Crash Course is an educational YouTube channel started by brothers John Green and Hank Green of the Vlogbrothers channel, known for fast-paced, illustrated video courses on school and college subjects. #CrashCourse tags fans’ and teachers’ posts about its series (Wikipedia).
Origin
Crash Course was “one of the hundred initial channels funded by YouTube’s $100 million original channel initiative” (Wikipedia). It launched on January 26, 2012, with John Green’s World History; Hank Green’s Biology followed on January 30, 2012. A KQED profile a year later, on January 8, 2013, reported that the channel had 429,000 subscribers (KQED).
In November 2014 Hank Green announced a partnership with PBS Digital Studios, which began in 2015 with the Astronomy and US Government and Politics series and let the channel bring in hosts beyond the two brothers (Wikipedia).
Selected Series
| Series | Premiered | Host |
|---|---|---|
| World History | 2012 | John Green |
| Biology | 2012 | Hank Green |
| US History | 2013 | John Green |
| Chemistry | 2013 | Hank Green |
| Astronomy | 2015 | Phil Plait |
| US Government and Politics | 2015 | Craig Benzine |
| Philosophy | 2016 | Hank Green |
| Computer Science | 2017 | Carrie Anne Philbin |
| Statistics | 2018 | Adriene Hill |
| Organic Chemistry | 2020 | Deboki Chakravarti |
| Black American History | 2021 | Clint Smith |
| Botany | 2023 | Alexis Nikole Nelson |
| Art History | 2024 | Sarah Urist Green |
Source: Wikipedia.
Study Hall and College Credit
Crash Course’s Study Hall partnership with Arizona State University was announced in March 2020 (Wikipedia). On January 24, 2023, ASU announced that the partnership with YouTube and Crash Course would expand into credit-bearing College Foundations courses: “the first four courses, which will launch on March 7,” provide “up to 12 transferable college credits.” Videos are free on YouTube; learners “can pay $25 to sign up to take the full online course through ASU” and “$400 to receive college credit for the course” (ASU News).
Recent Developments
As of March 2026, Wikipedia reports the channel had over 17 million subscribers and 2.2 billion video views (Wikipedia). For a comparable free-education channel, see #KhanAcademy.