EdTech Thoughts Weekly Update 5/31
Spider-man isn't the only one entering the Multiverse this week
Hello!
I hope that many of you enjoyed Monday’s free edition, Weekend Reading.
This note, the Weekly Update, is for paid subscribers. It provides commentary and analysis of why companies are being funded and political/strategic moves are being made in the space. Today we’ll cover Andrew Ng’s new EdTech darling, Multiverse’s first-ever acquisition, Guild’s layoffs, and the expansion of outdoor preschool programs, among other things.
For newer subscribers (and old subscribers who have forgotten how much fun the Weekly Update is), I am offering a month-long trial of the paid newsletter so you can see the difference.
The holiday weekend in the US disrupted the posting schedule a bit. Going forward, you can expect Weekend Reading to hit your inbox on Sundays and the Weekly Update to come Tuesday mornings.
Funding / M&A
Kira Learning raises $15M: San Francisco-based Kira Learning provides computer science curriculum to K12 students. $15M is substantial for a Series A in today’s funding environment, but the company raised this round with a vision that computer science will become the third pillar of K12 education, alongside math and literacy. It also helps that the company is co-founded by Andrew Ng, who co-founded Coursera and is often one of the first modern names mentioned when it comes to teaching machine learning and AI.
Acadeum raises $11.92M: Austin-based Acadeum operates a course-sharing marketplace that allows partner colleges more flexibility in expanding and contracting their course catalogs. This flexibility allows students to access a greater variety of courses while also letting institutions be more strategic about where they deploy their internal instructional resources.
Opus raises $6M: New York-based Opus offers an LMS custom-built for “deskless” workers. Opus’ core differentiation from a more traditional LMS is that their platform is mobile-first and comes with a content generation feature that converts training and compliance content into courses “20 times faster than legacy solutions” and in over 100 different languages.
VIAS Campus raises $3.3M: Oklahoma City-based VIAS Campus offers a student information system (SIS) for colleges and universities. Like the LMS market, the SIS market is relatively mature. CourseDog and Stellic, among others, are early-stage players that are sort of backing their way into becoming SIS solutions, but I can’t think of another recent early-stage company that has directly targeted the SIS market as VIAS is. That is not inherently good or bad, but does make me curious whether any market conditions have changed that make now a better time to take on this challenge.
Multiverse acquires Eduflow: Speaking of LMSs (LMI?), London-based apprenticeship provider Multiverse now owns one! The narrative of adding Eduflow’s social features to Multiverse’s increasingly full-stack instructional platform is relatively compelling, but, given Eduflow’s small size (< 10 employees), it seems likely that the acquisition was more opportunistic than strategic. I’m not sure whether to expect more acquisitions from Multiverse in the near future. The company raised a $220M war chest last summer, but, reportedly, continues to burn cash.1
JobGet acquires Heroes Jobs: Boston-based JobGet is a hiring platform connecting retailers with frontline workers. JobGet is acquiring San Francisco-based Heroes Jobs, which helps retailers hire Gen Z employees. This acquisition sounds similarly opportunistic to Multiverse’s, but JobGet does discuss incorporating Heroes Jobs’ social features into its core platform.
Links
Most clicked link from Weekend Reading: Guild lays off 12% of workforce
Layoffs stink, but this seems like a relatively practical move given the current business climate. Many, if not most, of the big education companies conducted layoffs at the end of last year/start of this year. If anything, I would have recommended Guild execute this workforce reduction earlier so that the move didn’t capture as much attention.2
The announcement does not mention this, but I suspect the move has more to do with reallocating resources to the company’s new Career Accelerator product than any specific issues with Guild’s core business.
The AI Revolution is already transforming education
This is one of the best, most balanced articles I’ve read about the promise and peril of AI in the classroom (+ a helpful chronology of AI events from the past ~year).
The macro note that I particularly appreciated is that use of ChatGPT (and other AI tools, but mostly ChatGPT) is so pervasive across sectors that preventing its use might reach the point where it becomes detrimental to students’ preparation for the workplace.
College investment clubs are more popular than ever
Speaking of skill development, I love stories that highlight the different ways that young people build foundational skills like investing. (I am also, personally, partial to students who participate in debate clubs, work in customer service roles, and/or learn to operate small businesses.)
I think this discussion of skill development should sit next to the broader narrative about Gen Z’s workforce preferences. According to the press, Gen Z is less interested in big-name employers and pivoting from Big Tech to Finance.
I think that, more than anything, Gen Z wants to be employed and these “preferences” reflect a group without work experience trying to read the tea leaves of how to get hired in a bad hiring environment at the top end of the job spectrum. I hope that more young folks use opportunities like investment clubs to learn more about their specific professional interests.
More states expanding access to outdoor preschools
One of the most wholesome articles you’ll read all week. In addition to some delightful descriptions of how children examine “sticky” logs and measure the depth of puddles, the author finds research that shows children in outdoor preschools are equally academically ready for elementary school while also being less prone to challenging behavior and childhood obesity.
I don’t expect outdoor preschools to be adopted en masse anytime soon, but Maryland and Washington state are actively investing in the expansion of their outdoor programs.
Pearson and CAE partner on competency-based soft skills assessment
Consistent with Pearson’s pivot to workforce, the company is investing in a third-party assessment - designed and delivered by CAE - focused on workforce skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and written communication.
Additionally, it feels notable that Pearson is investing in this assessment for students in grades 6 through 12. While focused on different subject areas, Pearson joins ETS and Carnegie as major EdTech companies bringing competency-based curriculum and assessments to K12 classrooms.
Bonus article: Wrexham University hopes TV show’s success translates to new enrollments
If it works for Alabama, Clemson, and Grand Canyon University, why not Wrexham?
Question of the Week
Note: I thought moving the Question of the Week to the free newsletter would lead to more votes and, thus, better results. What I didn’t realize is that it is harder to ask nuanced questions when readers only have links as context. So, I am bringing the Question back to the paid newsletter. The N will be lower as I build up my paid audience, but I believe the results will be more interesting.
No matter the N, votes are, as always, anonymous.
The Weekly Update is a short ( ~ 5 mins), weekly overview of the top stories in EdTech, with a few (hopefully interesting) gut reactions attached. If you enjoyed this edition, I hope you will subscribe and/or forward to your friends!
There are flaws in the way this article was reported, but I do believe, broadly, that the company is burning cash at a time when many investors have pivoted to looking for profitability.
Again, layoffs stink! My point is that IF a layoff was inevitable - which is not a given, but was probably more likely than not - then it may have made more sense to make the cut around the same time as other companies were doing so. The news may not have stuck out so much in that scenario.
It could cross 1M sooner, but the pathway doesn’t go through ETS, Carnegie, or Pearson making changes.
It’s cheaper to grant degrees based on work experience, online unis will expand that model, and competency-based learning fits there quite neatly. It’ll be snhu/wgu/umgc etc who drive this, at least in the next 5 years