Gram Notes – the software publishers combining expertise and experience
Gram Notes was founded in 2017. With experts who have graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, the Gram Notes team build concise, to the point courses on Computer Science. Their experts have real world experience of using the knowledge they pass on to their students. Alison spoke to the man behind Gram Notes to find out more about the company’s background and the future of software and education.
I studied Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate student. I then worked as a Software Developer in the financial industry in New York. Later, I was promoted to Senior Developer and then Principal Developer. My interest in teaching began as I was leading a team of interns and teaching them the ropes of how to code in real life, post-college. I began publishing courses internally and then moved on to platforms like Udemy where I have more than 20 courses and 10,000 students. I stumbled upon Alison by chance. I saw a YouTube video of Mike Freerick describing online education on a trip to India. I was motivated by his other speeches about how advertising revenue from the developed world can help fund education in the less developed world.
My courses teach technologies used in the DevOps lifecycle. They are practical and use real life industry cases. We cover the concepts you need to have to apply in real life. We cover real life situations like using Linux commands to manage Git and the implementation of Application Performance Monitoring Tools to manage apps.
My advice to learners is to learn at your own pace. The main advantage of a platform like Alison is that you are not under pressure to gain quantity, over quality, when it comes the learning. So focus on understanding each topic in depth and practice what you learn.
Alison provides a marketplace to teach and learn without physically having to be in the same place. In a world where social distancing is the new normal this is a big plus. Alison pays publishers regularly and on time, which make it a reliable source of revenue as well. A big advantage of Alison is the fact that all courses are reviewed and it’s ensured that all guidelines are followed. Alison supports you through much of the process of making a course. Also, feedback is provided for improvement and this differentiates Alison from other online course websites.
I would like to publish a course on how virtual reality will affect the world. Will there be a day when we all meet virtually? What impact will this have on our physical and mental states? Will all transactions happen virtually? What does the rise of virtual worlds, such as that of Pokémon GO mean for business and marketing in the future?
Education has to be free going into the future. With the internet available to more and more people globally, anyone putting a price on education will have a hard time since information is freely available. It is the ability to put together information in a palatable form which must be rewarded. Alison does this by paying instructors using advertising and certification revenue.
