APRIL 2020 – NEWSLETTER #26 | Breaking news at IBL News |  Noticias en Español Coursera | edX • Coursera and edX Launch Initiatives to Support Universities Impacted by the Outbreak • IBM, Microsoft, Harvard, MIT, and 40 Universities Join the edX 'Remote Access' Program • Harvard University's President, Lawrence Bacow, Tests Positive for Coronavirus Open edX • NVIDIA Issues a Free Certificate Course About AI Video Analytics on Its 'Deep Learning Institute' Platform • The Open edX Annual Conference Suspended Amid the Virus Concerns Learning at Scale • Udacity.com Offers One Free Month Access to Nanodegree Programs • MiriadaX, with 4M Spanish-Language Learners, Continues to Look for a Buyer Other Platforms • Blackboard Shifts Away From the Open Source Business By Selling Its Moodle Based Business • Facebook Unveils a Virtual Community to Fight Rumors About Covid-19 2020 Upcoming Events  [All of the conferences are canceled or moved online due to the Coronavirus – CDC Recommendations] • Education Calendar – APRIL | MAY | JUNE | JULY – DEC | Conferences in Latin America & Spain This newsletter is created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specialized in open-source learning platforms. Read the latest IBL Newsletter  |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters
Lawrence Bacow, President at Harvard University, and his wife, Adele, tested positive for Covid-19, the university announced on Tuesday. They are being treated at home. The couple began experiencing symptoms of coronavirus on Sunday— first coughs then fevers, chills, and muscle aches — and contacted doctors on Monday. They are unsure how they contracted the virus since they have been working from home and practicing social distancing since March 14. "This virus can lay anyone low. We all need to be vigilant and keep following guidelines to limit our contact with others," Bacow wrote in a letter to the community. "I urge you to continue following the guidance of public health experts and the advice and orders of our government officials," he wrote. According to The Harvard Crimson, 18 Harvard affiliates have tested positive for Covid-19, according to Harvard University Health Services. Last week, Bacow announced classes would move online and college students were required to vacate their dorms. President Bacow is the second president testing positive after John Garvey, president of Catholic University, who has been quarantined since March 13. On March 18, University of Washington pathology professor Stephen Schwartz died from the same disease.
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo finally owns Instructure (NYSE: INST). Today, the company announced that it officially completed the acquisition in an all-cash transaction that valued Instructure at an aggregate equity value of approximately $2 billion. As a result of it, Instructure's common stock ceased trading and the company is no longer listed on the New York Stock Exchange. "I believe that our shareholders are pleased with the outcome, and I anticipate great things to come in this new chapter for Instructure," said Josh Coates, Executive Chairman of the Board at Instructure. The Salt Lake City-based Edtech company–creator of the Canvas LMS and Bridge, with 30 million users–has become a privately held firm. Any remaining shares of Instructure common stock have been converted into the right to receive an amount in cash. The Chicago-based capital firm announced on Monday, March 23rd, that it purchased all of the outstanding shares of Instructure after a cash tender offer, which expired last Friday. Thoma Bravo made an offer of $49 per share in cash in mid-February, just before the stock market began to take a sharp decline – with a 25% loss in the past month – due to the coronavirus pandemic. "As of expiration, 24,828,913 shares had been validly tendered and not withdrawn from the tender offer, representing approximately 64.4 percent of the aggregate voting power of Instructure's outstanding shares of common stock," the company said in a public statement. The global Covid-19 crisis, along with the market collapse and the rise of online companies, finally put an end to weeks of ongoing deep discrepancies and disputes among shareholders and activist investors. The big next step for Instructure after closing is to appoint a new CEO in place. Now the company has an interim CEO, appointed by Thoma Bravo, sources told IBL News. His name is J. Charles Goodman, Operating Partner at Thoma Bravo, and former CEO at Frontline Education, another Thoma Bravo company. [In the picture below] Instructure doesn't anticipate widescale layoffs as it happened earlier this year.
Scammers are taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis. People are more likely to lose money online to a scam when they are socially or physically isolated from others, according to research from the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, and the Stanford Center on Longevity. "Add increased time spent online and coronavirus creates the 'perfect storm' for scammers because all three of these factors have increased dramatically," said Melissa Lanning Trumpower, executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust. BBB suggests these steps that everyone can take to protect themselves from losing money and compromising personal information. Don't be afraid to contact a friend or a company or organization you trust for advice. Before clicking a link or sharing personal information online, stop, pause, and research the company or person. A staggering 81.2 percent of consumers lost money to online purchase scams in 2019. Beware of job offers that sound too good to be true. Employment scams were the No. 1 riskiest two years in a row. Scammers prey on jobseekers, particularly those seeking remote jobs. Learn about scammer tactics to help avoid falling prey to scams and be wary of any offer to "get ahead" that seem too good to be true. Currently, top coronavirus scams to be aware are those emails that impersonate official correspondence from the World Health Organization (WHO). Scams claim to provide critical data about the virus in order to get your sensitive personal information. These are scammers are simply after account numbers, Social Security numbers, or your login IDs and passwords. One email scam pretends to give COVID-19 drug advice from the WHO and makes it look like the email is from Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Under the claim "flatten the curve of Covid and its impact on education," the Center for Education Reform (CER) –a nonprofit organization in Washington DC– has created an extensive resource website. This site includes tools and services available to students, families, and educators. "We’ll be keeping tabs on those who are keeping tabs, sharing the best of the aggregators, product providers, media sources and above all — the real people who are doing the real work to fight the virus’ impact on learning," Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform, told IBL News. COUNTERING COVID: DON’T LET EDUCATION FALL IN THE CURVE. An extensive resource page listing the tools and services available to students, families and educators everywhere.
