Udemy.com announced today that it raised $50 million at a $3.25 billion pre-money valuation. In February, Udemy's valuation was $2 billion. The round, in a Series F financing, came from Learn Capital, with Goldman Sachs as sole placement agent. No plans to IPO the San Francisco-based company have been announced nor disclosed. The global pandemic is prompting edtech firms to reach astronomical valuations due to an increased demand for online learning. Udemy claims to host 35 million students, 130,000 courses, and 57,000 instructors. Rob Hutter, Managing Partner at Learn Capital, said that "Udemy has the right platform and business architecture to dramatically extend its growth as individuals and companies recognize the power of lifelong learning to drive personal and corporate performance.â A Udemy representative explained, "as countries enacted stay-at-home advisories and national closures, course enrollments across the entire Udemy marketplace platform increased more than 425%, consumption across Udemy for Business surged 90%, and the company saw a 55% increase in course creation by instructors. To date, the company has seen over 400 million course enrollments globally." With 700 employees globally, Udemy celebrated its ten-year anniversary in January 2020. At that month, the lifetime payments to instructors reached $350 million, according to the company. "To vet instructors, Udemy uses machine learning and data science to analyze billions of pieces of feedback and data points around preferences and effectiveness to determine what content is popular and engaging," explained Stephanie Stapleton, Udemy VP of Customer Success, in an interview at IBL News.
MITx announced this week that it passed the milestone of 10 million enrollments on online courses within a decade. This year, between March and June, enrollments doubled the same period last year, until 787,000 registrations. This semester, MITx is launching 45 courses, including eight new courses. In addition, eight MITx coursesâfree courses taught by MIT Facultyâhave been recognized on Class Centralâs list of the top online courses of all time, a list compiled based on the reviews of tens of thousands of learners. The new offer of courses includes: The first MOOC for the newest MITx MicroMasters program in finance, from MITx and MIT Sloan School of Management; General Chemistry I: Atoms, Molecules, and Bonding, which adds to our suite of first-year STEM offerings; A Masterâs-level course on Sustainable Energy; A course for teachers on Sorting Truth from Fiction: Civic Online Reasoning; and World Music: Global Rhythms (coming soon) Disease, Climate Shocks, and Wellbeing: a Long History of Social Response to Crisis Financial Regulation: From the Global Financial Crisis to Fintech and the COVID Pandemic âThe MITx team has been unstoppable working diligently to achieve all of this from home these last seven months; MITâs generous faculty have adapted their courses and dedicated MITx Digital Learning Lab fellows have worked with faculty to design and run all of our courses,â said Krishna Rajagopal, Dean for Digital Learning at MIT.
Washington State University (WSU) â ditched Blackboard and adopted Canvas LMS this month. In addition, another U.S. college, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) expressed its frustration with the Blackboard experience, although it has not made a decision to switch yet. "As a result of virtual learning, some Cal Poly Pomona students have grown increasingly frustrated with the online learning platform, Blackboard," explained The Poly Post student newspaper. Cal Poly Pomona started using Web CT as its LMS before Blackboard bought Web CT and forced a change. "Those that have voiced frustrations with Blackboardâs deficiencies are often students who transferred to CPP from other colleges that use Canvas, Blackboardâs main competitor in the learning management system market," says the newspaper. The switch on WSU extends into all of its campuses. Canvas will replace Blackboard in the Fall of 2021Â throughout all WSU campuses. Positive feedback from students and faculty on Canvas prompted the move, according to The Daily Evergreen student newspaper. Greg Crouch, Clinical Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies at WSU explained that "Blackboardâs long-term problems include students having difficulty integrating outside tools with the system, as well as issues with student enrollment being added and dropped" The university also considered Blackboard Ultra as an option, but the evaluation team found similar complications. "The way Blackboard was fundamentally coded is incompatible with the student information system, so issues connecting would continue to arise," Crouch said. Canvas LMS and Blackboard, the two learning management platform, fight for industry primacy in the U.S., although Canvas leads the race with a market share of 31%, while Blackboard controls 23%.
Two more U.S. colleges â Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) and Washington State University (WSU) â ditched Blackboard and adopted Canvas LMS this month. The two learning management platforms fight for industry primacy in the U.S., although Canvas leads the race with a market share of 31%, while Blackboard controls a 23%. "As a result of virtual learning, some Cal Poly Pomona students have grown increasingly frustrated with the online learning platform, Blackboard," explained The Poly Post student newspaper. Cal Poly Pomona started using Web CT as its LMS before Blackboard bought Web CT and forced a change. "Those that have voiced frustrations with Blackboardâs deficiencies are often students who transferred to CPP from other colleges that use Canvas, Blackboardâs main competitor in the learning management system market," says the newspaper. The switch on WSU extends into all of its campuses. Canvas will replace Blackboard in the Fall of 2021 throughout all WSU campuses. Positive feedback from students and faculty on Canvas prompted the move, according to The Daily Evergreen student newspaper. Greg Crouch, Clinical Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies at WSU explained that "Blackboardâs long-term problems include students having difficulty integrating outside tools with the system, as well as issues with student enrollment being added and dropped" The university also considered Blackboard Ultra as an option, but the evaluation team found similar complications. "The way Blackboard was fundamentally coded is incompatible with the student information system, so issues connecting would continue to arise," Crouch said.
Develop.com online learning platform introduced its new brand and user experience this week, along with new course content and certificates. Boston-based Develop provides on-demand courses on IT for business professionals. It was launched this Spring in partnership with Global Knowledge, recently acquired by Skillsoft. "The new look and âFind Your Track and Developâ tagline encapsulates the goal of the platform for its end users," said Kevin Pawsey, Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Develop. âThe refreshed brand is fueled by a commitment to serve both technical specialists and tech-adjacent workers by helping them discover what course series best suits their needs in an ever-changing, tech-driven landscape,â he added. "Our new site is more user-friendly, visually appealing, and weâve updated the checkout process to make it easier for you to find the course you want and start learning as quickly and easily as possible," explained James McNamee, VP of Marketing and Sales at Develop.com. Next month, Develop.com will release a Cybersecurity Academy within its platform. It will contain practice with hands-on skills, and include courses on security and password policies, user group management, encryption and firewall implementation, and auditing in Linux domain. Develop recently added these courses: The Linux Administration Bootcamp. A Python For Beginners series. A Security Awareness course. The new website and platform are built upon an Open edX ecosystem developed by the New York-based IBL Education learning software company. New look, same high-quality, expert-led courses with knowledge checks, hands-on practices, and completion certificates. Find your track: https://t.co/wuqABYCAd5 pic.twitter.com/u5Bhg4j59u â Develop (@Develop) October 26, 2020
