Udemy released its first Skills Index, an analysis of trends in American skills development based on data from Udemy’s top 100 paid online courses. The result: tech related courses are hugely popular on the platform which frankly is not a big surprise or keen insight. Besides gathering data on the courses, Udemy surveyed 7000 Udemy students about their motivation to take courses online. Udemy’s conclusion of the data gathered is that Americans are taking tech, business and design focused online courses because they feel that these skills are needed to compete in the job market, and while this is of course true I won’t take it as an indicator for an overall trend as Udemy did. What the numbers show is that Udemy is still heavily entrenched in its Silicon Valley clientele. If you take a look at the number of courses offered in the different categories you see why people take tech, business and design classes. They simply make up the majority of topics offered on the marketplace. Technology: 2280 Business: 2340 Design: 420 Music: 264 Language: 132 courses Arts: 66 courses (The numbers above are only courses offered in English, counted in the different categories) To me, the interesting questions that come out of this are Why is there a growing group of online tutors creating tech and design courses? Will Udemy be able to broaden its course offering as Dennis Yang is planning it? Will students choose topics not directly related to their core interest? Especially this last question is crucial to Udemy’s business in the midterm. Only if students start to take lifestyle, music or language courses besides their tech training the marketplace as a whole can benefit from its user base and therefore justify the new commission structure. Further Reading Americans Honing Tech Skills to Compete in Today’s Workforce | Udemy

Turkcell, Turkey’s leading mobile communications provider, has formed a partnership with Coursera. Under the agreement Turkcell created a Turkish user interface for Coursera’s website and will work together with Coursera’s current partner Koc University to subtitle existing courses and create new courses in Turkish through Turkcell Akademi. Key Takeaway The partnership announcement also marks a new phase of Turkcell’s mobile education efforts in the country by relaunching the Turkcell Akademi as a free and public digital learning platform. While some of the courses in the Turkcell Akademi can only be accessed by Turkcell customers the courses from Coursera will be accessible for everyone free of charge. Turkcell’s population coverage is at 99.49% in 2G and 86.17% in 3G with 34.8 million subscribers in Turkey and 70.1 million subscribers in nine countries as of March 31, 2014. Earlier this year edX joined SocialEDU, a similar project by Facebook’s non-profit Internet.org which aims to bring free, mobile based education to students in Rwanda. Further Reading Turkcell Academy Takes Mobile Education to the Next Level with Coursera Partnership | BusinessWire Coursera works with Turkey’s largest mobile provider, Turkcell, to build resources for Turkish Learners | Coursera Blog Related HEDLINE: Facebook & others launch SocialEDU - Free Mobile Learning | EDUKWEST Links turkcell.com.tr/akademi | Twitter

According to Reuters, Amazon.com is planning to launch a local services marketplace later this year, and the company is already in talks with startups in Seattle and San Francisco that provide such offerings. Could this eventually lead to 1-click tutoring services? Given that Amazon acqui-hired TeachStreet back in February 2012 and folded it into the AmazonLocal team this seems likely. Local marketplaces in the education space have seen growing interest from users and investors alike with WyzAnt being the most prominent one in the US right now. Launched in 2005 the founders Andrew Geant and Mike Weishuhn grew the company to over $20 million in annual revenue before raising a $21.5 million Series A in December 2013 and acquiring the assets of Tutorspree, another tutoring marketplace in January 2014. Yet another competitor in the space is Takelessons which has raised a total of $20 million since its launch in 2006 and acquired its smaller competitor Betterfly. With Amazon.com entering the space, possibly fueled with the knowledge and contacts of the ex-TeachStreet team, more consilidation might happen down the line. If it’s true that Amazon is going to work together with existing marketplaces, this could also result in a big push for participating edtech startups. According to Reuters, offering local services on Amazon’s website has been a goal of Chief Executive Jeff Bezos for years. Giving Amazon buyers the option to shop for piano or language lessons besides home repair, massages and hair cuts seems obvious in this scenario. Further Reading Exclusive: Amazon.com plans local services marketplace this year - sources | Reuters The fable of WyzAnt and the grasshopper | Crain’s Chicago Business Related TeachStreet "Acqhired" by Amazon - Shuts Down February 15th | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: TakeLessons raises $7 million led by Lightbank | EDUKWEST Picture "Amazon Packaging" by Nic Taylor, Some Rights Reserved

