Pearson Bets on Adaptive Learning (Again) With $25M Acquisition of Smart Sparrow

edsurge | January 23, 2020

Smart Sparrow, which provides course-authoring tools for faculty and instructional designers to build adaptive courseware, has found a new home in a much bigger nest. Last week, Pearson announced it paid $25 million to acquire Smart Sparrow’s technology, in a move that the publisher says will bolster the digital infrastructure that will soon support all its future higher-education offerings. The deal marks the latest in a series of acquisitions involving digital courseware, the industry parlance for online products that leverage data and technology to personalize the course instruction and feedback that each student receives. One such provider, Acrobatiq, was acquired in 2018. The following year, Knewton was bought in a deal that has become a poster child for education technology hype.

Spotlight

The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

Spotlight

The B2B buyer journey has always been complex. And today, with the ever-changing demands of the modern industry buyer, it has become even more necessary to rethink the buyer journey, creating a future-ready digital experience

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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY, CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS

Guild Education Chooses Salt Security for API Security

Guild Education and Salt Security | March 17, 2023

Salt Security, the leading API security company, today announced that Guild Education, the leader in opportunity creation for America's workforce, has chosen the Salt Security API Protection Platform to secure its growing application programming interface (API) ecosystem. Guild relies on APIs for the exchange of private and sensitive student, employer, and school data across its Career Opportunity Platform. With the Salt platform, Guild gains automatic and continuous API visibility, insights into potential data exposure, and API runtime protection to ensure the safety of its customers' critical data. "Guild supports workers, companies, and educational organizations to build new career opportunities and address increasing talent shortages. Keeping employee, employer, and school data secure has always been a top priority," said Julie Chickillo, VP, head of security, Guild Education. "The visibility we get with Salt eliminates blindspots, allowing us to better protect the critical and personal information – including employer eligibility updates, student loan reimbursement data, and program applications – being shared via our APIs." Although Guild looked at other API security solutions, Salt provided the most actionable insights and the most mature platform. Leveraging the robust Salt API security platform, Guild gains: Discovery of shadow APIs – to ensure a complete and accurate API inventory and understand what unknown APIs might exist that could pose security risks Attack prevention – the most proven algorithms in API security to pinpoint attacker reconnaissance activity, even drawn out over days and weeks, and stop attackers before they reach their objective API security testing – to gain vulnerability insights in pre-production, empowering the Guild development team to improve the security posture of its new APIs The Salt Security platform enables organizations to catalog their APIs, see where they expose sensitive data, detect and block API attackers, scan and test APIs, and provide remediation insights that developers can use to harden APIs and improve the security posture over time. Through its patented API Context Engine (ACE) architecture, the platform can identify the early indicators of an attack, stop attackers from advancing and turn attackers into penetration testers, leading to valuable feedback for security teams to identify and eliminate API vulnerabilities. About Salt Security Salt Security protects the APIs that form the core of every modern application. Its patented API Protection Platform is the only API security solution that combines the power of cloud-scale big data and time-tested ML/AI to detect and prevent API attacks. By correlating activities across millions of APIs and users over time, Salt delivers deep context with real-time analysis and continuous insights for API discovery, attack prevention, and shift-left practices. Deployed quickly and seamlessly integrated within existing systems, the Salt platform gives customers immediate value and protection, so they can innovate with confidence and accelerate their digital transformation initiatives. For more information, visit https://salt.security/ About Guild Guild's Career Opportunity Platform enables forward-thinking employers to invest in their employees, unlocking life-changing opportunities for personal and professional growth through education and learning programs, career development and one-on-one coaching. Guild partners with the nation's largest employers — including Walmart, Chipotle, Discover, Hilton, Macy's, Target and The Walt Disney Company — to create cultures of opportunity that will help them attract and retain top talent, and build the workforce of the future. Using Guild's Career Opportunity Platform full of real-world education and learning programs, employees at those companies can gain the skills, knowledge and guidance they need to build a brighter future for themselves and their families — all without paying for tuition or career services on their own. For more information, visit https://www.guildeducation.com/

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CONTINUING EDUCATION

Interplay Learning and Temperature Control Institute Transform Memphis Students' Career Outlook With Advanced Skilled Trades Training

