ANNOUNCEMENT

Lumen Learning Acquires Faculty Guild’s Higher Education Assets

Lumen to launch Lumen Circles, a facilitated, peer-based professional development platform and services solution for higher education

Portland, Ore. (June 16, 2020) – Lumen Learning announced it has acquired the intellectual property and higher education assets of Faculty Guild, a coaching service created in 2017 by education technology entrepreneur David Yaskin and a talented team of postsecondary educators.

Lumen will incorporate technology and other elements from Faculty Guild into Lumen Circles, a new professional development offering for postsecondary faculty. Lumen Circles brings together a unique virtual platform and a facilitated, peer-based fellowship program to help faculty members improve teaching effectiveness and bolster student success.

Faculty will hone their skills in critical areas such as online teaching; use of digital courseware; active learning strategies; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Throughout a facilitated multi-week experience, participants connect via the Lumen Circles professional development platform to learn, reflect on what’s working in their teaching, share ideas, provide feedback, and build supportive relationships over time. See this announcement for more information.

“Student success depends on many factors, a key one being effective teaching,” said Kim Thanos, CEO of Lumen Learning. “Investing in deep professional development, like Lumen Circles, contributes to excellence in teaching and long-term institutional success, including better student outcomes, increased student and faculty retention, higher completion rates, and more successful graduates in the workforce and society. Because teaching affects the experience of every student, it is critical to support faculty as they work to become highly effective teachers.”

The emphasis on peer sharing and reflective practice is unique and makes Lumen Circles suitable for any faculty member, regardless of discipline, learning tools, or career stage. Cohorts for those using Lumen’s Waymaker and OHM courseware will also be available.

Per the agreement, Lumen will welcome Faculty Guild’s existing higher education customers and assume support and service delivery. Other terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Professional development is a logical expansion for Lumen Learning given the inseparable connection between student success and effective teaching. Since its inception in 2012, Lumen Learning has been committed to providing effective and affordable resources for educators and students through promoting the wide-scale adoption of open educational resources (OER) and digital courseware.

Faculty Guild founder and edtech entrepreneur David Yaskin plans to introduce the professional development platform he created into other vertical markets outside higher education. His next venture, Coach Happy, will take the platform and coaching service into the K12 and corporate education markets.

About Lumen Learning

Since 2012, open education leader Lumen Learning has partnered with colleges and universities to support teaching and learning innovation with a focus on improving affordability, access, and student success.

Lumen Waymaker and OHM digital courseware provide evidence-based learning design and data-driven content improvements to increase learning and student engagement using open educational resources (OER). These course materials replace expensive textbooks in high-enrollment college courses and make the transition to open content simple, reliable, and effective for faculty and students.

Lumen Circles provides faculty professional development to build skills and advance teaching practices. Grounded in research about how to increase learning and student success and delivered through peer-based virtual learning groups, Lumen Circles provides a supportive setting for faculty to expand their capabilities for teaching in dynamic educational environments.

Over 350 institutions across the U.S. use Lumen-supported digital courseware for in-person, online, and blended courses. Materials created by Lumen are published under Creative Commons Attribution licenses and contributed back to the education community. Learn more at lumenlearning.com, and visit our course catalog at lumenlearning.com/courses/.

Media Contact

Julie Curtis, VP Strategy & Communication

Lumen Learning

+1.503.840.5569 | julie@lumenlearning.com