IBL News

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  • Southern New Hampshire University Continues Its Tuition-Freeze Initiative After a Decade

    Southern New Hampshire University Continues Its Tuition-Freeze Initiative After a Decade

    IBL News | New York

    Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) announced this week the extension through 2022 of its 10-year tuition freeze. As a result, online course-based programs offered at SNHU will keep online tuition at its 2011 rate.

    “This is part of our commitment to make college more affordable and accessible for learners across the globe,” said Paul LeBlanc, University President and CEO, SNHU. “The global pandemic has created even more barriers for underserved learners worldwide, but our commitment to affordability has never wavered.”

    The Manchester, New Hampshire – based private, nonprofit institution, with 150K learners, offers a tiered tuition rate of $15,000/year, and for select programs, $10,000/year. This pricing aligns with its online tuition rates, shown below.

     

    Online Undergraduate Programs Per Credit Hour Per 3 Credit Course Annual Cost for 30 credits
    Online Undergraduate Degrees/Certificates $320 $960 $9,600
    Online Undergraduate Active Duty Military* $225 $675 $6,750
    SNHU Manchester (teaching out) $320 $960 $9,600
    SNHU Maine (teaching out)* $243 $729 $7,290
    Cooperative Education $320 $960 $9,600
    Non-Degree Seeking, Course Work Only $320 $960
    Dual Enrollment for Nursing students in the Community College System of New Hampshire (prior to graduation)* $200 $600
    Community College System of New Hampshire Nursing Graduates on or after May 2012* $260 $780
    Additional Costs: Graduation Fee ($150), Books (course-by-course)
    Most SNHU Bachelor’s degrees require 120 credit hours.

    Most SNHU Associate degrees require 60 credit hours.

     

    Online Graduate Programs Per Credit Hour Per 3 Credit Course Annual Cost for 15 credits
    Online Graduate Degrees/Certificates $627 $1,881 $9,405
    SNHU Maine (teaching out)* $375 $1,125 $5,625
    Active Duty Military* $470 $1,410 $7,050
    Additional Costs: $150 Graduation Fee, Course Materials ($ varies by course)
    Most SNHU Master’s degrees require 30-45 credit hours.
    Cohort-Based Programs Per Credit Hour Per 3 Credit Course Annual Cost for 30 credits
    Master’s Degree* $400 $1,200 $12,000
    Active Duty Military Master’s degree* $300 $900 $9,000

     

    SNHU claimed that it is committed to helping students keep costs down and borrow smarter. In 2020 its Student Financial Services team helped more than 5,500 learners reduce their loans by more than $23 million by teaching the importance of smart borrowing habits.

    The SNHU Online Bookstore has also saved learners more than $2 million by decreasing the cost of course materials, increasing the selection of e-books, and renegotiating prices with publishers while foregoing commissions.

    Another initiative is its Global Education Movement (GEM), intended to put education in the hands of some of the most underserved people in the world, bringing U.S.-accredited degrees to refugee learners in Rwanda, Lebanon, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa.

     

     

  • Microsoft Launches Windows 365, a New Category Called Cloud PC

    Microsoft Launches Windows 365, a New Category Called Cloud PC

    IBL News | New York

    Microsoft announced this week the upcoming launch of a cloud PC service called Windows 365.

    This Chromebook-like tool will allow users to access Windows 10 from the cloud. It will be available for business users on August 2, 2021.

    “This is really just an evolution of existing remote desktop services,” said Frederic Lardinois from Techcrunch.

    On the other hand, Microsoft already offers Azure Virtual Desktop, which gives businesses the option to let their employees access a Windows PC in the cloud. Windows 365 seems to be far easier to use.

    Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, described the product as a “new hybrid personal computing category, called Cloud PC.”

    He added: “Just like applications were brought to the cloud with SaaS, we are now bringing the operating system to the cloud, providing organizations with greater flexibility and a secure way to empower their workforce to be more productive and connected, regardless of location.”

