IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • Udacity Puts Its Platform on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace

    Udacity Puts Its Platform on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace

    IBL News | New York

    Udacity.com launched its Digital Transformation Platform suite solution on Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace last month.

    This suite focuses on in-demand technologies, mentor support, and project-based learning taught by industry experts.

    Programs include a curated content catalog in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing.

    The price of the platform starts at $150,000 per twelve months.

    “We are bringing to the AWS Marketplace – the ability for companies to transform their legacy workforces into job-ready cloud professionals, capable of powering their cloud transformations,” said Gabriel Dalporto, CEO of Udacity.

     
    Udacity Platform Fee Udacity Talent Transformation Platform + Initial STU Count Included $150,000 $285,000 $405,000

  • Andreessen Horowitz Creates with Columbia and Stanford a Research Lab on Crypto and Web3

    Andreessen Horowitz Creates with Columbia and Stanford a Research Lab on Crypto and Web3

    IBL News | New York

    Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced through a blog post last month that it was building out dedicated crypto research and web3 team led by faculty from Columbia and Stanford universities.

    Crypto technology has matured into a field of knowledge that brings together elements of computer science, economics, finance, and humanities.

    Ethereum and other fully programmable blockchains on the web3 space have unlocked a rich space for innovation and profits.

    The venture firm has in mind two examples of successful research labs which have pioneered advances in AI: DeepMind and OpenAI.

    Tim Roughgarden, researcher and computer science professor at Stanford and Columbia [in the picture], will lead the team as Head of Research.

    His YouTube lectures for his crypto and blockchain course at Columbia, for example, are one of the best and most popular introductions to the space.

    Dan Boneh, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University, will be the Senior Research Advisor.

    Under Tim’s leadership, Andreessen Horowitz is bringing on board a multidisciplinary founding team of Research Partners, which include Joseph Bonneau, Benedikt Bünz, Scott Duke Kominers, and Valeria Nikolaenko.

  • 2U/edX Increases Revenues and Losses While It Transitions Into edX

    2U/edX Increases Revenues and Losses While It Transitions Into edX

    IBL News | New York

    2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), the parent company of edX, reported yesterday a revenue increase of 9% to $253.3 million and a net loss rise of $80.2 million to $125.8 million ($1.65 per share) in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period last year.

    The Degree program segment revenue increased 6% to $154.2 million while the Alternative Credential segment revenue grew 15% to $99.1 million.

    The Lanham, Maryland–based educational company mentioned that the increase in revenue in the first quarter included $10.9 million from edX.

    Costs and expenses for the first quarter totaled $364.7 million, a 35.3% increase from $269.6 million in the first quarter of 2021. This increase included $58.8 million of non-cash impairment charges in our Alternative Credential Segment and $18.3 million of operating expenses related to edX.

    Christopher “Chip” Paucek, Co-Founder and CEO of 2U, said that his company “was transitioning to a platform company under the edX brand.” In addition, 2U’s mission was expanding beyond online programs at scale into “access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere, at every stage of life.”

    “We remain focused on unlocking the potential of edX, continuing to invest in our degree programs, and improving the profitability of the Alternative Credential Segment,” added Paul Lalljie, 2U’s Chief Financial Officer.

    2U’s business outlook for 2022 pointed to revenue in the range of $1.05 billion to $1.09 billion, representing growth of 13% at the midpoint; net loss to range from $260 million to $240 million; and adjusted EBITDA to range from $80 million to $90 million, representing growth of 28% at the midpoint.

  • Sanjay Sarma, Director at MIT Open Learning and Digital Learning, Steps Down

    Sanjay Sarma, Director at MIT Open Learning and Digital Learning, Steps Down

    IBL News | Boston

    Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for MIT Open Learning and the Office of Digital Learning, will step down at the end of June.

    President L. Rafael Reif broke the news in an email to the MIT community on Wednesday, praising Sarma’s work but without providing an explanation for the move.

    Sources at MIT told IBL News that Sarma might take a sabbatical year before being appointed President at MIT.

    The Institute has started to look for the next director of MIT Open Learning.

    “Now that we are emerging out of the pandemic and after nearly ten years at Open Learning, it seemed a natural time to transition the leadership,” explained Sanjay Sarma.

    Sarma also said that he expects to work with a few tech startups during the coming years.

    Sanjay Sarma, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been running MIT’s digital learning platforms and education initiatives since 2012, first as director, then as Dean, and finally as Vice President for Open Learning.

    Sarma launched MIT Bootcamps, which offers blended learning experiences for entrepreneurs; MIT xPRO, offering online professional education courses; MIT Horizon, a content library to help professionals keep pace with the latest advances in technology; and the Digital Credentials Consortium — where MIT has convened a global group of universities to design standards and infrastructure for tamperproof, verifiable, digital academic credentials — MIT Open Courseware, and MITx Online, which hosts many of MIT’s online courses.

