Author: IBL News

The Pandemic Caused a Huge Financial Hit to Public Research Universities

IBL News | New York

The 199 U.S. public research universities—which employ three million faculty and staff—lost $17.7 billion in revenues during the pandemic and employment fell 14%. In addition, they had to spend another $3.1 billion to take safety measures last fall.

This is what the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) reported to Congress while requesting relief funding. So far, they have received $5.7 billion.

“APLU urges Congress to provide $97 billion in the next Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to address the emergency needs of colleges and universities and those we serve.”

“The $15.1 billion gap of funding number will, unfortunately, continue to grow significantly,” announced APLU.

On the other hand, the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus’ students will remain at home for two weeks to slow the spread of the virus, following the recommendation of health officials. The university has recently identified 175 COVID-19 cases among students, including 14 of the B.1.1.7 variant that was first detected in Britain.

January 30, 2021
Udemy.com Hires a New President as Its Growth Continues

IBL News | New York

Udemy.com announced this Wednesday the appointment of a new President, Greg Brown.

Brown [in the picture] most recently served as CEO of Reflektive, an employee performance platform. Prior to this company, he was the Senior Vice President of International Business at Blackhawk Network and held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at Achievers.

This key hire comes at a growth state for Udemy, which accelerated with the pandemic. In 2020, Udemy reached a $3.25 billion valuation and Udemy for Business surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, according to its data.

Udemy, the largest global marketplace for online learning, claims to reach over 35 million learners with 57,000 instructors teaching 130,000 courses in more than 65 languages.

January 29, 2021
SNHU Launches Two edX MicroBachelors in Business Analytics and Data Management

IBL News | New York

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is launching this month in collaboration with edX its first MicroBachelors programs: Business Analytics Foundations and Data Management with Python and SQL.

The edX’s MicroBachelor standalone credential will allow learners to apply for transfer credit toward an SNHU associate or bachelor’s degree program. Offered at $498 per course, the classes are worth up to six credits each. The two MicroBachelors courses are open for enrollment on edX and start on February 26.

“Through the new SNHUx programs, learners will be able to study at their own pace, obtain workforce-relevant skills, and apply credits when they enroll at SNHU – creating an even more affordable pathway to an associate or bachelor’s degree,” stated in a press-release Paul LeBlanc, President and CEO, SNHU.

“With SNHU, we will further the edX mission to increase access to education worldwide,” said Anant Agarwal, edX Founder, and CEO.

With the launch, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) becomes a partner in the edX Consortium. It will operate as SNHUx.

January 27, 2021
The Pandemic Accelerates the OPM Business: Universities Pay $4 Billion a Year

IBL News | New York

Universities and colleges are increasingly outsourcing services—from dorms to online courses—to for-profit corporations, with billions of dollars flowing to third-party organizations.

For example, providing online university programs has become a $4 billion-a-year industry, according to the education market-research firm HolonIQ. That amount is expected to increase to $10 billion by 2025.

In this segment, Online Programs Managers (OPM) firms, such as 2U and Noodle, are particularly active. These companies—in the number of 200—create and operate online courses, recruiting and enrolling students, advising and tutoring them. They charge commissions—sometimes as high as 80%—for these services.

The Washington Post reported this month about it.

During the pandemic, the OPM business has speeded up. Around 300 new deals have been reached between universities and for-profit online, a 79 percent increase over last year.

Many universities—looking at every source of revenue—say that outsourcing makes them more efficient and nimble and saves them money.

Higher education organizations spend $16 billion annually on educational technology, and this is projected to rise to $20 billion by 2024, BMO Capital Markets predicts. The estimated annual spending surpasses $15 billion on marketing, recruiting, and enrolling students.

January 26, 2021
Docebo LMS, Valued at $2.23 Billion, Sells More Shares. Its Founder to Pocket $7.5M

IBL News | New York

Toronto-based Docebo LMS (TSX: DCBO; Nasdaq: DCBO) announced on Friday the pricing of its marketed secondary public offering of common shares in the U.S. and Canada. It will be a price of $49.67 per share for proceeds of $100 million. The offering comprises 2,013,288 common shares.

