CBCs and 1940s Football

Remember Sammy Baugh? 

Maybe not. But if you know Tom Brady, you know Sammy. The GOAT of his era, Baugh ran rings around opponents. His jukes and spins turned defenders to fools. The Washington Redskins rode his arm to two NFL championships and countless wins.

Eighty years ago, Baugh’s scrappy play stunned the NFL diehards. Football in the 20s and 30s meant tough runs up the middle. Passing forward was a new invention, rarely used, until Sammy came along. He hucked and chucked his way into NFL record books. Crowds were delighted. 

But they were delighted for lack of comparison. Show a football fan his footage (it’s on YouTube) and see if they notice. His wobbling spiral. His frequent interceptions. The way the ball hangs like a duck before dropping into his teammate’s arms. Sammy was beloved, but put a 2021 practice squad QB in a 1941 Washington uniform and you have a new GOAT. Today’s standard of play has been elevated far beyond the black-and-white days. 

Enter CBCs. Online learning in the 2010s was like football in the 1930s: MOOC it right up the middle with a 4% completion rate. Then, suddenly, innovation appeared: live, virtual, cohort-based learning. Time-bound courses with community-driven accountability. Online education reborn, producing outcomes and friendships rather than unclicked Coursera lessons and guilt. 

I’ve run two cohort-based courses for nearly two years. We’re thrilled with our course experience and our students’ outcomes. But like all CBC builders right now, we’re also Slingin’ Sammy Baugh. The format is new, and crowds (see: the Twittersphere) are delighted, especially compared to the footsteps we’re following. But we won’t stop improving. Most of our software stack (Zoom, Teachable) was originally built for other purposes. We’ve just started using data to track outcomes and customize the course experience. We’re still building the systems and tools that will deliver the Brady-level course experience we imagine.

Our team is scrappy and delivers results, just like Sammy. But as Sammy laid the foundation for Brady, our current courses chart the path toward the technicolor future of cohort-based learning to come.