  • Duolingo, Valued at $2.4 Billion, Will the Next Public EdTech Startup

    Duolingo, Valued at $2.4 Billion, Will the Next Public EdTech Startup

    IBL News | New York

    Language-learning app Duolingo will be the next high-profile edtech company to become public and start trading in the Nasdaq — under the ticker symbol “DOUL.”

    It also will be the first major IPO from Pittsburgh’s burgeoning tech ecosystem, influenced by the presence of The Carnegie Mellon University, known for its computer science programs.

    Founded in 2011 and headquartered in the historic Pennsylvanian steel town, the company filed for an initial public offering last June 29. Duolingo was last valued at $2.4 billion after raising $183 million from investors, including General Atlantic and Kleiner Perkins.

    On its S-1 prospectus, Duolingo claims 40 million monthly active users and over 500 million downloads. It shows that its revenue more than doubled in the first quarter this year until $55.4 million. In the same period, net losses widened to $13.5 million from $2.2 million a year ago.

    In 2020, its revenue was $161.7 million, representing 129% year-over-year growth.

    As of the end of March 2021, it had 1.8 million paid subscribers — using the Duolingo Plus ad-free version of the platform. Last year, during the outbreak of the pandemic, it attracted 30 million new users.

    In terms of the revenue sources, over 72% comes from subscriptions to Duolingo Plus, 17% from advertising, and 10% from the Duolingo English Test and other revenue.

    Duolingo currently offers courses in 40 languages, including endangered languages such as Navajo and fictional languages from TV shows like Star Trek and Game of Thrones. More people learning certain languages, such as Irish and Hawaiian, on the company’s app than there are native speakers of those languages worldwide.

    The startup was founded in 2011 by two engineers, Guatemala-born Luis von Ahn and Swiss Severin Hacker. The co-founders met at Carnegie Mellon University, where Luis was a professor in the computer science department and Severin was his Ph.D. student.

  • Federal Budget on Higher Ed for 2022 Will Include a Substantial Increase in Student Aid

    Federal Budget on Higher Ed for 2022 Will Include a Substantial Increase in Student Aid

    IBL News | New York

    Federal higher education programs for the fiscal year 2022 would include a substantial increase in student financial aid and science research, according to the House Appropriations Committee’s draft of the funding bill. This projected spending aligns with President Biden’s budget, according to a report published by Inside of Higher Ed this week.

    The legislation would provide $27.2 billion for federal student aid programs. Another $3.43 billion will go to higher education programs. It means an increase of $889 million from the fiscal year 2021 and $122 million above President Biden’s budget request.

    The bill would increase the maximum annual Pell Grant award by $400. The funding for the National Institutes of Health will increase to $49 billion from up to $42.5 billion from the fiscal year 2021.

    However, the bill might suffer changes as Republicans in Congress disagree with the spending levels, as well as with the repeal of the Hyde Amendment that bars the use of federal funds for abortions.

    • Inside Higher Ed, July 13: Biden’s Higher Ed Budget Moves Ahead in House

  • Instructure / Canvas LMS Details Its IPO: A Valuation of $2.9 Billion Expected

    Instructure / Canvas LMS Details Its IPO: A Valuation of $2.9 Billion Expected

    IBL News | New York

    Thoma Bravo-controlled Instructure Holdings Inc., the owner of the leading Canvas LMS, announced yesterday the terms of its initial public offering (IPO) in an amended prospectus filed to the SEC.

    Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is offering 12.5 million shares of its common stock. The IPO price will be between $19.00 and $21.00 per share.

    This would allow the company to raise net proceeds of about $228.1 million at a $20 midpoint. That funding would help cut its debt: $778 million in the long term. Educational consultant Phil Hill wrote that “this is a move by Bravo to manage the debt the company took on as part of the purchase.”

    Thoma Bravo will still own the vast majority of shares in Instructure after this IPO, using a complex system of holding companies, stock splits, and dilutions plans.

    The actual public offering would lead to an estimated raise of $250 million.

    Those offered shares are a small part of the total number of shares, however, and Thoma Bravo will retain the rest.

    After the offering, Thoma Bravo will own around 87% of the stock. “As a result, we expect to be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of NYSE,” said the company in the prospectus.

