IBL News

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  • A Practical Course on edX to Learn How to Deploy an IBM Watson-Based Chatbot

    A Practical Course on edX to Learn How to Deploy an IBM Watson-Based Chatbot

    Mikel Amigot | IBL News (New York)

     

    IBM launched yesterday on edX.org a free course to learn how to create a turbocharged chatbot with Watson Services.

    The online class  (3 weeks, 2-4 hours per week) teaches the intricacies of Watson Discovery, allowing to surface answers and patterns from large unstructured data sets.

    Designed for intermediate learners, this practical course, Programming Chatbots with Watson Services, requires learners to have previous basic knowledge of object-oriented programming, as well as command line, Node.js, and IBM Watson Assistant.

    In addition, “if you have a large repository, the contents of which could answer customer questions, you’ve got the makings of a great FAQ chatbot,“ said the instructors of the course – four IBM’s developers and cloud experts.

    The AI-powered chatbot application, that interacts in natural language, is the result of ingesting data that can be queried to extract sentiment, concept, entities, and taxonomy by using Watson Discovery.

    WordPress and edX Plugins

    AI-based agents or chatbots are expanding in all the industries including education. Gartner predicts that by 2020, 85% of businesses will have their own chatbot.

    In digital education, many questions on the discussions, especially the repetitive ones that pop up in every class, can be answered by a chatbot. Inquiries and follow-up requirements within the course can be solved by this type of automatic help desks.

    These IBM agents are now created for the overall course catalog, rather than the use of a Teaching Assistant (TA) for individual courses and pedagogical answers.

    • Today, IBM is considering developing a Watson-based extension or plugin to integrate with edX.org and Open edX sites, sources told toIBL News.
    • In September, IBM issued a plugin for WordPress, that uses Watson’s Assistant on the cloud. This plugin helps to quickly deploy a chatbot on WordPress-based sites.
  • 2U Announces a Deal with RIT to Deliver an Online Master’s Degree in Architecture

    2U Announces a Deal with RIT to Deliver an Online Master’s Degree in Architecture

    IBL News | New York

    Less than thirty days from the third quarter of earnings calls, 2U (NASDAQ: TWOU) announced yesterday a new partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) to deliver an online Master of Architecture degree. The program is 2U’s first architecture offering and represents a new vertical for the company.

    With the firm’s stock price currently trading around $16.43, 2U has been unable to gain investors’ trust and recover most of the two-thirds of the value that evaporated after the earnings call on July 30th.  The Lanham, Maryland–based company now has a market capitalization of $1.04 billion – it reached $4.7 billion a year ago, with the stock traded at $80.49.

    The deal reported on Monday with RIT didn’t impact 2U’s stock price. Top stories and financial alerts continued to bounce around investors’ class-action lawsuits alleging misleading statements made between February and July.

    RIT Architecture Online is scheduled to be launched in September 2020. Rochester Institute of Technology faculty will deliver the curriculum through a combination of asynchronous and live classes on 2U’s online platform.

    “We are very delighted to begin this significant and important collaboration with 2U,” said Dennis A. Andrejko, Head of RIT’s Department of Architecture. “Partnering with 2U can certainly allow us to add momentum in advancing our sustainability and resiliency agenda, while inextricably linking this to the opportunities, power, and value of design inquiry and architecture.”

    On behalf of 2U, Andrew Hermalyn, President of Global Partnerships, indicated: “Working together, we will take the best of the RIT architecture program online and into the digital era, and prepare the next generation of leaders in the field to address the most pressing sustainability and design challenges.”

    Update: 2U Inc. had a rough trading day on Tuesday, October 8th, as the stock price dropped 5.26%, to close at $15,57. As a result of the decline, 2U Inc. now has a market cap of $985.81 million.

