Adaptive learning platform Knewton announced a partnership with Elsevier, a provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Elsevier will implement Knewton’s API starting with courses for nursing and health professions students. "Our work with Knewton combines our world-class educational content with the latest analytics and technology so academic institutions can analyze the effectiveness of their curriculum and make the necessary adjustments to produce better outcomes for students." states John Danaher, President, Elsevier Education in the press release. Elsevier publishes about 25 percent of the world’s clinical content, and nearly every nursing student in North America uses an Elsevier resource in training or in practice. Press Release Elsevier To Collaborate with Knewton to Build Adaptive Learning Products for Nursing, Health Professions, and Medical Students Globally Elsevier to use Knewton technology to create next generation of digital course materials Philadelphia, PA, June 12, 2014 - Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today a collaboration with Knewton, a leading adaptive learning company. Starting with courses for nursing and health professions students, Elsevier will use Knewton’s infrastructure to power personalized digital solutions that continuously adjust to each individual’s unique learning needs. "Elsevier’s high-quality educational materials prepare students in nursing, health professions, and medicine to play critical roles in the future of global health," said Jose Ferreira, Founder and CEO, Knewton. "We look forward to working with Elsevier to help millions more students unlock personalized learning experiences and better master the material needed to prepare for these important careers." Elsevier is a global leader in educational learning solutions, with a strong focus on research, science, and healthcare, and a mission to develop solutions that deliver improved outcomes for global health. Elsevier publishes about 25 percent of the world’s clinical content, and nearly every nursing student in North America uses an Elsevier resource in training or in practice. Knewton technology will analyze what every student knows and how he or she learns best, and then provide personalized recommendations to help more students master the Elsevier material. Elsevier’s decision to work with Knewton reflects an increasing global demand for personalized learning materials and Knewton’s leadership position in data analytics and adaptive learning. "Today, the demand for health and medical professionals around the world is growing rapidly, and higher education institutions need the best materials to help students prepare for careers in the health industry," said John Danaher, President, Elsevier Education. "Our Knewton-powered solutions will help transform health science education for professors and students, inside and outside the classroom. When students learn more effectively, they will experience more success when they launch into careers. Elsevier’s mission is to improve student, program, and institutional outcomes by focusing on development of innovative solutions that will deliver value for customers, businesses, and shareholders. Our work with Knewton combines our world-class educational content with the latest analytics and technology so academic institutions can analyze the effectiveness of their curriculum and make the necessary adjustments to produce better outcomes for students." To learn more about the Elsevier-Knewton collaboration and other Elsevier initiatives, visit Elsevier’s "Stay on Target" booth (#361) at the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) Annual Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, June 16-18, 2014. # # # About Knewton Knewton‘s goal is to personalize lessons for students around the world. Education companies use Knewton technology to power course materials that dynamically adapt to each student’s unique needs. By analyzing data to figure out what a student knows, Knewton recommends what to study next, helping more students master material and get ahead. Knewton-powered analytics identify knowledge gaps and predict performance to help educators, parents, and administrators better support every student. www.knewton.com Knewton was founded in 2008 and has offices in New York City and London. About Elsevier Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions — among them ScienceDirect,Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey — and publishes nearly 2,200 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and over 25,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange). Media Contacts Christopher Capot Director, Corporate Relations Elsevier +1 212 633 3164 c.capot@elsevier.com press@knewton.com + 1 917 284 9829

