price Has Started to Replace Value

Online learning platforms helped make education more affordable. That was an important achievement.

But constant discounts can change how learners perceive a course.

When courses are repeatedly reduced from a high advertised price to the cost of lunch, learners begin waiting for the next sale. Courses become impulse purchases rather than commitments.

People build libraries of courses they intend to complete someday.

Instructors may receive another enrollment, but the learner has not necessarily made a meaningful investment in the outcome.

Affordable education matters. However, affordability and devaluation are not the same thing.

A practical guide that helps someone solve a real problem, improve their work or develop a useful skill has value. The goal should not simply be to make the price as low as possible. It should be to make the value clear and the learning accessible.

Watching Is Not the Same as Learning

Many online courses are built around video completion.

Watch the lesson. Mark it complete. Move to the next one.

But completing a video is not the same as understanding the material, and understanding the material is not the same as being able to use it.

Real learning usually requires action.

Learners need opportunities to pause, take notes, revisit an idea, complete a task, test their understanding and connect the lesson to their own situation.

They may also need to ask a question.

That is one of the weaknesses of education delivered primarily as a large library of prerecorded content. The information may be there, but the support surrounding it is often limited.

A better learning experience should help people move from:

“I watched it.”

to:

“I understand it.”

and eventually:

“I can use it.”

Instructors Should Be More Than Content Suppliers

The online learning economy could not exist without instructors.

They bring the knowledge, develop the material, demonstrate the skills and often bring the first learners with them.

Yet on some platforms, instructors can feel less like partners and more like suppliers filling an expanding catalog.

Compensation systems can be difficult to understand. Revenue may depend on discounts, subscription pools, viewing minutes, promotional channels or changing platform policies.

The instructor may create the product while having limited control over its pricing, presentation, discoverability or long-term earning potential.

Platforms need to make money. They provide hosting, technology, payment processing, marketing and access to learners.

But a sustainable marketplace should create a clear exchange of value.

When an instructor creates something useful, helps attract a learner or contributes to a platform’s long-term growth, the instructor should have a reasonable and understandable opportunity to benefit from it.

The relationship should feel like a partnership.

AI Will Not Fix a Weak Learning Model

Artificial intelligence is rapidly entering online education.

It can help instructors organize ideas, create examples, improve accessibility and give learners additional ways to explore a subject. Used thoughtfully, it can make learning more responsive and practical.

It can also make the existing content problem much worse.

It is now easier than ever to generate a large volume of polished-looking educational material. But polished content is not necessarily accurate, original or useful.

The value of an experienced instructor is not simply the ability to produce information.

It is knowing what matters.

It is understanding where learners become confused, which mistakes are common, how a skill works in the real world and when the standard answer does not fit the situation.

AI should support that experience — not replace it.

The strongest learning platforms will use technology to help learners interact with genuine expertise rather than using technology to manufacture more generic content.

Where Online Learning Goes From Here

The next phase of online learning will require more than larger catalogs, lower prices and newer technology.

The industry needs to take a closer look at what learners are actually gaining from the experience — and whether skilled instructors have a fair opportunity to be seen, valued and rewarded.

That may require platforms to rethink some long-standing assumptions about how educational content is created, discovered, purchased and used.

AI will undoubtedly play a role, but technology alone will not determine which platforms succeed. Trust, quality, practical value and the relationship between learners and instructors will matter just as much.

The opportunity is not simply to deliver more information.

It is to create an environment where useful knowledge is easier to find, easier to engage with and more likely to lead to meaningful progress.

Exploring a Different Approach

These are some of the questions behind One Red Chair, a new learning platform currently being developed around practical, real-world knowledge.

The goal is not simply to build another large course library. It is to create a learning experience that helps knowledgeable instructors get discovered and helps learners move beyond consuming information to actually using it.

We are still early, and there is much left to build and learn. But we believe the next phase of online education should focus less on accumulating content and more on supporting meaningful progress.

The platforms that succeed may not be the ones with the largest libraries.

They may be the ones that create the strongest connection between useful knowledge, good instructors and learners who are ready to apply what they learn.

That is the opportunity in front of online education now.

And it is one worth getting right.