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Amazon teases new education platform
Thu, 17th Mar 2016
FYI, this story is more than a year old

eCommerce giant Amazon is setting its sights on the education market, according to new reports.

Earlier his month, Amazon quietly announced the Amazon Education Wait List, which encourages educators to sign up to be notified when the company's ‘revolutionary' platform is available for schools and classrooms.

"The future of education is open," reads the landing page for Amazon's new venture.

"Someday soon, educators everywhere will have free and unlimited access to first-class course materials from a revolutionary platform."

The e-learning market is massive, with research firm strategymrc estimating the market to be worth $244 billion globally by 2022, up from $165 billion in 2014.

There aren't many details about the platform beyond the landing page, but according TechCrunch, the platform is designed to let educators upload, manage and share materials with other educators.

TechCrunch says the platform will be free for schools, and believes the platform will be based around open educational resources (OER) and will come with a ratings system and interface that will resemble the commercial Amazon.com already in use by millions of people around the world.