Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Coursera (NYSE: COUR) presented an improved note-taking tool with capturing images and centralized functionaries to increase retention and comprehension this month.

Its goal is to tackle learners’ struggle when recalling what they heard or read, given that statistically, 40% of information is lost within the first 24 hours.

This is how Coursera describes its approach:

IBL News | New York

Georgetown University and Coursera (NYSE: COUR) announced the first fully online liberal arts degree yesterday.

This Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies (SCS) is offered for $22,400.

Each credit hour costs offered at $400, which, according to Coursera, is 22% more affordable than the average online credit hour from privately-ranked colleges. (The pricing was calculated using 64 transferred credits, priced at $400.)

Students can transfer up to 64 college credits, including military training, to their 120-credit degree.

Applications will open in early December 2022, with classes beginning in the summer of 2023.

Betty Vandenbosch, Chief Content Officer at Coursera, described the program in a blog post as “an affordable, flexible way for adult learners worldwide with all backgrounds to complete their degrees and unlock their earning potential.”

The degree’s most recent on-campus cohort is composed of 62% students of color and 40% military-connected learners.

Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies said it was introducing this fully online degree to scale this program to learners worldwide.

In the U.S. alone, over 39 million students leave college without a degree. Black, Latino, and Native American students are overrepresented in this population.

The program features high-touch support services crucial to student success, including academic advising. Students will learn skills in communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking in core liberal studies courses.

Nearly all, nine out of 10, employers view the skills taught in liberal studies programs as important for success in the workforce.

IBL News | New York

Harvard’s, Yale’s, and the University of California, Berkeley’s law schools raised concerns about U.S. News ranking methodology and decided not to participate in their survey this week.

Harvard Law School’s Dean, John Manning, said in a letter  to the faculty, “That methodology works against law schools’ commitments to enhancing the socioeconomic diversity of our classes; to allocating financial aid to students based on need; and, through loan repayment and public interest fellowships, to supporting graduates interested in careers serving the public interest.”

“By heavily weighting students’ test scores and college grades, the U.S. News rankings have over the years created incentives for law schools to direct more financial aid toward applicants based on their LSAT scores and college GPAs without regard to their financial need. Though HLS and YLS have each resisted the pull toward so-called merit aid, it has become increasingly prevalent, absorbing scarce resources that could be allocated more directly on the basis of need.”

U.S. News responded to Harvard’s statement by saying that “those test scores are currently still required by the ABA for almost all law schools.”

In addition, the magazine said, “Harvard is in a position to fund students who opt to pursue public interest and scholarly careers.”

Yale University, which has ranked on top throughout the decades, made a similar announcement on Wednesday.

In a detailed post, Yale Law’s Dean, Heather K. Gerken, called the rankings “profoundly flawed—they disincentivize programs that support public interest careers, champion need-based aid, and welcome working-class students into the profession.”

Gerken added, “We have reached a point where the rankings process is undermining the core commitments of the legal profession. As a result, we will no longer participate.”

She also noted, “only two law schools in the country continue to give aid based entirely on need—Harvard and Yale.”

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote, “Rankings have the meaning that we give them as a community. I do not want to pretend they do not. And rankings will exist with or without our participation. The question becomes, then, do we think that there is a benefit to participation in the U.S. News process that outweighs the costs? The answer, we feel, is no.”

IBL News | New York

U.S. colleges and universities are seeing a strong year-over-year rebound in new international student enrollments, with an increase of 80% in the 2021 / 2022 academic year, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE) this week in Washington DC.

The study, titled Open Doors 2022, is evidence of the strong interest among international students to travel to the United States, the top destination for international students worldwide, and pursue their studies in person — say the authors.

Moreover, data show that 90% of enrolled international students have returned to in-person learning across U.S. campuses.

A total of  948,519 international students from more than 200 places of origin studied at U.S. higher education institutions during the 2021/2022 academic year,

The surge means a return to pre-pandemic levels.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students contributed $32 billion to the U.S. economy in 2021.

“Welcoming international students to American campuses and communities is at the heart of people-to-people diplomacy and a foundational component of our U.S. foreign policy strategy to attract the top talent to the United States,” explained Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

In addition to enrolled international students, more than 184,000 students pursued Optional Practical Training (OPT), a program allowing individuals to gain practical work experiences after academic study.

China and India represent the majority (52%) of all international students in the United States. China remains the top sending country in 2021/22, with 290,086 students on U.S. campuses (-9% year-over-year). India, the second top-sending country, sent 199,182 international students in 2021/22, an increase of 19% year-over-year.

Other places of origin, including Canada, Mexico, and Nigeria, returned to pre-pandemic international student numbers. Notably, Nigeria saw its largest increase (+12% year-over-year) in international students studying in the U.S. since the 1980s.

IBL News | New York

D2L announced the launch of its Creator+ packages intended to save time for creators without any coding work allowing them to deliver interactive learning experiences.

“Creator+ is purposefully built, in partnership with educators and learning design experts, to support the development of better learning experiences,” said John Baker, President, and CEO of D2L.

Toronto, Canada – based global edtech company D2L Brightspace issued an early version of Creator+ in May 2022 and made it available for purchase this month.

According to Forbes, the average teacher works more than 400 hours of overtime each year. And a survey from the Association of Talent Development shows that 67% of organizations believe that having limited resources – time, talent, and money – is the barrier they most frequently face to designing and developing learning content.