    Utah-based Instructure’s (NYSE: INST) expects to be valued at up to $2.91 billion, according to MarketWatch. In March 2020, private equity firm Thoma Bravo took Instructure private in a deal valued at about $2 billion.

    During the first three months of 2021, Instructure had revenue of $94.0 million and a net loss of $33.1 million, according to the filing.

    The underwriters of the IPO have reserved 5% of the stock to be offered in the IPO to be sold to the senior leadership of the company through a directed sale program.

  • DoD and MIT Release an Educational Platform for Manufacturing Engineers

    DoD and MIT Release an Educational Platform for Manufacturing Engineers

    IBL News | New York

    The Department of Defense (DoD) and MIT launched this month an innovative platform to educate engineering students, professionals, and technicians on advanced manufacturing technologies.

    The platform called ManufacturingWorkforce.org displays to date six on-demand, self-paced photonics courses, developed in partnership with AIM Photonics:

    • Integrated Photonics Test: Passive Devices
    • Photonic Integrated Circuits: Sensors
    • Photodetectors and Modulators for Silicon Photonics
    • Understanding Cost and Environmental Impacts of Photonics
    • Integrated Photonics Test: Active Devices
    • Design of Microring Resonators and Filters: from Theory to Implementation

    Each course features top instructors, including MIT professors, Naval Research Laboratory scientists, and private-sector engineers.

    Five additional integrated photonics courses will be added this Summer.

    Resources on flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) will be added to the platform in the future.

    “The platform is a tangible example of the Department’s commitment to educating the next generation of U.S. science and technology leaders,” said Ms. Barbara McQuiston, performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering.

    “I am extremely grateful that DoD is partnering with MIT for this venture. Our MIT colleagues understand the value of public-private partnerships to foster technological talent and to ensure the continued dominance of the U.S. research and engineering enterprise.”

    “This new platform provides an excellent career-building resource for students and professionals in advanced manufacturing technologies,” said Robert Gold, Director of OUSD(R&E)’s Technology and Manufacturing Industrial Base Office.

    “A critical component of the institutes’ work is promoting student education and workforce development, which is key to maintaining a strong U.S. industrial base that can design and manufacture the cutting-edge technology our Warfighters need,” said Robert Gold.

    Built on the IBL Platform with Open edX technology, the platform has been developed by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), in partnership with MIT’s Initiative for Knowledge and Innovation in Manufacturing (IKIM).

    [Disclosure: IBL Education, the parent of this news service, powers the platform and provides filming and development services for the courses.]

     

     

     

  • Online Learning | July 2021: Stanford, MIT, ASU-GSV, AI in Education, Chromebook, Robinhood…

    Online Learning | July 2021: Stanford, MIT, ASU-GSV, AI in Education, Chromebook, Robinhood…

    [ Newsletter format  |  Click here to subscribe ]

    JULY 2021 –  NEWSLETTER #44  |  Breaking news at IBL News  |  Noticias en Español

     

    Universities

    • Stanford University Sets Its Video Wall for 250 Students on Zoom

    • The University of Michigan Extends Its Tuition-Free Program

    • MIT Ranked the World’s Best University for the 10th Year by QS

     

    Covid

    • Universities with Full Vaccinated People Can Return to In-Person Learning

    • The White House Pushes Colleges and Universities to Get More Students Vaccinated

    • Amazon Starts Selling COVID Test Kits for $39.99 on Its Website

     

    Industry

    • ASU-GSV Releases the List of the World’s 300 Most Dynamic EdTech Companies

    • AI Technology in Education Will Grow 40% Annually Until 2027

     

    Initiatives

    • Hollywood Celebrities Set a Film School in Partnership with Los Angeles’ Public System

    • Chromebooks See a Surge of Demand of 43.4 Million Units Due to the Pandemic

    • NVIDIA AI-Based App Turns Rough Sketches into Realistic Landscapes Scenes

    • WordPress Owner Company Buys Journaling App Day One

     

    Corporate Training

    • IBM Launches a Global Program to Improve the Skills and Employability of Thousands

