For many years, University of Phoenix handled async education with NNTP. Because NNTP is inherently designed for asynchronous communication in topic silos; is simple; and low overhead it worked really well.
They built a new platform because internet bandwidth had increased to the point where it was competing with real time educational platforms.
Discussion forums (regardless of technology) are generally super useful for async communication and learning. We have tried to take a lot of inspiration from this. I think NNTP is a good example of technology rarely being a barrier if there is just enough intrinsic motivation to learn.
Comments
For many years, University of Phoenix handled async education with NNTP. Because NNTP is inherently designed for asynchronous communication in topic silos; is simple; and low overhead it worked really well.
They built a new platform because internet bandwidth had increased to the point where it was competing with real time educational platforms.
Discussion forums (regardless of technology) are generally super useful for async communication and learning. We have tried to take a lot of inspiration from this. I think NNTP is a good example of technology rarely being a barrier if there is just enough intrinsic motivation to learn.