e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: Online Education

  • UCF and Temple IPEDS corrections lead to new Top 20 in online enrollment

    In response to the new distance education (roughly equivalent to online education) data released by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and its Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I have written a series of posts showing different ways to view the data. In short, the data allows much greater insight into degree-granting online higher education in the US than we previously had. WCET also has a series of posts worth exploring.

    One post in particular listed the top 20 institutions in terms of how many students take at least one online course, broken down by sector. The list for public 4-year showed the following (undergrad + grad, # students taking at least one online course in Fall 2012): (more…)

  • Clarifications on UF Online Payments to Pearson Embanet

    I wrote a post over the weekend that included information from the Gainesville Sun about the University of Florida Online (UF Online) program and its expected payments to Pearson Embanet. Chris Newfield from Remaking the University also wrote on the subject today. Chris raises some very important issues in his post, including his point:

    Universities may have a cost disease, but they now have a privatization disease that is even worse.

    In the article, however, there seems to be a misunderstanding of how the revenue sharing agreement works. Given the importance of the questions that Chris raises, I think it is important to understand the payment model used by most Online Service Providers (OSP) such as in place at UF Online.

    The part of the blog post that is mistaken, in my understanding, is this [emphasis added]: (more…)

  • Embanet and 2U: More financial insight into Online Service Providers

    While I have written recently about UF Online and 2U, there is actually very little insight into the operations and finances of the market segment for Online Service Providers (OSP, also known as School-as-a-Service, Online Program Management). Thanks to 2U going public yesterday and the Gainesville Sun doing investigative work on UF Online, we have more information on one of the highest growth segments for educational technology and online learning.

    2U’s IPO

    2U went public yesterday, initially offered at $13.00 per share and closing the day at $13.98 (a 7.5% gain). The following is not intended to be a detailed stock market evaluation – just the basics to present the general scale of the company as insight into the market. While there is not a direct comparison, this IPO is a much better IPO than the most recent ed tech offering when Chegg (down 2.7% its first day and down 26% to date). Based on 2U’s first day of trading and the IPO filing: (more…)

  • 2U’s Upcoming IPO: Filing estimates $533 million company value

    One month ago 2U filed its registration for an IPO in 2014. 2U is an online service provider that helps traditional universities develop fully-online programs, currently based on 9 customers at the master’s level (see here for summary of revenue per student and per customer). On Monday the company set the terms for the IPO, as described by Bill Flook in the Washington Business Journal.

    2U Inc. on Monday set terms for its upcoming initial public offering. The Landover-based ed-tech company plans to sell 8 million shares at between $11 to $13 apiece. Selling stockholders plan to offload another 1.17 million shares in the offering.

    Altogether, the IPO would raise a total $110 million, assuming the 2U prices at the mid-point of that range. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “TWOU.”

    (more…)

  • WCET Post on Distance Education Misconceptions

    It is gratifying to see WCET pick up the mantle with their analysis of distance learning based on the new IPEDS data. They have several posts up already, and today’s post is quite good and important. If only more people jumping into the fray on higher education history and reform would start with a grounding in facts, the public debate and resulting recommendations would be much more useful.

    It is surprising how many times people conflate distance (or online) education with for-profit institutions. Often these are people who should know better, whether in Congress, the press, research universities, or other higher education pundits. Certainly, the for-profits have had a huge impact on the distance education world, but maintaining unfounded perceptions does not inform policy or practice. Some examples: (more…)

  • Major Change at UF Online: Exec director abruptly resigns

    I wrote a post several weeks ago about UF Online, partially based on a phone interview with the executive director Betty Phillips.

    Several weeks ago the University of Florida Online program opened for the Spring 2014 semester, accepting 600 transfer students, and the new program will accept Freshmen starting August 2014. This announcement comes just 2 years after the Florida legislature commissioned a study from the Parthenon Group on how to best leverage online programs in the state, and this program is probably one of the highest profile new online programs in the US within the past few years (along with California’s online initiative, Open SUNY, SJSU / Udacity and GaTech / Udacity). [snip]

    What UF Online is, however, is an exclusively-online baccalaureate program leading to a UF degree for lower costs than the traditional on-campus experience. This is about expanding capacity and access to a research university, and the program aims to meet the same academic standards as the traditional UF experience . . .

    Well it seems like the situation in Florida changes rapidly in multiple directions. Just two and half months after she officially took the new position, Betty Phillips has abruptly resigned. By all appearances, this move was unexpected as the University of Florida appears to have been caught flat-footed. The Gainesville Sun reports:

    (more…)

  • A response to New Yorker article on ‘A MOOC Mystery’

    The New Yorker published an article yesterday titled “A MOOC Mystery: Where Do Online Students Go?” which tried to explain low MOOC completion rates by comparing the situation to the General Educational Development (GED) exam. Right off the bat, the article conflates MOOCs with “online students”. MOOCs are but one form of online education, and a very recent one at that. Worse, however, is that the entire basis for the article is quite flawed – GED results do not give much insight into MOOC students patters, and it turns out there is not much of a mystery in the first place.

    The hook in this article seems to be the coincidence of two numbers [emphasis added]:

    (more…)