Declara, an edtech startup that offers an adaptive learning platform for continuing education, has raised an additional $9 million from Singapore's EDBI and Chicago-based Linden Venture Fund bringing its Series A to $25 million. Declara announced that it had raised a $16 million Series A led by GSV Capital last month. In total the startup has raised $34 million to date. Key Takeaway The new funding will be partly used to expand into Asia. Declara will open an office in Singapore and will work together with EDBI to introduce the platform in other Asian countries. Declara also plans to further invest into its technology. Declara’s adpative learning platform uses semantic search, predictive analytics and machine learning to surface the right content for individuals at the right time, making learning more personalized and discovery oriented. Over time Declara recognizes learning patterns of each individual and then further adapts the learning path by adding relevant content or connecting learners with colleagues or experts. SNTE, Mexico’s largest teacher union chose Declara as technology provider to train 1.6 million teachers in Mexico. Declara also has contracts with the Educational Services Australia network, Becalos, an organization of Mexico’s Televisa Foundation and Tu clase, tu país in Chile, among others. On average companies pay the platform $50 per head per year according to re/code. This rate can be lower if organisations commit to training a large number of employees. Further Reading Declara Adds $9 Million To Series A Financing For Global Expansion | PR Newswire Related HEDLINE: Declara raises $16 million Series A | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Mexican Union to train 1.6m Teachers Online via Declara | EDUKWEST Links declara.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

Google Education announced another service targeting teachers across the globe. Google Educator Groups (GEG) is a program that wants to support communities of educators, online as well as offline and aiming to help teachers to learn, share, and inspire each other to meet the needs of their students through technology solutions, both in the classroom and beyond. Key Takeaway Google Educator Groups are essentially personal learning networks (PLN) that use Google+ as its backbone. The local GEGs are organized by volunteers and entirely independent from Google. At launch there are 51 GEGs across the world with USA, Romania and the Czech Republic having the most local groups established. GEGs offer different activities to learn and share with like minded educators. Teachers connect online via discussions and Hangouts or in the real world through meetups, workshops and other events. Analysis Google is currently pushing heavily into education. Besides getting more and more Chromebooks and Android based devices in the hands of students and teachers, Google is extending its SaaS offerings as well. About a month ago Google announced a quasi LMS platform based on Google Apps for Education called Classroom. One aim of the GEGs is of course to get more educators into using Google’s Education suite in the classroom as one mission point states A place to share among many people about Google products for use in education A forum to share knowledge and help each other, open to any educator and By supporting GEGs Google hopes to build and encourage an atmosphere where Google technologies and open technology is not only accepted but encouraged in education, allowing students to embrace technology both in the classroom and the rest of their lives. Microsoft is also on a mission to get its cloud based office products into schools. The company just recently signed agreements with Thailand and the Bahamas to offer its products to students and teachers free of charge to compete with Google’s free offerings. Further Reading Google Classroom preview | Google+ Google Educator Group announcement | Google+ Links google.com/landing/geg

Today the three winners of the EdTech 20 2014 were announced at EdTech Europe, a one day summit bringing together key figures in the European edtech scene as well as from abroad. Judged by an industry-leading panel, including representatives from TSL, Pearson and Emerge Education, the European EdTech 20 ranks firms based on criteria including; innovation, scale, market impact and revenue growth in Europe over the past year. This year's EdTech 20 have been selected out of more than 100 entries from 15 countries. bettermarks (Germany) Founded in 2008, bettermarks is an adaptive math learning platform. bettermarks offers over 100 interactive maths books covering primary and secondary level (grades 4 - 10; age 10 - 16). The platform is available in different markets throughout the EU and abroad. Video Links bettermarks.com | Twitter | CrunchBase busuu (UK) busuu is among the largest language learning communities with over 45 million members across the web and mobile applications. Following the freemium model, language learners can access parts of the website and apps for free, engage with other learners and participate in a global community. Video Links busuu.com | Twitter | CrunchBase The Student Room Group (UK) The Student Room Group helps 8.5m monthly visitors with a unique blend of social learning, peer-to-peer support and advice on student pathways. The UK’s largest student community - The Student Room - sits alongside social learning websites Marked by Teachers and Get Revising. Video Links tsrmatters.com  | Twitter Picture via TSR Group