    • Udacity Issues a Two-Month Free Course on AWS Machine Learning Foundation

    • Bayer Will Use Degreed as Workforce Development Platform

     

    Wall Street

    • Trading App Robinhood Files Its IPO, Targeting a Valuation of $40B

    • Private Equity Firms Acquire Cloudera In a Deal Valued at $5.3 Billion

    • Chinese Public Companies Lost Billions in Market Cap Because of Deceptive Marketing

     

    2021 Events | All of the Key Conferences Listed!

    • Education Calendar  – JULY-DECEMBER  |  Conferences in Latin America & Spain

     

    This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specializing in AI-driven learning platforms. We also film and produce courses for universities and business organizations. Read the latest IBL Newsletter   |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters

  • Open edX & Learning Platforms | July 2021: 2U Buys edX, Coursera, Canvas LMS, Pluralsight…

    Open edX & Learning Platforms | July 2021: 2U Buys edX, Coursera, Canvas LMS, Pluralsight…

    [ Newsletter format  |  Click here to subscribe ]

    JULY 2021 – NEWSLETTER #38  |  Breaking news at IBL News  |  Noticias en Español

     

    2U Buys EdX 

    • More Views on What 2U’s Purchase of edX Will Mean for Higher Ed

    • Class Central Says that 2U Might Use edX’s Leads to Push Learners Into Debt

    • Wall Street Receives 2U’s Purchase of edX with Gains

    • Flooded with Cash and the Open edX Software, MIT and Harvard Start to Shape their New Non-Profit Venture

    • 2U Buys MIT’s and Harvard’s edX Platform for $800M; Open edX Software Kept as Non-Profit

     

    edX | Open edX

    • The University of Cambridge Offers Eight Free Courses on Creative Arts on edX

    • EdX Extends Its Free Catalog of 100 Selected Courses for Universities Until June 2021

    • Open edX Releases Its Twelfth Version of the Platform Called ‘Lilac’

     

    Coursera

    • Researchers Discovered Security Vulnerabilities on the Coursera.org Platform

    • The U.S. Falls Sharply in Digital Skills Ranking 29th Globally, Says Coursera

    • Billionaire Investor George Soros Strongly Recommends to Buy Coursera’s Stock

     

    Learning Platforms and Wall Street

    • Instructure Acquires Its Partner “EesySoft” as It Prepares to Go Public… Again!

    • Corporate Training Startup Skillsoft Debuts in the NYSE with a Small Drop

    • The New Skillsoft and Global Knowledge Merged Company Starts in the NYSE

    • Investment Company Platinum Equity Buys McGraw Hill for $4.5 Billion

    • Pluralsight Buys Skills Development Platform A Cloud Guru

     

    2021 Events | All of the Key Conferences Listed!

    • Education Calendar  –  JULY-DECEMBER  |  Conferences in Latin America & Spain

     

    This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specializing in AI-driven learning platforms. We also film and produce courses for universities and business organizations. Read the latest IBL Newsletter   |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters

  • Researchers Discovered Security Vulnerabilities on the Coursera.org Platform

    Researchers Discovered Security Vulnerabilities on the Coursera.org Platform

    IBL News | New York

    Three researchers discovered multiple security failings in the Coursera platform, used by 82 million learners and hundreds of Fortune 500 companies.

    Those vulnerabilities on the API (Application Programming Interface) were fixed by Coursera’s tech team, once the company was informed last year.

    Yesterday, Thursday, July 8, the Checkmarx Security Research Team published a report on its finding.

    “Through our research, we discovered multiple API issues, such as user/account enumeration via the reset password feature, lack of resources limiting on both a GraphQL and REST API, and a GraphQL misconfiguration,” wrote Erez Yalon, Head of the Security Research Group at Checkmarx.

    “But specifically, the Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA) issue we found perfectly fits Coursera’s access control concerns,”     he added.

    The main issue of Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA) security flaw is considered by OWASP to be a major threat due to the ease of exploitation.

    BOLA flaws in APIs may expose endpoints that handle object identifiers, potentially opening the door to wider attacks.

