OpenSesame Inc

Last updated
OpenSesame
Opensesame.color.tm.png
Type of business Online education
Founded2011
Headquarters1629 SW Salmon Street, Portland, OR 97205
Key peopleDon Spear, Joshua Blank, Aaron Bridges, Tom Turnbull
IndustryeLearning
URL www.opensesame.com
RegistrationRequired
Current statusActive

OpenSesame Inc. is a Portland based educational technology company that provides an online marketplace for buying and selling SCORM elearning courses focused primarily on employee training. Its online training platform, directly connects content providers with employees and businesses for online training resources and specially designed courses for professionals, which can be accessed through a Learning management system. [1] [2] [3] The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. As of January 2024, OpenSesame tracks around 30,000 courses from more than 200 publishers. [4]

Contents

History

The idea to start OpenSesame came to the founders Don Spear, Joshua Blank, Aaron Bridges and Tom Turnbull in 2011. [5] They founded the company on the idea to aggregate fragmented elearning content from reputable publishers and resources including FranklinCovey, Cegos and Wiley through a Learning Management System (LMS). [6] [7] [8] They worked on creating an ecommerce platform where any seller can add courses for sale and any buyer can purchase courses for use in their company's learning and development program. [9] They went through the Portland State University Business Accelerator and after conducting a few pilot trials, OpenSesame received seed funding of $2 million from Harmony Investments in October 2011. [10] [11] The company soon gained some major clients including satellite TV giant Dish Network, SilkRoad Technology, Five Guys Burgers and Fries. In January 2014 the company raised another round of Series A funding of $10 million led by Partech Ventures to create a corporate content delivery platform modeled after iTunes. [12] [13] [14] The marketplace allows the seller to set the price of the content, with a share in the profits for distributing through OpenSesame's marketplace. On July 22, 2014, OpenSesame was granted US Patent Number US 8784113 B2 for their “Open and Interactive e-Learning System and Method.” [15] [16]

Development

Since 2011, the OpenSesame development team has been focusing on the content and the development of features in line with the businesses' needs. The main concern of the company is not to build up a large number of new features on its marketplace, but to concentrate upon a few elaborated tools that can integrate with the various LMS’. [17] [18]

Use

OpenSesame is used in continuing professional development for employees and professionals via courses obtained online. Its platform allows companies to buy courses created by industry experts instead of having to create their own. [19] It allows businesses to search for courses offered by its sellers, they can preview the content, read reviews and know about the content seller. [20] [21] [22]

Accessibility

OpenSesame is the first marketplace to comply completely with the accessibility specifications of Sharable Content Object Reference Model. [23] [24] The content is also designed for adaptability to any of several teaching and learning scenarios with a variety of authoring tools compatible to any learning management system and custom business tools.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Authorware</span>

Adobe Authorware was an elearning authoring tool with its own interpreted, flowchart-based, graphical programming language. Authorware was used for creating interactive elearning programs that could integrate a range of multimedia content, particularly electronic educational technology applications. The flowchart model differentiated Authorware from other authoring tools, such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Director, which rely on a visual stage, time-line and script structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Forest</span> Nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies near Portland, USA

Silicon Forest is a Washington County cluster of high-tech companies located in the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. The term most frequently refers to the industrial corridor between Beaverton and Hillsboro in northwest Oregon. The high-technology industry accounted for 19 percent of Oregon's economy in 2005, and the Silicon Forest name has been applied to the industry throughout the state in such places as Corvallis, Bend, and White City. Nevertheless, the name refers primarily to the Portland metropolitan area, where about 1,500 high-tech firms were located as of 2006.

Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other online learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

A learning management system (LMS) or virtual learning environment (VLE) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. Learning management systems make up the largest segment of the learning system market. The first introduction of the LMS was in the late 1990s. LMSs have been adopted by almost all higher education institutions in the English-speaking world. Learning management systems have faced a massive growth in usage due to the emphasis on remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Trends</span> Tech news, lifestyle, and information website

Digital Trends is a Portland, Oregon-based tech news, lifestyle, and information website that publishes news, reviews, guides, how-to articles, descriptive videos and podcasts about technology and consumer electronics products. With offices in Portland, Oregon, New York City, Chicago, and other locations, Digital Trends is operated by Digital Trends Media Group, a media company that also publishes Digital Trends Español, focusing on Spanish speakers worldwide, and a men's lifestyle site The Manual.

ILIAS is an open-source web-based learning management system (LMS). It supports learning content management and tools for collaboration, communication, evaluation and assessment. The software is published under the GNU General Public License and can be run on any server that supports PHP and MySQL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wix.com</span> Israeli software company

Wix.com Ltd. or simply “Wix” is an Israeli software company, publicly listed in the US, that provides cloud-based web development services. It offers tools for creating HTML5 websites and mobile sites using online drag-and-drop editing. Along with its headquarters and other offices in Israel, Wix also has offices in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, Ukraine, and Singapore.

eFront (eLearning software) ELearning software

eFront is an eLearning platform (also known as a Course Management System, or Learning Management Systems, or Virtual Learning Environment ). eFront has historically been coming in a number of editions, from an open-source edition to the latest eFrontPro edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udemy</span> American online learning platform

Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company, founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States, with hubs in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; İstanbul, Turkey, and Gurgaon, India.

The Experience API (xAPI) is an e-learning software specification that records and tracks various types of learning experiences for learning systems. Learning experiences are recorded in a Learning Record Store (LRS), which can exist within traditional learning management systems (LMSs) or on their own.

Simple was an American neobank based in Portland, Oregon. It was recognized as the first neobank and operated between 2009 and 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Act-On</span> American software company

Act-On Software is a software-as-a-service product for marketing automation. The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and was founded in 2008, originally retailing its software exclusively through Cisco, which provided $2 million in funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enli Health Intelligence</span>

Enli Health Intelligence was a privately held software company based in Beaverton, Oregon, and previously in Hillsboro, Oregon. Founded in 2001 as Kryptiq Corporation, the company specialized in electronic medical records and secure communications between physicians and patients. The 125-employee company was purchased by Surescripts in 2012, which was a previous investor in the company. Annual revenues at the time of the sale were approximately $25 million. In January 2015, the company announced that it was splitting from Surescripts and becoming independent again. Later in 2015, it was renamed Enli Health Intelligence. In 2021, it was acquired by Cedar Gate Technologies, which discontinued use of the Enli name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Incubator Experiment</span> Business incubator in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Portland Incubator Experiment, often abbreviated as PIE or PIE PDX or stylized as Pie, is a business incubator based in Portland, Oregon that provides mentorship and resources to select startup companies. Co-founded by Renny Gleeson and Rick Turoczy, PIE is run by the Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K). The program was informally launched in 2009 before converting to a formal structure in 2011. PIE participants are chosen by a selection committee, following an application process. Startups receive seed money and spend three months developing their businesses with support from W+K and participating mentors. Companies that have provided financial assistance and mentorship include The Coca-Cola Company, Google, Intel, Nike, Inc. and Target Corporation.

Treehouse or (Teamtreehouse) is an online technology school that offers beginner to advanced courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development. Its courses are aimed at beginners looking to learn computer coding skills for a career in the tech industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sol Republic</span> American audio manufacturer

Sol Republic, Inc. was an American privately held audio manufacturer based in Michigan. Founded in 2011 by Scott Hix, Seth Combs, and Kevin Lee, it was sold to HoMedics in late 2015 or early 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Venture Fund</span> Venture capital fund

Oregon Venture Fund makes venture investments in the Portland, Oregon area and throughout Oregon and SW Washington. The fund consists of 180 institutional and angel investors, of whom 85% have run or founded a business. The fund evaluates up to 300 business plans per year, selecting five to seven to invest in annually. In 2018, the fund changed its name from Oregon Angel Fund to Oregon Venture Fund and launched a new $30M fund. Since its inception, Oregon Venture Fund has generated an average annual rate of return of 34% and a return on investment exceeding $3.50 for each dollar invested.