One of the sellers is its Founder and CEO, Italian entrepreneur Claudio Erba, with 150,996 shares [In the picture above]. If the offer is successful, he will receive $7.5 million of the proceeds. The other two shareholders are Intercap Equity Inc (1,811,920 shares) and Alessio Artuffo (50,332 shares).

The offering is expected to close this week, on January 26.

The selling shareholders have also granted the underwriters the option to purchase up to 301,993 additional common shares, representing in the aggregate 15% of the total number of common shares to be sold.

Last year, Docebo showed explosive growth in the stock of 387%, from the pricing of $10.30 per share to $67.77 on January 22. In 2020, it attracted big customers such as Uber, Walmart, and AWS. For fiscal 2021, its revenue is expected to grow 44.7%.

Currently, its market value is $2.23 billion—similar to Instructure’s Canvas LMS, which was taken off the market last year.

The Motley Fool recommended yesterday the DCBO stock to buy in 2021, along with two other technology companies (Kinaxis and Lightspeed POS).

January 25, 2021
The Biden Administration Issues Guidance for Colleges on the COVID Pandemic

IBL News | New York

President Biden signed on Thursday an executive order for “reopening and continuing operation of schools and early childhood education providers”. The goal was to “ensure that students receive a high-quality education” during the pandemic.

This order was one of 10 signed by Biden in conjunction with the release of a new 200-page strategy from the White House on COVID-19 response. This strategy included a goal of administering 100 million vaccines in Biden’s first 100 days in office and a plan to invoke the Defense Production Act.

The guidance for colleges, elaborated by the CDC, leaves discretion to institutions and states, resulting in a variety of approaches across colleges.

On the other hand, Joe Biden revoked a recent initiative from the Trump Administration—called Donald Trump’s presidential 1776 Commission—to promote “patriotic education” in schools.

In an executive order signed on his first day in office, this Wednesday 20, Biden disbanded Trump’s project, depicted by several historians as “false and fashionable ideologies.”

January 23, 2021
Wesleyan University Launches Two Courses Focused on Taking Action for Social Change

IBL News | New York

Universities and colleges in the U.S. have their view on how to make an impact and achieve social change.

This month, Wesleyan University announced two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) focused on making social change. The Black Lives Matter movement of last summer inspired instructors to create these two courses.

These online courses come on Coursera.org and enrollment is free of charge.

• Take Action: Turning Protest to Policy. Taught by Professor of Government Mary Alice Haddad and Attorney and Associate Professor Sarah Ryan, the course focuses on strategies for action, such as using the courts, communicating across platforms, connecting with power, and making change locally.

The course takes about 34 hours to complete. Each of the four modules contains two videos (one by Haddad or Ryan, and one by another speaker—often a TED talk), one academic reading, one general reading, and one assignment or a short quiz. There is a final assignment about creating an original policy action plan for a specific cause.

The assignments range from a short quiz on reading the Clean Air Act to developing a stakeholder map for an issue in your community. The final assignment involves creating an original policy action plan for a cause that you care about.

• Designing and Building Institutional Anti-Racist Spaces (D-BIAS) is a 23 hours course whose “mission is to teach and apply tenets of equity, anti-racism, and cultural justice to students from institutions to achieve social change.”

This class—taught by Jonathan Perez, Visiting Lecturer in Liberal Studies—is aimed at educators and administrators, lawyers, and civil rights advocates.

Wesleyan faculty and scholars are currently teaching 16 courses and specializations on Coursera.

January 22, 2021
The Biden Administration Extends the Pause on Student Loan Payments for Eight Months

IBL News | New York

In one of his first actions as President, Joe Biden asked yesterday the Education Department to extend a pause on federal student loan payments through at least September 30.

