Video instruction is something we've recently seen applied to music, golf and cricket. Now, through Academic Earth, it's being brought—for free—to virtually every scholarly topic under the sun.

New York-based Academic Earth aims to make a world-class education available to everyone on the planet. Toward that end, it is building a user-friendly ecosystem that gives internet users around the globe the ability to find, interact with and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars. More than 1,500 video lectures are currently available on the site, covering economics, entrepreneurship, history, law, medicine, religion and the sciences, among many other topics. A series of thematic collections, meanwhile, combine lectures to create courses such as "Understanding the Financial Crisis" and "Social Entrepreneurship 101." Faculty for Academic Earth's lectures are drawn from Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, and courses are offered under a Creative Commons license through open course programs at the universities. Associated materials include lecture transcripts, handouts, reading assignments, tests and problem sets; some classes are also available as podcasts.

Academic Earth's courses cannot be used to get real academic credit, but they can be saved, rated and shared as favourites; they can also be used to gain status skills aplenty. The next step, it seems to us, will be to provide translations or variations that open it up to non-English speakers around the planet—and indeed, the site is actively seeking additional partners to expand its offerings. Educators, academic representatives and experts around the globe: one to get involved in?

Website: www.academicearth.org
Contact: hello@academicearth.org

Spotted by: Judy McRae

The web is already home to sites galore that offer educational games to make learning fun, but a new one is adding a slightly different twist by incorporating a way to motivate kids with virtual and real-world rewards.

SmartyCard offers what it calls the world's first "learn, earn and play" experience by rewarding kids for completing educational games with prizes from popular vendors and family sites such as iTunes, Club Penguin, WebKinz, Star Doll and BellaSara. Created by executives from the family entertainment, educational content and toy industries, SmartyCard.com features bite-sized learning activities from supplemental education leaders Learnstar, Ignite and Learning.com. Activities are designed for kids in grades 3 through 6 and cover subjects including reading, writing, math, social studies and science. Kids begin by creating an account with their parents, who purchase a SmartyCard for them, priced beginning at USD 10 for 5,000 points on the site. They then choose from among the site's thousands of activities and games, taking a quiz at the end of each to assess how much they learned. For scores of 70 percent or higher, the child "unlocks" some of the points on their card—how many depends on the difficulty of the activity—and can redeem them for subscriptions and virtual currency in popular online worlds such as WebKinz, or for physical items including CDs, toys, video games, books, crafts, science kits and DVDs, which can be shipped to their home.

California-based SmartyCard is currently seeking more partners for education and rewards. At the moment the site is also available only in English. One to partner with or localize for other parts of the world....? (Related: Online space for kids, teachers & parents.)

Website: www.smartycard.com
Contact: customerservice@smartycard.com

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

While plenty of makeup studios offer lessons in applying cosmetics, language classes generally aren't part of the deal. Which is why the ESL Makeup Course at MikaOlivia caught our eye. Catering mainly to Japanese (aspiring) makeup professionals, the small Vancouver-based studio created three courses that help students improve both their makeup techniques and English language skills. MikaOlivia explains: "Through dialogue, demonstration and hands-on participation, you will advance your English language skills as well as your make-up artistry expertise."

Owners Karen Mika Shoji and Oribu Olivia Yokota grew up in Canada, were educated in various parts of the world, and taught in schools in Vancouver and Tokyo. By turning their multilingual skills into an add-on service, they've created an additional stream of income, as well as cross-selling opportunities for their other offerings. The lesson for entrepreneurs? Tap into all of your talents! (Related: A being space for learning English.)

Update | 19 Sept 2009: MikaOlivia has temporarily suspended its business activities.

Last fall we wrote about The Kitchen, which bills itself as a combination upscale takeaway and on-site cooking school. Suggesting that the concept could be catching on, a similar offering was recently launched by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Much like The Kitchen, Recipease is a retail store that offers consumers the opportunity to assemble ready-to-cook meals using ingredients that have been prepped ahead of time by on-site staff. Customers begin by booking a session online, and then choosing the recipe or recipes they'd like to make; the seasonal menu changes every two months. (Those interested in making pizza or curry, on the other hand, can drop in without an appointment.) When they arrive at the Recipease shop—the first is located in London's Clapham Junction in Battersea—they find all the ingredients they need, washed, chopped and prepared. All that's left for them to do is follow the step-by-step instructions for assembly—each recipe requires about 10 minutes on average, the site says, and trained chefs are available to help—and then bring their food home to cook and enjoy. Prices vary by the dish, but current entree selections begin at GBP 3.75 per serving. A variety of more elaborate cooking lessons are also available, as is the full range of dishes already assembled for easy takeaway.

Traditional meal-prep services are all good and well, and we've covered several examples before. But adding a heaping helping of on-site instruction—with a side of boast-worthy status skills—transforms the concept beyond simply a convenience and into a pre-insperience experience, if you will. One to bring to a hungry market near you...? (Related: Family dinners, 24 at a time — Meal prep goes uptown — Ready-to-cook meals delivered to busy urbanites.)

Website: www.jamieoliver.com/recipease
Contact: www.jamieoliver.com/contact

Spotted by: Leonie Baird

Just a few weeks ago we wrote about Links Lessons, a Florida-based social network that offers personalized golfing instruction online, and since then one of our spotters alerted us to a similar coaching site for cricket players.

Both Links Lessons and MyCricketCoach invite users to upload a video of themselves playing their sport for professional analysis. But whereas Links Lessons offers a session of such instruction for free as a way to help local instructors recruit new clients, MyCricketCoach sells its coaching in the form of online lessons beginning at AUD 55 per session. Clients of the site, which is led by Australian cricket veteran Gary Cosier, begin by uploading a video of themselves playing in a recent practice session; the site serves everyone from beginners to advanced players. Within 48 hours Cosier then delivers coaching in the form of voice-over and written comments and instruction drawn right onto the video the user originally uploaded. Clients can also access the MyCricketCoach video coaching library, and live coaching is available as well for players equipped with a video camera and computer at their practice session.

Next on MyCricketCoach we'd expect to see the addition of community features that let clients connect. Nevertheless, whether it's guitar lessons or coaching in a favourite sport, online instruction brings professional expertise—and the status skills that result—within reach of anyone with an internet connection. Any bets on which sport or hobby will be next...?

Website: www.mycricketcoach.com
Contact: contact@mycricketcoach.com

Spotted by: Emma Crameri