While online teaching is gaining devotees through options such as massive open online courses, Raleigh startup Coursefork is trying to one-up MOOCs with its own online education model.
Coursefork’s software platform delivers online courses. But it also allows users to modify them, improve them. Through this process of changing courses, which Coursfork calls “forking,” users become more engaged with the content which in turn improves the education process. The company’s slogan is “Better education through collaboration.”
Coursefork, which was part of The Startup Factory’s fourth graduating class, launched the alpha version of its offering in late September and now the company has more than 1,000 users. That launch followed a seed round from angel investor in August. While the company did not disclose the total raised, ExitEvent reported the total as $375,000.
Coursefork’s offering is still in alpha mode but Pardees Safizadeh, the company’s head of marketing,tells WRALTechWire the company is moving a complete beta version in early 2014. She added that the alpha users have been crucial to developing the product to into what it is now.
Coursefork said it will be raising money again in 2014.
“We’re actually flying out to Mountain View (California) next week for an interview with 500 startups but are not raising at this time,” Safizadeh said in an e-mail.
Coursefork currently employs five, a headcount that will soon grow to six. Safizadeh said the new hiring was made possible by the seed round of funding.
