Google class
Last week Google unveiled Squared Online, a new course that’s part of its Digital Academy.
But wait, what even is the Google Digital Academy?
One for all, all for one
In 2014, Google launched digital training programs for employees and customers alike. According to Google designer Jack W. Morgan, these programs ended up with too many different objectives and brand identities that began to “compete with and cannibalize one another.”
A single umbrella organization was proposed to unite the programs as a uniform education initiative.
The Digital Academy is Google’s way of bridging in-person and online education.
It was established to resolve division within Google’s rapidly growing education sector.
Google Digital Academy offers a wide range of programs with varying lengths, skill levels, and intensity.
Their goal is to help marketers become more digitally savvy, transforming how businesses and people operate in a rapidly changing world.
Their latest offering focuses on five modules of digital marketing: disruption, how tech is changing business, rise of social and mobile, data analytics, and insights. It started as an in-person class, but Google soon realized they needed to expand the scale.
New possibilities
Collaborating with professional coaching company Avado, the class can now accommodate up to 400 people at a time. The face-to-face class only accommodated around 30 people three to four times a year.
It’s not meant to replace traditional degrees, but rather to supplement or provide other options for those looking to learn.
Director of Google Digital Academy Shuvo Saha noted, “there are a lot of questions right now given the reality of the job market and what young people need to be able to do to get different roles. It’s a tricky one for education as a whole.”
Google says unlike their competitors, the Digital Academy is successfully merging online and classroom learning styles. The course allows students to virtually meet up in groups using Google hangouts. Saha explains that Squared Online “bridges the gap between the classic classroom experience, where you can’t get scale, and e-learning that can sometimes be a bit dry.”
[clickToTweet tweet=”@we_are_squared “offers a more experiential learning experience,” for curious, collaborative people.” quote=”Instead, he says the course “offers a more experiential learning experience,” for curious, collaborative individuals.”]
Google Digital Academy hopes to target marketing leaders of the future and encourage students to make proactive decisions and work outside boundaries.
For more information on the course or to enroll, check out the Squared Online page.
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