Class Central

Friends had Central Perk. Cheers had the bar. Seinfeld had the diner. Every great community needs a third place that's not home, not work, but where real connection happens. But these third places are disappearing. David Joyner, who runs Georgia Tech's online MSCS, one of the largest online degree programs, says online education can step in and revive them. But most online platforms aren't designing for that. They're designing for careers: Python, AI, SEO. They're useful, but don't allow for proximity, unplanned interaction, and the friendships that learning can offer. In his latest essay for Class Central, David talks about how online education can become the third place. And it all starts with curiosity. Read his thoughts here: https://lnkd.in/dvkAYEYQ Artwork by Kiri P.

Archit Shukla and Coca-Cola had something in common: both got flak for their Christmas AI videos. That’s when Archit realized: the budget didn’t matter, the technique did. And clearly, it’s not easy to create an AI video that doesn’t add to the slop. So while improving his own AI video creation skills, he went looking for the best AI video generation courses for editors and video creators and picked 7 of the best. Some top picks: - AI Video Generation: A Comprehensive Guide by Anton Voroniuk (Coursera) - AI and Generative AI for Video Content Creation by Nick Harauz (LinkedIn Learning) - AI Video Creation with Google Veo 3: A Generative AI Course by Philip Ebiner Read the full list here: https://lnkd.in/dyjhVvJV Screenshot from Archit's AI-generated video using Veo ↓

FInd the best coding interview preparation courses for 2026. Our guide includes: - Build the Fundamentals understanding Algorithms (Stanford University/Coursera) - Soft & Hard Skills (Meta/Coursera) - DSA for Python Devs (Boot.dev) Full selection: https://lnkd.in/dv49HTwB

I got back into Duolingo recently, and it feels a lot less annoying than it was a few months ago. That's probably why its market cap went from $25 billion to under $5 billion. Last year, Duolingo went heavy on monetization. They replaced Hearts with Energy, a system that depletes even when you answer correctly [1]. Users called it punishment. They ramped up ads: 40 seconds of ads after 30-second lessons [2]. The purpose isn't revenue (ads are just 7% of income). It's to make free users so miserable they upgrade. Combined with the viral Dead Duo marketing campaign, the stock soared to an all-time high in May. Then came the user backlash. Reddit moderators refused to be Duolingo's unpaid customer support for 8 million visitors [3]. Users revolted over the Energy system breaking their streaks. CEO Luis von Ahn's AI-first memo, announcing contractors would be phased out, led users to post videos ending multi-year streaks and deleting the app. Von Ahn later admitted the backlash pushed DAU growth to the lower end of projections. DAU year-over-year growth went from 50% to 30%. MAU growth from 32% to 14%. MAUs actually dropped last quarter. After Q3 earnings, Duolingo changed course. Von Ahn announced the company would prioritize "teaching quality" over short-term monetization. The stock dropped 30% in a single day. Then in the Q4 earnings call, Von Ahn doubled down. Target: 100 million DAUs by 2028. 2026 growth guidance: just 15-18%, less than half of 2025's 39%. The company authorized a $400 million buyback, its first ever. The stock dropped another 22%. Do the right thing, get punished by investors. Chase metrics, get punished by users. Duolingo is stuck in between. My colleague Kanishka Nangare has been covering Duolingo all year. Here's her full year-in-review [4] and Q4 deep dive [5]. [1] https://lnkd.in/grxh8ayW [2] https://lnkd.in/g-PEUsPC [3] https://lnkd.in/g3jd-8Qi [4] https://lnkd.in/engbcEaq [5] https://lnkd.in/e4P8BdgJ

Suparn P. finally found an SQL course he actually finished, thanks to Taylor Swift! After leaving multiple courses halfway, this one stuck. He took CodeSignal’s Journey into SQL with Taylor Swift, a free course that uses Taylor Swift’s discography as a dataset (yes, really) to teach SQL. Here’s what made the difference: - 96 hands-on exercises (no passive videos) - An in-browser MySQL environment (no setup) - Cosmo, an AI tutor that guides instead of giving answers The course pushed him toward practice and made SQL feel like muscle memory. His full review ↓ https://lnkd.in/diMXmCtP #ad