     

  • Coursera for Campus Is Not an Alternative LMS to Blackboard, Canvas and Moodle, Says Maggioncalda

    Coursera for Campus Is Not an Alternative LMS to Blackboard, Canvas and Moodle, Says Maggioncalda

    Mikel Amigot | IBL News


    “Coursera for Campus is not a full-featured LMS,”     said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, during the announcement event in India, on October 3rd. “We expect many universities to stay on their LMSs.”  

    According to the company, Coursera for Campus’ LMS is designed to supplement the existing Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle systems.

    Its main utility refers to authoring content for private audiences such as residential students, alumni, faculty members, and staff.

    The SSO (Single Sign-On) and APIs are apparently intended to facilitate further integrations. The collection of distinctive features include analytics, live-hands on labs, in-browser coding, plagiarism detection, Jupyter Notebooks and gradebook integration.

    Jeff Maggioncalda insisted on the message of collaboration and not being an alternative LMS.

    So far 20 partner universities, including Duke and Illinois, have piloted Coursera for Campus, and 10 additional universities are using an early version of it.

    Last week, when Coursera for Business was advertised, representatives of the company highlighted that this new LMS was designed to deliver online courses and interactive lessons better than most LMSs.

    “We’re talking about a potential major disruption to the LMS market,” Leah Belsky, Coursera’s Vice President of Enterprise said on EdSurge. “We don’t have all the features of an LMS but what we do have is all the tools to create cutting-edge interactive learning experiences.”

    Michael Feldstein, a known consultant and author at the eLiterate blog, doubted that universities will replace their learning management systems with Coursera’s. “MOOC platforms are interesting and have some innovative features, but they are neither mature for their original purpose nor tuned for the broad range of usage that a campus LMS must serve,” Michael Feldstein wrote.

    The edX Consortium had always offered to its affiliated members a private, yet unbranded, authoring platform called Edge.

    • Michael Feldstein’s Blog Post: The MOOC-Courseware Convergence

     

     

  • The Power of Data and Analytics Can Save Higher Education, Says Educause, AIR and NACUBO

    The Power of Data and Analytics Can Save Higher Education, Says Educause, AIR and NACUBO

    IBL News | New York

    Analytics can solve some of higher education’s biggest problems.

    To reaffirm this idea, and given that progress has faltered, three important associations joined forces and made a collective call-to-action for colleges and universities.

    Data and analytics are institutional strategic asset; using analytics to make better decisions will result in improved student recruiting, student outcomes and completion rates, cost management and campus operations, according to these organizations.

    Educause, the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) – who collectively serve 2,500 institutions and represent over 80% of post-secondary students in the U.S. – released a statement last month recommending six guiding principles:

    • Go big—make an institutional commitment to analytics.
    • Analytics is a team sport—build your dream team.
    • Prepare for some detours on the road to success.
    • Invest what you can—you can’t afford not to.
    • Analytics has a real impact on real people—avoid the pitfalls.
    • Tick-tock, tick-tock—the time to act is now.

    “For a while now, our progress on institution-wide analytics initiatives has not hit its stride,” said John O’Brien, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE. “We hope this statement encourages a sense of urgency and fosters a deeper understanding of the benefits of data analytics for institutions of all kinds.”

    The associations created a website to further support colleges and universities in their implementation processes.

     

  • A Conference to Find Viable Business Models to Commercialize Open Source Software

    A Conference to Find Viable Business Models to Commercialize Open Source Software

    Mikel Amigot  | San Francisco

     

    Organizers of the Open Core Summit – which took part this month at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco – announced the COSS (Commercial Open-Source Software) Platform.

    The goal of this initiative is to help commercial open-source organizations develop viable business models. “We want to educate, grow, fund and connect leaders of COSS companies,” as explained to IBL News by Joseph Jacks, founder of OSS Capital, a venture-capital firm who put together the Open Core Summit.

    Today open-source licenses like Apache 2.0 have no requirements to compensate those who craft software. Consequently, many software companies have been struggling for years.

