The annual migration of ed-tech venture capitalists, start-up executives, innovators, and educators descended on San Diego last week for the ASU-GSV conferenceβnow in its 10th year addressing the most pressing challenges facing education. As the Varsity Blues admissions scandal and NCAA basketball tournament scrolled by on every TV, there was a particularly palpable sense that the pace of change in higher education needs to accelerate.
The challenge, however, was separating the promising initiatives from the noise. Among the bread and circuses of acquisitions, reboots, expansions, and innovations on display, we paid special attention to those trying to better serve the roughly 40,, working adult learners, the under-skilled, and marginally employed.
This move also significantly expands the footprint for 2U and Trilogy; they can now reach 68 institutions, including several continuing education and extension schools serving adult learners. Watch this new 2U for more signs of diversification. An upcoming release of its Active Learning Forum will accommodate as many as four hundred students simultaneously, up from only dozens a few years ago. Its leader, Ben Nelson, views the recent admissions scandal as evidence that students will aggressively seek alternatives to conventional enrollment pathways and learning environments.
Watch Minerva to see whether this Roman goddess of wisdom will scale abroad or in the U. Zovio will now take formerly-for-profit Ashford University also formerly owned by Bridgepoint Education on as its first client. Zovio suggested that it will eventually offer its services and technology capabilities to other institutions seeking to grow enrollment in online programming, with a particular focus on personalization and carefully-tailored support services.
Watch and see whether Zovio can carve out a niche and distinguish itself from its Bridgepoint past. Our informative conversation with Heather Hiles, the newly-minted CEO of the California Online Community College District, revealed yet another effort to address the needs of working adults. As income disparities widen in Californiaβperhaps a harbinger for the rest of the U. Instead, students will have access to an online platform, a scaffold of job-ready skills, and extensive onboarding support and mentorship.
