For-profit Education Sector Still Under Scrutiny

The for-profit education sector was in the news recently when President Obama mentioned in one of his gatherings [press conferences?] that they were “making out like bandits.” The president has been vocal about how the for-profit industry admits students, gets federal funding but have low graduation rates. He mentioned how the government was going to spend time during the next year to connect with professors, faculty members and students to rate good schools whether they are for-profit or nonprofit.

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1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2013: Omninox, Gainesville, Florida

Omninox develops interactive, mobile study guides called Omniguides™ for high level math and science courses. It aims to consolidate the material that students learn for Advanced Placement (AP) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) classes by offering built-in software tools such as a calculator, quizzes, and sketchpad with social sharing. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Absolutely. I am not totally convinced about the Coursera business model and whether it is going to scale to the extent to support the amount of venture funding they have raised. EdX is a different story, because it is non-profit funded. As long as they sustain themselves, they are going to be fine. But with a MOOC business model, can you be a venture-style multibillion dollar business? I am not at all convinced about that.

Shaul Kuper: I agree with you. Unless you are going to start selling advertising, I just don’t understand that model. I typically believe that you get what you pay for. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s say I am a consumer, and I sign up for a course in economics on the site of Cornell. I am a consumer, not one of Cornell’s business customers. Then I want to find a job. When I go to the Cornell website, are the resources I am able to access specific to Cornell, or are you also bringing employability resources through your relationships with various employers?

Shaul Kuper: At this time we are not doing that. These resources are provided by the universities. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: You have been in the continuing education space for a good decade or more. What are the trends of the industry?

Shaul Kuper: What is interesting to us, having dealt with continuing education for so long, is that about two years ago presidents of the universities woke up one day and realized that the students they thought they had on campus aren’t the students they have on campus. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Ten or 12 years later, where do you stand? What percentage of your business is product versus customization services?

Shaul Kuper: In the early days it was not uncommon for a school to pay a few million dollars for customizations, and it would take a year or two to implement. Now we are down to literally weeks of implementation and in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. That is an implementation cost. Many schools don’t need any customizations whatsoever right now. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What year was that?

Shaul Kuper: In 2001 we got the deal and in 2002 we delivered the product.

SM: So by 2002 you had a reference account in education. Did you go after other education companies? >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Interview with Shaul Kuper, CEO of Destiny Solutions (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Who was your first large website design for?

Shaul Kuper: Our first large client was a children’s performer named Sharon, Lois & Bram, very well known performers in Toronto – children entertainers. I approached them and said that we could make a great deal for them – download music, they could sell their CDs online, children could play online with coloring and other features, etc. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any money, but we made a deal with Apple. Instead of paying us we had a swap deal, where we got Apple´s first web server in Canada and a color monitor in exchange for doing the website. >>>