This way, Biden continues a moratorium that began last March as part of a virus relief package. Borrowers owe a collective $1.5 trillion. On average, students owe between $200 and $299 every month, an amount that for many is simply untenable; about one in every five borrowers is in default, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

This extension on federal student loans was among 17 actions President Biden signed on his first day in office.

Biden’s order didn’t include the mass debt cancellation that some Democrats asked him to orchestrate through executive action. He said that action should come from Congress.

The order excludes over 7 million borrowers whose federal loans are held by private companies or universities.

During his inaugural address, Biden highlighted the need of getting children back to school during the pandemic. “We can teach our children in safe schools,” he said.

On the other hand, Dr. Miguel Cardona, Head of Connecticut’s Public Schools, was confirmed for the position of Education Secretary.

Dr. Cardona, who spent two decades of his career in education as a public school teacher, offers a direct juxtaposition to the Trump administration’s former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Cardona’s parents are from Puerto Rico and lived in public housing when they moved to Connecticut.

Cindy Marten, a University of Wisconsin La Crosse graduate, was picked to serve as the Deputy Secretary of Education. She has served as the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District since 2013. Marten was a classroom teacher for 17 years prior to being appointed superintendent.

To these nominations, analysts highlighted the fact that the new First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, is an educator at heart. She is a community college instructor and bestselling author.

Her profile on The White House website, posted yesterday, said: “As First Lady, Dr. Biden continues her work for education, military families, and fighting cancer. She is a professor of writing at Northern Virginia Community College.”

“Teaching isn’t just what I do, it’s who I am,” she stated.

January 21, 2021
The College Board Discontinues SAT Subject Tests and the optional SAT Essay

IBL News | New York

The College Board—which administers the SAT college entrance examination—announced yesterday that it is dropping the Subject Tests and the optional essay section for students in the U.S.

From now on, colleges will decide how to consider students’ Subject Test scores.
Regarding essay writing, the College Board recognizes that there are other ways for students to demonstrate their mastery.

Both exams have been fading as fewer American colleges require them. Also, the competitor ACT has lately received a boost.

In addition, the pandemic shut down testing centers.

“The pandemic accelerated a process already underway at the College Board to reduce and simplify demands on students,” the organization acknowledged in a statement.

Students in the U.S. will automatically have their registrations canceled and receive a refund.

For international students, the College Board will provide two more administrations in May and June of 2021.

However, it added that it would continue to develop a digital version of the SAT test with live proctoring. The organization didn’t give a time frame.

“There’s still a clear demand from students to take the SAT as a way to show their strengths to colleges. Most immediately, we’re working to provide as many opportunities as possible for students in the class of 2022 to take the SAT this year.”

Critics said in The New York Times that the College Board’s decision was financial due to the costs of administering the SAT during the pandemic.

They also say that the organization was likely to use the elimination of the subject tests to try to convince elite high schools to offer more Advanced Placement (AP) courses, whose tests it also administers.

In fact, in its announcement, the College Board states that “AP provides students rich and varied opportunities to showcase their knowledge and skills through college-level coursework.” “Courses like AP Computer Science Principles and AP Capstone provide the type of hands-on learning experiences and practical, real-world work that colleges want to see from students.”

January 20, 2021
ProPublica Releases an Unfiltered Collection of Parler’s Videos on the Riot at the Capitol

IBL News | New York

ProPublica.org published yesterday a collection in a chronological timeline of over 500 videos recovered from the now-shuttered Parler social network app, offering an unfiltered, eye-opening look at the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

New York City-based nonprofit news outlet reviewed thousands of videos uploaded publicly by Trump supporters to Parler before the site was taken offline by the AWS hosting company.

“Taken together, they provide one of the most comprehensive records of a dark event in American history through the eyes of those who took part,” said ProPublica.

Videos are ordered by the time and location they were taken: Around DC, Near Capitol, and Inside Capitol.

ProPublica disclosed that before Parler went offline, an anonymous programmer downloaded more than 1 million videos — nearly all the videos ever uploaded to the service. Then a staff of journalists selected 500 newsworthy videos.

January 19, 2021