Wondrium

In 1990, the company was founded by Thomas M. Rollins, former Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.[3][4] Rollins had been inspired by a 10-hour videotaped lecture series by Irving Younger he watched to prepare for an exam while at Harvard Law School. He never forgot the series and wanted to share the experience with others.[5] He began recruiting professors and experts to record lectures, with the first courses covering psychology, political theory, and Shakespeare.[3][5]

By 2000, the company was well-established, with about $20 million (USD) in annual revenue.[3]

In October 2006, the company was acquired by Brentwood Associates, a private equity investment firm.[6] The company’s catalog grew from 20 million to almost 70 million and digitized 6,000 hours of content.[5][6] Sales increased more than 35% the first year and then continued to grow at a double-digit pace.[6] In 2013, indirect distribution channels, including Audible.com, Amazon Instant Video, Comcast Video on Demand, and Netflix were added.[5]

In 2015, the company introduced its online subscription service, The Great Courses Plus, which gave lifelong learners streaming access to the majority of The Great Courses content library through a web browser or iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV app.[5][7] A year later it introduced The Great Courses Signature Collection, a subset of Great Courses content offered as a subscription video service through their party platforms like Comcast, Amazon Channels, Apple TV, and Roku Channels.[8][2][9]

In 2016, the firm was earning $150 million annually in revenue.[5]

In April 2021, the company announced the rebranding of its global streaming platform from the Great Courses Plus to Wondrium.[10][11] Along with the rebranding, the company announced 1,000 hours of new content from licensing agreements with Kino Lorber, MagellanTV, and Craftsy.[11]

As of 2021, content included over 7,500 hours of content in the format of documentary and independent films, docuseries, short-form series, featurettes, courses, and tutorials.[11][12] There are over 1,200 titles with more than 26,000 lectures.[11]

Wondrium produces video and audio content under its two brands: Wondrium and The Great Courses. Both brands focus on educational content with the promise of learning outcomes.[13] The Wondrium line of content, while also educational focused, focuses on learning experiences outside of the influence of traditional University curriculum and takes other content forms outside of courses such as documentaries, docuseries, and travelogues.[11] The Great Courses line of content typically features University level experts and professors presenting in-depth learning across multiple lectures. Courses are developed by the experts and the Wondrium production team.[13] Many of the programs’ episodes are around thirty minutes.[13]

The production quality of the courses is "a cut above" free courses offered on YouTube, according to a report in The New York Times.[5] Chief executive Paul Suijk described the company as the "Netflix of learning."[5]

Content covers different subjects and categories such as science, math, economics, literature, language, history, religion, philosophy, fine arts, music, better living, health, wellness, how-to courses, personal enrichment, hobbies and leisure, and travel.[13][8][14][10][11] The company has partnerships with the Culinary Institute of America, the Smithsonian Institution, the Mayo Clinic, National Geographic, Penguin Random House, Scientific American, and others.[13][5][7] Self-described fans include Bill Gates and George Lucas, who delivered taped opening remarks to a Great Courses conference in 2015.[7][15]

As of December 2019, the company lists the following categories and numbers of courses:

Wondrium distributes and monetizes their content through a number of ways, including direct to consumer models and through partnership with third party distributors.

An article in Forbes said that Wondrium has a “smorgasbord of online educational videos. Where MasterClass emphasizes glitz and glamor, Wondrium streams classes and documentaries that will make [users] feel like [they] are in a fascinating and engaging college lecture hall.”[29]

Another review in PCMag, said that the courses are “ideal for couch-side edutainment.”[30] It continued with, “Wondrium’s sweet spot is content catering to your curiosity…The instructors are professionals in their fields…What you don’t get on Wondrium are unvetted amateurs uploading courses to the platform. Sites such as Teachable let anyone develop and upload a course.[30] While you may find rather instructive content on Teachable or even YouTube for that matter, there’s no guarantee of the quality. Wondrium doesn’t have that issue at all. All the content is professionally created and produced.”[30]

The Norwalk Reflector shared that, “Wondrium is a new streamer which offers lectures from the best professors across the U.S. (voted by students NOT administrators). They are talking about their favorite subjects, and unlike some of the droning teachers we might have had in the past, these are completely engrossing.”[31]

In a gift guide, ZDNet recommended The Great Courses Plus for anyone with a “passion for and curiosity to learn new things.”[32] It described the collection as “a huge library of college-level courses taught by some of the world’s greatest professors from prestigious universities and institutions around the globe.”[32]

CNet said, “Wondrium (formerly known as The Great Courses Plus) is more geared toward actual learning than skill development. Sure there are still plenty of amazing courses available about hobbies and trades like baking and woodworking, but there’s also so much more. For example, courses that are designed to teach you about history, not how to be a historian.”[33]

Regional Emmy Award

Going to the Devil: The Impeachment of 1868 (Nominee, 2020)[13]

Buzzies Award

• Mind-Blowing Science - Season 1 (Nominee, 2021: Science/Long-form) [34]
• John Lewis: Witness to History  (Nominee, 2021: History/Short-format) [34]
• Black Inventors: Hair Care and Madame C.J. Walker (Winner: Best History Program/Content - one-off or series -short-format) [35]

Webby Award

• John Lewis: Witness to History (Winner, 2021: People’s Choice Documentary in History) [34]

AIBs Award

• Solving for Zero (Winner, 2022: Science and Technology - TV/Video)[35]

• Mathews, Linda (1996-03-31). "Adult Education; No Tests and You Can Hit Rewind". New York Times.
• Nordin, Kendra (2003-01-28). "From the college lecture hall to your headphones". Christian Science Monitor.
• Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2014-09-05). "So Bill Gates Has This Idea for a History Class..." New York Times.

• Wondrium
• The Great Courses