eLearning Innovation, LLC, a provider of instructional design services is pleased to announce the acquisition of their long-term partner, Advanced E-learning Solutions (aelearn). The acquisition adds depth to eLearning Innovation’s existing offerings, extending EI’s instructional design services to offer clients custom elearning tool development, elearning systems integration, LMS hosting, remote administration, and helpdesk support. eLearning Innovation, LLC, a provider of instructional design services is pleased to announce the acquisition of their long-term partner, Advanced E-learning Solutions (aelearn). The acquisition adds depth to eLearning Innovation’s existing offerings, extending EI’s instructional design services to offer clients custom elearning tool development, elearning systems integration, LMS hosting, remote administration, and helpdesk support. Laurie Pulido, President of eLearning Innovation says, "We’ve been partners with aelearn since 2001. By joining forces we can provide two key benefits to our clients. One, we can bundle services to better serve their needs and budgets and two, by having more technical depth on our bench, we can help our clients increase learner engagement and enhance the overall learner experience." eLearning Innovation’s client base includes higher ed, K-12, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. Pulido says, "Regardless of where they come from, all of our clients have a common goal, they want engaged learners. With elearning, the recipe for successful engagement has several key ingredients: solid pedagogy, critical and creative thinking, and effective use of technology. Aelearn brings a depth and breadth of experience with all technical aspects of elearning that will allow us to enhance our ability to engage learners and ultimately provide better ROI for our clients." Eric Eberhardt, aelearn’s former President and now Chief Technology Officer for eLearning Innovation, adds, "In elearning, technology underpins everything,  from ensuring a seamless experience for a learner signing in to an LMS to developing interactive lessons to giving stakeholders data about learner success." Pulido notes, "Our services and skill sets are truly complementary. It’s a value-add for both EI’s clients and aelearn’s as well." Eberhardt agrees: "We can offer aelearn’s existing clients instructional design services, confident that the service is backed by one of the most experienced providers in North America. For example, EI has a multi-year relationship with one of the biggest schools in elearning, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). That’s a testament." Pulido knows 2015 will be a definitive year, "Aelearn’s expertise adds great depth to our elearning solutions toolkit. We’re in a stronger position to provide  clients with the best combination of pedagogy and technology, not just for their current needs but for their future needs as well.  Because eLearning Innovation isn’t just our name, it’s what we do." About eLearning Innovation eLearning Innovation, LLC, provides instructional design services to higher ed, K-12, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. Specializing in experiential learning, eLearning Innovation creates active learning environments that inspire and educate. (elearninginnovation.com) Institutions and organizations interested in learning more about eLearning Innovation’s custom elearning solutions can contact Laurie Pulido at 1-844-435-3276 or visit www.elearninginnovation.com.   The post eLearning Innovation, LLC Acquires Advanced E-Learning Solutions appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

eLearning Innovation is excited to announce that President, Laurie Pulido, will be attending the Madworld Conference in April, as a guest speaker. eLearning Innovation has worked closely with conference sponsor, MadCap Software, Inc., and is looking forward to the collaboration, networking, and knowledge-share that is bound to take place. Scheduled from April 13-15 in San Diego, CA, this multi-day conference is the premier technical communication and content strategy conference for technical writers, documentation managers, and content strategists. MadWorld 2015 is a conference that is extremely valuable for existing MadCap Software customers because a large majority of the attendees are existing users, who can share knowledge, experiences, insights, etc. The conference makes the conscious effort to offer sessions that are not specific to any one tool or work flow, but rather best practices for any tech writer, documentation manager, policy writer, content strategists, and much more. There is an emphasis placed on networking, so the events are designed to give people the opportunity to connect throughout the conference. The events to take place are as follows: SUNDAY | APRIL 13, 2015 WELCOME EVENT 4:00 - 6:30 PM A TASTE OF SAN DIEGO CRAFT BEER Join us Sunday for a special selection of local craft beer from some of San Diego’s premier craft breweries. We’ll enjoy a selection of light hors d’oeuvres, beverages and craft beers with the backdrop of Mission Bay. MONDAY | APRIL 14, 2015 MISSION BAY CRUISE 6:00 - 8:30 PM Enjoy a San Diego sunset on the Bahia Belle, a beautiful 74-foot, 3-story sternwheeler that offers an observation deck to view the sites of Mission Bay. We’ll enjoy a private cruise around the bay with music, food and drinks. TUESDAY | APRIL 15, 2015 HAPPY HOUR ON THE BAY 6:00 - 8:30 PM After two full days of learning, it is time to sit back and relax with a happy hour on the bay. We’ll enjoy a selection of hors d’oeuvres, Mai Tais and other beverages as we close