Online education and cloud computing collide in T.O. startup

Grazed from Globe and Mail.  Author:  Iain Marlow.

Every once in a while, industries collide and create immense opportunity. It happened a few years ago with smartphones, when increasingly more powerful computing was enhanced by the explosive growth of the wireless industry.

Dennis Kavelman has seen these collisions firsthand. He joined Research In Motion when it had only 20 employees, and he helped it become a global smartphone giant, 15,000 people strong. As COO at yet another fast-growing tech company, he may be about to see it again. Desire2Learn Inc., Kavelman says, is staring into a “perfect storm” of two industries converging: cloud computing and the enormous technological revolution taking place in the education sector. “We have a really hot market, at a time when it’s going to explode,” he says…

D2L has become one of the largest global providers of advanced software and mobile applications for the education industry. The Kitchener, Ontario-based company reaches about eight million people around the world every day with programs that allow students to submit assignments online, mobile applications that enable them to stream lectures, and tools that make it possible for teachers to return assignments with audio criticisms attached to the electronic file. This feedback from teachers is often faster and more useful for the student than a written comment…

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