Founder of Udacity Attracts Silicon Valley Investors to His AI-Based Call-Center Startup

Founder of Udacity Sebastian Thrun has attracted investors' interest in his new venture, Cresta. So far, venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners said this month that they have invested $21 million in Cresta, an AI-based call-center technology startup. Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, Mark Leslie, and Vivi Nevo are also investors in Cresta. This San Francisco-based company, in which Sebastian Thrun is Chairman, with no daily operational role, provides real-time prompts to help guide agents in order to close deals. The idea of Cresta was started by Co-Founder and CEO Zayd Enam with his Ph.D. project that involved applying breakthroughs in computers to understand language and create automated answers. According to Fortune, Sebastian Thrun, who was Enam's Ph.D. advisor at Stanford University, suggested that the project should be focused on more specific tasks that could be more applicable to business problems like sales. With a staff of only 30 employees, Cresta underscores recent advances in natural language processing (NLP) that have led to a number of companies applying the software to corporate call centers. Cresta wants to use AI to school customer service workers and salespeople on how to close the deal – wrote Lucas Matney on TechCrunch. [Capture from Cresta.com site]

UT Austin Launches a Top Master's Degree on Nutritional Sciences on edX.org

Stanford University Joins the edX Consortium Seven Years Later

Coursera Introduces Its First Fully Online Bachelor's from an American University

WGU Provides Details on Its MicroBachelor: Successful Completion Does Not Mean Automatic Accreditation

New details emerged today on Western Governors University (WGU)'s first MicroBachelors program developed in partnership with edX. In a press release, WGU announced that its Information Technology (IT) program will be available to students around the world through edX.org and will stack into seven bachelor's degree programs at the university. These bachelor's degree programs include: B.S. Computer Science, B.S. Software Development, B.S. Cloud and Systems Administration, B.S. Data Management/Data Analytics, B.S. Information Technology, B.S. Cybersecurity, and Information Assurance, and B.S. Network Operations and Security. However, the completion of this series of low-cost, certificate-granting courses –they cost $1,347 and grant 10 competency units (CUs)– does not mean automatic admission to Western Governors University. "While the MicroBachelors does fulfill many of the requirements for bachelor’s programs in IT at WGU, students will still need to apply to WGU and be accepted; admission is not automatic," warns the first FAQ at the website. In addition, the program comes with a time limit of three months. "If the coursework is completed within the quarter, the learner will receive credit for the course and passing of the assessment. If the work is completed outside of the quarter, the learner will not receive any credit for the task or assessment completed toward a certification." In other words, learners who pass the program will receive a verified certificate of completion and will be eligible to apply for an undergraduate degree at WGU and other institutions (still to be determined). Applying for admission to WGU will be at no additional cost. Established in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors, nonprofit institution WGU now provides affordable, online higher education programs to more than 121,000 students nationwide and has more than 166,000 graduates in all 50 states.   – • IBL News, January 9: edX Launches Its First Two MicroBachelors Degrees with WGU and NYU

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo Includes the "Freshman Year for Free" Program in His Agenda

SUNY Empire State College will offer the full library of free online college courses and materials of ModernStates.org at no cost to students of the state of New York and as an opportunity to earn up to full year of college credit tuition-free. This initiative was announced this Thursday by New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo as part of his 2020 Making Progress Happen's agenda and a result of a partnership between SUNY and ModernStates.org, creator of the so-called "Freshman Year for Free" program. In addition to the unlimited free use of courses, Modern States Education Alliance– New York-based nonprofit organization, that manages the ModernStates.org educational portal–announced that it will also cover the cost for up to 1,000 credit-bearing exams for all students, especially New York veterans, and active-duty military families. Students who complete one or more Modern States online college courses and pass a CLEP (College Level Examination Program) exam will earn credit through SUNY Empire State College. The credits earned will be transferable to other SUNY schools. SUNY Empire students will be able to access the Modern States program through a cobranded web portal. “This partnership offers real savings — for every free course and exam passed, students and their families can save $1,000 to $2,000 in college costs," said SUNY Empire State College President Jim Malatras. Launched in August 2017, the ModernStates.org program has more than 180,000 registered users to date and has paid for approximately 30,000 exams for New Yorkers and students around the world. The organization uses a highly customized learning ecosystem built on Open edX by IBL Education –the parent company of the IBL News nonprofit media service. Available courses –also designed by IBL Education– include American Government, American Literature, Chemistry, Physics, College Algebra, Accounting, Spanish and many others. These online classes are taught by college professors in all 33 subjects for which there is a credit-bearing CLEP exam from the College Board, the same organization that offers the SAT and AP tests. Students can take one course or many. The pass rate of students who use ModernStates.org to prepare for a CLEP exam is 73 percent, well above the national average, according to data provided by the organization. In addition to paying the $89 CLEP exam fee, ModernStates.org reimburses students for test center fees, typically $25. More than 2,900 colleges and universities accept CLEP for credit, including major universities such as Ohio State, University of Wisconsin, Penn State, Texas State, Morehouse, and others. SUNY Empire currently offers more than 800 online courses, supported by more than 30 campuses and learning hubs across New York state and the world.