out the conference. You can read one review from last year’s conference here: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/articles/CommunicatorArticle2014PC.aspx In order to find speakers for the conference, MadCap Software, Inc. conducts the call for papers in early July, inviting anyone in the industry to submit sessions for consideration. The variety of requirements for speakers includes, but is not limited to, conference speaking history, background, topic of submission, industry/vertical and creativity. This year the selection committee placed an emphasis on case studies and real world examples of people and companies solving complex challenges, as this was a topic noted by last year’s participants in the survey after MadWorld 2014. Additional topic areas or interest to the committee were translation, elearning and multimedia. As a speaker for MadWorld 2015, the conference committee promises exposure, public speaking experience, networking opportunities, and of course, the chance to visit San Diego. Pulido is looking forward to the conference, and hopes to make many new connections while there. For those who are not familiar with the sponsor, MadCap Software, Inc., they are a trusted resource for thousands of companies around the globe that rely on its solutions for single-source multi-channel authoring and publishing, multimedia, and translation management. Whether delivering technical, policy, medical, marketing, business, or human resources content, MadCap’s products are used to create corporate intranets, Help systems, policy and procedure manuals, video tutorials, knowledge bases, eBooks, user guides, and more to any format, including high-end print, online, desktop or mobile. MadCap services include product training, consulting services, translation and localization, and an advanced developer certification program. Headquartered in La Jolla, CA, MadCap Software is home to some of the most experienced software architects and product experts in the content development industry. For more information, visit their website at: www.madcapsoftware.com The post It’s a Mad, Mad World… appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

As mentioned in a previous post, eLearning Innovation is excited to be a part of the 2015 MadWorld Conference hosted by MadCap this coming April. Recently interviewed by MadCap regarding their work with flare, CEO and Founder, Laurie Pulido shared how EI relies on MadCap Flare to streamline the process of delivering HTML5-based online courses that capture analytics. We encourage you to read up on how Flare allows us to seamlessly program content from the software, to the server, and then to the LMS seamlessly. EI’s ability to provide faster content customization is highlighted in the following case study and press release. Madcap Case Study Madcap Press Release The post eLearning Innovation Relies on MadCap Flare to Streamline the Process of Delivering HTML5-based Online Courses that Capture Analytics appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

Of SMEs and IDs: Partners in Design By: Kim Zartman, Lead ID at EI I’ve been an ID (instructional designer) for more than 20 years, and my parents are still not quite sure what I do. Since many of our new clients are equally unclear about the role of the ID, I’d like to explain what we bring to the elearning table so you can decide if your project needs an ID. In a nutshell, my job is to systematically develop instructional experiences that help learners efficiently and effectively reach their learning goals. Lots of buzz words, I know, but the most important part of this definition is experiences. Instructional design is not about making content pretty, but rather creating appealing, memorable learning experiences that engage learners with the content in meaningful ways. For example, in one recent project, rather than simply explaining factors to consider when choosing a college, we began with a "College Cash" game followed by a story-based interaction featuring several high school students. In this scenario, learners read student bios, reviewed financial aid awards, and researched costs of attendance, so they could make an informed choice for each of the characters. One of my favorite parts of being an ID is the opportunity to constantly learn about new subjects. I’ve worked on everything from accounting to zoology, and that’s not an exaggeration. My parents laughed - perhaps a bit longer and louder than necessary - when I mentioned the online apprenticeship program I was designing for plumbers. After all, my maintenance skills are limited to changing a light bulb - and that’s on a good day. But as an ID, I’m content neutral; I can apply my skills and knowledge to virtually any subject. That doesn’t mean I don’t need content expertise; indeed, I would typically be lost without my partner-in-design, the SME. The SME, the Subject Matter Expert, knows the subject of the training inside and out. We work together closely to determine instructional objectives, select content and materials, and develop relevant, real-world activities. I enjoy working with SMEs; they are experts in their field and are passionate about what they do. However, because they are so knowledgeable, they tend to think EVERYTHING is important. My task is to keep us laser-focused on what’s important for this particular course or training. It can be painful to whittle down the SME’s well-loved content, but this process is essential for an effective course. Because of their expertise, SMEs often struggle to make the content understandable to their audience. In the plumbing course, my lack of