    Currently, the MIT Open Learning includes the Office of Digital Learning, the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili), the Center for Advanced Virtuality, and the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL).

  • Three Spanish Universities Will Fund the Transformation of Open edX into an On-Campus LMS

    Three Spanish Universities Will Fund the Transformation of Open edX into an On-Campus LMS

    IBL News | Lisbon, Portugal

    The three Spanish organization members of the edX Consortium — U3CM, UPV, and UAM — have attracted Government funding to expand the Open edX platform into a Canvas-style on-campus LMS. These developments are part of a new Spanish project to further digitalize their public universities.

    This program, called Uni Digital, is funded with the equivalent of $152.6 million. “Our plan is to make the Open edX platform the LMS of choice for on-campus teaching,” said IBL News Ignacio Despujol, Professor at the UPV (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia).

    Along with Carlos Delgado Kloos and Carlos Alario, professors at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (U3CM), and German Montoro, Professor at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), he introduced the project at the 2022 Open edX Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, last week.

    Their talk, titled “Transforming the Open edX platform into the next on-campus LMS,” highlighted the main missing pieces of the platform, such as advanced analytics for students, instructors, and researchers; integration with SIS (Student Information Systems), improvements in interface and usability, gamification, voice assistants, and a Turnitin integration.

    The Government of Spain, advised by the three mentioned universities, plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) this summer. The amount dedicated to this project will be below half a million euros.

    The features to be developed will all be open-sourced. The goal of the three Spanish universities is to merge the new code into Open edX repositories on GitHub.

    Professor Ignacio Despujol was recently appointed as one of the nine members of the Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) that leads the governance of the Open edX platform. [In the picture during the talk.]

  • Canvas LMS Continues Its Growth, Reporting an Increase of 21% in Its Quarter Revenue

    Canvas LMS Continues Its Growth, Reporting an Increase of 21% in Its Quarter Revenue

    IBL News | New York

    Instructure Holdings, Inc (NYSE: INST), the maker of the leading Canvas LMS, reported yesterday an increase of 21% year over year in its revenue in the first quarter of 2022, to $115.5 million. The operating loss was $3.7 million, or a negative 3.2% of revenue.

    Based on information as of May 2, 2022, Instructure predicted that the revenue is expected to be in the range of $460.9 million to $464.9 million in the full year of 2022. 

    “Canvas continues to displace legacy LMS solutions worldwide and our Instructure Learning Platform strategy gained further traction during the quarter, with especially strong growth across our assessments portfolio,” said Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure.

    The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company bought the credentialing tool Badgr/Concentric Sky in April.

    Instructure also highlighted its awarded contract with the twenty-three California State University (CSU) institutions, with a combined enrollment of over 485,000 students. The company will provide Canvas LMS as well as other solutions, such as Studio, Impact, and Pathways.

    In addition, Canvas LMS was selected as the LMS for Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) in Maryland, Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston (33,000 students), and Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in Brazil.

    Despite these results, investors are not buying the stock of Canvas LMS, and the price per share is at its lowest, at $18.47.

     

  • The 2023 Open edX Conference will take place at MIT in Cambridge, MA

    The 2023 Open edX Conference will take place at MIT in Cambridge, MA

    IBL News | Lisbon, Portugal

    The 2023 Open edX Conference will take place at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ed Zarecor, Vice President of Engineering, disclosed the location on the final day of the event. [In the picture above during the announcement.]

    The 2022 conference in Lisbon, Portugal, attracted over two hundred experts on the Open edX platform.

    2U Inc., the parent company of edX, introduced its vision for the platform, highlighting the need for new features, such as program pathways, customized nudging and in-course support, messages, learner intent data capture, catalog recommendation, discovery into gamification, and administrator analytics.

    2U, who brought a staff of 35 people to the event, made a call to collaborate with developers. Ashley Bradford, Senior Vice President of Learning Technology at 2U, led the team on the ground.

    The nonprofit stewarding the Open edX software and community, called tCRIL (the Center for Reimagining Learning), detailed its roadmap as well. A team of nine staffers — all of whom attended the conference — will handle the day-to-day operations, while promoting new ideas. “There will be several experiments, but not a silver bullet,” said Ed Zarecor.

    The destination of the staggering $800 million received by the temporarily named tCRIL, controlled by MIT and Harvard, was not disclosed. Sources told IBL News that it has not even been decided yet.

    That amount makes Open edX project the most well-funded open source project ever, on paper. “The hope is that tCRIL will invest this huge budget,” said Anant Agarwal, Founder of edX and now Chief Open Education at 2U Inc.

