IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • ETS Appoints a New President and CEO to Succeed Walt MacDonald

    ETS Appoints a New President and CEO to Succeed Walt MacDonald

    IBL News | New York

    ETS Board of Trustees announced yesterday that it appointed Amit Sevak as its new President and CEO.

    Sevak will begin his new role on June 15, 2022. He will succeed Walt MacDonald, who has served as President and CEO since 2014 and spent 38 years at ETS.

    Amit Sevak has held leadership roles around the world, including at the University of Europe in Madrid, INTI International University & Colleges in Kuala Lumpur, and Universidad Tecnológica de México (UNITEC) in Mexico City. He has served with many nonprofits, including Cambiar Education, CitiBridge, and Education Design Lab. More recently, he provided coaching and capital to EdtTech startups throughout the world at Mindset Global.

    “ETS enables education opportunities for millions of individuals all over the world, I am honored to join the ETS family in advancing this vital mission,” said Amit Sevak.

    The Princeton, New Jersey-based company was founded as a nonprofit in 1947. It develops, administers, and scores 50 million tests annually, including TOEFL, the GRE tests, and The Praxis Series assessments at 9,000 locations worldwide.

     

  • AT&T Launches a Standards-Aligned Learning and Entertainment Platform for K-12 Students

    AT&T Launches a Standards-Aligned Learning and Entertainment Platform for K-12 Students

    IBL News | New York

    AT&T launched this week a free, standards-aligned learning platform for K-12 students that features clips from popular films, TV shows, and animated series, paired with lessons and activities. Some examples include:

    • Wonder Woman film clips paired with lessons teaching reading and writing skills
    • Aquaman film clips paired with lessons teaching responsible decision-making
    • Craig of the Creek animated clips paired with lessons teaching social awareness and language skills
    The platform, called TheAchievery.com, has been created in collaboration with WarnerMedia. It’s the latest development of the AT&T Connected Learning initiative. A $2 billion, 3-year commitment was set from 2021 to 2024 to help bridge the digital divide for students and their families.

    The learning approach of the project is based on posting stories that spark curiosity, entertain, and teach.

    According to a survey in 2021, nearly 80% of both parents and teachers think that their kids or students would be more interested in learning tools that include popular entertainment.

    “The Achievery can excite students about learning in a home environment in a way that can drive greater educational achievement,” said Charlene Lake, chief sustainability officer, senior vice president at AT&T corporate responsibility.

    According to AT&T, every lesson and learning activity is aligned to academic standards and reviewed by education experts from Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

    Learning subjects on the platform include Social-Emotional Learning, The Arts, English Language Arts, and Technology and Engineering, with Science, Social Studies, Math, and Digital Literacy coming soon.

    Participating education organizations are Khan Academy, Young Storytellers, Scratch, Weird Enough Productions, 826 National, Girls Who Code, Code.org, Urban Arts, Quest for Excellence, and Boddle. Others will soon be added.

  • MIT Reinstates SAT/ACT Requirement for Student Admissions

    MIT Reinstates SAT/ACT Requirement for Student Admissions

    IBL News | New York

    MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) announced yesterday that it decided to reinstate its SAT/ACT requirement for future admission cycles, saying that this decision “helps us advance our mission.”

    “Our research shows standardized tests help us better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants, and also help us identify socioeconomically disadvantaged students who lack access to advanced coursework,” explained the institute.

    MIT suspended the testing requirement due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “We don’t value scores for their own sake, but only to the extent that they help us make better decisions for our students.”

    MIT argued that the performance shown on the SAT/ACT, particularly the math section, substantially improved the predictive validity of their decisions.

    MIT is not using predictive analytics, although it has “a dedicated research and analysis team that studies our processes, outcomes, and criteria.”

  • Data Management Top 50 Start-Ups Are Valued Over 100 Billion

    Data Management Top 50 Start-Ups Are Valued Over 100 Billion

    IBL News | New York

    Enterprise data management will grow at least 12.8% annually from the period of 2022 to 2027 to attain over $150.6 billion by 2027, according to the consultancy Expert Market Research.

    In 2021, the business of managing data became the fastest growing area of infrastructure. It was estimated to be worth over $70 billion and accounted for over one-fifth of all enterprise infrastructure.

    “Data continues to be one of the most important and furiously growing innovation drivers across both large enterprises and new start-ups,” said an analyst of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

    Data management marries the field of software engineering, analytics, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing.

