Stanford Pioneer Reveals Why Online Education Failed (Until Now)

The man who created Stanford's first online high school in 2005 explains why most online education fails—and it's not about the technology. Ray Ravaglia built two successful online schools by breaking every rule Silicon Valley taught him.Ray pioneered online education before anyone knew what to call it—developing the first online AP Calculus course in 1989 when CD-ROMs cost $4,000 to produce and blanks were $45 each. As founder of Stanford Online High School and Vice Chairman of Dwight Global School, he's learned that technology was supposed to democratize education but instead isolated learners. His breakthrough: synchronous learning with real relationships dropped attrition from 30% to 3%. After 30+ years in the field, his message is clear: you're the employer of your child's school, not their servant.Stanford Online High School: https://onlinehighschool.stanford.edu/Dwight Global Online School: https://www.dwight.edu/dwight-global-online-schoolRay's Book - Bricks and Mortar: https://www.amazon.com/Bricks-Mortar-Making-Education-Stanford/dp/1575867397Perspectives from the Disciplines: https://www.amazon.com/Perspectives-Disciplines-Stanford-Online-School/dp/1575867400Ray Ravaglia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayravaglia/Chapters:(00:00) - The Calculus Problem Nobody Could Solve(05:45) - When $4,000 CD-ROMs Were Cutting Edge(12:44) - Why Self-Paced Learning Actually Fails(15:40) - The 30% Attrition Rate Crisis(16:00) - Education Is About Relationships(22:17) - Fire Your School (You're the Employer)(27:20) - AI Will Replace Tools, Not Creators(31:00) - The Boutique vs Scale Problem(46:23) - When Teachers Hated The Internet(51:20) - Building Schools for Non-ConsumersWant even more? Sign up for the OpenEd Daily newsletter at https://opened.co for practical tips and insights about more open and innovative approaches to education.Subscribe:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-opened-podcast/id1760216903https://open.spotify.com/show/6Kf7SZ8XASA6tSqMEuHmVCFollow us on social:https://www.instagram.com/openedHQhttps://www.facebook.com/openedhqhttps://x.com/OpenEdHQhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/openedhq/