For a large portion of our readers who deal mostly with US higher education, it could be easy to dismiss Moodle as an LMS and an idea past its prime. Market data from Edutechnica shows that since 2013 the number of adopting US institutions has hit a plateau, but the total number of students served […]
LMS
Breaking: Totara LMS Forks From Moodle And Changes Relationship
What interesting timing. Just as I published my interview with Martin Dougiamas, I was notified that Totara LMS, a Moodle derivative aimed at the corporate learning market, has forked from Moodle and is changing its relationship with the Moodle Community. From their newsletter released today (Sept 3 Australia time): The relationship between Totara and Moodle […]
Interview With Martin Dougiamas On Changes To Moodle Community This Year
In my post last week on Blackboard’s Moodle strategy in Latin America, I made the following observation: At the same time, this strategy and growth comes at a time where the Moodle community at large appears to be at an inflection point. This inflection point I see comes from a variety of triggers: Blackboard acquisitions […]
Reuters: Instructure has filed for IPO later this year
Reuters is on a breaking news roll lately with ed tech. This time it is about Instructure filing for an initial public offering (IPO). Instructure is planning an initial public offering later this year that could value the education software company at $500 million to $800 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Instructure, based […]
Online Teaching Conference (#CCCOTC15) Keynote
Back in June I had the pleasure of giving the keynote at the Online Teaching Conference (#CCCOTC15) in San Diego, put on by the California Community College system. There was quite a bit of valuable backchannel discussions as well as sharing of the slides. The theme of the talk was: Emerging Trends in Online / […]
Blackboard Potential Sale: Market timing, financials, and some thoughts on potential buyers
With Reuters’ story last week that Blackboard is putting itself up for sale through an auction, one question to ask is ‘why now?’. As Michael has pointed out, Blackboard is in the midst of a significant, but incomplete and late, re-architecture of its product line. Bottom line: If you think that Ultra is all about […]
Reuters: Blackboard up for sale, seeking up to $3 billion in auction
As I was writing a post about Blackboard’s key challenges, I get notice from Reuters (anonymous sources, so interpret accordingly) that the company is on the market, seeking up to $3 billion. From Reuters: Blackboard Inc, a U.S. software company that provides learning tools for high school and university classrooms, is exploring a sale that […]