The Road Less Traveled: My Transition from University Frustration to Online Education Pioneer

The story begins in around 2017, when I was in my second year in university. There I started to notice, that university is not the place where one can learn the most effectively. I started to notice, that there were many hurdles that the students have to face, which are not necessary. One example are the exams, which you had to write under an extreme time pressure. You had to do many exercises in order to be able to do them fast, instead of focusing on understanding the topic in detail, when preparing for the exam. I was never a fan of repeating the same exercises a lot of times, just to be fast in the exam and it took the joy out of me. I knew also a few colleagues that understood the subject, but were under such a high pressure during the exam, that they failed it. I know, this is not the case for every university, but I think for a lot of them it is. Some students thrive under the current system and I am happy for them, but it didn’t fit my needs ans values.

I noticed more and more of this shortcomings and it was very frustrating. At the end of my studies it was a real pain for me, to know that you could use your time much more effectively and enjoyable. I tried to get the best out of my time and traveled and worked a lot during studying. This was one of the good things of my university, you didn’t had to attend the lectures or hand in your homework, the only thing you had to do was to write the exam for each subject at the end of the semester. I was able to study while traveling to Nepal for example. I spent two months there and I noticed another problem. Not everyone who wants to study is able to study for financial reasons. There a lot of people around the world who would love to study but can’t afford it or if the could afford it, the university just does not take them, because they have bad grades or don’t even have a high school diploma.

I spent also a lot of time on the internet, researching how to learn effectively and this was the moment I thought there must be a way to improve the system. I thought a lot about it. A few weeks after Nepal I went on the Camino in Spain for about a month. I had no distractions and didn’t use social media, I just walked every day for about 25 km and thought a lot. How can you change a system that existed since hundreds of years? How can you survive if the university is for free? How can you reach all the people around the globe? These are all challenging questions, which I asked myself every day and I had this feeling that I found the solution, it’s hard to describe, and this feeling never went away. This was probably the final decision in my head that I have to develop a new online university for free and make it fun. It should solve the problem of effective learning, everyone can attempt it and with no geographical limitations. On the Camino I met Alexandra, a grown up lady. It was already her third or fourth Camino. One night we didn’t found a place to sleep, so we had to take a hotel, which was quite expensive. She knew I don’t have so much money to spent and she knew my story, so she paid the bill. I wanted to split the bill, but she said I am helping you, but you have to give it forward later when you are older and help the next generation. She was in some sense the first person to support the university and I am grateful to her, her action inspired me in times I struggled to find the courage to take action.

This was two years ago and now I am finally executing it and I am 100% convinced that it will work given just enough time! I went from being excited to join an university to feeling very frustrated to finally feeling hopeful and excited of the future again! If you resonate with the story and also want to drive a change and want to know more more specifics about what makes my online university different and fun, join our community on YouTube, X and discord or donate a bit to support us, just as Alexandra supported me!