maintenance skills was actually a plus because I could easily identify the SME’s "expert blind spots." Working together, we simplified definitions, added key background information, and broke down the information into small, snack-sized bits that students could easily digest. And thanks to my SME, I can now tell an elbow fitting from a coupler and a T-joint from an L-joint. (The opportunity to learn new things is a fantastic perk of my job!) So is an instructional designer always necessary when developing an education or training project? If you just want a nicely designed presentation or well-written content with a few questions at the end, you probably don’t need an instructional designer. And some learners will be successful no matter how poorly designed the content, learning in spite of - not because of - the material. But to help as many learners as possible reach the learning outcomes, you probably need an instructional designer on the team. In the earliest stages, the ID can help articulate exactly what the learners need to know or do as a result of the training. (Without this upfront analysis, your training may be headed in the wrong direction altogether.) Then working backwards from your destination, the ID can help identify or develop content and resources that help learners reach this goal via the shortest path. And when it comes to elearning projects, I believe the ID’s role is even more critical. Development can be expensive, so the stakes are often higher, and it’s easy for the instructional focus to get lost in the latest technology. Too often the result is a gorgeous, even cutting-edge program, but one that has little impact on learning. The right ID, however, can ensure the technology is used to support learning, not as an end itself. If you’re planning an elearning project, I’d love to hear about it and share how our talented IDs can help make it a success!   The post Of SMEs and IDs: Partners in Design appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

  If we asked you why it is you do what you do, like most universities, students would likely be your first answer, right? Because without your students, what is it that a university stands for? We agree with you. And servicing those students, providing a well-rounded, thought-provoking, and genuinely-supported experience for each one is probably also at the top of your goal list, right? We thought so. eLearning Online Course Support provides excellent Helpdesk Services to universities across the United States. Our goal is to provide high-quality support that is personalized and effective. As a client, you’ll be provided a dedicated Online Course Support (OCS) Center, which is a dynamic site that we encourage users to access in order to submit tickets, conduct system checks, or access self-help knowledgebase articles 24/7/365. Each client is also assigned a dedicated support team that is tasked with learning about your organization and specific protocols. Who are our clients? We have the pleasure of partnering with a wide variety of colleges and universities, who have joined us in the movement of putting users first! Oklahoma City Community College, San Mateo Community College District, USA-Gymnastics, United Methodist Communications, American Sentinel University, and Cornerstone University are just a few of our clients who understand the importance of student satisfaction and the role it plays in retention and university adoption. Our clients understand that supporting their students doesn’t have to be a hefty investment of resources, time, or commitment from their current staff. If you are currently thinking about how to support your ever-growing online course demand in a way that is affordable, effective, and efficient, then let’s talk! What’s it really costing you? Looking at your current support structure, how are you differentiating the support you provide online to the support you provide on campus? The packages that eLearning Online Course Support offers hold a variety of support hours to cover the needs of your online users. With our premium package, your users will get around-the-clock support from certified technicians who are trained to represent you and your users in a personalized, professional, and comprehensive way. Your dedicated Online Course Support Center will put the control in your users’ hands—they’ll be able to do things like access self-help tools, view available channels of support in real-time, submit tickets, and review open and past cases 24/7/365. If you are currently providing Helpdesk Support in-house, review what it’s actually costing you. How many students do you have working the program? How many advisors? Are any of the advisors or administrators who are tasked to providing support also tasked to the everyday operation of the university? Does providing Helpdesk internally actually take away time that could be spent in improving success in other areas? Additionally, under the model you are currently providing, how long does a student wait for a response? Can you guarantee your response time? Can you provide support 24 hours a day? How much is spent on training? What are you paying for infrastructure, ticket management, and FAQ management? To hire one qualified full-time employee at $10/hour, it would cost an average of $20,000/year. That one resource would be limited in how much time that one employee could commit and how many cases the employee could resolve at a single time. Not to mention the cost of training and management needs. With our Helpdesk services, you get an entire team (3-7 Level 1 Reps, 1-3 Level 2 Reps, a Helpdesk Director, and an entire Quality