Delhi-based Pathfinder Publishing has raised an undisclosed amount of angel investment from a group of five business angels for its higher education and career counseling portal Careers360. The round was led by Ranjan Pai of Manipal Group with participation of Satya Narayanan of Career Launcher, Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm and two other undisclosed financial investors. The startup received initial investment from Netcore founder Rajesh Jain. Key Takeaway Founded in 2008, Pathfinder started by publishing English and Hindi print magazines and counseling guides in 2009 before launching its web portal Careers360 in 2012. Today Careers360 claims to be India’s largest student community and counselling platform with over 3 million monthly visitors and 500k registered students. The new funding will be used to build an independent career marketplace called MyCareers360.com which aims to help students better evaluate, compare and purchase education products and services allowing them to compare based on price, quality and suitability. Careers360 targets the audience of 17 to 25-year-olds in India and currently offers admission counselling services, test preparation services and study material for competitive exams in various disciplines like spoken English, engineering, medical, law, pharmacy, commerce, management and hotel management and others. As for the business model, there are a wide variety of options. Students can either pay per course but have, of course, an option to subscribe to the print magazine. Currently subscriptions on MyCareers360 are for one, three and five years and cost around $9, $25 and $60. Individual courses, tests and entrance exams are typically priced around $5 to $9. For spoken English training students can also subscribe for packages which last for three or six months and go up to a year. Analysis [member] Marketplaces for online courses are getting more and more popular in India. Snapdeal.com, India’s leading e-commerce site launched an online learning vertical earlier this year, aggregating courses from education providers. WizIQ, an education platform backed by Bertelsmann, is also growing its course offerings in addition to the live webinars offered by instructors from across the world. Avagmah, an online course marketplace for working professionals got recently acquired by Krishnan Ganesh, the founder of Tutorvista and Gradestack, a mobile centered marketplace, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Times Internet Limited. Further Reading Career information portal Careers360 raises angel funding, to launch online education marketplace | VCCircle Careers360 raises funds from 5 angel investors to launch a education marketplace | MediaNama Related HEDLINE: TutorVista Founder Krishnan Ganesh acquires Avagmah | EDUKWEST HEDLINE: Mobile Learning Platform GradeStack receives Seed Funding | EDUKWEST [/member] Links careers360.com | mycareers360.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

Tarena International, provider of professional education services in China, signed partnership deals with six Chinese universities and colleges. Under the partnership students will be able to enroll in joint major programs and the institutions will include selected courses from Tarena in their standard undergraduate curriculum. Key Takeaway All partner institutions are located in Jiangsu Province, namely Yangzhou University, Jiangsu Normal University, Huaihai Institute of Technology, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Taihu University of Wuxi, and Xuhai College, China University of Mining and Technology. Tarena and its partners are going to offer joint major programs in software engineering and computer science with Tarena getting a cut of the tuition attributable to those programs. Each of the six institutions will also set up an internship program and a training center to better prepare its students for the job market. In May Tarena signed a similar partnership with Taiyuan Institute of Technology. According to research firm IDC, Tarena is China’s largest provider of IT professional education services in China with a market share of 8.3%. Tarena made its stock market debut on Nasdaq in April, trading under the ticker symbol TEDU. Further Reading Tarena International, Inc. Signs Cooperation Agreements with Six Universities and Colleges to Offer Joint Major Programs | PR Newswire Tarena International, Inc. Signs Cooperation Agreement with Taiyuan Institute of Technology | PR Newswire Related HEDLINE: Tarena International IPO - Flat on First Trading Day | EDUKWEST Links tarena.com.cn

Editor's Note: This post has first been published on edcetera - straight talk on edtech. This week Starbucks and AT&T both announced new initiatives to educate their workforce. The two programs are indicators of changing perception when it comes to the value of a degree. While Starbucks wants to encourage its employees to complete classic undergraduate studies, AT&T looks into new, very granular forms of skill-based certifications. Starbucks and ASU On Monday Starbucks announced its College Achievement Plan under which (some) US employees are eligible to earn full tuition reimbursement for each semester of full-time coursework they complete toward a bachelor’s degree, choosing one of more than 40 undergraduate degree programs taught by ASU which are delivered online. Needless to say that certain terms and conditions apply; The Chronicle has a complete overview of the fine print. Most importantly, Starbucks employees who want to take part in this program need to pony up the money in advance and will get reimbursed only for every 21 credits they complete. The Chronicle estimates that this is a cost of $10k upfront. According to Starbucks this is a way to encourage the completion but as many pointed out on Twitter, this is quite a commitment for someone who lives on a barista’s wage. Nevertheless, there are no strings attached when it comes to seeking new opportunities after completing the degree as there is no commitment to stay with Starbucks post graduation. It is hard to say if and how Starbucks’ business may benefit from employees who complete their degrees with the company’s financial and retention support. Also, based on the upfront commitment I don’t expect a landslide of ASU enrollments from baristas around the country. Sure, for truly committed employees who seek "the American Dream" and who want to make it from barista to bachelor this might be the opportunity they have been waiting for. AT&T and Udacity While Starbucks is focused on classic forms of degrees, AT&T and Udacity introduce a new form of credential called nanodegree. The aim of these nanodegrees is to make learning a new skill, more efficient, more accessible and more affordable while guaranteeing that these degrees are fully recognized for entry-level job applicants at the telco. AT&T are also encouraging other tech companies to follow and recognize the degrees, as well. Nanodegrees will be available for front-end web developers, back-end web developers, iOS mobile developers, Android mobile developers and data analysts. Completion will take between six to 12 months at a cost of around $200 per month. The entire course will be delivered online in a MOOC format with Udacity taking care of the course delivery, coaching and career services. AT&T will provide direction on course content and is offering 100 paid internships to the first batch of graduates. AT&T and Udacity already worked together on the first accredited Master of Science in Computer Science together with Georgia Tech last year. The new format of nanodegrees aims to provide employees with stackable degrees that can be earned throughout one’s career. "Learning does not stop at schools and universities. It’s a lifelong process where individuals must constantly learn and relearn technical skills. We are creating the nanodegree to give lifelong learners access to affordable credentials that will be recognized by employers as they move forward in their professional careers." states Sebastian Thrun in the press release. The Internet levels the Playing Field Both initiatives have in common that they wouldn’t be possible in that form without the Internet. The ASU bachelor programs Starbucks employees can choose from are delivered online, cutting cost and making it possible to learn while having a half-time or even full-time job and giving the learner the option to grow beyond her current position, maybe even change careers completely.. The nanodegree is a very targeted and stripped down form of the bachelor, but clearly aiming to provide employees with the skills AT&T needs right now: design of Website user interfaces and iOS applications as AT&T is in transition to a software and fully mobile-centric business. To me, the real story here is that no one seems to have a problem with the form of delivery anymore. There are discussions about the pricing or the value of stripped down credentials, but the fact that both initiatives are entirely delivered via the Internet doesn't bother anyone. Picture License  Some rights reserved by Sean MacEntee