    Andreessen Horowitz has elaborated a list of the most exciting companies in data management in 2002. Overall, these companies are valued at more than $100 billion. In aggregate, they have raised $14.5 billion, with 20 having reached unicorn status by 2021.

    Data50 List:

    RANK COMPANY CATEGORY LOCATION VALUATION RANGE WEBSITE
    1 Databricks Query and Processing San Francisco, CA $5B+ Databricks
    2 Fivetran ELT & Orchestration Oakland, CA $5B+ Fivetran
    3 Scale.ai AI/ML Palo Alto, CA $5B+ Scale.ai
    4 OneTrust Data Governance & Security Atlanta, GA $5B+ OneTrust
    5 Dbt labs ELT & Orchestration Philadelphia, PA $1B-$5B Dbt labs
    6 Starburst Query and Processing Boston, MA $1B-$5B Starburst
    7 Collibra Data Governance & Security Brussels, Belgium $5B+ Collibra
    8 Dremio Query and Processing Santa Clara, CA $1B-$5B Dremio
    9 Dataiku Query and Processing New York, NY $1B-$5B Dataiku
    10 Hugging Face AI/ML New York, NY $250-999M Hugging Face
    11 DataRobot Query and Processing Boston, MA $5B+ DataRobot
    12 Primer.ai AI/ML San Francisco, CA $250-999M Primer.ai
    13 Snorkel AI/ML Palo Alto, CA $1B-$5B Snorkel
    14 Anyscale AI/ML San Francisco, CA $1B-$5B Anyscale
    15 Firebolt Query and Processing Tel Aviv, Israel $1B-$5B Firebolt
    16 Astronomer ELT & Orchestration Cincinnati, OH $100-$249M Astronomer
    17 Alation Data Governance & Security Redwood City, CA $1B-$5B Alation
    18 Weights & Biases AI/ML San Francisco, CA $1B-$5B Weights & Biases
    19 Sigma Computing BI & Notebooks San Francisco, CA $1B-$5B Sigma Computing
    20 Monte Carlo Data Observability San Francisco, CA $250-999M Monte Carlo
    21 OctoML AI/ML Seattle, WA $250-999M OctoML
    22 Census Customer Data Analytics San Francisco, CA $250-999M Census
    23 Hex BI & Notebooks San Francisco, CA $250-999M Hex
    24 Hightouch Customer Data Analytics San Francisco, CA $250-999M Hightouch
    25 Amperity Customer Data Analytics Seattle, WA $1B-$5B Amperity
    26 BigID Data Governance & Security New York, NY $1B-$5B BigID
    27 Privacera Data Governance & Security Fremont, CA $250-999M Privacera
    28 Immuta Data Governance & Security Boston, MA $250-999M Immuta
    29 Bigeye Data Observability San Francisco, CA $250-999M Bigeye
    30 Matillion ELT & Orchestration Greater Manchester, United Kingdom $1B-$5B Matillion
    31 Heap Customer Data Analytics San Francisco, CA $1B-$5B Heap
    32 Tecton AI/ML San Francisco, CA $250-999M Tecton
    33 Imply Query and Processing Burlingame, CA $250-999M Imply
    34 Sisu Data BI & Notebooks San Francisco, CA $250-999M Sisu Data
    35 Rudderstack ELT & Orchestration San Francisco, CA $100-$249M Rudderstack
    36 ActionIQ Customer Data Analytics New York, NY $250-999M ActionIQ
    37 ClickHouse Query and Processing Portola Valley, CA $1B-$5B ClickHouse
    38 Airbyte ELT & Orchestration San Francisco, CA $1B-$5B Airbyte
    39 Rockset Query and Processing San Mateo, CA $250-999M Rockset
    40 Labelbox AI/ML San Francisco, CA $250-999M Labelbox
    41 Explorium AI/ML San Mateo, CA $250-999M Explorium
    42 Rasa AI/ML San Francisco, CA $100-$249M Rasa
    43 Prefect ELT & Orchestration Washington, DC $250-999M Prefect
    44 Materialize Query and Processing New York, NY $250-999M Materialize
    45 Coiled AI/ML San Juan Capistrano, CA $100-$249M Coiled
    46 Preset BI & Notebooks San Mateo, CA $100-$249M Preset
    47 Metabase BI & Notebooks San Francisco, CA $100-$249M Metabase
    48 Iterative.ai AI/ML San Francisco, CA $100-$249M Iterative.ai
    49 Robust Intelligence AI/ML San Francisco, CA $100-$249M Robust Intelligence
    50 Fiddler AI/ML Mountain View, CA $100-$249M Fiddler

     

  • Amazon Will Provide Educational Resources to Immigrant Employees

    Amazon Will Provide Educational Resources to Immigrant Employees

    IBL News | New York

    Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) launched a new initiative to provide refugee and humanitarian-based immigrant employees with educational and other resources this month.

