User generated content is one way to grow content footprint at scale, you just have to invest in seed content and then moderation. My site (also in education space) http://www.TestDesigner.com has about 150K pages indexed in Google with 90% of the content coming from users.
SEO is not just about content though. Huge part of Patrick's success comes from link building via his very popular blog and his personal brand, this is the part that I think is harder to replicate.
SEO is not just about content though. Huge part of Patrick's success comes from link building via his very popular blog and his personal brand, this is the part that I think is harder to replicate.