Paris, France-based educational platform OpenClassrooms.com raised $80 million in a Series C round. The financing, led by Lumos Capital C, attracted also funding from GSV, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors General Atlantic and Bpifrance invested once again in the company. The startup, which claims to host two million learners per month on its vocational training courses, said that it will use the funds for international expansion and product development. OpenClassrooms' courses, in French, English, and Spanish, include a mix of video resources, online reading, real-life projects, and individual mentoring sessions. Users can choose among 54 training programs and get a diploma. Some of them are French-state-recognized bachelor and master diplomas. The company offers a guarantee that learners will find a job, mostly through career coaching, or they will receive their money back. In France, students can pay for OpenClassrooms courses using those public subsidies received to fund professional education. In addition, the French company offers courses, especially related to apprenticeships, to 1,400 companies. The platform still offers short free classes.
Dartmouth College deployed an AI virtual assistant over Slack to improve communications among 10,000 students and faculty members during the COVID pandemic. This conversational, context-aware robot, called Dart InfoBot (DIB), answers questions about technology at Dartmouth and returns information and links to the institution's Knowledge Base. If it doesn't find the right information, it creates a ticket. DIB's AI-driven service requires registering and login in with the students' ID. It works on the institution's services portal, which also allows voice phone conversation with service desk assistants as well as creating a ticket. The provider behind the AI service is Palo Alto, California-based Aisera.com.
Fortune announced this week the launch of a website with articles, insights, and ongoing reporting intended to help readers develop skills and advance in their careers. 2U (Nasdaq: TWOU) is the founding advertising sponsor. The initiative, called Fortune Education, will include rankings and ratings of graduate, post-graduate, executive education, and other improvement programs. In 2021, Fortune will publish six higher education rankings. The first one is The Best Online MBA Programs of 2021. 1. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)2. Indiana University—Bloomington (Kelley)3. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)4. University of Southern California (Marshall)5. University of Florida (Hough)6. University of Maryland—College Park (Smith)7. University of Pittsburgh (Katz)8. Syracuse University (Whitman)9. University of Massachusetts—Amherst (Isenberg)10. Rice University (Jones) Regarding the criteria, the company said that "it uses multiple data sets to formulate education rankings, including data provided by schools, a "Brand Score" that is calculated from a FORTUNE-Ipsos survey of hiring managers and business professionals, and a weighted "FORTUNE 1000 Score," which considers business school alumni placement in the C-Suites of the biggest companies in the U.S."
President Biden announced on Wednesday a new $1.8 trillion plan — the American Families Plan — that would provide, among other things, two years of free community college for all Americans. There are over 950 community colleges in the U.S. A total of 30 states already cover tuition at community colleges or universities. The plan also would cover the tuition of low and middle-income students attending over 800 existing historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and other minority-serving institutions. Additionally, it would up the maximum Pell Grant for students in financial need by $1,400, bringing the award to $8,295 a year. These safety net programs would benefit institutions and students with the fewest financial resources. Altogether, the Biden Administration would spend $302 billion over 10 years as part of his American Families Plan: $109 billion for two-year colleges, $80 billion addition for Pell Grants, $62 billion for retention and completion efforts, $39 billion for two free years at minority-serving institutions for most students. The plan is less ambitious than Biden's campaign promise of making public four-year colleges tuition-free for many Americans and doubling the Pell grant. The American Council on Education said that the community college plan could "easily revolutionize access to higher education in the United States." Other reactions in higher education have been largely positive. However, the plan won't be easy to get through Congress, as it is likely to face opposition from the Republican Party.
Google announced this month new features for its Chrome browser intended to boost productivity. As of March 2021, Chrome was the most used browser (64%), followed by Safari (19%) and Edge (3.74%). "Copy link to highlight". It allows you to highlight a URL for the selected text you want to share, right-clicking and sending the link. This feature is rolling out now to desktop and Android and is coming soon for iOS. New PDF presentation mode, removal of the on-screen distractions (toolbars, address bar, tabs), and more features (document properties, two-page view). An updated top toolbar, which puts the most important PDF actions (zoom, jump to page, save, print) within a single click. These features are rolling out now. Mute notifications when presenting. Performance improvement with decreased Chrome CPU usage, and therefore more battery life, less fan noise, and less heat. Tab freezing for collapsed groups. This feature is coming soon to beta. Ability to name windows.
