Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

MOOCs have reached worldwide — excluding China — 220 million learners and 3,100 courses, according to Dhawal Shah, CEO and Founder at ClassCentral.com.

In 2021, 40 million new learners signed up for at least one MOOC, compared to 60 million in 2020, when the pandemic hit.

In terms of content, Dhawal Shah predicts that in 2022 MOOC providers, such as Coursera, edX, and Future Learn, will expand their catalog through business partners taking advantage of the lucrative enterprise segment.

Their dependence on university partners is declining as more and more courses are created by companies every year, such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.

In a column published at EdSurge this week, Dhawal Shah makes sharp observations regarding the MOOCs players’ performance:

• Since Coursera went public on the NYSE in March 2021, raising $519 million, its stock has been steadily falling. The predicted revenue is over $400 million in 2021, with a loss of $100 million. The company paid its university partners $281 million.

• For Coursera, enterprise-based subscription service is already its fastest-growing segment, with 70 percent year-over-year growth, compared to 29 percent for “consumer,” that is, purchases by individual students.

• edX acquisition by 2U for $800 million in cash in July “weakened edX” since it took away its biggest, or probably only, ideological advantage over Coursera with of its non-profit status. edX CEO Anant Agarwal transitioned to ‘Chief Open Education Officer’ at 2U.

• edX waived all the membership and annual fees for its members, and none of the edX Consortium members left.

• Signs of edX-2U integration. EdX.org has started promoting other 2U acquisitions: GetSmarter Courses and Trilogy Bootcamps.

• 2U stock price didn’t show a positive impact of edX acquisition. It’s lower than it was before the acquisition. The company is valued at $1.6 today.

• Providers have found their audience from a monetization perspective): Professional Learners: learners taking courses for potential career benefits. To target them, providers launched 70 online degrees and some 17,000 micro-credentials.

IBL News | New York

David J. Malan, Professor of the Practice of Computer Science at Harvard University, announced this month the release of a new version of its highly rated entry-level course CS50 on January 1, 2022.

The CS50x 2022 course, as it is named, will include video in 4K, new content, and codespaces at GitHub.

This class, posted on edX.org, is one of Harvard’s largest classes. “It uses tools to make teaching introductory computer science easier,” according to their creators. It is intended for majors and non-majors, with or without prior programming experience.

Topics include abstraction, algorithms, data structures, encapsulation, resource management, security, software engineering, and web development. Languages include C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript, in addition to CSS and HTML. Problem sets are inspired by the real-world domains of biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming.

This is CS50x 2022, available on @edXOnline on January 1, 2022. 🥂 Now in 4K HDR, with new-and-improved content and @code, plus @GitHub Codespaces. Register at https://t.co/0uYgZCA5qz. FAQs at https://t.co/NFx7t8mD5O.https://t.co/ksA1b9jcj2#education #community

— David J. Malan (@davidjmalan) December 22, 2021

IBL News | New York

An 83% of students (8 in 10) reported experiencing feelings of significant stress or anxiety since the fall 2021 semester started, according to a survey on students’ mental health conducted by Barnes & Noble Education.

When asked if their college or university provided resources for mental health/student well-being, nearly 70 percent of students indicated that their campus did provide resources, and just over half of those students (54%) said they felt those resources would be helpful to them.

The Barnes & Noble College Student Mental Health Pulse Research surveyed 1,116 college students aged 18-24 years old across the U.S.

IBL News | New York

The Center for Reimagining Learning, Inc — formerly edX Inc — announced the formation of the Open edX Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) this week.

2U, Inc. and The Center for Reimagining Learning appointed six members:

• Anant Agarwal, Chief Open Education Officer at 2U, Inc.
• Luyen Chou, Chief Learning Officer at 2U, Inc.
• George Babey, Director of Engineering at 2U, Inc.
• Sanjay Sarma, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and Vice President of Open Learning at MIT
• Dustin Tingley, Professor of Government in the Government Department at Harvard University and Deputy Vice Provost for Advances in Learning
• Ed Zarecor, Vice President of Engineering for the Open edX project at The Center for Reimagining Learning

Now, these six initial members [in the picture above] will select three members from the broad Open edX community. This selection will focus on reflecting the diversity of the Open edX community, according to the TOC.

The inaugural meeting of this committee took place on December 10th.
.

IBL News | New York

Skillsoft (NYSE: SKIL) announced the acquisition of the learning platform Codecademy for $525 million in cash and stock yesterday. Earlier this year, Skillsoft acquired Global Knowledge and Pluma.

By adding Codecademy’s clients and 40 million learners, Boston-headquartered Skillsoft will host 46 million users and over 12,000 corporate customers, according to its data. The Codecademy team — mostly based in New York, where the company was founded in 2011 — will join Skillsoft.

Codecademy, an entirely SaaS business, is expected to deliver gross margins of more than 85% in 2021, with projected revenue of $42 million for 2021, up 31%, over the prior year, according to the company. In addition, the company is expected to generate a negative EBITDA of approximately $20 million in 2021.

“Codecademy will significantly expand Skillsoft’s capabilities in the high-growth Tech & Dev segment,” said Jeffrey R. Tarr, Chief Executive Officer of Skillsoft. “Strategic acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy.”

“Together with Codecademy’s interactive, self-paced courses and hands-on learning, Skillsoft will be able to deliver even more immersive experiences through its AI-driven platform, Percipio,” said the company.

Codecademy’s customers expressed their concern about the future of the platform.

🥁 Big news! 🥁 Codecademy is joining forces with @Skillsoft. This milestone allows us to double down on our mission, accelerate our growth, and achieve even more for our learners. 🚀🚀

Read more about our exciting new chapter here: https://t.co/TnLz7iIQse pic.twitter.com/1oNxVqobpm

— Codecademy (@Codecademy) December 22, 2021

IBL News | New York

The new outbreak of the Omicron variant will likely prompt a surge in mental health cases among college students.

Due to remote schooling, restricted gatherings, and constant testing, many students are anxious, socially isolated, and depressed, overwhelming mental health centers. Some even experience suicidal thoughts.

The New York Times ran an article on this topic yesterday, indicating that the Omicron variant threatens to make life on campus worse.

The list of schools going remote is growing. It now includes Harvard University, Stanford, DePaul University, Penn State, The University of California, Los Angeles, seven institutes in the University of California System — Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Riverside — and others.