Assurance and Documentation team), many of whom work simultaneously to provide your users with help. Additionally, our team members are FERPA- and security-certified as well as trained in advanced Learning Management Systems and the use of hundreds of desktop applications all geared to support your eLearning environment. Want more information? If you like what you’ve read so far and think that eLearning Online Course Support could be just what your college or university needs, contact us today to set up the initial call/consultation. We’ll walk you through our process, step-by-step, work to find you a package that accommodates your needs, and get you that much closer to better supporting your students. Email us today at: helpdesksales@elearninginnovation.com or call 1-844-4elearn (1-844-435-3276). Additional information can be found at our website: www.elearninginnovation.com. The post Why Do Your University’s Online Programs Need Helpdesk Services? appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

In today’s day and age, more and more companies are considering telecommuting practices: how they affect their staff’s morale, effectiveness, and ability to produce. eLearning Innovation is proud to state that we’ve been a virtual workforce since 2003, fully taking advantage of the benefits telecommuting offers. Unlimited Talent Pool Not only are we able to tap from talent across the United States, but our employees have been able to work from around the world as well. We have employees located in New England, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio, Indiana, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, and even Canada. There have been times in the last year that employees have worked abroad from Australia and Switzerland as well. There aren’t concerns regarding a commute, or even the cost of living. Our employees create a schedule of hours that is agreed upon with their supervisor, and that works to accommodate our clients. This flexibility provides such an important work-life balance it has been a true test of retention and recruitment for EI employees. In fact, as we’ve scaled the company over the last few years, we’ve been able to hire talented people through current employees who are so happy with their jobs at EI that they have recommended a position at EI to others and we have recruited through their advocacy. Nature Of The Job Some might argue that telecommuting only serves its place in certain fields, and as eLearning Innovation is an online learning solution provider, it would make sense that our company is particularly suited to host a virtual workforce. However, so often we meet others in different fields who also feel they might benefit from working from home. Though some may argue that face-to-face meetings are more productive than a conference call, we would beg to differ. For instance, tools such as Go-To Meeting and Skype both offer video conferencing on which real-time face-to-face meetings can be held. Look at how many meetings you’ve had in the last week and ask yourself if being in the same room with others really put you at an advantage—or was it merely just a convenience? Could the meetings have been just as successful if held via Skype or over the phone? At EI, there are elements to our work that need to be done in person with clients, such as introductions, initial meetings, or trainings, but other than those standard operating procedures, most of the rest of the work can easily be done virtually. Further, all our documentation is stored in shared Dropbox or Google docs, and this cloud-based storage allows us easy access to all employees without the need to host a server. This ability to work virtually offers an important perspective for our Instructional Designers and Technical Developers who spend the majority of their time creating courses online. It provides a unique understanding of what it means to be online, and the importance of producing engaging and interesting material. The Obvious Work-life balance is by far the most obvious benefit from having a virtual workforce. At EI, employees work with their supervisors to determine the hours that accommodate their schedules best. For instance, we employ parents who might need to get their children off the bus at 3pm. These employees might log-on at 7am, work until the kids get off the bus, and, if need be, handle whatever additional needs came up while they were away after the kids have gone to bed or the next morning when they log-on again. All EI employees understand that flexibility is honored as long as it doesn’t affect the relationship with the clients, and all employees have accommodated the clients in a way that this sort of schedule has rarely, if ever, initiated any conflicts. The ability to throw a load of laundry in between meetings isn’t going to affect anyone’s productivity level. On the contrary, we have found that this very flexibility has created a sense of loyalty and efficiency because our employees are able to work everyday life needs into their work schedules.   Want to Work Virtually? Are you a creative thinker who is highly motivated and self-directed? In your spare time, are you learning new things? Do you believe a virtual working world is expansive? Do you want to help a passionate leader and her innovative team challenge the world of online learning? eLearning Innovation has open positions listed on the Career Page of our website. If you have any interest in getting involved with EI in a full-time or contractor position, please contact hr@elearninginnovation.com. The post Why A Virtual Workforce? appeared first on eLearning Innovation.

