Dive Brief:
- Online education provider 2U is ending its effort to provide online courses from a consortium of residential colleges.
- The Semester Online consortium will end this summer, due to a mutual decision by 2U and the universities on the platform, Inside Higher Ed reported.
- 2U now turns its attention to developing fully online undergrad degree programs, announcing its first such program, in nursing, with Simmons College.
Dive Insight:
The move follows 2U's successful IPO on Friday, as it debuted on the Nasdaq under the symbol "TWOU" and closed up 7.5% at $13.98. Its fully online master’s degree programs have been well-received by grad school faculty members at partners like Georgetown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina. The Semester Online idea, however, had problems from the start, beginning with some of the founding universities dropping out before the first classes began last fall.