    To solve it, open-source code cobblers such as Elastic, Confluent, InfluxData, MongoDB, Neo4J, and Redis Labs, among many others, are experimenting with improved business models and alternative software licenses.

    Commercial open-source software is often developed as a substitute for costly proprietary software.

    “In addition, COSS companies are fundamentally more capital efficient at running on and innovating with far less capital,” OSS Capital Founding Portfolio Partner Heather Meeker recently wrote.

    Despite the ups and downs, open-source has become a standard for software development and fast-paced innovation. Its collaboration and knowledge sharing model has transformed software’s development and delivery over the last two decades.

    Open-source is getting increasingly popular, with 30 million developers exchanging code and ideas and collaborating on GitHub.

    From the business perspective, companies like Red Hat and Canonical are proof that an open-source model can turn a profit. Other examples of companies which follow the model of “commercial support” include Docker, GitLab, and Databricks.

    In this new environment, the open-source services industry is set to exceed $17B in 2019, and expected to reach $33B by 2011, according to CB Insights.

    An indication of the growth can be found on Canonical/Ubuntu‘s plans to march into an IPO and recent acquisitions (Red Hat by IBM for $34B, and GitHub by Microsoft for $7.5B), alongside large public market valuations like those of MongoDB ($7.9B) and Elastic ($7.3B).

  • Learners at Coursera, Canvas and Blackboard Will Be Able to Ask Alexa for Course Updates

    Learners at Coursera, Canvas and Blackboard Will Be Able to Ask Alexa for Course Updates

    IBL News | New York

    “Alexa, when is my next assignment due?”

    Coursera will introduce a new tool for Alexa in October, taking advantage of the new API, Alexa Education Skills, created by Amazon for any edtech company.

    Along with the MOOC portal, CanvasLMS, Blackboard, Kickboard and ParentSquare plan to activate this feature soon.

    By simply asking Alexa, learners will get updates based on the latest information on their student account.

    Voice assistants, like Alexa and Siri, are being rapidly adopted.

    Available to all learners with a Coursera account and Amazon Alexa-enabled device, this tool will help learners access course assignment and quiz scores, due dates, and progress updates, among other pieces of information.

    “Recognizing this trend, we introduced a new tool that helps learners fit education into their daily lives, we’ve taken another exciting step toward our mission of providing transformational learning experiences to anyone, anywhere,” Alex Sanchez, Product Management, Mobile Experiences, and Emerging Technology at Coursera, wrote in a blog post.

    The Alexa Education Skill API integrates with Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), Classroom Management providers, and massively open online course (MOOC) platforms.

    The new API will be available in preview by invitation only for the following interfaces:

    • Alexa.Education.Profile.Student
    • Alexa.Education.Course
    • Alexa.Education.Coursework
    • Alexa.Education.School.Communication
    • Alexa.Education.Grade.Course (coming soon)
    • Alexa.Education.Grade.Coursework (coming soon)

     

  • Automattic, the Company Behind WordPress, Valued at $3 Billion After Its Last Funding

    Automattic, the Company Behind WordPress, Valued at $3 Billion After Its Last Funding

    Mikel Amigot | IBL News

    Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, the Jetpack plugin and soon Tumblr, announced on Thursday that it closed a     $300 million funding round in Series D from Salesforce Ventures. The investment puts Automattic’s valuation at $3 billion post-funding.

    Today WordPress powers more than 34% of all sites on the web, claims Automattic CEO and WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg [in the picture].

    The company will have close to 1,200 employees when the Tumblr acquisition closes. In August, Automattic purchased Tumblr from Verizon for $3 million, a fraction of what it was worth when Yahoo bought it for $1.1 billion in 2013. Tumblr is seen as complementary to WordPress.com; therefore, no major changes are planned.

    The freemium business model with an open-source philosophy at its core has been working very well for Automattic Inc.

    WordPress, as a free open-source software platform, is owned by a non-profit group called The WordPress Foundation, while the popular domain WordPress.com is privately held.

