IBL News

Author: IBL News

  • WordPress.com Issues Two Subscription-Based Courses on Blogging and Podcasting

    WordPress.com Issues Two Subscription-Based Courses on Blogging and Podcasting

    IBL News | New York

    WordPress.com has started this month a customer education initiative with two subscription-based courses: Blogging for Beginners and Podcasting for Beginners.

    Automattic—the company behind WordPress—plans to launch additional courses in 2021.

    Its learning offering revolves around the topic of how to grow a web presence by strategically using tools–its tools–for building a brand, blog, or community online.

    This past Spring, WordPress.com released free daily and in-depth topical webinars. Months later, taking into account customer feedback, Automattic created WPCourses.com (or WordPress Courses).

    These classes include weekly office hours with experts, a certificate of completion, access to a private community online, and virtual meetups scheduled quarterly.

    “Our vision is to create a supportive community where you can meet new people, share ideas, and grow together,” said Monica Ohara, Chief Marketing Officer at WordPress.com.To create those courses, Automattic has used a combination of its own tools, such as WooCommerce, Jetpack, Sensei LMS, P2, Tumblr, and WordPress VIP

    • Podcasting for Beginners — “Video-driven course with over six hours of original video content. Lessons include finding a niche, choosing a podcast format, recording and editing interviews, submitting to podcast directories, growing an audience, and making revenue from a podcast. An annual subscription for access to the Podcasting for Beginners course and community is $99.”
    • Blogging for Beginners, — “Soft-launched in October, it provides on-demand, text-based foundational lessons to establish a successful blog. Lessons include building a blog, understanding audiences, design, writing for the internet, branding, and how to grow and make revenue from a blog. An annual subscription for access to the Blogging for Beginners course and community is $49.”
  • Coursera Curates a Collection of Courses Inspired on Disney’s and Pixar’s Soul Movie

    Coursera Curates a Collection of Courses Inspired on Disney’s and Pixar’s Soul Movie

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera has curated a themed collection of courses that focuses on learners’ artistic and creative interests, in a promotional celebration of Disney & Pixar’s Soul streaming on Disney+ on December 25.

    This collection includes courses and specializations such as The Science of Well-Being from Yale University, The DIY Musician from Berklee College of Music, Achieving Personal and Professional Success from the University of Pennsylvania, and Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most from the University of Michigan.

    The course Brilliant, Passionate You includes stories from students, doctors, teachers, and professional athletes, along with imagery from Soul.

    “Finding purpose and passion is fundamental to both learning and living. Soul’s characters and themes capture so much of what this new course is about,” said James DeVaney, Associate Vice Provost and the founding director of U-M’s Center for Academic Innovation, which developed the course.

    “We’re honored to collaborate with Disney and Pixar and we’re excited for learners inspired by Soul and our courses to discover more ways to live a life of passion and purpose,” wrote in a blog-post Stephanie Hale, Director of Brand at Coursera.

     

  • Open edX & Learning Platforms | December 2020: Harvard, Coursera, Udacity, Google Classroom…

    Open edX & Learning Platforms | December 2020: Harvard, Coursera, Udacity, Google Classroom…

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    DECEMBER 2020 – NEWSLETTER #33  |  Breaking news at IBL News  |  Noticias en Español

     

    Open edX

    • edX Releases Its Latest Open Platform Named Koa

     

    edX

    • edX Changes the Look of Its Logo and Website

    • edX Awards Instructors of a Course that Teaches How to Build Energy-Efficient Homes

    • The edX Virtual Global Forum Will Recognize Instructors from 10 Courses and Programs

    • Thomas Edison State University Backs with College Credit Two MicroBachelors Programs on edX.org

     

    Harvard

    • Innovators Shared Ideas to Improve Zoom and Design Blended New Learning Environments

    • Harvard’s Professor and EdTech Visionary Robert Lue Dies at 56 From Cancer

     

    Coursera

    • Coursera Removes the Infinity Icon from Its Logo Wordmark

    • Coursera Weighs an IPO in 2021 at a Valuation of $5 Billion, Bloomberg Says

    • Cuomo Hires Coursera.org to Provide Unemployed New Yorkers with Access to Training Programs

    • Coursera Extends Its Annual Subscription Plan Worldwide

     

    Udacity

    • Udacity Raises $75M in Debt and Announces It’s Now Profitable

     

    Learning Platforms

    • Open LMS/Moodlerooms Acquires Competitor eThink Education for $20 Million in Cash