PRnewswire | April 20, 2023

Interplay Learning, the leading provider of online and virtual reality training for the essential skilled trades, announces a partnership with the Temperature Control Institute (TCI), a unique state-of-the-art skilled trades education program helping underemployed youth prepare for careers in the skilled trades. TCI offers six-month certification courses in HVAC and commercial refrigeration. All students graduate with at least one job-ready certification, such as EPA 608, OSHA 10 and NATE, and use Interplay's training to help prepare for their exams. Graduates are qualified for entry-level employment, offering employers in Memphis, Tennessee and Southaven, Mississippi skilled and job-ready talent. Qualifying students may also receive free tuition through state funding. "Interplay Learning is like having another instructor," said Edward York, TCI Director. "We get more effective learning done in less time, and we're also seeing less wear and tear on our equipment. That's going to allow us to grow faster, so we can help even more young people acquire essential skills that enable them to turn their lives around." Interplay Learning's immersive virtual-reality simulations and robust catalog of technical content enhance TCI's classroom engagement and hands-on training programs. The platform includes expert-led video-based training, knowledge checks, and hands-on 3D simulations to help technicians rapidly develop on-the-job skills and practice troubleshooting in a risk-free, familiar environment. The on-demand courses offer game-like training that provides flexibility so students can practice anytime, according to their learning style, using a tablet, computer, or virtual reality headset. TCI is currently enrolling students at its Southhaven, Mississippi, location conveniently located near Memphis, Tennessee. TCI plans to increase its class size as it expands to a new facility in Memphis later this year and add additional training programs for plumbing, electrical, and building maintenance. "Our mission is to help institutions build better training, better careers, and better lives," said Doug Donovan, founder and CEO of Interplay Learning. "Temperature Control Institute is a shining example of how simulation-based technology can engage and support the next-generation skilled workforce more effectively. We're proud to partner with TCI to support the young, underemployed community in Memphis with an innovative strategy that addresses the skilled labor shortage." Interplay Learning builds better training, better careers, and better lives for its customers and their employees. Its award-winning online and virtual reality training for the essential skilled trades, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, solar, multifamily maintenance, and facilities maintenance workforces, is scalable and more effective than traditional training methods. By leveraging immersive learning technology, Interplay's customers can train and practice hands-on learning from a desktop, phone, tablet, or in virtual reality, resulting in a highly trained employee who is job-ready in weeks, not years. About Interplay Learning Austin-based Interplay Learning offers scalable and effective training for the essential skilled trades that helps business leaders, educators and their teams build better companies, better careers and better lives. Interplay Learning's immersive online and VR training platform for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, solar, hospitality, multifamily maintenance and facilities maintenance workforces includes expert-led video courses, hands-on 3D simulations, knowledge checks and custom learning paths to upskill advanced technicians and help new technicians be job-ready in weeks, not years.

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Puerto Rico Department of Education Selects PowerSchool SIS to Modernize Operations

Businesswire | May 11, 2023

PowerSchool ,the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, announced the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) has selected PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS), as part of a tailored suite of solutions that also includes Ecollect Forms, as a critical component of PRDE’s efforts to modernize their legacy SIS across the entire territory. “The incorporation of platforms such as PowerSchool will be a great step forward for our Department of Education,” said Eliezer Ramos Parés, Puerto Rico Secretary of Education. “It will be an efficient way to have visibility into issues related to our schools and the performance of our students. At the same time, it brings us closer to the school communities, giving parents and guardians access to data that will be of benefit to helping their children in matters related to school performance. It is a very helpful investment in public education.” Through the implementation of PowerSchool SIS, PowerSchool will support PRDE with a solution that addresses their immediate needs, including scheduling, attendance, compliance reporting, data management, registration, grade management, and more. PRDE’s adoption of the PowerSchool SIS is a key example of how districts, territories and states are utilizing available Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds to provide their students with the robust support needed to address opportunity and achievement gaps exacerbated by the global pandemic. This new functionality will provide PRDE with more reliable and accurate information to gain a full picture of their students. PowerSchool and PRDE are striving to have implementation completed for the 2023/24 school year. “We are proud to provide a modern and secure SIS solution for the Puerto Rico Department of Education that will play a critical role in the digital transformation of their K-12 infrastructure,” said Hardeep Gulati, CEO of PowerSchool. “We are confident that this implementation will meaningfully impact the educators and over 250,000 students in Puerto Rico.” About PowerSchool PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.

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