    Automattic makes most of its money by selling subscriptions to software services related to the WordPress platform, like WooCommerce, an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress; Jetpack, a customization and security plugin for WordPress; and enterprise WordPress for businesses, such as WordPress.com VIP. It also gets revenues by selling advertising against some of the free blogs that users create on WordPress.com.

  • 2U Will Release More Data As The OPM Industry Will Face Growing Scrutiny

    2U Will Release More Data As The OPM Industry Will Face Growing Scrutiny

    Mikel Amigot | New York

    2U, the most visible company in the OPM (Online Program Management) industry, announced on September 11 what it called “an unprecedented new Framework for Transparency”, which “will offer students, universities, and policymakers data on outcomes, quality, institutional independence, and more for the degree and non-degree offerings.”

    “2U becomes the first OPM to openly call for, and embrace, greater transparency,” the Lanham, Maryland-based company said in a statement.

    “We call upon other OPMs across the industry to join us in committing to greater transparency,” 2U Co-Founder and CEO Christopher “Chip” Paucek added.

    The new framework is grounded in six pillars: University Oversight & Accountability; Marketplace Openness; Access; Affordability; Quality; and Outcomes.

    Facing growing scrutiny, 2U’s move isn’t as big as it looks, given that the company is publicly traded (NASDAQ: TWOU) and needs to recover investors’ confidence after losing over half of its market value in the last seven weeks.

    Secondly, the controversial company needs to self-regulate, getting ahead of potential regulatory changes.

    In addition, it would be an attempt to put pressure on competitors such as Pearson, Wiley, Academic Partnerships, Noodle and Bisk to do the same.

    “Paucek believes that releasing more information about the company and its operations will help prove just how ‘excellent’ it is,” wrote Doug Lederman in Inside Higher Ed.

    A Public Database of Online Program Contracts

    In relation to the OPM industry, the Century Foundation published a report yesterday titled “Dear Colleges: Take Control of Your Online Courses.” It elaborated on the relationships between 79 public colleges and OPM companies and included a database of scores of contracts outlining the terms of the arrangements.

    “Our hope is that this action-focused report will assist schools and those who care about them to jumpstart a paradigm shift in how online education in the United States is done,” the Foundation said.

    • EdSurge: Layoffs, Deferred Tuition and More Transparency Among 2U Changes Since Stock Fall
    • Education Dive: A look inside public universities’ OPM contracts

     

  • MIT Top Officials Were Aware of Epstein’s Ties to the Media Lab and Accepted Those Donations, Says Peter Cohen

    MIT Top Officials Were Aware of Epstein’s Ties to the Media Lab and Accepted Those Donations, Says Peter Cohen

    IBL News | New York

    Peter Cohen, a former MIT Media Lab fund-raiser and currently a central figure in the MIT/Epstein unfolding scandal, said on Tuesday that he was following university’s practices on accepting donations.

    Through a written statement to The Boston Globe, Peter Cohen, former MIT Media Lab director of development and strategy and now director of development for computer science at Brown University, said that when he joined the Media Lab in 2014, it already had established procedures for handling Epstein’s contributions (despite the disgraced financier was convicted in 2008 to a 13-month jail term for soliciting sex from a minor.)

    Those policies regarding donations were “authorized by and implemented with the full knowledge of MIT central administration.”

    According to e-mails released by a whistleblower on The New Yorker and The New York Times, Cohen acted as an intermediary between the Media Lab and its former director Joi Ito and MIT’s central administration on donor issues. Cohen also worked with Ito on Epstein-related matters, such as developing a written proposal for funding from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, that Epstein said he could arrange.

    “Notwithstanding my personal discomfort regarding Mr. Epstein and his involvement with MIT, I did not believe I was in a position to change MIT’s policies and practices,” Cohen said in an e-mailed statement. “I did not witness anything I understood to be illegal, and I never solicited gifts from Mr. Epstein.”

