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News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

The Pandemic Accelerates the OPM Business: Universities Pay $4 Billion a Year

IBL NewsJanuary 30, 2021January 12, 2021

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.

edX | Coursera | Platforms, News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

An MITx Course on edX Explores Solutions for the Massive and Persistent World Poverty

IBL NewsJanuary 30, 2021January 11, 2021

IBL News | New York

MITx launched on edX.org an 11-week, free course for learners interested in solving the massive and persistent economic poverty in the world.

The Challenges of Global Poverty is taught by two Nobel Prize instructors: Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and Esther Duflo, Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

The course–part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy—challenges economics to provide solutions.

The authors pose the following questions:

“Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be “nasty, brutish, and short”? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene?”

 

 

In this free online course from MIT, explore the key questions and challenges posed by massive and persistent world poverty. “The Challenges of Global Poverty” starts on February 9th — enroll today! https://t.co/XAhgNfNPoI pic.twitter.com/Z9l5ejbfqm

— MITx on edX (@MITxonedX) December 30, 2020

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

Udemy.com Hires a New President as Its Growth Continues

IBL NewsJanuary 30, 2021January 14, 2021

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.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

Parler May Never Get Back Online: Vendors Don’t Want Any Business with the App

IBL NewsJanuary 14, 2021January 14, 2021

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.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

Private Messaging Signal Becomes the #1 App on Apple’s and Google’s Stores

IBL NewsJanuary 13, 2021January 13, 2021

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.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

Parler Social App Sues AWS-Amazon For Suspending Its Cloud Hosting Service

IBL NewsJanuary 12, 2021January 11, 2021

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.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX, Views

Apple, Google, and AWS Kick Parler Off—the Social Media App Used by Trump’s Supporters

IBL NewsJanuary 11, 2021January 11, 2021

IBL News | New York

Apple, Google, and AWS/Amazon kick Parler off their platform this weekend, arguing that it has not sufficiently examined its users’ posts, allowing “dangerous and harmful content” that incites violence and lawless action.

For example, a post, written by L. Lin Wood, a lawyer who had sued to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss, posted on Parler on Thursday morning: “Get the firing squad ready. Pence goes FIRST.” The post was viewed at least 788,000 times.

Parler—the alt-tech micro-blogging service and alternative to Twitter—has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, as well as users banned from mainstream social networks.

Over the past months, it became one of the fastest-growing apps in the U.S. This Saturday, Parler was listed as the Number 1 in the App Store. Yesterday, it was fighting for its survival, according to its CEO, John Matze, as the service could go soon offline for not being able to find a new hosting service.

“Big tech really wants to kill competition” and “completely remove free speech of the internet,” he said in a statement online and in several interviews. John Matze also reported that “every vendor from text messages to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day”. [Watch the interview below].

Here’s John Matze’s statement on Parler. pic.twitter.com/ITK3Rd9hNO

— Davey Alba (@daveyalba) January 10, 2021

After President Trump was kicked off Twitter, Parler was a logical choice to become his next megaphone.

In a letter to Parler on Saturday, AWS/Amazon said that it had sent the micro-blogging company 98 examples of posts promoting violence that were still active. “It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with Amazon’s rules.”

On Friday, Apple gave Parler 24 hours to clean up its app or face removal from the App Store. On Saturday, Apple told the company its measures were inadequate and blocked iPhone owners from downloading the Parler app. (Users who already have installed the app will still be able to use it, as long as it is online.)

“We have always supported diverse points of view being represented on the App Store, but there is no place on our platform for threats of violence and illegal activity,” Apple said in a statement.

Several social media startups have promised to offer “unbiased” and “free speech” to Trump supporters, such as Gab / MeWe, Rumble, DuckDuckgo, Brave Browser, Telegram, Dlive, CloutHub, and MyMilitia.

De-Platforming Trump

On the other hand, several Silicon Valley companies announced they were cutting off President Trump and his supporters from using their services, in light of last Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.

So far, the firms de-platforming the President are the following: Stripe, Snap, Pinterest, Spotify, TikTok, Shopify, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, AWS/Amazon, Apple, and Google.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX, Views

Twitter Permanently Suspends President Trump’s Account

IBL NewsJanuary 9, 2021January 9, 2021

IBL News | New York

Twitter permanently suspended yesterday President Trump’s @realDonaldTrump account “due to the risk of further incitement for violence.”

In a blog-post explaining its decision, Twitter argued that the two latest Donald Trump’s tweets “were likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as an encouragement to do so.”

The two mentioned tweets were posted by the President on Friday, January 8th:

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape, or form!!!”

Shortly thereafter, the President tweeted:

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

Twitter acted after Facebook, Snapchat, Twitch and other platforms placed limits on the President. Facebook warred Trump from using its service for the remainder of his term.

Cutting off  Trump from his favorite method of communicating directly with the public, Twitter caused a big disruption in the direct access of the President to the public and the press.

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

Donald Trump—with 79.5 million followers—regularly tweeted dozens of times a day. He was the eighth-most followed account on the platform. Former President Barack Obama has the most followers at over 127 million, followed by Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Cristiano Ronaldo, Taylor Swift, and Lady Gaga.

De-platforming Trump came as a surprise. When it was raised the possibility of social media companies banning him, he repeatedly replied, “They’ll never ban me.”

Donald Trump Jr. was the only one on President’s entourage responding. He tweeted: “We are living Orwell’s 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what’s left is only there for a chosen few.”

We are living Orwell’s 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what’s left is only there for a chosen few.

This is absolute insanity! https://t.co/s2z8ymFsLX

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 9, 2021

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

Senator Warren Says that Betsy DeVos Resigned to Dodge the 25th Amendment

IBL NewsJanuary 9, 2021January 8, 2021

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.

News about Learning Innovation & Open edX

University Political Professors and Scientists Demand the Immediate Removal of President Trump

IBL NewsJanuary 8, 2021January 8, 2021

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.“

 

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  • The Pandemic Accelerates the OPM Business: Universities Pay $4 Billion a Year
  • An MITx Course on edX Explores Solutions for the Massive and Persistent World Poverty
  • Udemy.com Hires a New President as Its Growth Continues
  • Parler May Never Get Back Online: Vendors Don’t Want Any Business with the App
  • Private Messaging Signal Becomes the #1 App on Apple’s and Google’s Stores

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