Editor's Note: This post has first been published on edcetera - straight talk on edtech. In my last post I briefly mentioned Unizin, the new consortium of higher education institutions that was rumored to become a strong competitor of edX. With its soft-launch last night—which was first reported by Inside Higher Ed—we can add some more pieces to the puzzle and get a better picture of its mission. The founding consortium members are Colorado State University, Indiana University, the University of Florida, and the University of Michigan. The non-profit will be governed by a board of directors, representing membership universities that make a significant investment in Unizin. Not another MOOC First of all, Unizin won’t be another MOOC platform, as its core mission lies in giving its members "greater control and influence over the digital learning landscape." Through Unizin Services, institutions will get access to a growing cloud-based infrastructure built upon open technology standards. While there is a core toolset and underlying infrastructure, Unizin won’t be an LMS or MOOC platform, but will focus on digital content development and data analytics to improve teaching and learning using the underlying technology. According to Unizin, "These are essential and strategic capabilities that enable universities’ core mission of education." Lessons and Inspiration from Internet2 According to the launch blog post and the FAQ on the website, Unizin takes its lessons from the successful Internet2 project which was launched 20 years ago. Similar to Internet2, Unizin wants to leverage the scale of its consortium members to create a shared infrastructure maintained by contractors while keeping the decision rights to set policies, business models, terms, and manage costs. Internet2 will also serve as "financial home" to Unizin, providing the infrastructure required for the projects launch and growth. Nevertheless, membership in Internet2 does not automatically result in a membership of Unizin. According to the Internet2 press release on the launch of Unizin, "Unizin will operate as an unincorporated association at Internet2, a leading not for profit global technology organization with more than 450 member institutions across the higher education, government and business communities. The Unizin platform will be delivered over the Internet2 Network, the nation’s fastest research and education network." Unizin plans to have a professional services staff of around 20+ to integrate and operate the Unizin service. Content, Delivery and Ownership Educational content—and its creation, delivery and analysis—plays a key role in Unizin’s mission. Through Unizin universities will be able to manage content created by faculty and students, share this content with other universities with significant cost savings and analyze related data. "We want to support faculty and universities by ensuring that universities and their faculty stay in control of the content, data, relationships, and reputations that we create," say Brad Wheeler, Ph.D. and James L. Hilton, Ph.D., founding co-chairs of the Unizin Consortium in a blog post. Unizin will also be compatible with a variety of teaching scenarios, from in-person courses to flipped classrooms, entirely online or MOOCs. A Cloud-based Infrastructure for Higher Ed Like e-Literate reported, the consortium chose Instructure Canvas as provider of the initial infrastructure. When launched later this summer, Unizin won’t be visible as a brand like Coursera or edX, but will stay in the background. There won’t be Unizin-branded courses or portals; this is entirely up to the consortium members. Like edX, Unizin is a non-profit. Its members have to pay a fee to enter which is used to maintain and extend the common infrastructure through contracts with different providers. The consortium will extend over time therefore the fee members have to pay will change accordingly to cover all costs but "they need not cost more and are not beholden to anyone other than Unizin’s growing roster of members over time". The official launch of Unizin will take place on July 1st for founding campuses. Members will receive their Canvas licenses by that time if they haven’t a contract with Instructure already.

