e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: Cisco

  • Why the Cisco Networking Academy Partnership with Instructure is Important for Education

    Per last week’s announcement:

    Cisco Networking Academy, which bills itself as the “world’s largest classroom” with over 1 million students in 165 countries, announced that the program has selected Instructure’s Canvas as its new LMS, replacing a homegrown system in use for over 15 years. The initial announcement was made at Instructure’s user conference, and a more formal announcement [was] made Monday [June 18] at the Cisco Networking Academy conference in California.

    This news appears to have generated some interest in technology circles (TechCrunch had the best article so far), but I have been surprised how little coverage the US education media has given this news. It almost feels like there is a concerted opinion that this news is mostly irrelevant to educational institutions, particularly to the higher education community. All I can find so far in national education media is one perfunctory quick take in Inside Higher Ed, one short piece cross-posted at T.H.E. Journal and Campus Technology, and absolutely nothing in the Chronicle.

    Really? Their silence speaks volumes, and I think this lack of interest in the announcement is a mistake. This Cisco / Instructure partnership is important for education for at least three reasons.

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  • Cisco Networking Academy Selects Canvas as New LMS to Replace Homegrown System

    It’s summertime, so the LMS news continues . . .

    Cisco Networking Academy, which bills itself as the “world’s largest classroom” with over 1 million students in 165 countries, announced that the program has selected Instructure’s Canvas as its new LMS, replacing a homegrown system in use for over 15 years. The initial announcement was made at Instructure’s user conference, and a more formal announcement will be made Monday at the Cisco Networking Academy conference in California.

    Cisco Networking Academy is the company’s “largest and longest running corporate social responsibility program”, meaning that there is no charge for public and non-profit institutions. Despite the program’s size, the nature of the Networking Academy is often misunderstood – is not a corporate training program, but rather an hardware-neutral educational program in partnership with over 10,000 High Schools and Higher Education institutions worldwide.

    Instructure also released their learning analytics option, as described by Audrey Watters.

    I’ll have more analysis on the announcements early next week.

  • When Large Companies Enter Ed Tech

    I had a very interesting conversation on the way home from EDUCAUSE with Frank Florence, who is the Senior Director of Education Market Management for Cisco.  We discussed the changes happening in the ed tech market, and Frank helped me understand some of the market forces behind the changes we’re seeing.  One topic in particular was the dynamic between entrepreneurial companies that develop within a vertical market and larger companies that span markets.  I have argued that internal investment from larger companies is helping to change the ed tech market, but Frank provided valuable insight into the nature of the typical market forces we’re living through.  This observation of large company involvement helping to change the LMS portion of the ed tech market is shown below, in many of the companies in the top gray bar and some that are not listed.

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