Modern Campus acquires continuing-education provider Augusoft
The higher education technology company Modern Campus on Wednesday announced its acquisition of the enrollment software provider Augusoft, the firm’s fifth acquisition within the past 12 months.
Augusoft’s online registration software, Lumens, is designed to manage students enrolled in continuing and professional education. Modern Campus offers a competing student management system for non-traditional enrollment called Destiny One. As colleges and universities continue to look to expand online learning, certificate and workforce development offerings to combat dropping enrollment, both companies offer solutions designed for students seeking credentials outside of degrees, like certificates or badges.
Augusoft claims more than eight million students in North America have signed up for classes using Lumens since it was launched in 2000.
The acquisition is in line with Modern Campus’ strategy of focusing on products that improve digital student service at higher education institutions and is the second acquisition announced so far in 2022. Modern Campus last week announced it acquired Signal Vine, a company that offers personalized text-messaging for higher education and nonprofit organizations.
Following a run of acquisitions in the first half of 2021, Modern Campus CEO Brian Kibby told EdScoop that higher education institutions could improve their professional and continuing education prospects by offering high quality digital services. If a student has a positive experience the first time around, he said, they’ll be more likely to consider their alma mater when it comes time to go back to school.
The Augusoft announcement comes one week after the National Student Clearinghouse released data showing that although overall enrollment continues to slide, institutions are seeing more first-time enrollment from students over the age of 24 and in undergraduate programs outside of associates and bachelor’s degrees, such as certificates and unstructured programs.
“The world and technology is changing so rapidly, so this upskilling is here to stay forever,” Kibby told EdScoop last summer. “I don’t see that ever ending, so we’ll continue to adapt to it. The pain points today aren’t going to be the pain points necessarily tomorrow, but there will be pain points. So we will continue to focus on how do we solve complex problems.”
Modern Campus, which was formed through a merger of two edtech firms last year, serves nearly 2,000 higher education institutions.