    “This vulnerability could have been abused to understand general users’ courses preferences at a large scale, but also to somehow bias users’ choices, since manipulating their recent activity affected the content rendered on Coursera’s homepage for a specific user,” Erez Yalon stated.

    Meanwhile, Coursera told ZDNet that “the privacy and security of learners on Coursera is a top priority.” “We’re grateful to Checkmarx for bringing the low-risk API-related issues to the attention of our security team last year, who were able to address and resolve the issues promptly.”

  • More Views on What 2U’s Purchase of edX Will Mean for Higher Ed

    More Views on What 2U’s Purchase of edX Will Mean for Higher Ed

    IBL News | New York

    MIT and Harvard’s sale of edX.org to 2U for $800 million continues to dominate the conversation on higher education. New views in favor and against are expressed through articles and forums.

    Paul LeBlanc, President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), one of the largest universities in the U.S., wrote a column on Forbes titled “What 2U’s $800 Million Deal to Acquire edX Means for Higher Ed”.

    “For 2U, the acquisition provides not only leads in those markets but also viable product offerings. In an earnings call last week, 2U made the math clear: if it converts only .03% of registered edX learners into its regular offerings, it will reduce the cost of student acquisition by 10% to 15%. Cost of acquisition is huge in online education, 20% or more of the overall budget.”

    “If 2U’s acquisition of edX brings more affordable post-secondary higher education options to more people around the globe with good demonstrable outcomes, then it seems like a good change in the ecosystem for students.”

    The leading newspaper the industry, The Chronicle of Higher Ed, posted an article by Jefferson Pooley, Professor of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg, stating that “MIT and Harvard sold their higher education future, auctioning off the lecture halls of the future.”

    “Harvard and MIT have just made the same disastrous miscalculation. Nonprofits aren’t supposed to flip like this. The edX deal seems to have met the letter, if not the spirit, of nonprofit law by selling off its assets — and by parking the $800 million in a new Harvard-MIT nonprofit with a gauzy “inclusive learning and education” mission.”

    “2U’s mission is fundamentally misaligned with the university tradition. 2U, Coursera, and their venture-funded competitors are built to squeeze profit from our students, using our faculty and course offerings. Harvard and MIT had no right, in the meaningful sense, to sell us off. None of us — not faculty members, not students — signed up for edX to increase Silicon Valley’s wallet share. We will look back on this careless abrogation of stewardship as the tragic squandering that it is.”
    On Inside the Higher Education, columnists focus mostly on ideas towards the new, yet-unnamed nonprofit that MIT and Harvard will create, beyond the officially announced goals of “stewarding and enhancing the Open edX platform“, along with “developing new ways to make online learning more effective, engaging, and personalized.
    Steven Mintz, Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, elaborates on “How I’d Spend $800 Million”, suggesting to “do something major”, and states: “There’s a good chance that the $800 million might not materialize in whole or at once. Payments, even in cash, often extend over time.”

    “The single biggest question that needs to be asked is this: Why is it that the edX partners — which include the most highly ranked universities in the world — weren’t able to create a nonprofit open learning endeavor that could successfully compete with for-profits?”

    “Now is the time to look forward by reaffirming edX’s founding vision: to create a cross-institutional collaborative that will address higher ed’s biggest challenges: access, affordability, equity, and attainment.Edward J. Maloney, Professor at Georgetown University, recommends that “the new nonprofit should look beyond online learning and into areas of learning innovation and the scholarship of institutional change.”

    “Both MIT and Harvard are already internationally renowned for their activities in learning science, education scholarship, and research on organizational change.” (…) “Harvard and MIT now have the opportunity to create a new nexus of scholarly inquiry, one that integrates the study of learning and institutional change. Such a focus for the new nonprofit would both continue with, and expand on, the original mission of edX.”

    “This new nonprofit can help to continue edX’s original mission to harness the “transformative power of education.”

    Additional Resource:
    •     Edward J. Maloney and Joshua Kim in Inside Higher Ed, July 13, 2021: External Partnerships and Higher Ed’s Mission of Critical Analysis