Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Skillsoft (NYSE: SKIL) announced this week an integration partnership with Coursera (NYSE: COUR).

This means that Skillsoft’s customers, using the company’s Percipio platform, will access Coursera for Business content, that is, over 5,000 courses, 300 SkillSets, and 10,000 bite-size clips.

“This integration will bring even more choices of high-quality content to learners and deliver increased value as employers seek to reskill and upskill talent to overcome critical skills and talent shortages,” said Apratim Purakayastha, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Skillsoft.

Recent research conducted by Skillsoft and IDG found that 83% of decision-makers identified training and development as a critical priority within their organization.

IBL News | New York

Docebo Inc. (NASDAQ: DCBO; TSX:DCBO) reported an increase of 36%, to $34.9 million, on its revenue during the second quarter of 2022 compared to the period in the prior year. A total of 91% is subscription revenue.

The company showed net income of $2.1 million, or $0.06 per share, compared to net loss of $7.2 million, or $0.22 per share in the same period.

“With our long-term secular growth drivers intact, we believe our investments will continue to drive the success of our balanced growth strategy,” said Claudio Erba, CEO and Founder of Docebo.

Docebo disclosed that it had 3,106 customers, an increase from 2,485 customers at the end of June 30, 2021.

In this reported period, Docebo added Cliplote, Bupa, Eurofins Scientific, Seven Hills Foundation, LeadingRE, and Genuine Parts Company as signature customers.

IBL News | New York

College endowment returns in the U.S. are down, largely in part due to double-digit losses in the equity markets and market volatility. In 2021, colleges had the strongest endowment returns in 35 years, with returns of around 27%.

Colleges typically need annual gains of at least 7% to keep pace with annual spending and inflation. Spending isn’t determined by a single year of performance, but rather by formulas based on three or five-year averages.

According to data by Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service, endowments lost a median 10.2% for the 12 months through June 2022.

It was the biggest loss since 2009 when returns fell by 17.6%.

The S&P 500 declined by 12% for the period.

However, funds with assets of more than $500 million performed substantially better, with a slight gain of 0.9%.

These larger funds invested more in alternatives such as private equity funds and bonds, while smaller ones rely more on U.S. stocks.

That’s especially true for larger institutions with more diverse investment strategies.

IBL News | New York

The Oslo, Norway-based learning gamification platform Kahoot! announced the launch of the Kahoot! add-on for Google Classroom.

The company announced that this enhancement will allow “educators and learners to discover, assign, and host interactive sessions without leaving Google Classroom.”

Kahoot! is one of the first digital learning platforms available as a Google Classroom add-on.

This summer, Google Classroom announced that it had available fifteen add-ons, including Pear Deck, IXL, and Nearpod.

These plug-ins allow students to access the tools without remembering and navigating to external websites.

Admins can set up each add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace for their district in a few clicks, simplifying the digital classroom experience.

IBL News | New York

Google launched an innovative, free reading app for Android devices intended for children who already have some basic knowledge of the alphabet. A version for iOS and Safari browsers will come soon, according to Google.

This app, named Read Along, allows learners to learn at their own pace and track their individual progress.

It listens to learners read aloud, and offers assistance when they struggle, and guides them along as they progress. The app also rewards them with starts when they do well.

It works securely offline.

In addition, Read Along comes with a website — recently introduced as a public beta — that works with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers on desktop.

Read Along tries to keep young minds engaged with stories and word games in nine languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Urdu.

Learners have unique profiles, and each advances on their own reading journey with recommended stories based on their reading level. They can tap on any word to hear it pronounced.

The company claimed that just like the app, all the speech recognition process takes place on the browser locally, and no data is sent to its servers to protect children’s privacy. Plus, the whole experience is ad-free.

“In addition to the website launch, we are also adding some brand-new stories. We have partnered with two well-known YouTube content creators, ChuChu TV, and USP Studios, to adapt some of their popular videos into a storybook format,” said Google in a statement.

IBL News | New York

Territorium, an American-Mexican EdTech specialized in the segment of Comprehensive Learner Records (CLR), announced this week it raised another round of financing. This time, it was Cometa, a Mexico City-based VC that only invests in leading Hispanic companies, that invested $4.4 million. To date, the total funding of Territorium has been $5 million.

San Antonio, Texas-based Territorium, which claims nine million users worldwide, said that it will use the funding to drive growth for TerritoriumCLR, its comprehensive learner record product which captures students’ academic achievements, competencies and skills, and work histories.

“The funding allows us to provide more students with a lifelong record of learning — both in and out of the classroom — giving them an advantage in the pursuit of their college and career goals, which is our ultimate goal,” said Guillermo Elizondo, CEO, and main shareholder of Territorium.

The start-up says that “TerritoriumCLR can also help employers identify the best candidates for their open positions by showcasing each person’s strengths, skills, and competencies in a much more comprehensive manner than a traditional resume.”

• More stories about Territorium at IBL News

IBL News | New York

Instructure Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: INST), the maker of the Canvas LMS, announced a revenue increase to 22% year over year until $114.6 million during the second quarter ended June 30, 2022 today.

The operating loss was $6.6 million, or a negative 5.8% of revenue.

IBL News | New York

The for-profit education technology services company Zovio (Nasdaq: ZVO) announced this week that it will sell its online program management (OPM) business to the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC), which it had been servicing for nearly two years.

The deal was announced on Zovio’s quarterly earnings call and came two years after the University of Arizona’s purchase of another company asset, Ashford University, which became the Global Campus.

Under the terms of this purchase, the University of Arizona Global Campus continued to use Zovio as its OPM vendor. That arrangement was formally terminated in July.

The Global Campus will also take over a Zovio office in Chandler, Arizona, with eight years and $20 million remaining on its lease. Employees of the OPM business will join the University of Arizona payroll.

Chandler, Arizona-based Zovio, sold TutorMe, for $55 million in May 2022, leaving the company debt free.

Zovio will continue to support the continued growth and expansion of Fullstack Academy and simultaneously explore strategic alternatives for that business. Fullstack Academy offers coding, data analytics, and software development classes online and at their New York City campus.

The former Ashford University is still under scrutiny as part of a pending legal settlement set by the U.S. Education Department. The Federal Government plans to cancel $6 billion in debt incurred by 200,000 students who attended a group of 150 for-profit universities, including Ashford.