StudySoup is a digital learning marketplace allowing purchase and sale of academic content including course notes, study guides, and tutoring services.

Responsive is a privately owned developer of cloud-based software that automates and streamlines the process of responding to a request for proposal (RFP) based in Beaverton, Oregon. The company also maintains an office in Coimbatore, India. Founded in 2015, the company has expanded rapidly and now has more than 150,000 users worldwide after tripling its user base in 2019 and sustaining growth during the global pandemic. Responsive software has supported more than $20 billion in RFP responses.

inDinero is an accounting software and services company providing accounting and financial software. Founded in 2009 by Jess Mah, Andy Su, and Andrea Barrica, inDinero graduated the startup incubator, Y Combinator in 2010. On May 8, 2018, inDinero acquired San Jose-based firm tempCFO. On February 1, 2019, inDinero acquired a second company, mAccounting, an Indianapolis-based accounting and tax firm.

References

  1. ↑ "OpenSesame™ Unlocks an Open Marketplace for e-Learning at DevLearn 2010". Learning Solutions Magazine. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "OpenSesame: Making Magic for Online Training Courses". Portland State University. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Manon Garnier (20 January 2014). "OpenSesame ambitionne de devenir la plus grande plateforme de elearning pour les entreprises". L’Atelier BNP Paribas. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Mike Rogoway (10 July 2014). "OpenSesame, out on its own, works to upgrade 'e-learning'". Oregon Live. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Andy Giegerich (7 February 2013). "Meet the 40: OpenSesame's Josh Blank VIDEO". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "SilkRoad Partners with OpenSesame to Deliver Personalized eLearning Solution". SilkRoad. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Kim Oates (27 October 2010). "Portland-Based Technology Company BlueTech, LLC Expands". Bluevolt. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  8. ↑ "Off the shelf courses". E-Learning India. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Mike Rogoway (10 July 2014). "OpenSesame, out on its own, works to upgrade 'e-learning'". Oregon Live. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  10. ↑ Rick Turoczy (12 September 2011). "OpenSesame unlocks $2 million in funding". silicon Florist. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  11. ↑ "OpenSesame Raises $2M in Funding". FinSMEs. 14 October 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  12. ↑ Mike Rogoway (13 January 2014). "OpenSesame, Portland e-learning startup, raises $8 million". Oregon Live. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Rip Empson (14 Jan 2014). "OpenSesame Lands $8M To Become The iTunes Of Corporate Training Content". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Malia Spencer (12 January 2014). "OpenSesame's $8M will fuel employee growth in Portland". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  15. ↑ US 8784113,Bridges, Aaron H.; Day, Jason S.& Blank, Joshua D.,"Open and interactive e-learning system and method",published Jul 22, 2014
  16. ↑ Rick Turoczy (2 May 2013). "Oregon Technology Awards names Cloudability "Startup of the Year"". Silicon Florist. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Company Overview of OpenSesame Inc". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  18. ↑ Melissa Massello. "Companies Where Millennials Thrive: OpenSesame". Bentley University. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  19. ↑ Mike Rogoway (14 February 2013). "Portland's tech renaissance is great for software developers, not so for those looking to hire". Oregon Live. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  20. ↑ "OpenSesame announces Training Jam in Portland, Oregon April 22–24". Morning Star. 10 March 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  21. ↑ Malia Spencer (30 October 2014). "Why this startup takes a chance on inexperience". Portland Business Journal. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  22. ↑ Lorri Freifeld. "ONLINE VS. IN-CLASS SUCCESS". Training magazine. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  23. ↑ "OpenSesame Connects Enterprise Learners to Millions of Videos". PRWeb. 3 February 2011. Archived from the original on February 7, 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  24. ↑ "About SCORM Modules". Litmos. 31 January 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.