A short post on the acquisition of Learning Catalytics by Pearson as discussed here. Note the quote from Paul Corey, president of science, business, and technology at Pearson:
“With Learning Catalytics we felt we could accomplish three things: help faculty turn the classroom into an immediate engaging environment while measuring feedback without interrupting flow, help students learn from each other, and help foster higher thinking skills.”
As Pearson really focuses on education technology and consumer devices, it will be interesting to watch whether its publishing arm develops in terms of full-package course designs. If the predictions on the squeezed middle in higher education pans out, is Pearson positioning itself for commercial delivery of courses designed by ‘elite’ universities supported by tutor support delivered by local colleges? In other words, removing non-‘elite’ universities from course and programme design and development and into a ‘customer’ service role.