Higher education software as a service (SaaS) company OpenLearning Limited (ASX: OLL) has signed a combined usage-based SaaS and reseller agreement with global not- for-profit High Resolves, to deliver all its peak learning experiences online during school closures.
High Resolves designs and delivers award-winning learning experiences around citizenship themes like identity, social inclusion and social justice which have engaged over 350,000 students in hundreds of schools in Australia, the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
Due to the COVID-19-driven closures of many schools worldwide, High Resolves will reimagine dozens of its high-impact experiences, with support from OpenLearning’s learning designers, to be delivered to students fully online via OpenLearning within six weeks. Once launched, the courses will be facilitated by High Resolves network of experienced facilitators and tailored to the requirements of each partner school.
OpenLearning Group CEO & Managing Director Adam Brimo said that as schools, colleges and universities are disrupted worldwide due to COVID-19, moving education online is a logical step.
“However, we must not compromise quality in the process,” Mr Brimo said.
This partnership demonstrates that it is possible to transform a face-to-face experience into a highly engaging and effective online experience, quickly and cost effectively, setting the benchmark for online education and providing a model for OpenLearning’s targeted expansion into the K12 sector.”
As each school is independent and must manage access to meet local privacy requirements, the company will provision a separate portal on the OpenLearning platform for each school to provide greater autonomy and the ability for each school to trial the platform for delivering their own courses.
High Resolves Co-Founder and CEO Mehrdad Baghai said the organisation chose OpenLearning as a result of the alignment in values between the two organisations, educational approach and the need to deliver quality courses cost effectively at scale.
Under the agreement, High Resolves will pay OpenLearning an annual SaaS fee ranging from A$50k (15,000 students) to A$90k (30,000+ students) depending on usage of High Resolves across all school portals.
In addition to setting up a portal for each school, the company will provide 10 days of training and support to High Resolves to take advantage of OpenLearning’s unique functionality to deliver engaging, constructive learning experiences. The portals will be available to each school for one year at no additional cost.
However, schools that want to take High Resolves courses online from 2021 onwards will have to pay OpenLearning a SaaS fee in order to continue using the portal.
In a first for OpenLearning, High Resolves’ sales force will promote the retention of schools interested in digital or hybrid experiences next year and their conversion into a paying SaaS customer from 2021 for a portion of the estimated SaaS fee of circa A$3,000 per school to support their not-for-profit initiatives.
High Resolves is well-supported by the Department of Social Services of the Australian Government, which announced in May 2019 that it would allocate $6 million to the not-for-profit to expand its geographic reach within Australia. High Resolves is also supported by several large American philanthropic organisations including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Imaginable Futures (formerly part of Omidyar Network).
“About six weeks ago, we recognised the possibility of school closures due to COVID-19, and so we began a strategic sprint to find a different way to support our tireless and dedicated school leaders who would be searching for creative ways to continue to engage their students,” Mr Baghai said.