微软与edX合作推出 IT 课程，MOOC 平台纷纷转向职场教育
近日，edX 宣布与微软合作，将从 3 月底开始陆续推出 7 门技术课程，课程老师来自工作在微软的一线工程师，内容主要是 IT 技能的学习，包括云端管理到编程语言。
所有的课程都会将使用微软提供的开发软件，同时整个教学过程中，来自微软的专家将全程参与，为学生的学习进度进行评估，以及在 MOOC 平台上进行编码演习等等。在 edX 主页上，我们可以看到这 7 门课分别是：
Programming with C#
Introduction to TypeScript
Introduction to Bootstrap – A Tutorial
Querying with Transact-SQL
Building Cloud Apps with Microsoft Azure – Part 1
Introduction to Office 365 APIs
Windows PowerShell Fundamentals
MOOC 平台和企业合作，edX 并不是头一家。在今年 2 月份的时候，Coursera 宣布与 Google，Instagram 以及 500 Startups 合作，引入企业资源，为用户提供第一手的科技职场教育。
MOOC 的下一步是什么？答案越来越清晰。越来越多的 MOOC 平台开始引入职业教育的内容，在其中 IT 教育便是领跑者。而对于微软来说，与 edX 合作不仅仅是要圈住那些潜在的人才，还有一点就是努力地推广搭建在微软平台上的 IT 工具。
[本文参考以下来源：edsurge.com, edx.org]
Lingua.ly 融资 100 万美元，欲将互联网变成语言学习工具
语言学习应用 Lingua.ly 已经完成 100 万美元融资，投资方包括乌蒂·尼特泽（Udi Netzer）、沙伊·莱帕里（Shai Rephaeli）、Yochy Investments 和 Seed Fund 1776 等天使投资人或投资机构。Lingua.ly 的目标是将学生从枯燥的传统语言学习模式中解脱出来。
Lingua.ly 的网站和应用会基于词汇表和每名用户的兴趣，从互联网上抓取文章。2014 年 4 月份，Lingua.ly推出了免费的安卓版应用（现在 iOS 版应用也已上线），当时 TechCrunch 网站对这家创业公司进行了报道。
随着新一轮融资的完成，Lingua.ly 的融资总额已经达到 180 万美元。语言学家、Lingua.ly 公关负责人梅雷迪思·塞西莉亚（Meredith Circerchia）表示，该公司会利用新的融资将 Lingua.ly 免费工具推向新的平台和新的市场，这些工具目前已作为 Chrome 扩展件和安卓版和 iOS 版应用上线。Lingua.ly 计划通过高级会员功能来创收，它将在今年晚些时候将这种功能整合到网页端和应用上。
Lingua.ly 对于想要学习各种语言的人来说是一个非常棒的学习工具，因为它上面配有抽认卡（flashcard），抽认卡有提前录制的发音、词典和重复性游戏来帮助学员记住单词，同时软件上还有多种文章可供浏览，文章中出现的词汇是常用的，而不像传统课本中经常出现的单词那么正式和呆板。
“根据从上下文获取词汇方面所做的研究，我们获得了 Lingua.ly 的算法，”塞西莉亚说。“它推算出你对一门外语掌握的词汇量，然后在报纸上专门为你找到一些文章，这些文章中的大部分词汇是你认识的。”
“这是因为当你熟悉句中的大多数词汇时，你便可以根据上下文推测新词的含义。即使你猜错了，花费一些精力思考一个词的含义，也有助于加深记忆，”她补充说。
根据用户兴趣提供更加全面的上下文和量身定制的内容，恰恰是 Lingua.ly 区别于其他语言学习软件（如 多邻国和 Memrise）的地方，也可以成为其他软件的有益补充。塞西莉亚说，Lingua.ly 主要是针对已经掌握了大量词汇的中高级学生，这些学生还想要改善和巩固他们的语言技能。
Lingua.ly 应用已支持 10 种语言：英语、法语、西班牙语、意大利语、葡萄牙语、德语、荷兰语、俄语、阿拉伯语和希伯来语。学习其他语言的用户可以自己制作抽认卡，在 Lingua.ly 字典中查找词汇，但是他们享受不到发音和查找相关文章的妙处。很多人还要求该公司添加北欧和亚洲的一些语言。今年晚些时候，Lingua.ly 有望添加几种语言，并优化支持印度语和波斯语等语言的词典。
Lingua.ly 将来的功能将基于语言的自然形成过程，这有助于它针对每个用户对文章进行量身定做，并且更加多样化。塞西莉亚表示，这个网站及相关软件将为初学者增添更多学习工具并向多媒体方向发展，因为初学者还没有深入阅读文章的能力。同时，Lingua.ly 也在开发适合教室使用的功能，如老师可以使用的电子板。
Lingua.ly, Which Turns The Internet Into A Language Textbook, Raises $1M
Lingua.ly, which saves language students from the tedium of traditional textbooks, has raised $1 million. Participants in the round include Udi Netzer (a returning investor), Shai Rephaeli, Yochy Investments, and Seed Fund 1776.