    MIT president L. Rafael Reif said on Monday that the university had retained a law firm [Goodwin Procter] to investigate Epstein’s interactions with MIT.  Despite that criminal history, Ito said he wooed Epstein as a donor for the lab when he met him in 2013.

    MIT’s funding practices have attracted media attention in the last months.

    In July The New York Times Magazine published a thorough article about it.

    On Friday, The New Yorker mentioned that corporate donors—called “members”—who pay at least $250,000 a year make up the majority of the Media Lab’s annual budget.

    Yesterday, two columnists wrote on Fortune, “while these institutions project the appearance of being focused on academic pursuits—finding the truth, asking tough questions, pursuing independent lines of exploration, and so on—in reality, they are corporate lap dogs fetching the balls their masters throw.”

     

  • An MIT Professor Will Temporarily Lead the Media Lab In the Midst of the Crisis

    An MIT Professor Will Temporarily Lead the Media Lab In the Midst of the Crisis

    IBL News | New York

    MIT announced on September 10 that it appointed a transitional executive committee of faculty and senior staff to lead the MIT Media Lab, after the resignation of its director Joi Ito over his financial ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

    Meanwhile, an independent investigation by law firm Goodwin Procter, announced by MIT’s President Rafael Reif on Saturday, is still ongoing. [Update: Email from President Reif to the MIT Community]

    Pattie Maes, professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, will serve as chair of the committee, managing the future lab governance model and search for new director.

    Four more members, along with their areas of responsibility, will be:

    • Deb Roy, professor of media arts and sciences: executive director of operations and communications;
    • Tod Machover, professor and head of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences: community engagement and culture change;
    • Maria Zuber, MIT’s vice president for research: policies, practices, and culture of research; and
    • Ramona Allen, the School of Architecture and Planning’s assistant dean for human resources and, as of Oct. 1, MIT’s vice president of human resources: administrative organization.

    “These have been exceptionally difficult times for the Media Lab, and I want to thank the members of the community for their dedication to the lab and for their commitment to real change,” said Hashim Sarkis, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning.

    A Whistleblower Revealed the Ties of MIT to Epstein

    In an internal meeting at the lab, on September 4, Ito admitted to having taken $525,000 from Epstein for the Media Lab and an additional $1.2 million for his private ventures.

    According to an article at MIT Technology Review, emails provided to the New Yorker and the New York Times by whistleblower Signe Swenson, a former development associate at the Media Lab, showed Ito, along along with Peter Cohen, a former development official at the lab, acknowledging that Epstein’s money needed to remain anonymous.

    The hidden ties with Epstein –who died in jail on August 10– were so widely known at the Media Lab that staff in Ito’s office began to call him “he who must not be named” or “Voldemort,” according to the New Yorker. Questions also remain about how the donations evaded detection by MIT.

    The lack of transparency around the close relationships between academic institutions and an elite network of donors is a constant in the higher education industry, according to observers.

    MIT and Harvard Professors and Thinkers Supported Joi Ito

    Epstein had a reputation for cultivating relationships with scientists. He also funded many scientific projects, including some at MIT and Harvard University. He was linked to deceased MIT professor and AI pioneer Marvin Minsky, who was recently accused of having sex with one of Epstein’s underage victims.

    Now Epstein’s support has become a source of public shame for the Media Lab. Mainly, because documents showed that the MIT Media Lab – an elite group within MIT –, was aware of Epstein’s status as a convicted sex offender. Additionally, Epstein’s directed contributions to the lab far exceeded the amounts M.I.T. has publicly admitted.

    Another angle of the controversy refers to the group of prominent professors and thinkers involved with MIT and Harvard who signed a letter in support of MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito in mid-August. The letter sought to gather support for Ito, who apologized for accepting funds from the now-deceased sexual criminal.

    This list includes as signers Harvard Law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte, Harvard law professor and EFF board member Jonathan Zittrain, and synthetic biology pioneer George Church.