Has the "online course bubble" popped?
Thu Feb 05 2026
Lately, a lot of well-known course creators have closed their flagship programs or shut down their podcasts. Other online course creators who will “never again sell live training”…. well, they’re back with live training.
Is the course bubble over? Will AI shut down courses? Or is this just an industry hot take to get clicks and views?
In this episode, we talk about what’s actually happening with courses right now—and what’s not. We look at why self-guided, evergreen courses worked for so long, why they’re struggling to convert and retain attention now, and how AI has sped up changes that were already underway. We talk about how this has shown up in the various evolutions of our own businesses. We also talk about where courses still make sense, where they don’t, and why people are increasingly unwilling to pay for information without context, support, or application. (A multimedia interactive experience as Jessica called it in corporate-speak).
This isn’t a declaration that courses are dead. It’s a conversation about saturation, economics, attention, and what people actually want help with in 2026.
* Why course closures are becoming more common
* The difference between a bubble bursting and a market maturing
* What made evergreen courses work in the first place
* How rising ad costs and shrinking arbitrage changed the math
* Why beginner-level education scaled—and why it hit a ceiling
* What AI replaced almost instantly (templates, boilerplate, generic content)
* How Meg and Jessica have both surfed the wave of courses, both as leaders and as students
* What people still pay for (and what they won’t)
* The problem with “lifetime access” promises
* Courses as one piece of a broader ecosystem, not the whole business
“If you have a giant course where you promise to do everything, then you can’t do all of it well. And I think people are getting a little bit tired of like the survey courses, like the freshman 101 course of everything, or maybe those still exist. And I’m just out of the world view where I’m paying attention to them. But anytime that you have an all in one solution, whether that’s a course or a piece of software, or a coach who says that they can help you with everything, that breadth is going to prevent depth.
And if you want to learn something deeply from a person who understands it and can answer your questions when things go wrong, then that’s when you want to find an expert who teaches one thing really well instead of 10 things mediocre.” - Meg
Connect with Us
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Meg Casebolt
Jessica Lackey
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aggressivelyhuman.substack.com
More
Lately, a lot of well-known course creators have closed their flagship programs or shut down their podcasts. Other online course creators who will “never again sell live training”…. well, they’re back with live training. Is the course bubble over? Will AI shut down courses? Or is this just an industry hot take to get clicks and views? In this episode, we talk about what’s actually happening with courses right now—and what’s not. We look at why self-guided, evergreen courses worked for so long, why they’re struggling to convert and retain attention now, and how AI has sped up changes that were already underway. We talk about how this has shown up in the various evolutions of our own businesses. We also talk about where courses still make sense, where they don’t, and why people are increasingly unwilling to pay for information without context, support, or application. (A multimedia interactive experience as Jessica called it in corporate-speak). This isn’t a declaration that courses are dead. It’s a conversation about saturation, economics, attention, and what people actually want help with in 2026. * Why course closures are becoming more common * The difference between a bubble bursting and a market maturing * What made evergreen courses work in the first place * How rising ad costs and shrinking arbitrage changed the math * Why beginner-level education scaled—and why it hit a ceiling * What AI replaced almost instantly (templates, boilerplate, generic content) * How Meg and Jessica have both surfed the wave of courses, both as leaders and as students * What people still pay for (and what they won’t) * The problem with “lifetime access” promises * Courses as one piece of a broader ecosystem, not the whole business “If you have a giant course where you promise to do everything, then you can’t do all of it well. And I think people are getting a little bit tired of like the survey courses, like the freshman 101 course of everything, or maybe those still exist. And I’m just out of the world view where I’m paying attention to them. But anytime that you have an all in one solution, whether that’s a course or a piece of software, or a coach who says that they can help you with everything, that breadth is going to prevent depth. And if you want to learn something deeply from a person who understands it and can answer your questions when things go wrong, then that’s when you want to find an expert who teaches one thing really well instead of 10 things mediocre.” - Meg Connect with Us Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Meg Casebolt Jessica Lackey This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aggressivelyhuman.substack.com