Edtech Insiders

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season 2 of This Week in Edtech! Guest: Matthew Tower , Principal @ Workshop Venture Partners Subscribe to Matt’s weekly newsletter @ https://matthewtower.substack.com/ Topics This Week: Byju’s Layoffs , debt , litigation!? Bearish OPMs Phil Hill: ”The brutal spring and summer for OPMs & MOOCs” Zovio sells OPM business to University of Arizona Global Campus 2U Layof...

Send us Fan Mail  Jonathan Finkelstein is the CEO of Credly , one of the leading organizations in the credentialing space for education technology around the world. Credly is a Pearson business.  Previously, as founder of LearningTimes, he helped mission-driven organizations produce and launch innovative online programs, products and platforms that impacted the lives of millions of users. He was a...

Send us Fan Mail Sophie Ruddock is a former impact investor and consultant with 10+ years experience across the private, public and non-profit sectors. She is one of the  founding members of Multiverse, a tech company building an outstanding alternative to college. She spent the last 4 years growing Multiverse’s delivery operations in the U.K, before moving onto leading their expansion to NYC as G...

Send us Fan Mail Troy Williams is a Managing Director at Achieve and University Ventures . Troy leads both firm’s investments in education technology companies, including AdmitHub , EverTrue , Examity , Motimatic , Packback and Ready Education . Prior to UV, Troy was a senior executive at Macmillan where he was CEO of Macmillan Enterprise Solutions and President of Macmillan New Ventures. Previous...

Send us Fan Mail Alec Levin is the co-founder and CEO of Learners. Learners, formerly known as UXR Collective, started as a small meetup in Toronto and has become an online learning platform for researchers and designers around the world. Before Learners Alec worked in product and user research at a number of Toronto-based startups including Thalmic Labs, Finaeo, and Meta. Recommended Resources Ec...

Send us Fan Mail Melissa Jones leads Technical Programs for Shopify , focused on empowering the Research and Development teams with the technical skill and support they need to be successful. She oversees onboarding, leadership development, communications and early talent initiatives for engineering and the other R&D disciplines. Prior to joining Shopify, Melissa served in leadership roles at...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Quinn Taber , Founder & CEO @ Immerse Topics This Week: Politics Heat Up Colleges aren’t prepared for Roe’s fall Schools Are Spending Billions on High-Tech Defense for Mass Shootings 'Don’t Say Gay’ bills will make it harder for teachers to support students The public cost of private schools Education Department Approves $8 Billion in Public Service Loan Forgivenes...

Send us Fan Mail Andrew Baird is the President & CEO of the global hub of Education For Employment (EFE-Global). Andrew brings to EFE more than twenty-five years of experience in advancing private sector-led strategies to create inclusive employment and livelihoods around the world - including in several countries where EFE operates. He is a strong advocate for women’s economic employment, and...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Victoria Ransom , Founder & Co-President of Prisma Topics This Week: Higher Ed Adapts? Dartmouth College eliminates undergraduate student loans and replaces them with scholarship grants Higher Ed Invests in Student Success Tech – Is It a ‘New Golden Age’ or Just Vague Talk? McKinsey: Technology is shaping learning in higher education Americans support student loan forgi...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick Ward is the Vice President of Marketing at Rootstrap, a digital studio that provides UX/UI design, app and web development and staff augmentation to a variety of companies, including major edtech companies like Masterclass and Emeritus. In this conversation, we’ll talk about the marketing and technology strategies that top edtech companies use to grow, as well as the futur...

Send us Fan Mail Guest Charles Schilling , President, Enterprise Business - US, Europe & Canada @ Emeritus Topics this week: Teacher Shortages at the End of the School Year Overworked and underappreciated, teachers are burning out Cardona: Americans Shouldn't be Surprised by Teacher Shortage Work-Based Learning Google partners with Figma to bring design tools to student Chromebooks The Un...

Send us Fan Mail Kavitta Ghai is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nectir , a communication platform for higher ed that uses instant chat to build a community in every class. Kavitta founded Nectir in 2018 during her time as a student at UC Santa Barbara, and has since raised over $2.25M to bring communication infrastructure to every campus and classroom out there. Her goal is to make quality education ac...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Philip Cutler , CEO @ Paper Topics This Week: Metaversities With Money From Facebook, 10 Colleges Turn Their Campuses into ‘Metaversities’ Guild & Oprah Guild Education Reaches $4.4B Valuation As Labor Market Demands Continue – And A Downturn Threat Rises Apprenticeships Multiverse nabs $220M at a $1.7B valuation Sanoma in Italy Sanoma acquires Pearson’s local K-12 lear...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah Toms is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Wharton Interactive . She is a serious games expert and demonstrated thought leader in the educational technology field, fueled by a passion to find and develop innovative ways to make every learning environment active, engaging, more meaningful, and learner-centered. Sarah has built transformative gaming platforms for educati...

