EDTECH NEWS ARCHIVE - October 29, 2018
October 29, 2018
RATE THIS DEAL: Cheddar, a self-described “millennial video news company,” has acquired RateMyProfessors, the website where college students can anonymously review their instructors. Previously owned by Viacom, RateMyProfessors now boasts 20 million rating for 1.8 million professors, and is used by more than 6 million college students each month, according to the press release. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
EDTECH NEWS ARCHIVE - October 22, 2018
October 29, 2018
RATE THIS DEAL: Cheddar, a self-described “millennial video news company,” has acquired RateMyProfessors, the website where college students can anonymously review their instructors. Previously owned by Viacom, RateMyProfessors now boasts 20 million rating for 1.8 million professors, and is used by more than 6 million college students each month, according to the press release. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
October 16, 2018
Mention edtech, and one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is collecting data to evaluate student progress. And according to experts who participated in a recent webinar, getting that data to educators so they can develop a more effective and personalized learning plan for each student is a crucial goal.
October 16, 2018
NEWTON, Mass., Oct. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Examity, the global leader in learning validation and online proctoring, today announced the opening of its new headquarters in Newton, MA. The company's move to the former location of travel site TripAdvisor reflects its rapid growth as colleges and employers place an increased emphasis on the integrity and security of online testing.
October 16, 2018
Boston-based private equity firm Devonshire Investors has acquired NovoEd, a San Francisco-based provider of an online learning platform. Terms of the acquisition deal were not disclosed.
NovoEd traces its roots to Stanford University, where engineering professor Amin Saberi and Farnaz Ronaghi, then a PhD student, launched their first online course in 2012. In those days the platform was called Venture Lab, and 78,000 students from 150 countries signed up for its first course, which was on technology entrepreneurship. The pair then started the company in January 2013.
October 17, 2018
Navitas Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Navitas, has released Global EdTech Ecosystems. The report ranks the world’s twenty most active edtech hubs. Using several factors, including funding levels and the number of edtech startups in each city, Navitas Ventures’ report ranks the world’s top twenty edtech hubs. Beijing, the Bay Area, and New York City top the ranking, but the list also includes several other cities around the world, including a few that rarely come to mind as active tech hubs.
October 17, 2018
BY BRIAN NORDLI
There’s more to education than what’s found in a textbook, and that knowledge isn’t lost on RedShelf.
The edtech company, which started as an e-textbook distributor in 2011, has since expanded its focus to transform the way people learn. To get there, RedShelf is working with educators and publishers to present knowledge in new ways and give teachers more insight into what their students are actually learning.
EDTECH NEWS ARCHIVE - October 15, 2018
October 10, 2018
A BOOST FOR KAHOOT: Kahoot, an educational gaming and trivia platform, announced Wednesday that it has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Datum Invest AS. The raise comes seven months after a funding round in March that brought in $17 million.
October 10, 2018
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology held its first major event in nearly two years on Thursday, and the main takeaway is that the office is busy planning for the future—2030, to be exact.
Education secretary Betsy DeVos, along with a handful of officials from the Office of EdTech, convened education leaders and entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., to announce the winners of the “Reimagining the Higher Education Ecosystem,” or EDU2030, challenge.
October 10, 2018
Juni Learning, the edtech startup and online learning platform that offers private coding courses for kids taught by live instructors, has closed a $790K Angel round of funding to grow its team of instructors, engineers and product developers, as well as continuing to expand its platform capabilities and course offerings. The round was led by high-profile backers including Arielle Zuckerberg (the youngest sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg), early stage investor; Jessica Livingston, Co-founder of Y Combinator; Adora Cheung, Partner at Y Combinator; and Deborah Quazzo, Managing Partner at GSV AcceleraTE.
October 08, 2018
Imagine you’re an elementary school student. Your teacher has told your class to watch several streaming videos for a class project. You might want to watch some of the videos at home, but your family doesn’t have high-speed internet.
EDTECH NEWS ARCHIVE - October 8, 2018
October 08, 2018
Throughout the past year, Chinese tech startups have received encouragement via policy and financial support from their government in the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) across sectors. Numerous Chinese edtech companies have recently announced successful development and further funding of their AI-powered education products. Meanwhile in the U.S. and elsewhere, AI education solutions have been determined ineffective by some tech leaders and remain highly unpopular with parents and other privacy advocates.
October 05, 2018
Mumbai-based mid-market private equity firm Gaja Capital has made its second bet on the edtech market as it has reportedly acquired a significant minority stake in sports education and training company KOOH Sports for $10.17 Mn (INR 75 Cr).
According to reports, Gaja Capital will invest via a mix of primary and secondary stake purchase in KOOH Sports. Some of the existing investors of KOOH Sports are expected to make a partial exit in this investment round.
October 02, 2018
Stuart Udell has overseen nearly two dozen mergers and acquisitions across his career in the education industry, which spans stints at Penn Foster, Catapult Learning and K12 Inc. Now, just a few months into his current role as CEO at Achieve3000, Udell is already adding another company to the list.
Achieve3000, a provider of online reading and literacy tools, announced it has acquired Seattle-based Actively Learn, which also provides a suite of online reading materials and instructional supports aimed at helping students build literacy and critical-thinking skills.
October 02, 2018
The Association of International CPAs (AICPA) and its technology arm, CPA.com, are now seeking candidates for their joint startup accelerator program, designed to encourage innovation in accounting and finance.
October 02, 2018
By Victor Rivero
A lifelong educator, Keith Westman has spent his entire professional career working in K-12 education and education-related fields.
Keith has served as Otus’ Chief Operating Officer since 2015. He works across a wide range of internal and external efforts at Otus, using his diversity of education experience to propel the company forward and create the best possible platform for schools and students.
October 02, 2018
Technology shapes the way we interact everyday. We FaceTime with family across the country, we send snaps to our friends to let them know where we are and what we're doing.
But sometimes we fail to realize that the platforms and data that push us to interact don't always do it in objective ways. Our interactions are increasingly shaped by algorithms, and those codes are designed by humans—people who literally write the script for the ways that tech will make us tick, for better or for worse.