About the Company
oursello is an education technology company on a mission to make high-quality courses accessible to all students. Founded by a former principal and leaders from LearnZillion and eBay, Coursello provides schools and districts with online courses that combine the flexibility of asynchronous learning (learning that can happen at anytime) with the power of synchronous, small-group learning (learning that happens live at a scheduled time via videoconference). Coursello’s first set of courses will be dual-enrollment, enabling students to earn college credit while still in high school. Eric Westendorf, the company’s CEO and a former principal, conceived of Coursello after he left LearnZillion, the digital curriculum company he co-founded and sold to Weld North Education in 2019. Eric saw that school districts’ appetite for online courses was expanding. In the past districts used online courses at the margins – to help students recover credit or to address unique student needs. But districts were starting to use online courses to address mainstream challenges – teacher shortages and the need for more course options. Covid-19 accelerated this trend. But existing online courses were not designed for this use case – they were isolating and more focused on compliance than engagement. Eric saw a need for a new type of online course – one that combined the flexibility of asynchronous learning with the power of synchronous, small group learning.