Savvas Learning Company Acquires Dual Credit Online Course Provider Outlier.org

  • By Kristal Kuykendall
  • 02/27/24

Savvas Learning Company has acquired Outlier.org, an ed tech startup whose portfolio of online college-level courses enable high school students to earn dual credit without leaving their school campus, according to a news release.

Outlier.org “combines cinematic video and charismatic professors with the best in modern, evidence-based teaching techniques to virtually transport the student to a college lecture hall,” Savvas Learning said. Its diverse catalog includes courses in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, taught by instructors from NASA, MIT, Harvard, Yale, and other top-ranked institutions. 

“There’s a growing demand for dual-enrollment and dual-credit opportunities for high school students across the country,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. 

High school administrators considering such programs for students typically face challenges such as limited funding for on-campus dual-credit course offerings, transportation to other campuses that do offer them, and other logistical issues. Forsa said the acquisition will allow the company to offer dual-credit opportunities to “the millions of high school students served by Savvas.” 

Outlier’s platform also offers career and workforce training, including opportunities for students to earn credit-bearing professional certificates from leading technology companies like Google, Meta, and Salesforce, Savvas noted in its announcement. 

Outlier courses carry transferable college credits recognized at Outlier’s university partners, the University of Pittsburgh and Golden Gate University. The platform’s asynchronous 14- and 15-week (semester) and 39-week (full-year) general-education courses “offer high school students an introduction to the fundamental ideas typically taught on college campuses in STEM, humanities, economics, business, and other classes,” Savvas said, and each is designed to fit within a standard 45-minute period. Any high school teacher can support any course, aided by easy-to-use dashboards that provide faculty real-time visibility into student progress, the company said.

Learn more at https://www.savvas.com/.

About the Author

Kristal Kuykendall is editor, 1105 Media Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].


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