OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

Building a $750M Edtech Startup
Michael Narea, Transcend Newsletter, 2023/09/28

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I think there's a lot left unsaid in this article. Sure, it presents a classic method for launching a successful startup, beginning with a problem statement, working through a solution, validation with Product-Market Fit (PMF) tests, raising $80 million of VC, and finally, obtaining a $750 million valuation. Left unsaid, though, is how you just walk into a meeting with administrators at Rutgers and get them to sign on to a project on the basis of a one-pager. It helps if you worked with Zeta Global, which has a lot of connections to Rutgers. It helps if Zeta emerged from your earlier companies, one of which was an email service provider (named Zustek) founded in 2001 with an Indian engineer, Pradeep Vegunta. Dan Sommer's process, as described in this article, follows a lifetime of developing knowledge, experience and contacts in a particular market; most of the "1:1 conversations with university leaders" were likely informal chats at business events, and when "validation can simply take one single conversation" it's that easy only because you've already done the hard work in the background. Don't be fooled by articles like this. You don't earn a $750 million valuation simply by following this process. It's way more complicated, and most of us will never be in a position to get that foot into that door.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Supporting Open Access for 20 years: Five issues that have slowed the transition to full and immediate OA
Robert Kiley, Plan S, 2023/09/28

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It's true that "OA has become mainstream, global and, I believe, ultimately irreversible," but as this article notes, only around "50% of the world's research articles are published open access." Is this a success? It depends on your perspective, I guess. The author outlines five major reasons why open access isn't 100% yet: slow reforms in researcher assessment, inequitable business models based on article publication charges, funders and institutions not collaborating, focus on commercial publishers in the media, and issues related to rights retention. I've seen all of these myself. And I've also seen that many researchers and academic writers simply don't care whether they're publishing open access or not. 

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

IBM Commits to Train 2 Million AI Learners for Free by 2026
Kate Lucariello, Campus Technology, 2023/09/28

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I checked out the learning program, called IBM SkillsBuild, and it does exist, however, the offerings are different based on how you sign in. If you want the good stuff, you'll need to use your institutional credentials (eg., your university) and they will need to be signed up for the program. Otherwise, if you're an adult learner, as I am, after signing up for your IBM ID you get routed into generic learning. There's still a lot, including stuff on AI, but you're not really in the same class.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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