Australian edtech startup School Places raised $2 million AUD from Square Peg Capital, Tank Stream Ventures and Rampersand. Square Peg had already invested in School Places’ seed round. The funding will be used to expand the service beyond Victoria, first to New South Wales and later nationwide. School Places is an online marketplace for private school places. Private schools offer vacancies at discounts between 10% and 30% from the annual fee, schools pay School Places to get listed. Launched in April, the site has become very popular among parents searching for private school placements. At launch day alone the site saw 35k searches. For more information on this and all other deals along with analysis and commentary from founders and investors sign up for EDUKWEST Pro to receive our monthly EdTech Deal Overview right to your inbox. Links schoolplaces.com.au | Twitter

Galvanize, a network of co-working and learning spaces for digital innovators and entrepreneurs, raised a $18 million Series A led by University Ventures Fund. Founded in 2012, Galvanize previously raised money from a group of undisclosed angel investors and currently operates three campuses in Denver, Boulder and San Francisco. With the new funding, Galvanize aims to expand into three additional cities by 2015 as well as growing its staff and launching new course offerings. Galvanize offers 24-week, immersive full-time developer training programs under the gSchool label. With each campus, Galvanize aims to create a diverse community of entrepreneurs, students, employers, mentors and investors, combining working and learning under one roof. Currently more than 150 companies are located at Galvanize including Box, WordPress creator Automattic, Good.Co and Pandora. For more information on this and all other deals along with analysis and commentary from founders and investors sign up for EDUKWEST Pro to receive our monthly EdTech Deal Overview right to your inbox. Links galvanize.it | Twitter

On Friday Open Education Challenge announced the 20 edtech startups that are invited to a workshop and pitch competition in Barcelona. The event takes place from July 11th to 15th and will end with the selection of the 10 teams that will be invited to join the incubator. The 20 finalists have been selected out of 611 applications from 74 countries. The European Incubator for Innovation in Education will last 12 weeks, and the teams will visit five European cities, namely Barcelona, Paris, London, Berlin and Helsinki, where they will be taken care of by the respective Challenge partners. Each startup will receive up to €20.000 seed investment in exchange for 6% equity on average. For more information about the program, we invite you to read our overview from earlier this year. Continue reading →

MasteryConnect which provides teachers with a suite of assessment products acquired Socrative, a startup that creates tools for classroom engagement, for $5 million in cash and stock. Both startups took part in the imagine K12 incubator program and have NewSchools Venture Fund as their investor. MasteryConnect raised $9 million to date, Socrative $760k. The founders of Socrative and their employees with all but a few remote workers will join the MasteryConnect team in Salt Lake City. Socrative’s CEO Ben Berte will become director of user engagement for MasteryConnect MasteryConnect plans to keep the Socrative brand even after the product will be integrated into its product suite by fall 2014. The combined startup now reaches 21 million students and 1 million teachers in 175 countries. The startup now aims to further expand internationally and to add more features for teachers and parents of students in K-12. For more information on this and all other deals along with analysis and commentary from founders and investors sign up for EDUKWEST Pro to receive our monthly EdTech Deal Overview right to your inbox. Links masteryconnect.com | Twitter | CrunchBase socrative.com | Twitter | CrunchBase

