Class is in session with just one swipe.
It started with this video assistant professor Dr. Leah Barlow posted on January 20.
It was 1intended for her 2in-person African-American studies class of 33 North Carolina A&T students.
That same video, now reaching nearly 800 thousand likes, 4.4 million views, 3and counting.
"I look and I see that something big is going on. Still wasn't 4registering what exactly was happening."
Soon users across TikTok wanted to learn more about the class; asking how to enroll and when is homework due.
"Hopefully, you got the list of what the readings will look like and then we'll go from there. Alright, let's see what happens."
This eventually 5piquing the interest of other professors and teachers across the country to 6hop on the trend, which is now 7known as'HillmanTok'.
A movement crafted from Hillman University, the fictional HBCU(Historically Black Colleges and Universities) from hit 1980's TV series, A different world.
"For me, as someone who works at a real-life Hillman 8so to speak, at North Carolina A&T, to sort of see HBCUs 9on the map in very important ways, and really 10at the helm of 11digital humanities, so it's exciting to see that happen."
From knitting to 12financial literacy, students from around the country and world can '13enroll' in a class on TikTok.
Something Dr. Barlow says 14redefines how we think and learn.
"What I really see is that it's even bigger than 'HillmanTok', I see access to education. I see the ability for people to get online and maybe take a class that they wouldn't or couldn't take for whatever reasons, so it was really exciting to see that go in that direction."
And as for the future of HillmanTok University, it's a good idea to join a class now, while you still have time.
"I decided that I should write a book about this. And so, I think I'm going to continue doing it at least the semester, see how it goes."
