Brilliant: Difference between revisions

| Logo = QuestionMark.svg

'''[[wikipedia:Brilliant_(website)|Brilliant]]''' (also known as '''Brilliant.org''') is a website and app by '''Brilliant Worldwide, Inc.''' providing online courses. Despite the “.org”, Brilliant is a regular for-profit corporation backed by venture capitalists. Brilliant is most known for its persistent parasocial advertisements on [[YouTube]], in which presenters who are otherwise known for their evidence-based points of view, or are even known for scrutinizing and refuting pseudoscience and scams, promote Brilliant with claims not backed up by evidence. Apart from sponsored segments, there are barely any videos about Brilliant on YouTube.

[[File:Brilliant_content_team.png|thumb|Professors? Overrated. We have a “content team”.]]

Brilliant functions similarly to mathematics textbook, but with buttons to click through to get to the next paragraph, and simple quizzes sprinkled between paragraphs. Some of the illustrations have a bit of interactivity, mostly just a slider that can be dragged around. These interactive elements make Brilliant appear to offer more than a traditional textbook, when it is presented in promotional segments on YouTube. There is no evidence, however, that they provide additional educational value beyond non-interactive illustrations.

[[File:Brilliant_slider.png|thumb|To solve this quiz question, drag the slider to point at the same place as the point marked on the curve, as instructed by the text before the quiz. The slider is initially in the wrong place just to force the user to interact with it, to keep up the illusion of learning by doing. Once the slider is in the right place, the illustration automatically shows the correct answer. Press the button with the same answer as displayed in the illustration. No thinking required.]]

Brilliant never promotes itself as being appropriate to a particular audience studying for a particular goal. For this reason, Brilliant can work as a content farm and have a “content team” (officially called so) producing random courses without having to pay authorized teachers and professors to design and validate courses that are useful for passing a particular exam or applying for a particular job. Courses on Brilliant therefore introduce basic concepts of each subject, but with no independent validation or accreditation for their efficacy.

The price advertised by Brilliant may not be the actual price a customer would be required to pay. The actual price has undisclosed additional taxes added:<blockquote>All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes (e.g. sales, use, or value-added tax), unless otherwise stated, and User is solely responsible for the payment of any such taxes that may be imposed on your use of the Service.</blockquote>If a customer cancels his payment card to prevent further charges, Brilliant may go directly to the card issuer to request confidential records of any new card belonging to the consumer:<blockquote>User authorizes Brilliant to obtain updated or replacement expiration dates and card numbers for User's credit or debit card as provided by User's credit or debit card issuer.</blockquote>Again, Brilliant may cancel access to the service that the consumer has payed for at any time without offering a refund:<blockquote>Except as expressly provided in the “Refunds” section below, all fees are final and nonrefundable (including in the event any features or functions of any service that User has subscribed to are changed, modified, diminished or removed), except as otherwise required by applicable law.</blockquote>