Safanad Limited, a global principal investment firm, and K12 Inc. founder and former CEO Ron Packard announced the launch of Pansophic Learning as well as the acquisition of assets from K12 Inc. The new company plans to make additional investments in education products and services ranging from pre-K to college both in the US and globally in the coming years. Key Takeaway Ron Packard stepped down as CEO of K12 Inc. in January 2014 in preparation of the formation of Pansophic Learning. With the launch of Pansophic, Packard also resigned from the K12’s board of directors. It has been a rough year for K12 Inc. which culminated in a class action lawsuit that accuses K12 Inc. and its former CEO of misleading investors. [member] In January, Safanad planned to acquire select assets from K12 Inc. including the International School of Berne Capital Education K12 Inc.’s interest in an existing Middle East joint venture currently operating with a Safanad affiliate the UK businesses that K12 Inc. launched the rights to market K12’s new pre-kindergarten product, EmbarK12 outside the U.S. other select assets and licenses The above listed assets were responsible for $20.8 million in revenue and had direct operating losses of approximately $3.0 million for K12’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. In the press release issued by K12 Inc. on the sale to Pansophic, the assets are listed as K12's post-secondary business K12's interest in an existing Middle East joint venture currently operating with a Safanad Limited affiliate a private international brick and mortar school According to Pansophic’s website, its current businesses are Capital Education, US Schools, Middle East Schools and the International School of Berne. The management and staff of the acquired companies will join Pansophic Learning which is headquartered in Mclean, Virginia. In April investors filed a federal lawsuit against K12 Inc., accusing the company of misleading investors by putting forward overly positive public statements during much of 2013, only later to reveal that K12 had missed key operational and financial targets. The lawsuit also alleges that Packard "reaped the rewards" of the bullish projections by selling millions of dollars worth of stock in the months before an October announcement of disappointing news sent its price plummeting according to Education Week. Further Reading Education Company K12 Inc and Safanad Limited are announcing the intention to form a new company. | Safanad Safanad and Ron Packard, Founder of K12 Inc., Launch Pansophic Learning and Acquire Assets from K12 to Pursue Global Education Opportunities | MarketWatch K12 Inc. Completes Sale of Select Businesses | MarketWatch Related Investor Lawsuit Targets K12 Inc. and Stock Sales of Former CEO | EducationWeek Links pansophiclearning.com | Twitter | Facebook [/member]

YouScience, a Nashville-based startup that develops a resource portal for career planning called Latitude, announced that it has raised a $8.5 million Seed Round from mission-oriented individuals, institutions and organizations such as LaunchTN. Latitude will officially launch end of June and be available directly to consumers and through secondary schools, education consultants, career counselors and universities. Key Takeaway Founded by career development expert Betsy Wills and entrepreneur Richard Patton and led by CEO Philip Hardin, Latitude aims to be the next generation career discovery platform based on 90 years of validated science according to the press release. Latitude measures key traits for actionable feedback ranging from visual comparison speed over vocabulary and numerical computation to inductive reasoning, idea generation, work approach and interpersonal style. Based on the results, Latitude aims to provide students with their true career fit and the path to achieve it. Latitude also offers a complete career guide with overview of salaries, projected job openings, and guidance on the education, degrees or certifications needed. YouScience plans to extend its offering to career changers, returning military and anyone needing career and educational guidance starting next year. With growing tuition rates and rising unemployment among graduates, the career planning sector is growing. Chegg just entered the vertical by launching the Chegg Career Center. Other startups like Collegefeed or projects like Balloon from Apollo Education are also targeting the vertical. Further Reading With $8.5 Million in Funding, Education Technology Company YouScience's Biggest Value Proposition - Empowering Students to Take Charge of Their Educational and Career Outcomes | PR Newswire Related HEDLINE: Chegg Career Center to launch later this month | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Collegefeed Launches Platform for University Career Centers | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Apollo Education launches Course Aggregation Platform Balloon | EDUKWEST Links mylatitude.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