Instructure Canvas is quietly building what could become one of the dominant platforms in online education, from academic to vocational and lifelong learning. In this post I want to focus on three indicators that show Instructure’s growth in different verticals of the market and the overall potential the Canvas Network has for institutions and for-profit education. 1) Canvas nibbles away on other LMS’ market-share According to edutechnica, Instructure managed to attract several institutions to switch their LMS platform from Moodle and Sakai to Canvas which had rarely been the case before. Canvas has also overtaken Desire2Learn in terms of number of enrollments. ⅕ of institutions that currently run Sakai seem to be willing to switch their LMS and have set up tests with either Blackboard Learn or Canvas. 2) Instructure Canvas would be the backbone for Indiana University’s "edX Killer" Michael Feldstein and Phil Hill gathered and analyzed very interesting information about Unizin, a new learning ecosystem planned by Indiana University under the management of its CIO Brad Wheeler. These are as always fascinating reads and I recommend you to check them out over at e-Literate. The interesting part for today’s post is that Unizin chose Canvas as mean of distribution for its consortium. Most universities who are on the list of potential partners in the consortium currently use Blackboard and Sakai. Only two institutions on the Unizin consortium list are currently using Canvas, the University of Utah and the University of Maryland, with a third, the University of Texas, currently moving on from Blackboard. Through Unizin, Canvas could add Colorado State University (Blackboard), Indiana University (Sakai), Oregon State University (Blackboard), Purdue University (Blackboard), University of Florida (Sakai, with some use of Canvas), University of Michigan (Sakai) and University of Wisconsin (Desire2Learn) to its customers. In his second post on Unizin, Michael Feldstein explains why Unizin could become a threat to edX. "So if the medium-term ambition of Unizin is to create a MOOC portal, who is threatened by that? I don’t think it hurts Coursera too badly. They now have enough eyeballs that I think even schools in other coalitions are likely to hedge their bets and put a course or two on that platform. edX is another matter, though. Assuming that Unizin could succeed in making a big media splash and attract students to their course catalog, I don’t see what edX offers that Unizin on Canvas couldn’t do better, and the value to administrators of getting all MOOC and non-MOOC courses on the same supported platform shouldn’t be underestimated. If I were Anant Agrawal, I would be very worried about Unizin poaching my customers." Instructure latest announcement fits snugly into this storyline. 3) Instructure announces Canvas Catalog The latest product by Instructure is Canvas Catalog, or as the team calls it on the company blog "brilliance struck". Canvas Catalog is based on Canvas Network, the company’s answer to the MOOC hype, launched in late 2012. Canvas Catalog adds a whitelabel storefront solution to Canvas Network, enabling its customers to add registration, enrollment and payment features to a individually branded web portal. The potential for such a platform is quite big. Based on Canvas Catalog and Canvas Network someone could create the next lynda.com or Udemy and the product is of course also relevant to projects in academia like the aforementioned Unizin. We also need to take into consideration that Canvas, like Open edX, is an open source project which enables institutions as well as edtech entrepreneurs to modify, add and build upon the Canvas source code. All of these factors make Instructure Canvas one of the edtech startups to keep an eye on constantly.

4.0 Schools, a non-profit incubator program with locations in New Orleans and New York City announced its 9th cohort. In this post we take a look at the edtech startups that form this year's 4.0 Launch Summer Class. The teams have been selected from a total of 126 applications in the focus areas edtech and the future of school. The participants in this cohort represent bigger underlying trends including creation and personalization, professional development and skills. In alphabetical order the nine edtech startups startups are Aecern Aecern is a mobile learning startup that aims to blend technology and exploration in order to create exciting learning experiences in the classroom and beyond. The app challenges learners to develop so called higher-order-thinking-skills by connecting the dots between everyday events and experiences and thus taking learning beyond the traditional curriculum. By encouraging students to share their learning experiences Aecern adds a social layer on top. According to the startup teachers and students in grades K to grade 12 have used the technology in a variety of scenarios ranging from a classroom setting over field trips to distance learning. The app is available for both Android and iOS. Video Links aecern.com | Twitter | Facebook BrightLoop Boston-based startup BrightLoop created a web based app that empowers teachers to personalize the learning experience of each individual student in their class by helping them to capture and collect student performance data, review individual student goals, notes and to create report cards and also facilitate lesson planning. BrightLoop’s app is accessible from any tablet device or computer. Video Links brightlooplearning.com | Twitter | Facebook MARV Founded in 2010 MARV’s daylong workshops assist future college students in picking the right college and finding the right courses for