BetterLesson: Crowdsourcing For a Better Education

Alex Grodd, a former teacher in charter schools and Teach for America, is applying the crowdsourcing model to improve education. In 2009 he created and launched BetterLesson, an online platform designed with teachers in mind.

BetterLesson allows teachers in the K-12 grades to share lesson plans, files and other teaching materials among each other. The objective is for teachers who are struggling  to teach their lessons learn from other, more experienced teachers about what methods work best with their students.

In BetterLesson, teachers can access hundreds of ideas and lesson plans that make teaching difficult subjects easier. They can also share their own experiences and ideas with other teachers across the country, while being provided cost-efficient alternative materials for their students at the same time.

While the platform is free for teachers to join and share the curriculums and experiences, BetterLessons features paid packages of services designed for schools and districts. Schools joining the platform can access professional learning communities, content curation tools and advanced analytics, among other services. Online education can be greatly improved by applying crowdsourcing in its premises.

Recently, $1.6 million in venture funding was awarded to BetterLesson, and its user base is growing at a rate of 250 new teachers per day.

We're trying to disrupt the industry by creating a crowd-sourced, teacher-curated platform.
Alex Grodd, Founder and CEO of BetterLesson