{"id":2683,"date":"2021-06-05T15:29:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T22:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2021-06-05T15:30:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T22:30:26","slug":"wes-kao-co-founder-of-maven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522\/2021\/06\/05\/wes-kao-co-founder-of-maven\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Kao: Co-founder of Maven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Wes Kao, co-founder of Maven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maven is a cohort-based online learning platform that facilitates the implementation of social engagement and a sense of community through the blending of MOOC\u2019s and cohort-based learning. The platform allows instructors to construct online learning courses with a scalable cohort-based engagement strategy while maintaining a premium student experience. Instructors who register to create content on the Maven platform collect a large portion of the tuition paid by students while Maven collects a small system maintenance fee, approximately 10%. The shared profitability of the platform acts as an attractive lure to engage quality content creators and encourages Maven to maintain a healthy online learning platform to drive the ongoing development of quality course content. Maven differentiates itself from other MOOC\u2019s by implementing a cohort-based, synchronous, and asynchronous learning experience. With the use of social engagement, shared purpose, and collegiality the cohort-based learning experience increases course completion rates found in current asynchronous MOOC models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wes Kao was the co-founder of altMBA<\/a> which is a leadership and management cohort-based learning system. Her leadership at altMBA grew the company to be active in 550 cities in 45 countries in just three years. Prior to co-founding altMBA, Wes worked as a project lead for Seth Godin Inc.<\/a> developing popular Udemy courses such as the best-selling leadership course \u201cLeadership Workshop\u201d. Wes also worked at Flite<\/a> as the lead of brand management, which was acquired by Snap Inc<\/a>. Wes has had her work published in Fast Company and Entrepreneur. She also guests lectures at UC Berkley and Harvard. On Wes\u2019s website,<\/a> she lists learning and online education as her top professional interest. Wes Kao\u2019s current venture, Maven, has her teamed up with two other co-founders who bring profound expertise to the venture: \u00a0Gagan Biyani (co-founder and president of Udemy<\/a>) and Shreyans Bhansali (co-founder of Socratic<\/a>). Over the last five years, Wes has helped to build learning opportunities that have engaged 40000 students and generated over 30 million in revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find the social aspects that Wes Kao has integrated into the development of her online learning ventures to be very interesting. In my own experience, I find there is a very large disconnect in online learning opportunities and social engagement. As a teacher, I see learning as a social activity, yet many online platforms seem to miss this aspect in the paradigm of information acquisition. Simply providing information is not good pedagogy, this seems to be something Wes Kao understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/maven.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/altmba.com\/about<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.weskao.com\/about<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1\/ To build something new…

Look beyond what\u2019s immediately around you.

When building the altMBA, Seth and I didn\u2019t look at edtech. That was too narrow.

We studied what makes ppl feel *zealous, committed & becomes part of their identity*

Here are groups I analyzed (THREAD)<\/p>— Wes Kao ???? (@wes_kao) June 24, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>