Reddit is hosting a new, online advertising school program, which will enable participants to learn from industry professionals, and submit work for assessment by the broader Reddit advertising community.
Reddit’s Ad School will cover a range of key elements, including copywriting, PR and social media marketing.
The Ad School classes will run once a week, with a class of up to fifty students meeting with an expert teacher via video conference. The teachers – who will be ‘director level or above’ in each area – will then take students through the essentials, and issue an assignment to the class.
“The lecture will be made publicly available immediately following the class on Reddit via r/Advertising. There, any community member will be able to access the lecture and view the assignment. Community members can discuss the lecture, ask questions or solicit new sources like books and blogs throughout the week.”
At the end of the week, any community members who’ve completed the assigned project will then be invited to submit it for review by the group.
“Members of the community will then critique those assignments, provide feedback and offer insight.”
So it’s not assessed by the teacher, as such, but by a group of, ideally, like-minded students and professionals, in order to collectively help each other improve based on the lessons provided by the guiding expert.
It’s an interesting concept, and given the strong engagement in Reddit’s various communities, it may prove to be a highly beneficial way to learn and/or upskill in key advertising elements.
The program was first proposed a month ago via r/Advertising. Inspired by the need for increased education resources as a result of COVID-19 lay-offs, members of the community got together to formulate the plan for the school. That’s now culminated in a new dedicated mini-site, with applications for the program opening earlier this week.
Essentially, the program aims to utilize the expertise available within the r/Advertising Subreddit to help others boost their job skills, which could also help to facilitate more connections within the professional community.
And if it works out, Reddit could also look to extend the same to other professional areas. Again, with so many engaged, active subreddits, tapping into the community elements of the platform could indeed be a good way to facilitate greater learning, and facilitate opportunities.
Reddit’s Advertising School will initially only accept classes of 50 students per program, while lectures will also be made publicly available on the r/Advertising School YouTube channel. If you’re interested, you can apply to become a student here.
