For years, teachers have used YouTube to promote their lessons and persuade learners to join their classes off the platform. YouTube said on Monday it is taking broader steps to make the video service more appealing to educators and learners and provide more monetization avenues to the creators.
At its annual India conference on Monday, Google unveiled Courses, a feature that will seek to bring a structured learning experience to YouTube. Teachers can publish and organize their videos and provide text reading materials and questions on the video app.
The company said they would be allowed to offer the content for free or charge a fee. The company said that courses would span academic subjects and vocational interests. Viewers who buy a Course can watch the videos without ads.
The feature will roll out to users in India “soon” and will represent a “new monetization option for our creators,” the company said.
Monday’s move represents Google’s growing push to make inroads in India’s education market, where over 300 million students attend schools. Meta and Amazon have also invested deeply in space in recent years.
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