Aplia Announces Revenue & Usage Results
San Carlos, Calif., Oct. 21, 2003 – Aplia Inc., a new-generation educational publisher, today announced statistics showing dramatic growth of the company, including increases in revenue, usage and conversion rates.
The company now has more than 24,000 students at 400 institutions using Aplia’s educational materials—a 50 percent increase over last semester. Aplia has also experienced a fourfold increase in revenue in the same time period. Additionally, the company’s conversion rates are high, with 88 percent of professors who have used Aplia’s materials in their classes opting to use them in their classes again.
Aplia continues expanding its relationships with professors and instructors at higher education institutions from a large array of well-known universities, colleges and community colleges nationwide, including: Georgetown University, University of Chicago, University of Arizona, Michigan State University, San Jose State University, Foothill Community College, Sacramento State University, University of Missouri – Columbia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, United States Air Force Academy, Virginia Institute of Technology, Indiana University, De Anza Community College, Auburn University, Oregon State University, and California State University – Fullerton, among hundreds of others.
“We are tremendously excited about Aplia’s growth and are encouraged that so many professors and instructors share our vision of how to use technology to teach economics,” said Paul Romer, who founded Aplia after creating and using similar technology in his own economics classes at Stanford University. “We look forward to continued growth as we expand our product lines. This is a very effective model that will play well in all disciplines.”
Aplia’s Offerings
Aplia’s web-based, state-of-the-art tools and materials are currently available for economics classes, including Principles of Macroeconomics, Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics and Money and Banking. The products provide customizable content and tools that professors can use in their existing course websites or in new websites built in the Aplia environment. Professors are able to browse Aplia’s rich library of high-quality content, then select, tailor, and assign specific items to meet their course needs.
Through Aplia, professors can assign frequent problem sets and online activities that automatically give feedback and are tracked and graded, all without requiring additional time from the professor. By giving students an incentive to exert more effort and prepare before class, Aplia’s tools let the professor use scarce class time more effectively.
Many professors using the materials indicate that their students are indeed learning more effectively and are coming to class ready to delve into discussions of the key economic issues.
San Jose State University in California recently began a department-wide implementation of Aplia this semester based in large part on the success its professors experienced in previous terms.
“I have used Aplia with nine classes so far and find it excellent,” said Ed Stringham, assistant professor of economics at San Jose State. ”I get students to learn more and it does not require a lot of additional effort on my part. It is a way to improve the class without a lot of time. I have had my best students and my worst students say that they like it; it meets many different students’ needs.
“We had done much of our own research into multimedia uses in education, and when I saw Aplia, I said, ‘This is what we were trying to build,’” said Lydia Ortega, economics department chair at San Jose State University. “It was too complicated to build it ourselves, and this was so pedagogically sound that it was the way to go. Using Aplia allows for better conversations in the classroom and the freedom to move lectures away from the traditional chalk-and-talk delivery mode. Classroom instruction gains a comparative advantage in discussion-based teaching.”
About Aplia Inc.
Aplia Inc. is a new-generation, educational publishing company focused on providing learning tools that encourage more effort by students and save time for professors. Through its comprehensive offerings and innovative way of thinking about and applying technology to the challenges of teaching and learning, the company is poised to transform the classroom experience. Aplia’s current products support the college-level courses Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics and Money and Banking. The company, which was founded in 2000 by leading economist Paul Romer, already has more than 400 schools and 65,000 students using its products. For more information, please visit www.aplia.com.
CONTACTS:
Erika Powelson for Aplia, Inc.
831-424-1811
erika@powelsoncommunications.com
Sally Elliott
Aplia, Inc. CEO
650-592-5100
selliott@aplia.com
