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

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

One Month, a startup that aims to teach learners new digital skills in 30 days, has raised a $770k Seed Round from investors including Winklevoss Capital, Innovation Works, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Start Fund, Oliver Jung, Lew Moorman, Y Combinator, FundersClub, and crowdfunding platform WeFunder. One Month also took part in the Y Combinator 2013 Summer batch where it had received an initial $14k in seed investment. Launched in 2013 by Mattan Griffel and Chris Castiglione One Month created the hugely popular One Month Rails, a Ruby on Rails course for beginners which is still one of the best-selling programming courses of all time according to the startup. To date over 14.5k leaners signed up for One Month, generating over $500k in sales and completing 150k lessons on the platform. There are currently two courses available on One Month: Rails and HTML & CSS, both cost $99. With the funding the team aims to extend its offering into new topics, breaking them down following the startup’s accelerated learning philosophy. "We think that when it comes to learning a new skill, the first 30 days are the most important to determine whether someone is going to quit or not." states Mattan Griffel. 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 onemonth.com | Twitter | CrunchBase

Fingerprint, a mobile app network for children, announced that it has raised a $10.85 million Series B from Reed Elsevier, Corus Entertainment and Dreamworks. Fingerprint previously raised $7.75 million led by Corus in August 2012 which brings the total funding raised to more than $20 million. Key Takeaway Founded in 2011 by Nancy MacIntyre, a former executive vice president of product innovation and marketing at learning tablet maker LeapFrog, Fingerprint’s own network grew to over 3 million users who download 2.5 games on average according to WSJ. In the same time Fingerprint’s revenues have grown ten-fold according to the press release. Fingerprint currently offers 250 apps in its own network called Fingerprint Play and aims to reach 600 by the end of the year. The startup also created networks for Samsung (Samsung KidsTimeTM), Sylvan Learning (SylvanPlay) and Astro (AstroPlay). According to Common Sense Media and Kaiser Family Foundation, kids between the age of 1-8 spend nearly two hours per day using devices, and between 8-18 years of age they spend eight hours per day. The challenge for game makers is the short attention span of kids states MacIntyre in an interview with WSJ. Children typically spend just two weeks playing a game, especially an educational game. To counter that, Fingerprint attempts to create new games on a regular basis. Fingerprint also invites developers to add content to the network. Since the launch of the global content initiative in December, Fingerprint has received more than 400 submissions from developers in 30 countries including content from Smart Education, Ducky Deck, BabyBus, TinyTap, Speakaboos and BabyFirst. By the end of 2014, Fingerprint expects to have launched seven new networks with a global footprint that will span the US, Canada, SE Asia, Australia and Europe. As part of the funding both Corus and Dreamworks will be doing commercial partnerships in terms of distribution of content and alignment with Fingerprint’s various partners. Further Reading Fingerprint Secures $10.85M Series B Financing from Top Media and Entertainment Companies to Expand and Create New Kids’ Mobile Networks | Press Release Kids’ App Maker Fingerprint, Snubbed by VCs, Backed by DreamWorks | WSJ Links fingerprintplay.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase

What is the Amazon Fire? It is Amazon’s latest offering and is a smartphone. The cost is $199 with a plan from AT&T and $649 without a service plan. You can pre-order the phones for release July 25, 2014. The $199 phone offers 32 GB of memory and you can get a 64MB phone for […]

Coursmos, a learning platform offering micro-learning courses for the "generation distracted", raises $530k from Russian VC Imperius Group and an undisclosed angel investor. The startup previously raised $310k from Happy Farm Business Incubator and a group of angels. Coursmos aims to chop larger subjects into bite-sized lesson units, each not longer than 3 minutes and with a micro-course not containing more than seven lessons. The courses can then be linked to related courses, forming knowledge clouds for a variety of fields. Courses are created by the users and can be either offered for free or for a fee. Coursmos currently features over 1500 courses with over 6600 lessons and has 70.000 registered users of which 30.000 are active according to TechCrunch. The funding will be used to expand the team and create a course recommendation system based on learning history and interest of the individual user. Links coursmos.com | Twitter | Facebook | CrunchBase