Online educational platforms are not a recent concept, they have been around for a long time and their use perhaps becoming even more versatile with the current times. Businesses are scrambling to build an online presence and finding ways to stay connected to their customers and employees virtually.
Of course, it has not been easy but that’s where online learning platforms come into play. Their need has increased at least ten folds in the last year or so. So in order to train your employees or help them build a new skill, all you need to do is sign them up for a course at one of these popular websites.
However, what should you do if you want them to develop a soft skill? Or you want to simply nurture their creativity? Or you are a new business owner and want to learn some business management skills like managing online traffic, and work on your personal development like mastering people skills simultaneously? Is there any such online learning community that offers this exact package? You’re in luck, because Creativelive does EXACTLY that! It basically the place where you get the best combination of business and hobbies. It is an online learning community that came into being in 2010 for creative professionals, artists, entrepreneurs, and even avid hobbyists. It offers a wide range of creative classes, not limited to but mostly in categories such as writing, DIY, photography, blogging, art and design and video editing. In addition, it also offers lifestyle, personal development and even marketing and business courses.
The name of the community aka ‘Creativelive’ is the biggest indicator of the platform’s strengths, aka the availability of creative live content 24/7. This is possible through their ‘On Air’ feature which covers a wide range of topics. Ever since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, they have even been offering health related free classes on this feature for their audiences. All classes streaming here are free and are replayed weekly. The live content is also paired with a live in-house audience as well, consisting of a range of 3 to 15 students. These attendees make sure to clarify things in real-time as the instructor teaches and even ask questions from an audience perspective so as to benefit the online viewers in the best way possible. You can also view upcoming free classes for the following week and RSVP to them in order to be reminded when they are on air. This feature also includes an option to adjust your time zone which I believe is super helpful!
Now when we talk of creativity, only a passionate creative can understand the needs of another, right? That is the story behind this infamous online community as well. It was founded by Chase Jarvis and Craig Swanson. The CEO Chase, being a photographer and entrepreneur by profession himself, thought about making workshops for creative professionals alongside partner Craig, and thus the idea of Creativelive was born. They have dual headquarters in San Francisco and Seattle, which are often utilized to record their high-definition live in-house classes.
What makes CreativeLive creative?
In other words, what is so unique about Creativelive that it deserves that you sign up for it with so many other educational platforms available on the web, spend your hours streaming through the innumerable amount of content available on its site, and then keep returning to it for sustained information and content consumption. First of all, the fact that it is a platform specifically aimed at creative courses, gives it an edge as it targets a specific niche of people normally not catered for by traditional learning sites. The arts have always struggled to gain a place in the conventional world, and forums such as these are refreshing to see as they help promote the category as an equally essential part of professional life as other orthodox career paths.
Secondly, the people behind Creativelive have carefully curated the site with numerous features that are both practical and innovative. Take Creativelive for Teams for instance, this feature allows businesses to sign up entire organizational teams to learn a particular skill as a group, and thus help develop, grow and empower its people. These courses are also customizable in nature and can be tailored to each company’s needs.
Another aspect that is unique and quite helpful to Creativelive subscribers are the class description, preview, lessons, and review features. These individual features come together to provide much ease and clarity to the audience in terms of what courses to pick out. The class description is a short summary provided with every course and also includes names of topics that will be covered throughout the conduct of said course. Thus, this gives the student a very clear idea of what to expect from the course and the learning goals they will be able to achieve if they decide to pick it. Class previews are usually short videos introducing the course, as well as access to the first lesson to give a good insight into the instructor and their teaching style, so the student can decide if the general feel of the course resonates with their needs. Moreover, the class lessons are also listed in a separate section, alongside their time durations, thus providing a comprehensive insight into the course.
These lessons are followed by downloadable class material in PDF format that are meant to complement the video lessons and further enhance the learning experience. Finally, the class reviews are also provided with each class from its previous students, who have already completed the course. The review consists of a thumbs up or down option, as well as overall percentage of people that have recommended the course. Despite being simple, this review system is effective in providing a clear and concise overview of people’s opinions for guiding those interested in the future.
If we dive further, we also notice that Creativelive is quite committed towards building its online community. For this purpose, they have a few dedicated sections such as instructors, podcasts, blogs and stories where both students and instructors share their experiences with one another and thus lead to potential collaborations. Moreover, the students also have the option to upload and share their work that they have completed while studying a particular course. This is helpful to future students to access for purpose of inspiration as well as insight.
Finally, the quality of instruction is one of the best currently available in such educational platforms. The forum hosts more than 700 top notch creative professionals, as well as award winning artists (Oscar and Grammy winners) to teach its classes. That is why it has been successful in attracting over 10 million students to its variety of courses.
Is the creativity exposure worth the money?
Let’s talk a little bit about numbers now. This is another good news about Creativelive, because it is priced on the lower end for its industry’s average. Its courses range between $50 to $200 and are often available on discounts.
Another plausible option that the site offers is the ‘Creator Pass’, that is basically an all-access pass to 1500+ video lessons that you can stream anywhere and everywhere. This pass is available for a monthly option at $39, or an annual option currently available at a discount of $149, approximately amounting to $13 per month.
This pass also gives other benefits such as access to exclusive conferences, with new classes being uploaded each month, the option to download lessons for offline viewing and access to a huge library of these lessons. If you decide that the Creator Pass is not for you, you also have the easy option to opt out within a 7-day period and get a refund.
Lastly, the Creativelive for Teams option has various tailored subscription options available too. These are curated according to team size, thus a team between 5 and 100 members will cost your business $149 per person, and if it is a 1000+ member team, you can be offered a customized quote by getting in touch with the Creativelive team.
Our verdict on CreativeLive
After this detailed insight into why Creativelive is a pretty great place to be, I also want to give a quick overview of some aspects it lacks in, just to give you a fair idea of what to expect. Firstly, the fact that they have multiple offerings does not mean that they are necessarily handling all of them meticulously. For instance, as of now they only have 2 classes in the embroidery category, which seems to be underdeveloped and slightly neglected by the creators. Similarly, the cooking lessons are quite limited in scope as well, currently offering only cake decorating classes.
Another area where they lack is that there is no interaction with the instructors, which is unfortunate but also makes sense as each class holds hundreds and even thousands of students and it would become impossible to cater to each individually.
Finally, Creativelive also does not offer any formal accreditations as a result of completing a course, and thus people looking for certifications for their traditional career needs may not find this platform suitable.
All in all, Creativelive is a great place to brush up your skills, or even learn new ones. It is a perfect source of concrete skills and creative inspiration, and its in-depth content is sure to keep you engaged as you sip your coffee on a winter evening!