Thanks to ReelShort and Arizona State University, you can now go to college for microdramas

You can now officially go to college for microdramas.

Just a couple weeks after unveiling its newest degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Content Creation, Arizona State University (ASU) has partnered with ReelShort to launch a course that teaches students how to write specifically for vertical series.

ReelShort, which has major offices in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, is one of the largest microseries apps on the market. It offers thousands of shows, many of them high-drama romances, and is reportedly on track to cross $1 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2026–a level of income that will let it post its first meaningful profit, according to Singapore-based research firm Media Partners Asia.

ReelShort has spent this year expanding its horizons beyond its bread and butter: It has made branded series with companies like Crocs, sealed coproduction deals with studios in Korea and Thailand

, and just announced a partnership with WWE to put some of the org’s top wrestlers in microdramas alongside ReelShort’s stable of established stars.

With ASU, ReelShort is sending over Dyann Chiang, its Lead Screenwriter, to teach the new full-semester course, FMP 494: Commercial Storytelling – Introduction to Writing for Vertical Filmmaking.

Chiang, an NYU grad who joined ReelShort in 2023, will walk students through dissections of successful microseries, analyzing what components make them work vs shows that didn’t take off.

That knowledge will be a necessary basis, because each student who enrolls will be asked to develop their own original microseries by the end of their semester. They’ll have to present a full series bible and write scripts for the first three episodes.

In a press release, ReelShort and ASU said that the course’s top-performing students “will have opportunities to engage with ReelShort beyond the classroom, bridging academic learning with real-world industry experience and preparing students for careers in mobile-first entertainment.”

This is not the first time ASU and ReelShort have encountered one another. Earlier this year, Caleb Liban, a then-senior at ASU majoring in film and media production, won second place in ReelShort’s Reel Vertical Impact Contest with his seven-minute film “The Two Man.” The film, which you can watch here on YouTube, was originally horizontal; for ReelShort’s content, Liban cut it into microseries-sized chunks and re-edited to be vertical.

Outside of ReelShort, ASU has been involved in the creator space for several years. In 2020, it partnered with Hank and John Green to launch Study Hall, a YouTube series with university-level education in various subjects. ASU later turned Study Hall into an accredited program where students can earn college credits by watching the videos.

ASU’s new microseries course kicks off for the Fall ’26 semester; the college says it will announce more details about course enrollment and participation in the coming weeks.