Mobile app takes online education offline


Taking online education offline may seem like a contradiction, but a new experiment from web-based learning company 2U, Inc., could better serve the students online courses are meant for, the company said.

offline
The app makes learning more accessible than traditional online options.

For many educators, the ideal target audience for online and distance learning are students who lack the income, live in too rural an area, or are too busy  to benefit from a traditional college experience.

Those same students are also the most likely to go without adequate internet access.

With 2U’s new “Offline Mode,” online learners can watch interactive videos, view lectures, and complete reading assignments all while disconnected from the internet.

“We have a student taking courses on an oil rig 150 miles from the closest coast,” said James Kenigsberg, chief technology officer at 2U. “There are students who need to fit in coursework while commuting underground in New York City. There are students in all sorts of remote locations or situations where they can’t be online, and they would like to take some of this content on-the-go.”

2U is primarily known for its for-credit online course consortium Semester Online.

Three universities in May dropped out of the partnership that would have allowed the schools to pool together their resources together to create the courses.

It was a high profile snag in much-publicized deal that had included 10 universities in total.

Two months later, three other universities filled those vacancies, putting the plan back on track. The news also came on the heels of 2U partnering with University of California at Berkeley to offer a fully online master of information and data science degree program.

2U’s Offline Mode will be available as a mobile app to the 10,000 students currently using the service.

Calling it a game changer, 2U said not only will students be able to access content while offline, they’ll be able to interact with it, too. Any interaction that takes place while the student is offline will sync up with the platform when the app is reconnected to the internet.

“We have students deployed in Afghanistan, active military, who are saying, ‘oh my God, that’s the best thing ever,’” Kenigsberg, said. “’I feel like I can be a lot more productive now.'”

Follow Jake New on Twitter at @eCN_Jake.

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