The site and apps pulls articles from the web-based on vocabulary lists and each users’ interests. TechCrunch last covered the startup when it launched its free Android app in April 2014 (it is also now available for iOS).
The latest funding brings Lingua.ly’s total raised so far to $1.8 million. Meredith Circerchia, a linguist and the startup’s director of communications and e-learning, says the fresh capital will be used to bring Lingua.ly’s free tools, which are available online as a Chrome extension and as Android and iOS apps, to new platforms and markets. The startup plans to monetize through premium features that it will release on the web and its apps later this year.
Lingua.ly is a nifty tool for aspiring polyglots because it has flashcards with recorded pronunciations, a dictionary, a repetition game to help with memorization, and several categories of articles to browse so users can see the words in common usage, instead of the more formal and stilted examples often found in textbooks.
“The Lingua.ly algorithm is based on research concerning vocabulary acquisition from context,” says Circerchia. “It estimates your vocabulary in a foreign language and then finds newspaper articles that contain mostly words you know.”
“This is because when most of the words in a sentence are familiar to you, you can take a more informed guess at the meaning of new terms. Even if you guess incorrectly, expending extra cognitive energy thinking about a word helps dig the memory in deeper,” she adds.
Providing deeper context and tailoring content to users’ interests is what sets Lingua.ly apart from (and makes it a good complement) to other language learning apps like Duolingo and Memrise. Circherchia says Lingua.ly is targeted at intermediate and advanced students who have already know a lot of vocabulary, but want to improve and maintain their language skills.
The app already has full support for 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew. Users studying other languages can make flashcards and look up words in Lingua.ly’s dictionary, but they lack the benefit of audio pronunciations and articles. The startup has had a lot of requests for Scandinavian and Asian languages, however, and hopes to add several later this year, as well as better dictionary support for languages like Hindu and Farsi.
Future features will be based on natural language processing technology, which will help Lingua.ly pull up a more personalized and diverse assortment of articles for each user. Circherchia says that the site and app will also add more tools for beginning learners who aren’t ready to dive into articles yet, as well as multimedia. Classroom-oriented features, including a dashboard for teachers, is also in the works.
Outbound：帮助企业通过电子邮件和移动设备向客户发消息
随着移动革命的来临，无论客户身处何地，企业都需要与他们建立联系，这便需要企业在电子邮件之外寻找一种新的营销手段。Outbound 是一家获得 Y Combinator 投资的创业公司，希望可以帮助营销人员开展新形式的营销活动，而不是仅限于“打开页面和点击链接”。为此，Outbound 将帮助营销人员借助于专门针对移动设备优化的手段，比如说推送通知、短信、甚至是应用内消息，最终与客户建立联系。
Outbound 的联合创始人 德鲁维卡兰·梅赫塔（Dhruvkaran Mehta）和 乔什·维斯伯格（Josh Weissburg）在实际的工作中曾遭遇过上述问题。两人此前在一家名为 Getaround 的汽车分享公司共事，维斯伯格专注于解决与用户互动的问题，而梅赫塔则作为工程师参与推动用户增长的项目。
维斯伯格解释说，他在 Getaround 面临的一大挑战是，如何说服在 Getaround 注册的车主完成创建个人简介的过程。由于步骤十分复杂，有些车主留下的信息并不全面。在这种情况下，他需要与这些客户取得联系，无论他们当时身处何方——无论在网上或是在外办事——鼓励他们采取下一步行动，完成个人简介的创建过程。
据维斯伯格介绍，创建这种针对性营销活动，与各行各业的客户建立接触，从工程学角度讲是一件非常痛苦的事情。但正是由于这种经历，维斯伯格和梅赫塔才有了开发一款新产品的想法，让非技术人员（如市场营销人员）更轻松地发出针对性消息，然后了解哪些消息管用，哪些消息不管用。
2013 年夏天，两人开始打造一项服务（即 Outbound 的前身），不仅允许营销人员实现营销活动自动化，而且还能基于具体的触发机制向用户发送信息，同时还针对自身和控制组发起多个营销测试活动。
梅赫塔解释说：“随着企业意识到人们向移动设备的转移，而他们的大部分收入也来自于移动领域，他们必须要开始与这些受众进行互动，让这些人总是留在自己的移动产品上。但现实情况是，许多适用于电子邮件的技术真的不适合推送通知…我们认为，从根本上讲，即便发送的消息数量更少，但只要质量更高，企业仍可以赚到更多钱。”
这就是说，企业需要一种解决方案，这种方案不仅在有关营销自动化的问题上，将移动当作“一等公民”，而且还能帮助企业发现哪种是覆盖这些受众的最佳方案，然后分析他们的任务是否得到满足。
例如，使用 Outbound 服务的企业不需要让客户打开电子邮件并点击链接，而是试图让客户填写完整的个人简介，增加支付信息，完成注册流程，填写缺失的信息，对帐号进行升级等等。
有了 Outbound 的服务，营销部门人员就不需要坐下来就创建消息平台的问题，与公司工程团队进行长时间讨论，或是诉诸于昂贵的营销自动化软件——这种软件也不能满足他们多渠道战略的需要。相反，营销人员可以上网登录 Outbound 的网站，立即开始创建他们想要的营销活动，填写相关信息，包括他们希望用户做什么以获得回报，以及希望以哪种方式（如推送、电子邮件和短信）与这些用户建立联系。
在举办了营销活动以后，营销人员还可以在 Outbound 网站上实时了解活动效果，以及追踪历史数据和趋势。
Outbound 在 2014 年夏天最早推出了这种服务，但当时它更多专注于渠道消息。今年早些时候，Outbound 进一步扩大了服务范围，开始支持更复杂的逻辑和 A/B 测试。根据客户规模的不同，Outbound 的服务价格最低为每个月 149 美元（向 2000 活跃用户发信息），最高为每个月 899 美元（向 3 万活跃用户发信息）。（Outbound 的服务价格根据客户需要送达信息的活跃用户数量而定，而不是基于发送的消息条数。）
到目前为止，Outbound 已与 16 家公司建立了合作，其客户的业务主要涉及教育、金融服务和卫生保健等领域，其中包括 HealthLoop、uBiome、eTherapi、GetSmarter 和 Omada Health 等公司。
Outbound 总部设在旧金山，目前获得了 150 万美元的融资，除了 Y Combinator，投资方还包括 Subtraction Capital 的保罗·威拉德（Paul Willard）、InterWest Partners 的道格·佩珀（Doug Pepper）、Correlation Ventures 的特雷沃·基恩兹勒（Trevor Kienzle）以及 YCombinator 的加里·谭（Garry Tan）和亚历克西斯·欧海宁 （Alexis Ohanian）等。
YC-Backed Outbound Helps Businesses Message Customers Over Both Email And Mobile
