Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Education professionals agree that video is essential to students’ academic experience. Moreover, video has become the preferred teaching method since it engages more than text-based content and increases students’ satisfaction and performance.

This is the main finding of a global survey done by video platform provider Kaltura across several countries, including the U.S., UK, and Germany.

The research, titled The State of Video in Education 2022 highlights that the pandemic was a major accelerator for online and hybrid modalities. “It’s been a paradigm shift for educators,” says the research. A total of 94% of these new-to-online educators say that they will continue to use a hybrid learning model even after in-person classes resume.

Respondents of the survey say they feel comfortable using video technology. In fact, they would like to see their institution use more video. “Video has clearly become intuitive and easy to use for most educators.”

The majority of respondents reported using video to support course delivery. Among the top uses of video are:

• Synchronous remote teaching and learning
• Supplementary course material
• Lecture capture
• Completely asynchronous courses with on-demand video and/or recorded video messages
• Student assignments
• Virtual office hours
• Personal introductions of teachers and/or students
• Flipped classrooms
• Student assessment

Uses of video outside the classroom include:

• Internal staff/instructor training
• Recorded campus events
• Live campus events
• Internal staff communication
• External marketing
• Library media collections

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IBL News | New York

The Open edX organization will return to an in-person annual conference after two years of virtual gatherings due to the COVID pandemic.

The 2022 Open edX Conference will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, on April 26 – 29, 2022. It will be hosted by the Nova School of Business & Economics and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

The conference will explore, according to the organizers, “the future of work and how open technology can be leveraged to up-skill, re-skill, and deliver life-long learning to employees and students alike.”

Attendees will explore innovations and advancements in technologies and instructional design and course creation, along with new features pertaining to the Open edX platform.

The names of keynote speakers and conference presenters will determined this month.

Developers interested in speaking can submit their presentation idea. Call for Proposals — for a 45-minute breakout session, a 10-minute lightning talk, or a 90-minute or 3-hour tutorial/workshop — will be open until February 20th, 2022.

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IBL News  | New York

Almost one-third of all jobs worldwide — over 1 billion jobs in total — will be transformed by technology in the next decade. Millions of jobs will be displaced, but millions more will be created. Those new jobs will pay more and offer better career opportunities. The fastest-growing job categories are six times more likely to pay over $100,000 than the slowest-growing categories.

That’s the scenario forecasted on research crafted by the global consultancy firm Bain & Company on career-connected learning. The study highlights that employers are struggling to fill those jobs, and young people are struggling to access them.

Bain’s research also shows:

IBL News | New York

Global education group Pearson announced this week the acquisition of certification company Credly for $200 million. Pearson, which already owned 20% of Credly (valued at $40 million), will add this company to its Workforce Skills division.

The full Credly team, including Jonathan Finkelstein, Founder and CEO of Credly, will join Pearson.

Andy Bird, Chief Executive of Pearson, said that this purchase “is another important step in accelerating our strategy in the workforce skills market.” “The growing skills gap is putting enormous pressure on the labor market, making verified credentials more essential than ever before,” he added.

Credly complements Pearson’s recent acquisition of Faethm, an AI and predictive analytics company focused on workforce trends.

Credly offers a platform for organizations to award employees and students digital credentials that verify their skills and help connect them with opportunities. Over 2,000 organizations use Credly. The company’s revenue was $13.3 million in 2021.

IBL News | New York

The future of the university as we know it is under threat, says a report from EY (Ernst & Young). This research recommends that to survive, universities take a “future-back” approach, looking to 2030, reinvent themselves by setting a radical transformation in the operating models. Disruption from temporary remote learning may be just the tip of the iceberg.

The report, titled Are universities of the past still the future?, highlights that challenges thrown by the COVID pandemic could rapidly develop into existential threats for universities. Leaders from institutions in the US, UK, India, Singapore, and Australia participated in the research.

“Technology will continue to change the game across the higher education sector and universities need to start thinking and planning now for how they’re going to address the need for reinvention and fit into the post-secondary and lifelong learning landscape of the future,” said Catherine Friday, EY Global Education Leader.

EY adds five bold scenarios:

• “Universities must use digital learning experiences to augment what makes them unique and reinvent their learning delivery around that to meet the needs of tomorrow’s students and lifelong learners.”

• “Universities need to recognize that the power is shifting rapidly into the hands of the learner. Therefore, they need to provide the type of personalized, flexible learning options that students desire.”

• “Universities have lost their monopoly on accreditation, and non-degree, lifelong-learning credentials are becoming mainstream. Universities have to prepare for a world where location or brand reputation is less important to learners than the measurable quality and effectiveness of their teaching and learning outcomes in helping learners reach their individual career and life aspirations.”

IBL News | New York

Boston-based Cengage Group acquired Infosec, a cybersecurity education provider, for $190.8 million, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022, the company reported.

With this purchase — announced yesterday —, Cengage Group expands into the online cybersecurity professional training field, currently a $1 billion market. It is expected to grow to $10 billion annually by 2027.

Michael E. Hansen, CEO of Cengage Group, stated that “with our scale and resources, more cybersecurity professionals will have access to an affordable and faster option to develop the skills they need.”

Cengage will integrate Infosec into its Workforce Skills business division. Since its founding in 2004, Infosec has already trained more than 100,000 cybersecurity professionals. This platform host 1,400+ hands-on cybersecurity courses while providing the option to upgrade to boot camp style, instructor-led training to prepare for certifications.

As the world shifted to remote and hybrid working environments, the frequency of cyber-attacks rapidly increased. As a result, the need for skilled and knowledgeable cybersecurity professionals has grown, driving the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify information security analysts as the tenth fastest-growing occupation over the next decade, with an employment growth rate of 31%.

Today, there are nearly 600,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., with more than half requiring at least one certification. Globally, the number of open cybersecurity positions is 3.5 million.

Cengage Group, which targets job seekers, pointed out in recent research on the “Great Resignation” that 78% of those who have recently resigned from a job pursued online training courses or certificate programs — essential to landing a new job.

IBL News | New York

Learning platform and community Domestika reached unicorn status with a valuation of $1.3 billion after closing a round of a $110 million Series D. The financing was led by Zeev Ventures with additional investors, including GSV Ventures. According to the company’s data, it hosts 8 million learners and over 1,300 teachers around the world.

Berkeley, California-based platform serves like-minded creative amateurs, hobbyists, and professionals. It offers over 2,000 courses taught by 1,300 professionals, covering topics from illustration and design to crafts and digital marketing.

All of the content is curated and produced in-house through its studios in 12 countries in Europe and the Americas, the company claims. Each of the courses is subtitled and translated into English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, French, Polish, and Dutch.

“Our community has grown from humble beginnings, as a small forum for creatives in Spain to over 8 million users around the world,” said Julio G. Cotorruelo, Domestika’s co-founder and CEO. “We plan to fuel this growth by expanding our offering in various languages and by continuing to bring the highest level of creative training in an accessible and affordable way.”

“GSV Ventures is so proud to align with the team at Domestika, who prove every day that learning should be social, joyful, and beautiful,” said Deborah Quazzo, Managing Partner at GSV Ventures.