Coursmos
{{short description|Online micro-learning platform}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Coursmos
| logo = File:Logo_of_Coursmos.png
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| logo_caption = "An online micro-learning platform designed to educate Generation Distracted"
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| industry = Online Microlearning
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| founder = Roman Kostochka
Vyacheslav Grachev
Kate Seledets
Paul Shuteyev
Igor Gonebnyy
Alex Sinichkin
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| hq_location_city = San Francisco, California
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| area_served = International (online)
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| website = {{URL|https://coursmos.com/}}
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Coursmos is an online micro-learning platform.{{Cite news|url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/04/16/why-micro-learning-is-educating-the-add-generation/|title=Why Micro Learning Is Educating The ADD Generation|last=Kostochka|first=Roman|date=2015-04-16|work=The Next Web|access-date=2017-10-13|language=en-US}} It offered approximately 50,000 lessons within approximately 11,000 courses with courses broken down into smaller lessons, typically no longer than three minutes each.{{Cite web|url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/02/06/digestible-knowledge-how-micro-learning-is-making-its-way-on-the-education-market/|title=How Micro-Learning Made its Way on The Education Market|last=Degeler|first=Andrii|date=2015-02-06|website=The Next Web|language=en-us|access-date=2020-02-05}}{{cite news|last1=Singh|first1=Ravi Pratap|title=17 Awesome Resources on Micro-Learning|url=http://elearningindustry.com/awesome-resources-on-micro-learning|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=Elearning Industry|date=11 May 2014}}
History
Coursmos was founded by Roman Kostochka and Vyacheslav Grachev.{{cite news|last1=Rigby|first1=Sophie|title=Russo-American Edutech Startup Coursmos Gets $530K|url=http://rusbase.com/news/author/sophierigby/imperious-group-and-evgeny-medvednik-invest-coursmos/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=Rus Base|date=30 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326130553/http://rusbase.com/news/author/sophierigby/imperious-group-and-evgeny-medvednik-invest-coursmos/|archive-date=26 March 2015|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} The concept was developed based on a YouTube study that documented people watching users video of up to three minutes with longer videos getting abandoned.{{cite web|title=Analytics Engagement Report Available For Download|url=http://youtubecreator.blogspot.ru/2012/03/analytics-engagement-report-available.html|website=YouTube Creator|accessdate=20 February 2015}} Coursmos was a participant in Happy Farm, an American-Ukrainian Business Accelerator. Although founded in Russia, it moved its headquarters to San Francisco, California in 2013, the same year the site was first launched. Coursmos was designed as a mobile-first application, launching as a mobile app in the Apple Appstore and following up with an app in Google Play.{{cite news|last1=Lomas|first1=Natasha|title=Coursmos Is A Bite-Sized E-Learning Platform For The Twitter Generation|url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/08/coursmos/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=TechCrunch|date=8 October 2013}} The web platform of the company was launched in early 2014.{{cite news|last1=Lomas|first1=Natasha|title=Coursmos Pulls In Further $530K To Grow Its Bite-Sized E-Learning Platform|url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/25/coursmos-seed/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=TechCrunch|date=25 June 2014}}
Funding for Coursmos came by the way of the co-founders,{{cite news|last1=Krauzova|first1=Elena|title=Урок за минуты: как создатели онлайн-курсов Coursmos завоевали аудиторию|url=http://top.rbc.ru/own_business/24/11/2014/5448c1a0cbb20f19f4e7e580|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=RBC|date=24 November 2014|language=Russian}} and later pre-seed funding in the amount of $150,000 from outside investors.{{cite news|title=Move over, MOOCs|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/10/short-e-courses|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=The Economist|date=31 October 2013}} It received an additional $530,000 in funding in June 2014, coming from Imperious Group as well as an angel investor who was unnamed. The funding was used to expand the company and develop features that allow for better search engine capabilities of lessons, converting video to text to make lessons searchable. It also announced the addition of features that include YouTube integration and a content widget for lessons to be shared on other website. In 2015, the company received $600,000 in additional funding from both Imperious and Altera Capital Group.{{cite news|last1=Lomas|first1=Natasha|title=Coursmos Gets $600K To Push Its Mobile-Friendly Micro-Courses At Corporates|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/02/coursmos-seed-expansion/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=TechCrunch|date=2 February 2015}} This funding was reported to be used to build a corporate user platform that can be used by [https://coursmos.com/ online classes].{{cite news|last1=Button|first1=Keith|title=Coursmos to launch new corporate micro-courses, invest in expansion|url=http://www.educationdive.com/news/coursmos-to-launch-new-corporate-micro-courses-invest-in-expansion/359802/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=Education Drive|date=3 February 2015}}
As of 2015, Coursmos has raised $1.2 million since its launch.{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/02/coursmos-seed-expansion/|title=Coursmos Gets $600K To Push Its Mobile-Friendly Micro-Courses At Corporates|last=Lomas|first=Natasha|work=TechCrunch|access-date=2017-10-13|language=en}}
Courses
Coursmos offers 50,000 video lessons which are grouped within 11,000 micro-courses. Each course has no more than three minute lessons within, meaning that the length of each course rarely exceeds a total of fifteen minutes. Each course is designed so that it can be taken in a short time as opposed to users giving a long-form commitment of several weeks, separating it from massive open online course platform models. Coursmos has an adaptive recommendation system for users to receive personal micro course selections. Based on skills and interests of the user, Coursmos recommends the courses for that user to take.
Courses are user-generated and allow other users to flag those with better quality content to rate the better courses. Most courses are free, with the site also allowing for paid-course content and provides a revenue share to authors. The platform allows anyone to create a micro-course, with approximately 4,000 of the website's users also being creators or "authors" of courses.
In January 2015, Coursmos had 520,000 registered students.{{cite web| url=http://uadn.net/2015/02/05/russo-ukrainian-e-learning-platform-coursmos-raises-600000/| publisher=Ukraine Digital News| title=Russo-Ukrainian e-learning platform Coursmos raises $600,000| date=February 5, 2015| access-date=November 27, 2017}}
Reception
TechCrunch referred to Coursmos as a "bite-sized e-learning platform for the Twitter Generation" as well as an "app to educate Generation Distraction." Coursmos' investors were also attracted to the company based on the idea of filling the need of people wanting to learn quick and having the time to learn, unlike a MOOC platform.{{cite news|title=Образовательный стартап Coursmos привлек инвестиции в размере $530,000|url=http://habrahabr.ru/company/coursmos/|accessdate=11 February 2015|publisher=Habrahabr|date=26 June 2014|language=Russian}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.networkworld.com/article/2895817/7-hot-career-related-companies-to-watch.html|title=7 Hot Career-related Companies to Watch|last=Brown|first=Bob|date=2015-03-12|website=Network World|language=en|access-date=2020-02-05}} It has also been featured in major publications including TechCrunch and The Economist.
See also
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- [https://coursmos.com/ Coursmos official website]
- [https://coursmos.com/blog Step to your Dream, Coursmos Blogs]
Category:Educational technology companies of the United States