    • Edmodo and Google Classroom Top the List of Most Downloaded Apps During the Pandemic

    • Learning Platforms Run Discount Codes on Courses and Membership This Cyber Week

    • Video Management Company Panopto Adds Webex Integration

     

    2020 Events 

    • Education Calendar  –  DEC   |  JAN 2021  |  Conferences in Latin America & Spain

     

    This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specialized in AI and credential-driven learning platforms and communities. Read the latest IBL Newsletter   |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters

  • Online Learning | December 2020: Pluralsight, Noodle, Doulingo, Udemy, Nvidia, Educause…

    Online Learning | December 2020: Pluralsight, Noodle, Doulingo, Udemy, Nvidia, Educause…

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    NOVEMBER 2020 –  NEWSLETTER #39  |  Breaking news at IBL News  |  Noticias en Español

     

    Acquisitions

    • Training Company Pluralsight.com Acquired by Equity Firm Vista for $3.5 Billion

    • Noodle’s Latest Acquisition of HotChalk Will Increase Its Marketing Capabilities

    • Instructure Acquires K12 Assessment and Analytics Company Certica Solutions

     

    Valuations

    • Language Learning App Duolingo Gets a $2.4 Billion Valuation While It Prepares its IPO

    • Udemy Reaches a $3.25 Billion Valuation After Raising Another $50 Million

     

    Initiatives

    • A StartUp Brings Together Online Students in a COVID-Safe Campus Resort in Texas

    • NVIDIA Creates a Learning Community Around Its Jetson AI Micro-Computer

    • A Financial Education Platform Provides Short Lessons on Practical Topics

     

    Higher Ed

    • Unizin’s Consortium Partners with Blackboard to Offer Ally to its 14 Member Institutions

    • International Enrollments Drop 43% in the U.S. Due to the Global Pandemic

    • Educause Analyzes How Higher Education Institutions Will Emerge from the Pandemic

     

    Trends

    • CIOs and CTOs Accelerate AI, Machine Learning, 5G and IoT Due to the Pandemic

    • About Half of the US Says that More Training Doesn’t Result in a Better Job

     

    COVID-19

    • The COVID Pandemic Causes Devastation to Children’s Learning Across the World

    • Rensselaer Develops a Web App that Shows How COVID Will Spread in the Spring Semester

    • SUNY Announces Remote Instruction Until February, Along with Mandatory Tests and Masks-Wearing

     

    2020 Events 

    • Education Calendar  –  DEC   |  JAN 2021  |  Conferences in Latin America & Spain

     

    This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specialized in AI and credential-driven learning platforms and communities. Read the latest IBL Newsletter   |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters

  • edX Awards Instructors of a Course that Teaches How to Build Energy-Efficient Homes

    edX Awards Instructors of a Course that Teaches How to Build Energy-Efficient Homes

    IBL News | New York

    TU Delft Professors Andy van den Dobbelsteen, Eric van den Ham, and Researcher Tess Bloom won the 2020 edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning.

    They teach the course Zero-Energy Design: an approach to make your building sustainable, with 16,000 enrollments to date.

    The course was designed to provide an innovative learning experience. The creators produced a compelling short-film and three mini-documentaries to show how students at TU Delft dels with energy-efficient buildings. [Watch it below]

    The course team also provided weekly video-feedback to students.

    Additionally, the final project had the learners redesign a building they know (their home, school, workplace, a local familiar building) into a more energy-efficient structure.

    TU Delft’s instructors were selected among an array of finalists.

    This is the second time that TU Delft has been awarded the edX Prize; Professor Arno Smets took home the inaugural prize in 2016.

  • Coursera Removes the Infinity Icon from Its Logo Wordmark

    Coursera Removes the Infinity Icon from Its Logo Wordmark

    IBL News | New York

    Coursera unveiled this week its new brand identity “to reflect its growth” and “be clearer about who we are and why we’re here—for our learners, our partners, our customers, and the world.”

    That graphical change—which might be imperceptible to the user—is essentially based on removing the infinity symbol the company was using on its wordmark. Now Coursera starts with a C.

    Stephanie Hale, Director of Brand at Coursera, explained in a blog post: “The C is an entry point into the full span of learning opportunities on Coursera—from projects and free courses to Professional Certificates and degrees.” She added: “The C spotlights a world of possibility and provides a path for learners from discovery to outcome.”

