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The Edtech Edge #26 - A free Online University, Confusion around Microcredentials and the Disruption of the Publishing Space
Your weekly take on all things Edtech, Startups and Venture Capital, powered by Brighteye Ventures.
👋 Hi and welcome to this week’s issue of The Edtech Edge.
Articles and Resources of the week
A Free Online University Has Grown to 126,000 Students
When Shai Reshef started a free online university called University of the People nearly 15 years ago, skepticism was high. Online education was viewed as a poor substitute for in-person study, and anyway, how could something free be financially sustainable? Today, the college has won accreditation. It has grown to serve 126,000 students. And it has some 37,000 volunteers. What can it teach traditional higher education institutions?
Microcredentials Confuse Employers, Colleges and Learners
All parties - employers, higher education institutions and students - agree on the need for and appear eager to work together to deliver or pursue quality, verifiable, bite-size, low-priced, non-degree online offerings targeted to specific industries. However, when a job applicant lists a non-degree credential on their résumé, close to half of the employers do not know what to make of the program’s quality and the acquired skills and competencies. It has been the desire of many entrepreneurs, foundations and policy leaders that micro-credentials will become the substitute for expensive degrees but there’s still very little evidence that micro-credentials will necessarily land someone a job in the same way that a degree will - how can we change that?
Could the Disruptive Power of AI-Generated Content Impact K–12 Learning?
If AI-generated content can be used to rethink and redesign educational resources and tools, it could facilitate better and faster learning experiences at all levels. For example, AI could create personalised content models for teaching and learning, essentially replacing textbooks (I just saw such a software/lesson preparation tool for teachers at this week's Didacta conference. It maps the competencies of all students based on the national curriculum and automatically creates personalised learning materials for each student according to their competency level.). So, what does the future hold for all traditional textbook publishers out there? And, who is building something exciting in this space?
Investment news
Paris-based recruitment and work-study platform Sweeetch raised a €1.2 million pre-seed round from angel investors.
Tabook, a platform that let’s people share insights from videos and books with their friends, raised a €200 000 pre-seed round from Consilo Web.
Naq Cyber focuses on cyber security and compliance training for enterprise employees and raised a €1.42 million seed round from Axivate Capital.
Jobs in Edtech
Atlantic Labs is looking for a Co-Founder & COO for one of their early-stage Edtech portfolio companies.
LearnUpon is hiring Business Developers and a Financial Planning and Analysis Manager.
Photomath is hiring Developers and Product Designers.
360Learning is looking for Solution Deployment Managers.
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Stay curious,
Hannes
PS: Feel free to share any ideas, suggestions, articles and jobs. I’d love to take a look and include it in my next edition. Just hit me up at: ha@brighteyevc.com