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Pearson, an Investor in Knewton, Is ‘Phasing Out’ Partnership on Adaptive Products

Edsurge

Now one of its most high-profile content partners and investors, Pearson , is pulling back. Pearson will no longer use Knewton’s adaptive learning engine for some of its digital offerings. The retrenchment delivers a setback to Knewton, for whom Pearson was the first—and most visible—partner. content providers.

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Startup Hopes to Shake Up Textbook Market By Encouraging a Mix-and-Match of Courseware

Edsurge

Universities should be buying and selling courseware from each other,” says Feldstein, a longtime edtech consultant who also runs the popular blog eLiterate. But last year Pearson acquired the assets of Smart Sparrow , leading ASU to look for an alternative platform to deliver its offerings, which had also been growing in use.

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

Edsurge

Earlier this year Ferreira stepped aside as CEO, replaced by Brian Kibby , a veteran of major textbook companies including Pearson and McGraw-Hill. The secret to its swift entry into publishing was OER (open education resources). Knewton’s pitch is that its mix of OER and an adaptive-learning system will set it apart.

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

Edsurge

Founded in 2008, Knewton blazed its way into the edtech industry with bold proclamations about its adaptive-learning technology, which it then licensed to digital curriculum providers. And around 2017, publishers including Pearson that once used Knewton began to pull back.

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

Edsurge

Alta at a Glance With Alta, Knewton aims to combine third-party open educational resources (OER) with assessments and the adaptive-learning technology created by the company to inform how students progress through the content. We’re at a state where the quality of OER is definitely on the level of content from any publishing company.

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Can Technology in the Classroom Replace Expensive Textbooks

Kitaboo on EdTech

Similarly, Pearson has made some of its textbooks available for rent through Chegg. If educational institutes start adopting OERs in classrooms, students will be able to save a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on purchasing textbooks and rental subscriptions. but they do get to save money through this model.

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Colleges Are Striking Bulk Deals With Textbook Publishers. Critics Say There Are Many Downsides.

Edsurge

“Even if they love Pearson [textbooks], some faculty, when they saw some of the Cengage options, said, ‘This is pretty comparable, that’s fine,’” said Bernard Polnariev, assistant vice president for academic affairs at Union County College. “If If they felt that Cengage is not as strong and Pearson is better, they kept with the Pearson.”

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