    Selected typefaces are Source Sans Pro and Noto Sans Pro.“These typefaces support 582 languages and provide optimal upload and download speeds across devices and browsers for offline learning.”

     

     

  • edX Changes the Look of Its Logo and Website

    edX Changes the Look of Its Logo and Website

    IBL News | New York

    edX Inc. introduced yesterday a new look for its brand, along with a redesigned website.

    Stephanie Brocuum, Chief Marketing Officer at edX, explained that the goal was “making it easier to identify what edX course or program will help you get to the next step in your career, or maybe it means helping you figure out what coding language you should learn.”

    The graphical change also affected Open edX—the software platform used by the edX.org portal and many institutions and companies all around the world.

    “The new logo and the other updates to our look and feel are the culmination of a lengthy design process and a great deal of testing with edX users,” wrote Ed Zarecor, Head of Engineering at edX.

    Mr. Zarecor encouraged hosting providers and development firms that use the Open edX code to use the new logo “by the end of January,” following the trademark guidelines.

  • Training Company Pluralsight.com Acquired by Equity Firm Vista for $3.5 Billion

    Training Company Pluralsight.com Acquired by Equity Firm Vista for $3.5 Billion

    IBL News | New York

    Private investment firm Vista Equity Partners announced yesterday it was acquiring publicly-traded Pluralsight, Inc. (NASDAQ: PS) in an all-cash transaction that values the training company at approximately $3.5 billion.

    Shareholders will receive $20.26 in cash for each share of common stock they own.

    The purchase price represents a premium of 25% of the company’s closing stock over the past 30 days.

    The agreement was unanimously approved by the Pluralsight Board of Directors. The training company indicated that “the shares subject to the voting agreement represent a majority of the current outstanding voting power.”

    Upon completion of the transaction–expected to close in the first half of 2021–, Pluralsight will become a privately held company and shares of Pluralsight common stock will no longer be listed on any public market.

    Another Utah educational company, Instructure–the owner of Canvas LMS–was bought by another equity firm this year for $2 billion.

    Headquartered in Silicon Slopes, Utah, Pluralsight claims to serve 17,000 customers, including 70% of Fortune 500 companies. It was founded in 2004. After raising over $190 million, it went public in May 2018. Today, it offers under a monthly subscription model a catalog of 7,500 online video courses developed mostly by paid third-party authors. It has a workforce of 1,700 employees.

    Vista Equity Partners owns two education technology companies: PowerSchool and EAB. Its CEO, Robert F. Smith was recently in the news after paying off the debt for the spring 2019 graduating class of Morehouse College.

  • Video Management Company Panopto Adds Webex Integration

    Video Management Company Panopto Adds Webex Integration

    IBL News | New York

    Integrations of Zoom, Webex, other video conferencing into LMSs and learning platforms are gaining ground in higher education, accelerated by the COVID pandemic.

    Panopto is one of the last announced integrations. Panopto video management application now allows users to transfer their Cisco Webex video recordings to the media library.

    Once posted at Panopto’s on-demand video library, clips become searchable and shareable. Archived recordings can be edited through an online video editor. In terms of search, an AI-powered search capability allows finding any word or phrase.

    The integration includes Single Sign-On (SSO) between the two systems.

    In April, the video company released its integration with Zoom. It mostly uses the LTI tool to tie Zoom sessions to enrollment data. The machine-generated captioning with automatic transcription was introduced then, too.

  • edX Releases Its Latest Open Platform Named Koa

    edX Releases Its Latest Open Platform Named Koa

    IBL News | New York

    edX announced on December 9th its eleventh release of the Open edX platform, Koa.

    The Koa version has been released six months after Juniper, which was issued on June 9th, 2020. It includes several improvements, such as personalized learner schedules, progress milestones, LTI 1.3 grading, and installable micro-frontends.

    The underlying operating system has been upgraded to Ubuntu 20.04 to ensure security fixes.

    Ned Batchelder, edX Architect said, “with this release, the previous Open edX release (Juniper) is no longer supported. Operators are encouraged to upgrade to Koa to continue receiving security fixes.”

    On December 17, another edX engineer, Marco Morales will walk through what’s new in Koa during an online community meetup.

    On November 9th, the open-release/koa.master branch and the open-release/koa.alpha1 tag was created.

    The next Open edX release will take place in 2021, and its name will be Lilac.

    Resource:
    • Installing and configuring Koa