Crowdfunding has become a valid choice for edtech entrepreneurs who look for funding but don’t want to necessarily raise money from angels or VCs. Sure, before you get this kind of funding you need to have a crowd, a classic chicken and egg problem many projects have to face. On the other hand, we have seen crowdfunded projects that turned into VC backed companies thanks to a product that captures the imagination of the crowd like the robotics startup Play-i. But there are already Kickstarter and Indiegogo, so why do we need yet another crowdfunding service you might ask. While the general crowdfunding approach works well with hardware products and other big projects, think of it as a special form of preorder, it does, however, not work well for content creators who need to rely on a continuous stream of support from their audience. And this is where Patreon comes in. Other than pledging money in return for a perk or the finished product on Kickstarter or Indiegogo, patrons on Patreon set an amount they are willing to pay per piece of content released. This content may be a video, song, podcast episode, blog post, everything that gets published on a regular basis. The advantage for the content creator is planning dependability. The whole process of creating content and receiving some sort of payment for it gets far easier as she knows what sum will come in when the next video or post is published. This model was initially created by Adam Curry aka "the podfather" for his different podcasting shows. He calls it the "value for value model". If a listener gets value out of the content it is only fair to give some value back in the form of financial support. Patreon was created by Samuel Yam and Jack Conte, the latter of Pomplamoose-fame and therefore very aware of the struggle independent artists face when it comes to monetizing their craft. Launched a year ago, Patreon quickly became the must-go-to site for many leading creators. At launch the site featured three creators, today over 25.000 creators use Patreon with 180 signing up every day. As Conte explains in a video message about the fund raising, Patreon is a creator-first company. Other than media companies that are consumer focused the team understands the value of creators and their content. Instead of focusing on consumer growth by driving down cost, Patreon wants to enable creatives to live from their work. We already covered the movement in our post about YouTube’s effort to win back talent. Nevertheless, up to now there was of course the problem that in order to survive, Patreon needed to become financially viable for the team, as well. With $15 million from a group of 17 angel investors and VCs, Patreon can now focus on growing its user base from both ends, getting more creators on board as well as promoting them to potential patrons. The immediate risk of Patreon closing down and leaving the creators with no income is also solved this way. The remaining question certainly is when YouTube will launch its own version of Patreon integrated within its portal - or whether Patreon might become an acquisition target. In the meantime I think it is worthwhile for educators to get familiar with the site and the potential it has for educational content. From YouTube videos to lesson plans and blog posts, Patreon has the potential to support a variety of educational projects that don’t need to raise tons of money to get them off the ground but rely on a constant support of their community. Video Further Reading Patreon Raises $15 Million Series A, Revamps Site To Focus More On Content | TechCrunch YouTube plans Aggressive Moves to win back Talent | EDUKWEST Links patreon.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

Schoology, a learning management solution which provides a collaborative learning environment, has raised a $15 million venture round led by Intel Capital with participation of new investors Great Oaks Venture Capital and Great Road Holdings and existing investors FirstMark Capital and Meakem Becker Venture Capital. Intel Capital’s Sumeet Jain will join Schoology’s Board of Directors. The round brings Schoology’s total capital raised to $25 million. Key Takeaway Founded in May 2009, Schoology now has 5 million users across 50.000 schools from around the globe. Schoology caters to institutions in K-12 and higher education as well as to corporate clients. Besides its LMS core, Schoology offers a wide variety of additional features and tools aiming to streamline the workflow of teachers and other educators. The startup just won a CODiE Award for its product. Schoology offers subscriptions for schools and districts as well as for individual teachers and companies. Recent clients include Uruguay which will supply all schools in the country with the LMS solution as well as Colorado State University. h/t: Frank Catalano Further Reading Schoology Secures $15 Million to Fuel Growth and Product Innovation | BusinessWire Schoology Raises $15 Million in New Capital | Schoology Schoology Contract with Uruguay Powers Plan Ceibal 1:1 Learning Initiative | BusinessWire Colorado State University-Global Campus Collaborates with Schoology | BusinessWire Links schoology.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase