Scaling to $10 Million from Kentucky: Steve Huey, CEO of Capture Higher Ed (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: The primary business is, essentially, lead generation for colleges? Is that what you’re saying?

Steve Huey: Yes, our primary business is lead generation but for not-for-profit schools. It’s a very important distinction. There are around 3,300 not-for-profit colleges in the United States.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start there. What is the difference between leads for not-for-profit schools versus for-profit schools since it’s such a big distinction?

Steve Huey: For-profit schools started out as trade schools. A lot of the for-profit schools you see are for truck driving, typing, etc. There are a number of for-profit schools where you can learn nursing or earn business degrees. They’re in the minority. The schools that are for-profit typically target more mature, non-traditional college students. >>>

Chegg Expands into Online Education

Analyts expect the digital education market to quadruple in size to $450 billion over the next five years. Chegg (NYSE: CHGG) is moving away from its traditional textbook rental service to focus on this disruptive market. >>>

Technology Tools for a Flipped Classroom

By 1M/1M Premium Member and Co-Founder of Omninox Jake Yap

The idea behind a flipped classroom has become more popular amongst teachers as of late, which can most likely be attributed to the rise of technology in and out of the classroom. Tools such as computers, smartphones, and tablets are typical items in a student and teacher’s arsenal in more recent times. These technological tools allow for the necessary instructional strategy required for a flipped classroom, which include teaching content at home and activities and discussions (often regarded as homework) being conducted in the class. Learning at home can include reading the required textbook lesson or watching online lectures, which would not have been possible if it was not for the advancement in technology. >>>

Future of Education: Three Conversations

There is a lot going on in the educational technology market. In our effort to bring you continued insights in that market, we would like to bring to your attention three recent roundtable discussions:

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How To Dramatically Slash The Cost Of College Education

The exorbitant cost of higher education is a recurrent topic of conversation, concern, and discontent these days. Against that backdrop, an announcement from edX and Arizona State University caught my attention last week. ASU and edX announced a program called Global Freshman Academy:

The Global Freshman Academy (GFA) will give learners anywhere in the world the opportunity to earn freshman-level university credit after successfully completing a series of digital immersion courses hosted on edX, designed and taught by leading scholars from ASU. By allowing students to learn, explore and complete courses before applying or paying for credit, the Global Freshman Academy reimagines the freshman year and reduces academic and monetary stress while opening a new path to a college degree for many students.

The program differs from other digital immersion undergraduate programs in the following ways:

• Course Credit for Open Online Courses – By completing the full series of eight Global Freshman Academy courses, students earn full college credit for freshman year; students will also be able to opt for taking individual courses for credit if they prefer
• Cost Effective – Freshman year credit earned through GFA is a fraction of the cost students typically pay
• Learning Before Payment – Students may decide to take a course for credit at the beginning or after coursework has been completed – reducing financial risk while opening a pathway for exploration and preparation for qualified students who may not otherwise seek a degree.
• Unlimited Reach – Because of the open course format, learning takes place while scaling completely – there are no limits to how many learners can take the courses online
• Innovative Admissions Option – GFA’s approach is different from the traditional admissions process of other credit-bearing courses, eliminating such barriers to entry as standardized tests and transcripts that are part of the traditional application process.
• Track Record of Success – This partnership brings together a globally recognized online educational platform founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a university whose innovative online degree programs boast an 89 percent retention rate.

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Thought Leaders in Online Education: Warren Barkley, CTO of SMART Technologies (Part 5)

Warren Barkley: There is a district in Washington State who have way less money than most districts. They’ve a lot of kids who are in and out of school, but every kid has a laptop in its population of 20,000. The curriculum is online for pretty much everything that they want to learn in the K-8. So if the kids miss a class because something happened with their parents, they can catch up. The way the superintendent did it there is through community. He has kids who do PR almost. They’ve parents who are massively involved. This is a district where you would not expect this type of thing to happen if you look at the demographics, yet they’re wildly successful with their technology and with their ability to affect the learning outcomes with kids.

When you talk to the superintendent, he will say that it’s all about the community. How is the community involved? I’ve seen this in other places as well and the recipe of success is community involvement. You can get to an effective use of these >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Warren Barkley, CTO of SMART Technologies (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: That sounds terrible. The example you gave is shocking.

Warren Barkley: That was probably one of the worst examples. I’ve seen scenarios where kids aren’t allowed on the network, so they have apps downloaded for them. They can work on some applications, but then there’s no learning artifact out of it. The devices can’t just be fancy game-playing machines. You’ve to have output in the form of a digital artifact that kids can carry along and see the learning. In a lot of places, the best thing I’ve heard around this is that our classrooms are authentically reflecting the reality of the society that our kids live in >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Warren Barkley, CTO of SMART Technologies (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You are bringing in students from different countries together, and you have some sort of a social media element to your platform. You have teachers and experts from different domains on that platform who can operate across the school boundaries.

Warren Barkley: It’s not quite like that. Basically, as a teacher, I have a class. I have this big virtual space. I can split it up in a lot of different ways. I can posit questions into it. It does have a social media piece to it. I wouldn’t say it’s a rendezvous to Discovery Point. It would be two teachers who knew each other on Twitter saying, “Let’s get our classes to work together on this stuff.” >>>