Post Merger Boundless Will Continue to Offer Open Content

Last week Valore announced the acquisition of Boundless, a digital publisher of open content.

Some open content advocates worried that the news signaled an end of a commitment to open education resources (OER). In a letter to open content advocates, Ariel Diaz said, “We’re continuing our core strategy including our open license for our existing content and future content. We believe the open license is a key part of building a community, and the strategy is working, as we now reach well over 4 million people every month.

Diaz noted the features of the Boundless platform:

• Easy to use educator tools: auto-graded assignments, easy customization of textbooks, etc.
• Powerful self-publishing tools (collaboration, version tracking, etc.) – we believe this can be great for all sorts of open educational publishing, with the author retaining control (approval, authorship, etc.)
• Institutional offerings (Canvas integration, bulk license)
• Student offerings: study tools, supplemental content, etc.
• Content infrastructure: flexible content API, easy integration to various products, flexible export (PDF, ePub, etc.)

Valore operates the online textbook marketplace ValoreBooks, in addition to SimpleTuition, a private student loan comparison engine. Valor and Boundless reach over 15 million students and claim to be on track to do over $100MM in revenue in 2015.

Diaz will take on the role of Chief Digital Officer, in addition to continuing to lead Boundless.