Class Central, a TripAdvisor for online education, has helped 100 million learners find their next course. The Report is what we write about the industry behind those courses.
The Report evolved organically: it began keeping track of online courses (or MOOCs, specifically) and grew into keeping track of the industry as the industry got bigger.
We have written about Coursera's founding, their IPO, their acquisition of Udemy, and all the little things in between that let us connect the dots.
All this from the perspective of a learner. Not the industry's. Anything that affects learners and students, we want to explore in detail.
That is the north star.
It doesn't even have to be about online education: when India's medical entrance exam ended up for sale on Telegram, we covered that too.
We write about the business of online education because the business decides what happens to learners: what gets paywalled, what instructors get paid, and what an online degree costs.
That is the gap in how traditional "EdTech" media covers this space: success == valuation or monetization, and surface-level reporting even when so much data is hiding in plain sight.
We might not be the "first" to write about something. But when we write about something, we are the best, and in many cases the "only".
A Few Examples
In 2021, 2U, a public company, bought edX, a non-profit, for $800 million. The dominant narrative: together, they would be a threat to Coursera. Any objections were ideological.
Instead of jumping in with a hot take, we spent a week with the documents: seven years of edX's tax returns, 2U's annual and quarterly reports, and our own data. The 4,500-word analysis broke down the business of online education, and 2U's own filings pointed to a potential cash crunch: how was 2U going to pay for all this? Three years later, 2U went bankrupt.
We couldn't have predicted the bankruptcy. But the data let us highlight the issues.
Sometimes we hint at the future. Many times, we go back and double-check the past. Udemy promised instructors their payouts would "equal or exceed" current levels; a year later, we caught it paying them $30.7 million less. Scaler, one of India's edtech darlings, claimed revenue 15x higher than reality.
And sometimes we figure out things, like why Duolingo wants us to hate its ads, what Miro actually acquired when it bought Reforge (hint: not its courses), or how it took three bids, two years, and one rogue shareholder for Coursera to buy Udemy.
Sometimes there is no angle at all. Sometimes the article is literally a chart of what every 2U degree costs, or a breakdown of Udemy's 272,000-course catalog, or a list of 2000+ approved online degrees in India. There is no database of this kind. Building one is kinda our thing :)
What We Pay
- News and analysis: starts at $250 per article
- Investigative pieces (with sources): starts at $400, and rises with the depth of the reporting
The exact rate is settled before you start writing. Rates are adjusted based on PPP/location if you're outside the US.
Our AI Policy
AI can speed you up, but it can't do the job for you. If you need AI to handle the research or the writing, don't pitch us.
Our best articles come from reading primary sources, sometimes over the years. Read enough of them and you start to spot patterns, and the moments when something doesn't fit (aka a glitch in the matrix). That has to live in your head, not in a prompt.
We're looking for writers, not prompt engineers.
How to Pitch
Email careers@classcentral.com with the subject line "Pitch: [Your Proposed Headline]".
What's the story? What will you dig into: documents, data, people? And why are you the one to write it? All in less than 300 words. For the record, we don't consider trend reports or data published by consultancy firms to be primary sources. Include links to two published pieces where you worked from primary sources.
Please, no "The Rise of..." and no "How X Is Transforming Y". We cover what's happening, not what might.
We read every pitch. If it fits, you'll hear from us within two weeks.
If you're looking for more roles with us, check out our current openings.