    Tobie Langel, an expert on open source governance and currently principal at his consultancy, Unlock, also stressed tCRIL‘s opportunity for massive innovation.

    He also suggested having three or four large organizations invest heavily in the Open edX platform. Today, the main expected contributor is 2U.

    Another story that emerged from the event was the departure of Marco Morales, a veteran edX engineer who moved to 2U. Marco Morales himself broke the news by posting on his LinkedIn account.

  • Ukrainian Raccoon Gang Showed Up on the 2022 Open edX Conference

    Ukrainian Raccoon Gang Showed Up on the 2022 Open edX Conference

    IBL News | Lisbon, Portugal

    Ukrainian Open edX provider Raccoon Gang showed up at the annual developers’ conference that took place this week in Lisbon, Portugal. The Kharkiv, Ukraine — headquartered firm explained that it continues to be operational by connecting to the internet via Starlink satellite.

    Sergiy Movchan, Co-Founder of Raccoon Gang, explained in a brief talk that his company was working for secondary schools in Ukraine by providing Open edX – based online learning platforms.

    These schools, controlled by the Government, have shifted into virtual instruction. “Facing new challenges, Ukraine is in desperate need of online educational platforms,” Sergiy Movchan said.

    “Open edX is the only reliable way to deliver a solution, both at scale and customized level.”

    Five employees of Raccoon Gang were present at the conference. They all were dressed in blue and yellow-colored T-Shirts saying “I’m Ukrainian Raccoon.”

    All of these staffers, who currently work outside Ukraine, received support from attendees.

  • Coursera Increased Its Net Loss in the First Quarter of 2022

    Coursera Increased Its Net Loss in the First Quarter of 2022

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera (NYSE: COUR) reported yesterday the first quarter of 2022 financial results showing that net loss increased significantly to $38.3 million — or 31% of revenue —, compared to $18.7 million — or 21% of revenue — a year ago.

    In the same period, total revenue was $120.4 million, up 36% from $88.4 million a year ago.

    For the full year of 2022, the protection points out revenue in the range of $538 to $546 million, with an adjusted EBITDA in the range of $(45.5) to $(51.5) million.

    Other financial highlights for the first quarter, which ended March 31, 2022, were:

    • Gross profit was $77.6 million or 64.5% of revenue, up 57% from $49.5 million a year ago. Non-GAAP gross profit was $78.2 million or 64.9% of revenue, up 58% from $49.6 million a year ago.
    • Non-GAAP net loss was $(15.8) million or (13.1)% of revenue, compared to $(13.4) million or (15.1)% of revenue a year ago.
    • Adjusted EBITDA was $(11.0) million or (9.1)% of revenue, compared to $(10.1) million or (11.5)% of revenue a year ago.
    • Net cash used in operating activities was $(38.3) million, compared to $(4.3) million a year ago. Free cash flow was $(42.2) million, compared to $(8.6) million a year ago.

    Coursera’s CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, highlighted the fact that the number of users surpassed 100 people. “They come to Coursera for high-quality, affordable education that can unlock advancements in their life and career.”

    The Mountain View, California – based company added 5 million new registered learners during the quarter for a total of 102 million.

    Coursera’s CFO, Ken Hahn, viewed results as “a strong start to 2022”. “We believe our broad catalog of job-relevant content and credentials from recognized, world-class brands is helping to meet the needs of learners and institutions in an increasingly digital world,” he added.

    Regarding the improvements on the learning platform, Coursera partnered with the University of Michigan to use extended reality (XR) to enable social learning through role-play simulations to provide training in mobility, manufacturing, and healthcare.

    It also added a content ingestion solution with Canvas.

     

  • “edX is to 2U What Google is to Alphabet,” Says the Founder of edX

    “edX is to 2U What Google is to Alphabet,” Says the Founder of edX

    IBL News | Lisbon, Portugal

    Anant Agarwal, Founder of edX and now Chief Open Education Officer at 2U, defended “the incredible alignment and synergy” with 2U, in the 2022 Open edX Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

    “The potential has been unlocked; 2U’s expertise will benefit Open edX,” he said in his keynote titled “The Future University: Pívot to Learner Centricity.”

    Anant Agarwal presented edX as the new main brand of the publicity traded company 2U. “edX is to 2U what Google is to Alphabet,” he explained.

    Attendants, mostly professionals working in the Open edX environment, received Mr. Agarwal’s remarks well.

    Agarwal pointed out these four trends in education:

    1/ Broad adoption of online, life-long learning.

    2/ Growth at modular, stackable learning.

    3/ Shift to blended learning on campus.

    4/ Mapping learning to career-relevancy. 68% of learners prefer non-degree programs.

    The Chief Open Education Officer at 2U highlighted that 50% of all employees will require reskilling by 2025.

    “This is our moment; let’s seize it to create lasting change,” he stressed.