From Technology Horizons in Education comes this article, “Pearson to Acquire eCollege.” Here’s the opening paragraph:
Pearson said this week that it plans to acquire eCollege, an online distance education provider. The deal will cost Pearson $477 million net, including the agreed $41 million sale of eCollege’s Datamark division to a group of investors. The acquisition is expected to take place next quarter and has not yet been approved by shareholders.
I’m not entirely sure what this means in terms of the business world, but I post it here because eCollege is the service that Continuing Education uses for supporting online classes at EMU, and I think it’s fair to say that the majority of online, hybrid, and so-called “web-enhanced” classes here use this software.
Thanks for the post, Steve! Very interesting.
I don’t know enough to comment on the eCollege issue, but I do know Pearson’s hard copy publications, and I know it is a major publishing house that is willing to put $ into worthy educational ventures. For instance, Pearson is the publisher of the “Reacting to the Past” series, which is devoted to undergraduate courses designed around or including elaborate role-playing games based on historical conflicts. I am using some Reacting games in my own classes, and Pearson is a strong supporter of this pedagogical innovation, which is now used at over 100 colleges and Universities.