News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

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.

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, 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.

IBL News | New York

The alternative micro-blogging platform favored by Trump supporters, Parler, may never get back online—said its CEO, John Matze yesterday.

Following the mob assault on the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday, cloud service providers and business vendors—including Stripe, American Express, Twilio, and Slack—have severed ties with Parler. They cited the likelihood of harassment they could face.

John Matze said to Reuters that the best thing would be if Parler could get back on AWS (Amazon Web Services).

On Monday, Parler–which claims 12 million users and a valuation of a billion dollars—filed a lawsuit against AWS-Amazon after being suddenly cut off by the giant cloud service. Two days before, Apple and Google had kicked Parler from their app stores.

On Tuesday, AWS filed exhibits that showed it had warned Parler last year about threatening language on its site.

Telegram Eliminates Violent Channels

With social platforms reevaluating their policies in light of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, Telegram announced yesterday a crackdown on violent channels. The alternative to WhatsApp messaging service said that it removed dozens of public channels in the last 24 hours.

IBL News | New York

Encrypted secure messaging app Signal became yesterday the Number 1 free app on Apple Store and Google Play.

It got 1.3 million downloads only on Monday. Overall, it has been installed 63.1 million times, according to Apptopia data analytics website.

A competitor, Telegram, also surged to the second position.

The appeal of Signal is that, in light of current events, the company cannot access any messages or calls made by users on the app, contrary to Twitter, or WhatsApp—property of Facebook.

Messaging apps have more users—on average 30% more—than social media. Usually, conservative protesters turn to secretive messaging apps, especially in the last week following the crackdown by Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and other big tech companies.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp downloads dramatically dropped in both app stores, despite its promise claiming that “Facebook will not have access to its users’ private messages or calls, shared locations, contacts or groups.”

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, also recommended Signal, after criticizing Facebook and Twitter.

IBL News | New York

Alternative social platform Parler.com filed a lawsuit against AWS-Amazon yesterday “for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act in combination with Defendant Twitter”.

The legal move followed AWS-Amazon’s decision to suspend Parler from its cloud hosting service, leaving the social media startup in the dark at 4:30 am ET Monday.

In the filing, Parler claimed that “AWS’s decision is apparently motivated by political animus.”

In addition, “AWS is also breaching it[s] contract with Parler, which requires AWS to provide Parler with a thirty-day notice before terminating service, rather than the less than thirty-hour notice AWS actually provided.”

“Last month, Defendant Amazon Web Services, Inc. (“AWS”) and the popular social media platform Twitter signed a multi-year deal so that AWS could support the daily delivery of millions of tweets. AWS currently provides that same service to Parler, a conservative microblogging alternative and competitor to Twitter,” the filing reads.

“When Twitter announced two evenings ago that it was permanently banning President Trump from its platform, conservative users began to flee Twitter en masse for Parler. The exodus was so large that the next day, yesterday, Parler became the number one free app downloaded from Apple’s App Store.”

The suit came as Google and Apple also took action against Parler in the wake of a pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol, suspending it from their app store Friday.

Parler filed its lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in the Western District of Washington. Rothstein was appointed to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

IBL News | New York

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—who officially stepped down this Friday in the aftermath of the assault on the US Capitol—engaged in a dispute via Twitter with Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusets [left, in the picture].

Elizabeth Warren wrote this Thursday: “Betsy DeVos has never done her job to help America’s students”. “It doesn’t surprise me one bit that she’d rather quit than do her job to help invoke the 25th Amendment. Good riddance, Betsy. You were the worst Secretary of Education ever.”

You know not of what you speak, @SenWarren https://t.co/hn8B4C6ZNx

— Secretary Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) January 8, 2021

Betsy DeVos answered: “You know not of what you speak, @SenWarren.”

She also pushed back against other voices who claimed she resigned to dodge a decision on President Trump’s removal under the 25th amendment.

However, The New York Times reported that Ms. DeVos submitted her resignation after it became clear that Vice President Mike Pence would not invoke the 25th Amendment.

In the last four years, DeVos had been extensively criticized by Democrats and Higher Ed leaders for supporting President Trump.

IBL News | New York

Hundreds of political professors and scientists from U.S. universities called yesterday on Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to immediately remove Donald Trump from the Presidency, either through the impeachment process or by invoking the 25th Amendment.

In a letter written after a violent mob stormed the Capitol, they said that “Trump’s actions threaten American democracy” and “he is unwilling or unable to fulfill his oath to protect and defend the Constitution.” 

They argued: “He has rejected the peaceful transfer of power, encouraged state legislators to overturn election results in their states, pressured a state official to change election results, and now incited a violent mob that shut down the counting of electoral votes and stormed the U.S. Capitol.“