Education IT News For VARs — September 10, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In Education IT News this week, startups are making an impression on investors, while the lecture capture market is set to grow substantially, MOOCs are growing in popularity, and The EDvantage adds more resources for fall.
7 Ed Tech Startups Making Impressions On Investors
This article from Education Dive examines 7 EdTech startup companies that are making an impression with investors lately. They include: Pluralsite, Verite Educational Systems Inc., Desire2Learn, Admittedly, Quick Key, GetSet, and FreshGrade.
Analysis: Lecture Capture Market To Grow 24.1 Percent By 2019
This article from Campus Technology reports that a new study examined the lecture capture hardware, software, and software-as-a-service market. The global lecture capture market is poised to grow 24.1 percent in the next five years, from revenues of $162.0 million in 2013 to $592.2 million in 2019, according to a recent analysis from research firm Frost & Sullivan. Frost & Sullivan Digital Media Industry Manager Avni Rambhia stated in a press release, “Once the value of anytime/anywhere learning becomes clear, and massive open online classrooms (MOOC) and inverted classrooms gain favor among educators, LCS will become an indispensable tool for the education industry.”
2-Term Master’s Core Class On Climate Change Offered As MOOC
In another sign of the growing popularity of MOOCs, the “Global Master's in Development Practice” is hosting a two-term online course on “Climate Change Science and Negotiations,” starting in October 2014. That class will be part of the core requirements for the master's program and, simultaneously, offered as a massive open online course. Among the participating institutions for the MOOC are Columbia University, Emory, U California in Berkeley, U Florida, U Minnesota, U Waterloo, and U Winnipeg.
The EDvantage Adds 800 New Resources For Fall Semester
According to a press release, the EDvantage, a free online resource hub for educators, announces the addition of more than 800 resources to its content library for the 2014-15 school year. The update brings the total number of content available to nearly 3,000 items. Launched in October 2013, The EDvantage curates high-quality content, including videos, articles, and supplemental learning guides, so instructors can spend less time searching and more time teaching.
Education IT Talking Points
According to Inside Higher Ed, the U.S. Department of Education has announced it will have to reprocess “less than 160,000” applications for federal student aid because applicants incorrectly inserted a decimal point. If left uncorrected, students who made the mistake in the income box on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) could be denied Pell Grants or receive lower grants than they’re eligible for. In July, the education department reprocessed 182,155 applications where misplaced decimal points in another income box would have had students receiving too much aid.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Education IT Resource Center.