article thumbnail

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

Edsurge

Smart Sparrow , which provides course-authoring tools for faculty and instructional designers to build adaptive courseware, has found a new home in a much bigger nest. On its website , the company claims it has more than 700 institutional customers across the K-12, higher education and corporate learning space.

Pearson 98
article thumbnail

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

Edsurge

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.

OER 128
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

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

Edsurge

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.

OER 65
article thumbnail

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

Edsurge

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. Knewton’s Alta, by contrast, is tapping into openly-licensed, or OER, materials.

Knewton 137
article thumbnail

It’s 2020: Have Digital Learning Innovations Trends Changed?

Edsurge

The primary trends identified by the team were: adaptive learning, open education resources (OER), gamification and game-based learning, MOOCs, LMS and interoperability, mobile devices, and design. Delivering these models to a differentiated population of educators and learners requires an adaptive approach.

Trends 194
article thumbnail

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

Edsurge

And even before the management change, the company had quietly started building a huge library of courses bolted to its adaptive engine. The secret to its swift entry into publishing was OER (open education resources). And officials say that professors at 80 colleges are already trying the textbooks in their courses.

Knewton 115
article thumbnail

The Winners and Filmstrips of An (Almost) Decade in Education Technology

Edsurge

So with these guidelines in mind, I’ve chosen six areas where edtech has made an impact this decade: Learning Management Systems. OER and open books. Learning analytics. Adaptive learning systems. Two that shine are OER/open books and learning analytics. Digital badges. underwhelming.