    This program, called the Welcome Door program, will provide access to skills training benefits, including free college tuition and English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency through Amazon’s Career Choice program.

    In addition, it will facilitate customized mentorship, assistance with U.S. citizenship, and other free legal resources.

    “At Amazon, we have a variety of jobs and welcome all kinds of people, and we’re proud to offer enhanced support for refugees around the world,” said Ofori Agboka, Amazon’s vice president of People eXperience and Tech for Operations.

    Once they’ve arrived in their new communities, refugees often face challenges when seeking jobs and resettlement support. In addition to language barriers and limited government resources, refugees with professional experience often have gaps in their careers, which can limit their knowledge of the latest developments within an industry, according to Upwardly Global, a nonprofit that helps refugees rebuild their careers.

    These new resources will be offered to Amazon employees in the U.S. starting in April. The company plans to expand the program globally by the end of the year.

    As part of its pledge to help upskill the American workforce, Amazon recently announced a commitment to fully fund college tuition, books, and fees, as well as high school diplomas, GEDs, college preparatory courses, and English as a Second Language (ESL) proficiency certifications, for its front-line hourly employees through the Career Choice program.

  • Prof. Lorena A. Barba Awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from Top Chilean University

    Prof. Lorena A. Barba Awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from Top Chilean University

    IBL News | New York

    Lorena A. Barba, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at George Washington University (GWU), and a leading advocate of open source technologies in education, received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the 100-year history Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, her undergraduate alma mater.

    She is the second woman to ever be awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa in this institution, following Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile. Overall, seven individuals have received this honor—the university’s highest recognition.

    “I’m deeply moved,” said Lorena Barba. “This is one of those moments in life that makes you reflect about your own history, about where you come from, and how you got where you are.” The award was conferred on March 8 during a convocation ceremony that coinciding with International Women’s Day.

    “Professor Barba is not only an internationally recognized expert on scientific computing, with roles advising the nation via service in committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, but she has a long track record of innovation in technology-enhanced learning and open education,” said SEAS (School of Engineering and Applied Science) Dean John Lach.

    Barba is an expert in fluid mechanics, thermal science and energy, high-performance computing, and mechanical engineering.

    She leads a research group in computational science and fluid dynamics, often crossing disciplinary borders into applied mathematics and aspects of computer science.

  • Open edX Releases Its 2022 Conference Schedule Centered on the Future of Work

    Open edX Releases Its 2022 Conference Schedule Centered on the Future of Work

    IBL News | New York

    The Open edX organization, now called The Center for Reimagining Learning (tCRIL), announced this week the sessions, speakers, and sponsors for its upcoming 2022 Open edX Conference, scheduled for April 26-29, in Lisbon, Portugal.

    The conference theme is “the future of work”. Experts, practitioners, and participants will share ideas, solutions, and tools for up-skilling, re-skilling, and delivering life-long learning. There will be three thematic areas: Pedagogy & Instructional Design, Platform & Product, and Extensions & Integrations.

    The opening keynote will be handled by Anant Agarwal, the Founder of edX and currently Chief Open Education Officer at 2U. The talk will be followed by Tobie Langel, Open Source Strategy Consultant, and Paula Marques, Executive Director for Business Transformation & Executive Education at NOVA SBE.