them based on each student’s individual educational journey. The course is structured into four units and participants will learn about the steps of how to pick the right college, how to write the college essay, learn about their personal strengths and decide on the courses most appropriate for them. A one day workshop with MARV costs $150. Links findmarv.com | Twitter | Facebook NobleMinds Noble Minds founded by Dr. Vera Triplett takes the approach of whole child learning and will launch its institute in the fall of 2015 focusing on delivering Academic and Therapeutic services for students who have a documented behavioral/emotional disability or for families who simply want a more nurturing and therapeutic environment for their student. Links Twitter Parents as Partners According to 4.0 Parents as Partners is creating literacy at-home instruction for parents of low-income students using annotated book guides delivered through schools. Links Twitter Root (ed) 4.0 describes Root(ed) as a personalized learning experience grounded in responsiveness to community problems for middle school students, utilizing a culturally-relevant, entrepreneurial education curriculum. Its founder Jonathan Johnson is also among six teachers nationwide who have been named finalists for the 2014 Fishman Prize for Superlative Classroom Practice. Links Twitter [operation] SPARK Operation SPARK is a pilot project being developed and conducted at youth community centers around New Orleans to teach young adults how to build simple mobile video games and apps with the aim of igniting the pursuit of an employable passion. Students will learn about application design, game mechanics and user experience, visual and sound design, computer engineering of various sorts, project, product and cost management, content management and public relations of all kinds as well as effective means of communication and conflict resolution. Links Twitter | Facebook VersedU VersedU wants to tackle alleged disengagement and apathy in Higher Education by bridging the gap between classroom learning and real world experiences. The team develops a tailored curriculum for each student and then assigns them a mentor. VersedU currently offers three of its classes for credit priced at $349.67 per credit hour for regular classes which brings a full semester’s tuition with 15 credits to $5,245. Besides, there are options for so called sponsored classes which come at a price of $899/class. VersedU states that the average tuition and fees at private institutions was at $30,094, $8,893 for in-state students, and $22,203 for out-of-state students at public institutions in the 2013-2014 academic year. For a free two-week trial of VersedU you can sign up for the "Online Journalism" beta. Links versedu.co | Twitter VidCode Winners of Startup Weekend NYC a couple of weeks ago, VidCode aims at a young audience, specifically girls, and wants to spark their interest for programming by allowing them to transform videos into art using specific filters. The objective is to encourage teens to start and code these filters themselves instead of only using them. Links vidcode.io | Twitter

The global market for social networks and communities targeting researchers and scholars is getting more and more competitive. Over the past months we saw multiple deals in the space, from Mendeley's acquisition by Elsevier, over sizeable funding rounds for Academia.edu, Piazza and ResearchGate to new startups like MyScienceWork and Function Space. [member] Now Mumbai-based startup InvenZone, a platform for researchers and scholars to discover intellectual knowledge, has raised Angel funding from VentureNursery accelerator with participating angel investors Amit Patni, Anand Ladsariya, Arif Ali, Arihant Patni, Bharat Banka, Samir Shah, Neeraj Goenka, Ravi Kiran, Sanjay Mehta, Shravan Shroff, Vishal Maheshwari. Further details of the funding round remain undisclosed. InvenZone is one of the four startups chosen of 250 applications that graduated from VentureNursery’s fourth badge in March 2014. Co-founders Vinay Kumar and Deekshith Marla launched the platform at IIT Bombay in 2013 and now aim to sign other renown institutions. InvenZone claims to have built the product based on principles of advanced data mining and machine learning and has indexed a total of 23 million research papers equal 40% of the global database. It lets users search by keyword, does the weightage for the individual keyword and then searches the global database. By doing so InvenZone wants to take the complexity out of searching for data, help make searches more efficient and ease the discovery of relevant data sets through its technology. InvenZone is far from being alone in its ambitions to become the one-stop-shop for higher science education and research online. The vertical in higher education that InvenZone targets is a highly competitive one, both worldwide and in India itself. On EDUKWEST we wrote about Academia.edu closing a $4.5 million funding round in December 2011 and Gates-backed Research Gate and its $20 million venture round in May and June 2013. Also Indian startup Function Space raised a Seed Round from Nexus Venture Partners in April. In the same week Luxembourg-based MyScienceWork, the blog-turned-communication-platform for scientists, announced their $1.1 million Venture Round. And in late February 2014 Piazza, the social network for engineering students founded Pooja Sankar, disclosed their $8 million Series B and the launch of Piazza Careers. Another younger competitor from India is Knimbus Online, also an online community that targets researchers. Knimbus raised an angel round of more than $500,000 from