In hindsight, edX cashed out at the right time. EdTech acquisitions don't happen in cash anymore. MIT and Harvard sold edX to 2U for $800 million in cash back in 2021 [1]. That shouldn't have been the goal for a nonprofit, but financially speaking, they got real money while the market was still hot. Coursera acquired Udemy in an all-stock deal in December [2]. And now upGrad is acquiring Unacademy, once valued at $3.5 billion, in a 100% share swap at less than $500 million. 85% below its pandemic peak. Both companies are similarly sized in terms of fundraising. Unacademy raised over $800 million. upGrad has raised over $700 million. But neither is profitable. upGrad: $185 million in revenue, $32 million loss (FY25). Unacademy: $81 million in revenue, $52 million loss (FY25). Unacademy's revenue has been declining since peaking at $109 million in FY23, and losses peaked at $365 million in FY22. Combined, these two companies lost $84 million last year on $266 million in revenue. Two loss-making companies merging through a stock swap. We've seen this before. 2U was already losing money when it took on significant debt to buy edX for $800 million [1]. That debt eventually pushed 2U into bankruptcy. This is upGrad's second stock-swap acquisition in a month, after buying Internshala, India's largest internship platform. My colleague Kanishka Nangare has the full story: https://lnkd.in/enN_5N9S [1] https://lnkd.in/gv5tcMH8 [2] https://lnkd.in/e238JXv7

ChatGPT was our second source of traffic last year! This was way before generative engine optimization (GEO) became a trending marketing strategy. Then came all the AI search/generative engine optimization posts, essays, analysis and courses. Lots of courses. So we wrote a guide to the best online ones. And we spoke to Kaleigh Moore, an AI search specialist and strategist, about which skills does GEO demand, which skills transfer from SEO, and what a great GEO course looks like. If you’re trying to figure out which GEO/AEO course to invest in, here are some too picks: Our top picks: - Optimize Pages for AI Search by Steve Toth (CXL) - Master GEO - AEO Masterclass by SkillUp Online (Coursera) - AEO Masterclass by Mostafa ElBermawy (Maven) Full list here: https://lnkd.in/dDPPaFwe

From a ~$3.5B unicorn to under $500M, to acquisition. Unacademy has agreed to a 100% share swap deal with upGrad. Unacademy was one of India's most valued edtech startups, backed by Tiger Global, SoftBank, and General Atlantic, raising over $800M. Then, revenue declined, cash burn increased, and market share dropped. After speaking to potential acquirers and a lost deal with upGrad in January 2026, Unacademy has accepted the acquisition terms. Unacademy investors will receive upGrad shares, Gaurav Munjal stays on as CEO, and both parties have agreed to a break fee, if the deal doesn't go through. Read more: https://lnkd.in/d86ja_wA

Codecademy has 600+ courses and 85 million learners across 190 countries. We dug into the data to find the 100 courses with the most enrollments: - 23.7M combined enrollments across the top 100 - 8 courses have crossed the 1 million enrollment mark - 1,500+ hours of total learning content - 25 free courses, 75 paid The most popular course? Learn Python 3, with 3.2M enrollments. The subject breakdown:: → 75 courses in Programming → 11 in Computer Science → 3 in AI, 3 in Data Science → Plus Business, Math, and more Whether you're learning to code for the first time or picking up a new language, this list is a great place to start. 🔗 Full list: https://lnkd.in/dkEZJPuc

2025 was Udemy’s first profitable year. Q4 still ended with a $2.3M loss, and the stock hit an all-time low just days after the earnings announcement. We analyzed the Q4 numbers and found that: • Consumer revenue is declining, even though the number of subscribers is rising • The Enterprise (Business) Segment is growing but the growth is slowing Full report here: https://lnkd.in/dSequxr2