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3 Friday Shortcuts

The CEO of EDUCAUSE announces her retirement, ed-tech companies rake in cash, and more in this week’s Shortcuts

shortcut-news-edtechWelcome to Friday Shortcuts, a round-up of the ed-tech news that didn’t make it onto the front page of eCampus News this week–but you should know about anyway.

Shortcut 1. EDUCAUSE CEO will retire next year

Diana Oblinger, the president and CEO of EDUCAUSE will retire in March 2015, the organization announced Thursday. Oblinger has taught at the University of Missouri and served as its associate dean of academic programs. She also worked for Microsoft and IBM before leading EDUCAUSE.

Oblinger has been with the non-profit ed-tech association for a decade. The board of directors will start its search for a new CEO next month.

Shortcut 2. Ed-tech start-ups off to strong start this year

Education technology start-ups have already raised more than $500 million in the first quarter of 2014. That’s the single biggest quarterly flood of money to the sector in five years, according to [1]Tech Crunch. [1]

In 2012, $1.1 billion was invested in the entire ed-tech sector for the whole year, a number 2014 is well on its way to eclipsing.

Shortcut 3. Pearson partners with ConnectYard

Pearson has partnered with ConnectYard, Inc., a social engagement provider, to launch new messaging, analytics, and reporting features in Pearson’s LearningStudio. ConnectYard’s social messaging service will allow students and faculty to more easily communicate on any device, and will track which students are not engaged enough with the course.

The partnership was announced this week at Pearson Cite, an online learning conference now in its fifteenth year.