I started teaching online in 2015 when I was still at university.

Back then, teaching online was just a passion project while I was studying to become an engineer.

At the time I was in my third year, and was never satisfied with the quality of teaching from my university lecturers.

And so, I created courses teaching my first year engineering subjects.

My courses kept growing and with that, I kept investing more time into making online courses.

Over the past nine years, I’ve taught over 70,000 students from more than 130 countries.

I’m a huge advocate for online learning and its power to transform people's lives and careers.

My efforts have earned me several awards, including the Top 10% Most Engaging Instructor Award from Udemy, the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award from UiPath, and the AI Ambassador of the Year Award last year.

As society and technology progress, new tools and technologies emerge.

These tools and technologies can significantly enhance your career.

For example, no-code tools like Bubble enable non-technical people to build fully functional apps without writing a single line of code.

Similarly, machine learning tools like ChatGPT can help solve complex personal and professional problems.

Despite their substantial positive impact on productivity, these emerging technologies are often not yet included in traditional education curricula.

In fact, many universities have even banned ChatGPT.

This leaves graduates and working professionals with a critical knowledge gap that needs to be filled.

Leveraging new tools and technology in the workplace is one of the best ways to stand out to your seniors, advance your career, and make a positive impact on your company.

This belief has driven me to teach emerging technologies online over the past few years.

However, having collaborated with some of the world's top online learning platforms including Skillshare, PwC's Academy, Coursera, Pluralsight, Udemy, O'Reilly and Pearson...

I’ve observed a significant problem in online learning across all platforms.

And that is the extremely high drop-off rates of self-paced online courses.

Meaning students start the course but never complete it.

A study by MIT and Harvard found that the average completion rate for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) was 5.5%, and this low rate has not improved over six years.

Through conversations with students, I’ve identified several reasons for these low completion rates.

Lack of time, lack of incentive, lack of student support, lack of accountability, and self-motivation, to name a few.

However, through my research, I found that the main reason for low course completion rates is not even surprising—online courses are often boring.

There’s nothing worse than enduring a monotonous, five-hour PowerPoint presentation.

If online courses were fun and engaging, completion rates would be much higher!

Why can we sit through a two hour movie or binge-watch a Netflix series for five hours straight?

Because it’s engaging!‍

Having taught on various online platforms for years, I found that they all lacked this critical component of engagement.

If I could create an online learning platform with courses as credible as university degrees, as flexible as Coursera or Udemy, and as fun and engaging as Netflix or Duolingo, it would significantly increase course completion rates.

This, in turn, would lead to greater impact, and ultimately transform more careers and lives.

That is why I built Futurise.