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Pearson Bets on Adaptive Learning (Again) With $25M Acquisition of Smart Sparrow

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Already, the Sydney, Australia-based company has pulled back on its social media presence. On its website , the company claims it has more than 700 institutional customers across the K-12, higher education and corporate learning space. In 2014, the Gates Foundation awarded the company a $4.5

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Can a For-Profit, Venture-Backed Company Keep OER Free—and Be Financially Sustainable?

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New and traditional publishers are trying to offer alternatives such as open educational resources (OER), or freely downloadable and adaptable learning materials. But some providers of OER still ask for fees in return, and that has advocates concerned. Edward Watson.

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As OER Grows Up, Advocates Stress More Than Just Low Cost

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For the first time ever, the federal government put forward funds to support initiatives around open educational resources, and recent studies show that faculty attitudes towards using and adapting these openly-licensed learning materials are steadily improving. But fans of OER are increasingly facing a problem.

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Wiley to Acquire Knewton’s Assets, Marking an End to an Expensive Startup Journey

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In the second eye-raising deal for the higher-ed publishing industry in as many weeks, Wiley, a major textbook publisher, has agreed to acquire the assets of Knewton, a provider of digital courseware and adaptive-learning technologies. The New York City-based company has raised more than $180 million in investment capital.

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Hitting Reset, Knewton Tries New Strategy: Competing With Textbook Publishers

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Knewton drew heaps of hype and investment by promising to provide artificial-intelligence technology to major textbook companies to make their content more adaptive. Now the company has pivoted, and it is poised to formally announce its own online courseware that will compete head-to-head with those publishing giants.

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Pearson Signals Major Shift From Print by Making All Textbook Updates ‘Digital First’

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The biggest education company in the world is moving away from a production model that has been one of the main drivers in the rising cost of textbooks. The average price for a Pearson digital textbook subscription for a semester is $40, according to the company. But the company is not cutting the cord with print. “We

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Knewton’s New Business Attracts New $25M in Funding. But Some Things Don’t Change.

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The company that set the bar for hyping adaptive-learning technology has had to adapt to new leadership and a new business model. The rest comes from company’s existing investors, including Accel, Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, Founders Fund and Sofina.

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