What is “Academia?”
Our Mission & Method
The Academia believes that access to education is an essential need and a basic right. Education is the first equalizer for people, as it is through wisdom and knowledge that we understand our needs, wants, and decisions. Unfortunately, our institutions have failed to provide decent quality and accessible education.
Therefore, we use the tools of our age to create an alternative art education for autodidacts around the world. Our focus is on comprehensive sources that teach the skill with theoretical knowledge, assignments, and “meta” aspects. We believe the “meta”, the insight into why we use specific teaching methods, is the key to a learners' ability to teach themselves.
Our Vision
An online academy that utilizes every ethical and reusable tool that the virtual age offers, such as video tutorials, printable PDF books, articles, feedback and co-learning communities, theory classes, podcasts... It would be free to access globally, self-paced, comprehensive, and customizable to different skill specializations. However, this is only the beginning. If we were successful in creating this platform and finding ways to enable further development, our vision would take us beyond the virtual.
Imagine a partnered atelier in every major city of the world, informed of the structure of our curriculum and given the right to use it commercially with the condition of fair pricing. This would enable autodidacts to seek reliable and accessible training for the specific skills they struggle with. They could isolate such subjects to train in ateliers, then hop in and out of paid classes based on need. This could eliminate the need for full-time studies, paying for entire courses, slowed self-learning due to skill bottlenecks, and having to migrate for high-quality atelier training.
If such a network of reliable ateliers were established, certifications would be possible. In our wildest dreams, we believe we could become a new form of education - mutually standardized and customizable, global and local, free and certifiable... This could be the blueprint for a new age of education. Learning opportunities would change for the whole world.
Our Principles
1. Access to knowledge is both a need and a right.
All reusable educational resources we create will be free, understandable, and accessible. We will not paywall or make sources inaccessible if they are essential to education. Our communities and platforms will remain civil and neutral grounds for all.
2. Accountability is the foundation of authority.
We will always welcome feedback and criticism. We will publicly correct ourselves and our sources. We will adapt and update our old creations.
3. A good teacher elevates their students above their own level.
We will not withhold information out of fear of competition. We look forward to the day when our learners surpass us and challenge us with their new creations.
4. We do not pursue our visions at the expense of others.
When we have options, we choose the one that causes the least harm to people, the environment, and animals. When such alternatives are not available, we minimize harm as much as possible.
5. We are here to serve.
We are here to serve self-taught individuals from all walks of life. We will keep in mind that we are responding to the needs of real people. Anything else such as statistics, the desires of other organizations, income streams, or algorithms, come secondary to people’s needs for learning.
From the creator of the Academia,
My name is Karya. I am a dreamer, a creative, and a lifelong learner. I am not qualified in any way for a vision of this magnitude. The only thing that drives me to try is my audacity to believe I can learn anything and my obsession. Nevertheless, I am willing to spend a lifetime figuring this out.
In search of quality education, I had to migrate. I encountered various troubles in my pursuit of learning art and honing my skills, only to find that the education I had gotten access to was inadequate. So, after all that trouble, I had to figure out how to teach myself the said skills. I found that the internet has sources, but they are scattered, unintentional, confusing, and full of gaps. And when they were well structured, they were paywalled in a way they became inaccessible to most people.
I have pieced together my education from scattered knowledge in free content and rediscovered the missing pieces like an endless jigsaw puzzle. Although I am far from finished with this endeavor, I have noticed that there are others on the same path as me. As I continue on this journey, I am sharing my knowledge with them. This helps me better understand their needs and how to effectively teach each person. My vision is to spare those with similar passions the struggles I faced. I believe I can.
