Over the last few years the online education space has been quietly heating up as online enrollment has trended upward. The trend is hard to miss locally – whether it is early stage local startups in the online education space like Social Matchbox presenter alumni Starfish Retention Solutions or Campus Direct, or major players like Blackboard, Laureate, Moodle (an open source course management system), Stanford University’s Online High School (not local, but a good example of how things are going trendwise) and Washington Post subsidiary Kaplan (and Kaplan University). Apparently even Google has jumped in the game. Kaplan has even gone so far as to launch a new subsidiary, Kaplan VC, an operation that will focus on US and European investments in new learning technologies and online business models in the K12, higher ed, test prep, and other areas. Kaplan VC also plans to invest in international education opportunities particularly in Latin America, the Middle East and India. The company is looking to pick up stakes in about a half-dozen companies over the next 12 months. Kaplan VC’s announcement arrived on the last day of this week’s Venture Capital in Education Summit hosted at Scholastic’s headquarters by investment bank Berkery Noyes. There is even an incubator (Startl) dedicated to the space. If you bump into someone from the online education space you will notice something very distinctive right away: these are not your local teacher’s union card carrying types. These are companies run and staffed (at least at the top) by highly educated (think top engineering schools and top Ivy League schools) and seasoned business people. This is apparently the hot place to be right now.
Recent Jobs