Send us Fan Mail Topics This Week: Edtech Funding Landscape Why Some Investors Say Edtech ‘Doom and Gloom’ Overhyped Unacademy tells employees to focus on profitability at all costs to ‘survive the winter’ College Enrollment College Enrollment Drops, Even as the Pandemic’s Effects Ebb Credential Train Is Leaving the Station—Get on Board If Students Had Their Way, Hybrid Learning Would Be Here To S...

Send us Fan Mail Erin Mote is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of InnovateEDU , a non-profit that brings together leaders in education and technology to design and develop breakthrough models and tools to help ensure that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers of their choosing. Erin is also the co-founder of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School and has s...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Jeffrey Cohen , CEO of FullBloom Topics This Week: Class Technologies Acquires Blackboard Collaborate $210M Deal PhilOnEdTech Take   Metaverse Mercedes Bent on why Metaverse isn’t Over-hyped World Economic Forum: the future of education is in experiential learning & VR Virtual Is the New Reality for M.B.A. Students Invact Metaversity cancels first cohort Big Tech in Ed...

Send us Fan Mail Sophie Brickman is the author of the new book “Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason and Sanity in the Digital Age” , all about how parents can try to navigate the world of technology. Sophie Brickman is a writer, reporter and editor based in New York City. Her journalistic work has appeared in The Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Jo...

Send us Fan Mail 1.  Brutal Year for EdTech It’s Been A ‘Brutal’ Year for Public Education Companies 2.  Major Breaking News:  Byju’s in Talks to Buy Chegg or 2U India’s Byju’s Eyes Chegg or 2U as It Weighs US Acquisition Scott Galloway’s edtech startup, Section4, lays off a quarter of staff 3.  Advertising and Marketing over Education in College Spend GAO Report on Online Program Managers Was Onl...

Send us Fan Mail Louisa Rosenheck is the Director of Pedagogy at Kahoot! , one of the largest and most influential gamified edtech companies in the world. Louisa is also an ed tech designer with a passion for game-based learning and playful pedagogies, and teaches educational technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she earned her Master’s degree in the Harvard TIE program. Pr...

Send us Fan Mail Topics This Week: Higher Ed’s Commodification and Decentralization Upskilling Trend Brings Coupons, ‘Flash Sales’ and Other Marketing Gimmicks edX’s Role After 2U Acquisition The Future Of Learning Is Radically Decentralized K-12 LAUSD makes 'historic' $50M investment to address digital divide Union pushback on Meta Twitter sale shows us why edtech companies should be ac...

Send us Fan Mail Jordan Adair is the Vice President of Product at Honorlock , an online proctoring platform dedicated to maintaining academic integrity. Jordan began his career in education as an elementary and middle school teacher. After transitioning into educational technology, he became focused on delivering products designed to empower instructors and improve the student experience. Honorloc...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Ashley Andersen Zantop , CEO & Chairman of Cambium Learning Group Topics This Week: Google Grow Good? Training now free for 500 workers at every U.S. business Student Debt Cancellation Broad cancellation could backfire We should cancel student debt, but only for some Income caps + Online certificate programs Kinder-Crisis? Reading recovery's long-term effects ECD g...

Send us Fan Mail Eli Bildner is a Senior Director at Guild Education , where he helps to provide opportunity for America’s workforce through education and upskilling, all funded by employers. Eli was also the co-Executive Director and co-founder of Rivet School , a non-profit which simplifies college by pairing an accredited online degree with real-world supports, such as a personal coach, financi...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Stratsi Kulinski , President of NewU University International Bubble? New Oriental Education , Unacademy , BYJU's Metaverse Meta , Fidelity , Athenaverse , Immerse , Moonhub Adult Learning Udemy's Global Workplace Learning Index Mental Health Data CDC report , Securly , LeanLab , SMART Technologies + Kooth Funding + M&A Zenda , Newton School , Blue Sky , Vivfy...