Pearson announced nine of the ten startups that have been selected to take part in its 2014 Pearson Catalyst program today. Through the Catalyst program, now in its second year, Pearson partners with startups which then work on key challenges together with product experts, innovators and industry veterans from the company. This year 215 startups from 30 countries applied for the program. Over the course of three months the startups will get access to Pearson resources and the opportunity to work closely together with a Pearson brand. "We believe that by partnering with the startup community, together, we can more quickly tackle true educational challenges and make a real impact in learners’ lives. It’s exciting to connect Pearson teams with innovative startups that share our passion for making a difference in education." states Diana Stepner, VP of Innovation Partnerships & Developer Relations at Pearson. In total there will be 10 startups in the program, working on ten key challenges set by Pearson in March. Mathspace | Catalyst challenge: Mobile Math Input Officially launched in 2012 Mathspace offers secondary students and their teachers a platform for adaptive and personalized math learning with a library of thousands of exercises aligned with the Australian curriculum. Mathspace’s digital workbook gives instant feedback and offers help on demand through hints and videos. Mathspace announced a distribution partnership with Pearson back in April under which its product is offered as a supplement to Pearson’s own secondary mathematics solutions in Australia and New Zealand via subscription. Links mathspace.co | Twitter | Facebook GlassLab | Catalyst challenge: Data Visualization Solution GlassLab is creating original games and mods of existing commercially successful games (like SimCity) - all aligned to Common Core State Standards, and designed to support acquisition of critical 21st century skills. Real-time estimates of student learning empower teachers to personalize instruction for deeper learning experiences. Links glasslabgames.org | Twitter | Facebook Learning Games Network | Catalyst challenge: English Language Learning Game Learning Games Network created an English learning adventure. Learners explore the island of Xenos and learn English through playing games and quests and by interacting with citizens and follow visitors in different locations on the virtual island, supporting English language learning. The expansive learning space immerses learners in new contexts across a variety of colorful and engaging zones populated by other English language learners, coaches, mentors and teachers. Links xenos-isle.com | Twitter Sesame.io | Catalyst challenge: Performance Based Assessment Sesame offers products for teachers to capture and assess learning. Sesame Snap is an application that enables teachers to take pictures of creative work like drawings and assess them right away. The data can then be uploaded and synchronized with portfolios and teaching plans via WiFi. Sesame also offers a platform for entire schools including overview of teaching plans and assessment methods for admins, holistic view of each student for every subject in one place and private communities to share resources and synchronizing strategies. Links sesamehq.com | Twitter | Facebook Actively Learn | Catalyst challenge: Critical Reading: Focus, Duration and Comprehension Actively Learn is an ereading platform that improves students’ reading comprehension and retention by empowering teachers to reach students inside a book. Teachers can customize instruction, provide real-time feedback, allow peers to collaborate, and get analytics on student performance. Students are motivated by getting information to fill gaps in background knowledge and interacting with peers. Reading is transformed from a passive activity to an active, collaborative one. Links activelylearn.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase Verold | Catalyst challenge: 3D Visualizations for Developmental Psychology Built for Web developers, Verold is a real-time, high-performance online platform that streamlines the creation of Web-based interactive 3D content in ways that haven’t been possible before. Verold wants to weave 3D content into the fabric of the Web, making it easy to deliver a rich, engaging and interactive user experiences on any device. Links verold.com | Twitter | Facebook CodeMonkey | Catalyst challenge: Teaching Computer Science in Schools CodeMonkey is an online game that teaches both the fundamentals and advanced topics in computer programming. A recent graduate from the MindCET accelerator program in Israel, the CodeMonkey team has vast experience in both technology and education, aiming to change the way people learn coding. Links codemonkey.co.il | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase ForAllRubrics | Catalyst challenge: Learning Outcomes Rubric & Data Platform ForAllRubrics is a rubrics and badging platform, enabling teachers to grade students, organize badges, set up and share badge systems, align badges with standards or create entire badge ecosystems. The platform also offers mobile access through dedicated apps in iOS and Android. Links forallrubrics.com | Twitter Learnmetrics | Catalyst challenge: Standards and Scales Curriculum Mapping Learnmetrics knocks down the walls between disparate data sources and gives educators instant access to the 360° data they need to drive outcomes for their students. Learnmetrics collects, connects and analyzes school data and provides educators with powerful metrics and analytics. No setup, no configuration and no IT support required. Links learnmetrics.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase Further Reading Pearson debuts new global accelerator class | Pearson Full List of Pearson Catalyst for Education 2014 Challenges | Pearson