Slowly but surely, as a family we have started paying more and more for options on streaming services that were initially completely free. Maybe it’s time to introduce that in education as well.

In mid-January, emails once again landed in lecturers’ inboxes: “Because we have too many students in your course, we’re going to stream it.” The lecturer’s opinion—or the fact that streaming is educationally a very bad idea—is conveniently ignored.

The frustrated conversations that erupted about this at the coffee machine gave me an idea for a new service: TU/eduflix. A streaming service for TU/e education. The basic subscription is included free of charge with tuition fees, and nothing will change this year.

Next year, the free stream will remain available, but with ads built in. Between the ads, the stream will play at one-and-a-half speed, because it turns out students like that. Watching it back afterward, however, will not be possible.

To turn off the ads, a premium subscription is required, and with the VIP subscription you can rewatch recorded lectures for another three months.

Digital interaction with the lecturer will also become part of the paid packages. This will work through a credit system: credits are deducted for each question asked on Canvas or each email sent. Students can buy extra credits when they run out, or earn them through active participation in the course.

Unfortunately, I’m not a real entrepreneur, so when I discussed this plan, colleagues immediately spotted a problem. Students have no need to attend lectures, and often no need for interaction either—so why would they take out a premium subscription?

They therefore suggested linking the number of exam attempts to the type of subscription. The free subscription would include just one exam per year. I was immediately sold!

Boudewijn van Dongen is a professor of Process Analytics at TU/e. The views expressed in this column are his own.

This column was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.