Essentially, Creator+ allows for the use of ready-made templates to quickly build content, enhance comprehension with the Practices tool, a wide variety of practice exercises and question types, and create a consistent visual experience with the Content Styling tool.

Phil Hill, the publisher of the PhilOnEdTech blog, wrote, “Creator+ streamlines and improves content creation with templates and themes as well as deeper integration with video tools.”

IBL News | New York

Coursera’s CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, announced in a public email to employees this week  that its company will start firing people due to the “slower growth rates, environmental uncertainty, and need to make whatever changes are needed, including reducing headcount expenses.”

“I’m sad to share that in order to slow our rate of spending, we have made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team,” he said without specifying any number.

Maggioncalda explained that the company notified all impacted employees via 1:1 conversations with their managers and senior leadership.

Coursera currently has about 1,138 full-time employees.

Laid-off employees will receive a package of four months of pay (plus additional pay based on role and tenure), healthcare coverage for up to four months, which varies by country, and job placement assistance via Randstad RiseSmart.

The firm has also created a Coursera Alumni Talent Hub for impacted employees who want to opt-in.

IBL News | New York

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) unveiled this week new products and services during its annual event, Zoomtopia 2022, among them video conferencing on Tesla vehicles.

The San Jose-California-based company announced, without saying exactly when, that “Zoom will come standard on all new Tesla models soon.”

Tesla has continued to add features to its infotainment system for drivers or passengers while sitting parked. Now Tesla’s vehicles can stream Netflix and YouTube through its large touchscreen displays, has karaoke, and offers a host of video games.

During its conference, Zoom also announced a beta release of email and calendar software and a partnership with AMC Theatres to launch Zoom Rooms next year. This Zoom Rooms product will let companies broadcast Zoom meetings in movie theaters.

Other innovations included conversational AI features in Contact Center.

🎥 WATCH: #Zoomtopia is live!

New products, innovations, and happy surprises. Tune into the keynote with @ericsyuan now! 🎉 https://t.co/2TbZ73scBR

— Zoom (@Zoom) November 8, 2022

“The developer platform offers even more, so that you, as developers, can use our core technology to build for your own use cases and connect to your customers.” – @bittelson, Chief Technology Officer

The #Zoomtopia Developer Summit has started! https://t.co/Esfg6E3H2L pic.twitter.com/Dl4CRi8aqV

— Zoom (@Zoom) November 9, 2022

Working at home, but missing office convos? Connect in Zoom Spots.

It’s a virtual workspace, a water cooler, the together spot for when you’re not physically together. #Zoomtopia https://t.co/i6gASDomIW pic.twitter.com/cRYUOrYnwf

— Zoom (@Zoom) November 8, 2022

IBL News | New York

The Indian edtech giant BYJU’S hired football star Lionel “Leo” Messi as the first global brand ambassador of its social, non-profit arm Education For All (EFA), to promote the cause of accessible and affordable education.

The BYJU’S agreement with Messi — who plays for Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentinian football team — comes after the company became the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.

“BYJU’S sees Lionel Messi as ‘The Greatest Learner of All Time’ whose passion for continuous learning has redefined the meaning of what is possible in football,” said the Bengaluru, India – based company.

“He is a once-in-a-generation talent whose pursuit of excellence, all-in mentality, humility, and reliability resonate deeply with BYJU’S brand values,” added Divya Gokulnath, Co-Founder of BYJU’S.

Lionel Messi, who also runs his own charitable organization, the Leo Messi Foundation, said, “High-quality education changes lives, and BYJU’S has transformed the career paths of millions of students worldwide.”

Football has roughly 3.5 billion fans worldwide, and Lionel Messi has a social media following of nearly 450 million.

With offices in 21 countries, BYJU’S claims to serve 150 million students across the world through personalized and adaptive content. In 2020, the company created BYJU’S Education For All to reach and teach at least 10 million children free of cost by 2025. A prolific patron of sports, BYJU’S is also the official jersey sponsor of the men’s and women’s national cricket teams of India.

IBL News | New York

2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), which owns edX.org, reported flat revenue of $232.2 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year. Total revenue included $9.3 million from legacy edX offerings.

Meanwhile, the net loss more than doubled, from $60.4 million in the third quarter of 2021 to $121.6 million in the same quarter of 2022.

Costs and expenses for the third quarter totaled $336.5 million, a 22% increase from $275.9 million in the third quarter of 2021. So far this year, 2U has spent $29.2 million on restructuring costs, including layoffs and a reduction of personnel expenses by 20%.

These results showed that the edX acquisition in the summer of 2021 didn’t cause much impact on revenue.

2U Co-Founder and CEO Christopher “Chip” Paucek said that the company is strengthening its bottom line and “supercharging our ability to match millions of learners.”

Per business areas, another piece of interesting data was that 2U’s Degree Program segment decreased by 7% to $137.2 million while Alternative Credential Segment grew by 12% to $95 million.

Christopher “Chip” Paucek’s strategy is based on transitioning to “a platform company under the edX platform.” “We realigned our organization around a single platform, streamlined our cost structure, and implemented a new, more efficient marketing framework,” he added.

Paul Lalljie, 2U’s Chief Financial Officer, said that “we are increasing our adjusted EBITDA outlook for 2022 and remain committed to delivering further profitability improvements and positive free cash flow in 2023.”

• IBL News, November 1, 2022: 2U Launches New Boot Camps Under the edX Brand, Retiring the Trilogy Name