    In addition, the organization highlighted the following sessions:

    • How assessment design can eliminate the need for digital proctoring. Mary Ellen Wiltrout, MIT
    • Learning on the job: 5 key lessons from creating next-generation workplace training products. Asad Iqbal & Faqir Bilal, Edly
    • 2U’s Learning Experience Framework (LXF). Ben Piscopo, edX/2U
    • An AI-powered skills infrastructure on the Open edX platform. Miguel Amigot, ibleducation.com
    • 2U community introduction & roadmap contributions. Marco Morales, edX/2U
    • Open edX mobile: Product direction & development. Mian Khalid & Poornima Hanumara, edX/2U | Saeed Bashir, Arbisoft
    • Deep dive into LTI 1.3 in the Open edX platform. Giovanni Cimolin da Silva, OpenCraft
    • Course licensing with the Open edX platform. Diego Millan, eduNEXT; Scott Dunn, Pearson
    • Integrating the Open edX platform and Canvas: A new integration for Libraries 2.0. Daniel Seaton, MIT | Adolfo Brandes, tCRIL

    The non-profit entity — controlled by MIT and Harvard University — behind the event stated that the goal is to “leverage the Open edX platform to expand access to education globally, in an effort to revolutionize the delivery of online education, within a world that is becoming more reliant on digital solutions.” 

    The conference sponsors will be OpenCraft, Construct Education, Edly, eduNEXT, Graspway, IBL Education, Annoto, Aulasneo, and Class Central.

  • Fusion Academy Will Open Four New Schools by June

    Fusion Academy Will Open Four New Schools by June

    IBL News | New York

    Fusion Academy, which brands itself as the in-person personalized education choice for middle and high schoolers, will open four new schools this Spring.

    The Grand Rapids, Michigan–based educational group announced this month that it will expand its “model of one teacher to one student for each class” in California, Florida, Colorado, and Tennessee. 

    “Children develop self-confidence through our one-to-one approach to learning, they find their voice, and they thrive,” said Peter Ruppert, Chief Executive Officer of Fusion Education Group (FEG).

    The new schools will be:

    • Fusion Academy Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara, California. To be opened in April.
    • Fusion Academy Palm Beach Gardens, in Palm Beach, Florida. To be opened in April.
    • Fusion Academy Boulder County, in Louisville, Colo. To be opened in June.
    • Fusion Academy Franklin, 2550 Meridian Boulevard, Suite 100, Franklin, Tenn. To be opened in June.

    Since August 2021, the company has opened three new schools in Reston, Va., San Antonio, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    It began as a tutoring center in 1989 in Southern California. Currently, Fusion Academy annually serves more than 5,000 students enrolled in 67 schools located in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

  • Seven Online Learning Trends and Areas of Growth for this Decade

    Seven Online Learning Trends and Areas of Growth for this Decade

    IBL News | New York

    The online learning market will grow from over $200 billion today to $388 billion in 2026, according to researchers. This unprecedented increase will open the door to many possibilities.

    Looking at the trends for 2022, players might detect growth areas. The Open edX organization and Edly have pointed out some of them in a blog post.

    1. Personalization of learning paths and adaptive learning using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, including AI tutors (or voice-enabled bots)
    2. Immersive learning on artificially generated spaces using Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Extended Reality (XR) devices
    3. Gamified learning experiences (or Gamification) as a way to boost engagement and retention
    4. Big data analytics to better understand learners’ behaviors and needs
    5. Micro-learning by exposing corporate learners with bite-size and media-rich content. It follows the fact that on average an employee spends 24 minutes per week on professional learning
    6. Video-based learning as a majority of learners (69% according to a survey) prefers watching demos, tutorials, video lectures, and other kinds of video content over textbooks or manuals
    7. Social learning as a way to learn from others through observation and interaction, including collaborative and teamwork assignments

  • Ukrainian Tech Company Receives Support from the Open edX Community

    Ukrainian Tech Company Receives Support from the Open edX Community

    IBL News | New York

    Ukraine-based tech company Raccoon Gang is receiving support from the Open edX community of developers as the Russian invasion escalates in brutality.

    Sergiy Movchan, a Co-Founder of Raccoon Gang, thanked the support and reported that “the team is relocated and safe.” “No casualties with raccoons so far, although our office in the center of Kharkiv is significantly damaged,” he explained.

    However, the start-up is operational. “We are working on our edX-related projects; our Ukrainian projects are on hold.”

    Its website is equally functioning, with a pop-up banner saying “Help Ukrainian Army. Donate.”

    Raccoon Gang mentioned that it is executing a business continuity plan developed in advance of the invasion.

    Ed Zarecor, Vice President of Engineering at Open edX, asked in a blog post to financially support the staff of Raccoon Gang and their families in this time of crisis.