a group of six to seven business angels according to VCCircle. Further Reading VentureNursery angels back networking platform for scholars and researchers InvenZone | VCCircle Network For Researchers & Scholars InvenZone Secures Angel Funding | NextBigWhat VentureNursery announces the four startups it backed in batch 4 | YourStory Links invenzone.com | AngelList [/member] Related Academia.edu raises $4.5 Million for Researcher Social Network | EDUKWEST The Facebook for Scientists ResearchGate apparently raised $20 million | EDUKWEST Bill Gates took part in the $20 million ResearchGate Funding Round | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Piazza launches Piazza Careers, announces $8 million Series B | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Function Space raises Seed Round from Nexus Venture Partners | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: MyScienceWork raises $1.1 million Venture Round | EDUKWEST Europe Picture "scientist-minifig" by Maia Weinstock, Some Rights Reserved

When it comes to opportunities in technology, hip-hop and rap artists seem to be ahead of the curve compared to fellow musicians. MC Hammer is well known for his appearances at tech conferences, may it be as a panelist, speaker and often main act at the afterparty. All of the major players in the rap business have some kind of commercial relationship with one or several tech brands. And then there is Dr Dre who just sold his headphone business to Apple and who will take on an executive role at the tech giant as the most recent and arguably most prominent example. Therefore it makes sense that we are now seeing the first moves into education though, for now, most investments are not for profit oriented. Nas already is involved in the space through his commitment in General Assembly’s Opportunity Fund, he now invested a six-figure sum in a scholarship fund for higher education that also carries his name. [member] Seattle-based edtech startup Koru has received a $100,000 investment from rapper Nas to establish a special fund called the Nas Scholarship Fund. Nas made the investment through his investment company Queensbridge Venture Partners. Koru previously raised $4.35 million in funding from Maveron, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. This brings the total investment raised by Koru to $4.56 million as reported by GeekWire. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 50 percent of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. Koru created an immersive, experiential education program launched in late 2013. The coaching program aims to help young college graduates to land their first job. Participants can practice the skills relevant in today’s workforce and learn from established executives in real-life work scenarios. At the same time they start to build their professional network and thus get the chance to land a job interview and potentially be hired by a top company. Partner companies participating in the program include Smartsheet, REI, Julep, Zulily and others. About his motivation to set up the scholarship fund Nas states "I’m inspired to to support Koru participants because I know how hard it can be to carve out your path and purpose in life." He also wants to involve himself directly in identifying worthy students and coach these. "I can’t wait to work directly with them and share what I’ve learned through my own life experiences." Two of the first recipients of the Nas Scholarship Fund have already been chosen. They are Steeve Simbert, a Georgetown University class of 2015 graduate with a major in Government, and Marixa Rodriguez, an Occidental University class of 2014 graduate with a double major in History and Spanish. Both will take part in the June program. Koru’s 13 founding partner colleges include some renown institutions like Brown, University of Southern California, and Georgetown University among others. According to Forbes a total of 100 students completed the program, and Koru aims to double that number by the end of the summer. Currently all programs take place in Seattle, but Koru plans to offer classes in San Francisco after the summer reports billboard. Koru’s monthlong programs come with a price tag of $2,750, and Koru decides on a case by case basis about the possibility for a scholarship. The startup also makes money when a student gets hired by a company affiliated with Koru as that company agrees to pay Koru a certain fee. This business model is very similar to what we currently see in tech education, i.e the Flatiron School operates the same business model for graduates of its coding classes. This isn’t the first time we hear news from Nas in connection with an educational initiative. Just over a month ago EDUKWEST reported on the Opportunity Fund announced by General Assembly, a scholarship program in partnership with Microsoft, Google, Hirepurpose and Nas. The Opportunity Fund offers generous scholarship funds to help veterans, women, and minorities become less underrepresented in the tech industry. Video Further Reading Nas and Koru Team Up To Better Prepare Tomorrow's Workforce | Forbes Hip hop icon Nas invests in education startup Koru, pledges support of grads | Geekwire Onvia co-founder raises $4.35M for Koru, helping college grads find impactful jobs | Geekwire Rapper partners with educational firm Koru to provide scholarships, real-world coaching for college grads. | Billboard Links joinkoru.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase [/member] Related HEDLINE: The Flatiron School raises $5.5 million | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: General Assembly announces Opportunity Fund | EDUKWEST