Knewton Is Building The World’s Smartest Tutor

Forbes

22-Feb

“Education is the world’s largest data industry, by far,” says Jose Ferreira, who knows this because he runs a firm called Knewton that’s building what could become the world’s most valuable repository of the ways people learn. In October Knewton raised $33 million from Pearson and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, reportedly at a valuation north of $150 million. A passel of other tech companies are also working to speed up education’s shift online. The number of college students enrolled in at least one online course has risen from 1.7 million to 6 million since 2002. In the first nine months of 2011 Pearson had 8 million U.S. students register for its online homework and assessment programs and almost 5 million enroll in its remedial online college courses. These numbers were up 23% and 33%, respectively, over last year. Five thousand freshmen at Arizona State University enrolled in Knewton-powered Pearson courses for remedial math in August. Half of the students finished four weeks early. Another quarter finished early enough to move into regular freshman math. The portion of students withdrawing from the courses fell from 13% to 6%, and pass rates rose from 66% to 75%. The best part for the school, says ASU executive vice provost Phil Regier, is that teachers now have a dashboard to track who’s falling behind and needs help.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/02/22/knewton-is-building-the-worlds -smartest-tutor/