Harvard and Amgen Announce LabXchange.org, an Open Platform with Scientific Content

XuetangX Raises Another $15 Million to Add AI Technology and Expand Its Catalog

Google Expands Its IT Support Offering on Coursera.org by Adding Python and Automation

First Online MBA on edX: “If We Don’t Do it, Someone Else Will,” Says Boston University

Beginning in fall 2020, Boston University (BU) and its Questrom School of Business will offer a low-cost online MBA worldwide on edX.org – a platform created in 2012 by Harvard University and MIT, now with more than 21 million registered users. Its tuition will be $24,000. The university sees this MBA – the first one offered through edX – as an opportunity for growth, and to be a disruptor, in a changing landscape. “With the online MBA, we’re seizing the initiative to offer a major degree for which we believe there is global demand. Higher education must evolve in a fast-changing world. We aim to lead in this evolution,” President Robert A. Brown said in Boston Today. In launching the online MBA, the university is investing in the potential to deliver high-quality online graduate programs with the capability for large-enrollment rates, which could be key in the near future, said Jean Morrison, BU Provost and Chief Academic Officer. “Through this degree, BU opens itself to the world in a manner we haven’t done before,” stated Chrysanthos Dellarocas, Associate Provost for Digital Learning & Innovation. “This is a paradigm shift on so many levels,” adds Susan Fournier, Allen Questrom Professor and Dean of the Questrom School of Business. “The way to think about it is, if we don’t do it, someone else will. We might as well be the ones that lead the pack,” added Dellarocas. Because of the affordability of the program, BU will not offer scholarships to online students, although scholarships are available from a variety of external sources. Federal financial aid will be available to enrolled Questrom Online MBA students, as well. Regarding instructional challenges, Chrysanthos Dellarocas, who is also the Richard C. Shipley Professor in Management, noted that “it will drive us to get really clever in exploring how far we can take peer engagement and how creatively we can combine technology and human instructors.” There are 300 full-time and 600 to 700 part-time students in the on-campus MBA program and 50 to 60 in the executive MBA program.   edX Partnership BU has already been in partnership with edX for six years, offering a number of free or low-cost MOOCs, and in the last couple of years two MicroMasters in business, where students take five courses and earn a certificate. “I think this is exciting, having an online MBA from a top school that can be made available to the whole world on edX. I think it’s a big deal,” said Anant Agarwal, edX co-CEO on BT Today. “It is one of the highest-demanded programs on edX.” Last fall edX offered its first 10 master’s degree programs, including a master’s in analytics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, with currently 3,000 learners enrolled. Additionally, edX offers more than 2,000 MOOCs from 140 schools, usually available free, as well as 53 MicroMasters and 94 professional certificate programs. About two-thirds of edX’s learners already have bachelor’s degrees and are typically looking for employment or to advance within their jobs. • BU Today: Questrom to Offer Online MBA with edX in 2020

A Dynamic 2019 for Open edX, edX, Coursera, and Udacity: IBL's Top-20 Headlines

Platforms dedicated to providing online education at scale saw a high-powered 2019. Without attracting attention from the mainstream or financial media, teams at Open edX, edX, Coursera, Udacity, and others quietly moved forward in their development this year. While Coursera and Udacity were still considering their IPOs, edX continued strengthening its financial sustainability. Several initiatives on the Open edX open-source ecosystem also made headlines. Here is the IBL News' selection of the top-20 stories:   Open edX • The Open edX Ironwood version is out. Open edX Issues Ironwood.2, a New Release of Its Platform • A successful Open edX conference in San Diego. 2020’s will be in Portugal. Open edX Posts Videos of All Talks from Their Recent Conference • Harvard’s Blockstore Technology Will Enable Personalized Learning on Open edX. The Next Evolutionary Step in MOOCs Will Be ‘Blockstore’, Says Robert Lue, from Harvard • XuetangX, China’s Open edX Platform, Reaches 16M Learners • NVIDIA’s DLI reaches 120,000 learners and launches new courses on Data Science   edX • edX Offers Its First Online MBA, from BU Questrom School of Business • The edX Organization Adopts a More Commercial Structure Appointing a New Co-CEO • edX Cancels Its Annual Partners Conference Scheduled in Hong Kong Due to Safety Concerns • edX Announces Its Eleventh Degree: A Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering • Two Professors from Dartmouth and IMT of France Awarded After their ‘C Programming with Linux’ Course   Coursera • Coursera’s Blockbuster Classes of 2019: Preeminence of AI, with 2M Enrollments • Coursera Offers Its 3,600-Course Catalog to Non-Affiliated Universities • Coursera’s Google IT Support Certificate Program Gets a Good Response • Coursera for Business Claims 100% Year-Over-Year Customer Growth • Illinois Shuts Down its Traditional MBA and Focuses into Online’s iMBA   Udacity • Udacity Will Fund 100,000 Scholarships As Part of the Pledge to America’s Workers • Udacity’s Achievement with its Nanodegree Program: Over 100,000 Graduates   Industry • The New Standard LTI 1.3, which Allows Interoperability of Grades and Assignments, Excites the Industry • Google Classroom, One of the World’s Top LMS: 40M Users In Five Years • Black Friday and Cyber Monday: edX, Pluralsight, Udemy, and Skillshare Join the Marketing Season    