With the shift to mobile devices, businesses today have a need to reach their customers wherever they are – and that includes marketing to their customers outside of email alone. A Y Combinator-backed startup called Outbound wants to help today’s marketers run campaigns that go beyond just tracking “opens and clicks,” and can also reach customers using mobile-friendly channels like push notifications, SMS and even in-app messages.
The problem is something with which Outbound’s co-founders, Dhruvkaran Mehta and Josh Weissburg, are personally familiar. The two previously worked together at the car-sharing companyGetaround, where Weissburg was focused on activation and Mehta was the engineer who worked on growth alongside him.
At Getaround, one of the challenges Weissburg faced was getting car owners who were listing their vehicles on the service to finish the process of creating their profile, he explains. People would get stuck on different steps and would just drop off. He then needed to be able to reach these particular customers wherever they were at the time – on the web or on mobile, for example – and encourage them to take the next action needed to complete the process.
Setting up these targeted campaigns to reach the customers in question across the various channels was a huge pain on the engineering side, says Weissburg. But the experience gave them the idea to build a product that would make it easier for non-technical people – like marketers – to more easily send out these sorts messages, and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
In summer 2013, the two began building what has now become Outbound, a service that not only lets marketers automate campaigns and send out messages to users based on specific triggers, but also test multiple campaigns against each other and a control group, among other things.
“As businesses realize that populations are moving mobile and most of their revenue is coming from there, they need to start engaging those audiences and keep people coming back to their mobile properties,” Mehta explains. “But what happens is that a lot of the techniques that apply to email are not really applicable to push notifications…We believe, fundamentally, that companies can make more money by sending fewer, but better messages,” he adds.
That is, the businesses need a solution that not only treats mobile as a first-class citizen when it comes to marketing automation, but also helps the business figure out what’s the best means of reaching those customers and then measuring if their goals were met.
Instead of just getting customers to open an email and click a link, for example, a business using Outbound may be trying to get users to complete a profile, add payment information, finish a sign-up process, fill in missing information, upgrade an account, and so on.
With Outbound’s service, marketers don’t have to sit down and have lengthy conversations with their company’s engineering team to build out their messaging platform, or turn to sometimes expensive marketing automation software that can fail to address their need for a multi-channel strategy. Instead, marketers can go online to Outbound’s website to start immediately creating their desired campaign, including information like what user actions will kick it off, what they want users to do in return, and how (e.g. push, email, SMS) they want to reach those users.
The service then returns a “to do” list customers can bring to their developers that tells them the exact API calls to make. Or, in the case of those who are already sending their data to the online hub at Segment.com, using Outbound is only a matter of toggling a switch to turn it on.
After the campaigns are running, marketers can watch the results in real-time on Outbound’s online dashboard, as well as track historical data and trends.
The company first launched its service publicly in summer 2014, at which time it was focused more on funnel messages. Earlier this year, however, it expanded to include support for more sophisticated logic and A/B testing. Pricing for the service ranges from $149/month (2,000 active users) to $899/month (30,000 users) depending on company size. (The pricing is based on the number of active users being messaged, but not how many messages are sent out.)
Today, Outbound is working with 16 companies including those in the educational space, financial services, and healthcare in particular. Some of its customers include HealthLoop, uBiome, eTherapi, GetSmarter, and Omada Health, to name a few.
San Francisco-based Outbound is backed by $1.5 million in funding from Y Combinator, Paul Willard of Subtraction Capital, Doug Pepper of InterWest Partners, Trevor Kienzle from Correlation Ventures, plus YC’s Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian.
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