Lumen Learning

Higher Education Coursewarelumenlearning.com

Lumen Learning is a Portland-based higher education courseware company providing open educational resources and faculty professional development for colleges and universities, with deep LTI 1.3 integrations into major LMS platforms.

Company typePrivate
Founded2013
HeadquartersPortland, United States
Headcount1–10
GTM typeB2B
OfferingSoftware

What Lumen Learning does

Lumen Learning is a privately-held higher education courseware company founded in 2013 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company develops open educational resource (OER) courseware for colleges, universities, and community colleges, with a focus on gateway courses that have historically high failure rates. Its product portfolio includes Lumen One (a comprehensive courseware platform built on learning science principles for equitable outcomes), the Online Homework Manager (OHM, a quantitative assessment platform with thousands of interactive questions and Desmos calculator integration), Waymaker (personalized learning courseware for humanities, business, and social sciences), Candela (a course-building platform), and Lumen Circles (a faculty professional development program delivered through virtual learning communities).

The underlying technology is a cloud-based courseware platform with Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) 1.3 integration supporting Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle. The platform supports grade passback, single sign-on, deep linking, and Names and Role Provisioning Services. The company employs continuous change delivery via automated testing and deployment. Content is co-developed with academic partners including The Dana Center at UT Austin (statistics) and aligned with the American Psychological Association's Introductory Psychology Initiative. The company holds trademarks on Lumen Learning, Candela, Waymaker, and OHM, and distributes content under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licensing.

Lumen Learning monetizes primarily through institutional courseware subscriptions (annual licensing for Lumen One, Waymaker, and OHM) and a per-seat faculty development offering (Lumen Circles fellowships at $750 per fellowship). Go-to-market combines a product-led growth motion (public course catalog, self-service exploration, LMS-embedded discovery) with enterprise field sales (Request a Demo). The company has raised approximately $11.25M across disclosed equity rounds (2015 seed, 2017 and 2018 rounds led by Follett Corporation and Alliance of Angels) plus a 2022 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Endorsed customers include Salt Lake Community College, the University of Mississippi, and the State University of New York (SUNY) system.

Lumen Learning firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Lumen Learning
Legal name: Lumen Learning
Website: https://lumenlearning.com
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2013
Operating status: Operating
Headcount range: 1–10 employees
Short description: Lumen Learning is a Portland-based higher education courseware company providing open educational resources and faculty professional development for colleges and universities, with deep LTI 1.3 integrations into major LMS platforms.
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Lumen Learning industry classification

Industry

Product category: Higher Education Courseware
NAICS: Educational Support Services (611710), Professional and Management Development Training (61143)
SIC: Services-Educational Services (8200)
akta.pro primary industry: Higher Education Digital Courseware & Modules (EDAGAEAB)
akta.pro secondary industries: Educational Digital Courseware & Learning Platforms (LMS-Integrated) (MPAJABAH), LMS Integrations, Interoperability & Identity (LTI/SCORM/xAPI, SSO, APIs) (EDAFAAAI), Higher Education Course Design & Online Program Development (EDAGAKAB)

Keywords

Open educational resources
Higher education courseware
Online homework management
Faculty professional development
Learning management system integration

Where Lumen Learning is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: Portland
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

Lumen Learning business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Software
Cost components: Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

Courseware Subscription: Institutions pay for access to Lumen One, Waymaker, and OHM courseware platforms, typically through annual licensing agreements for faculty and student access.
Professional Development (Lumen Circles): Faculty fellowship programs at $750 per fellowship covering 9-week virtual community of practice experiences.

Pricing tiers

Model	Billing	Price
Subscription	Multi-year contract	Lumen Circles Fellowship - 9-week virtual professional development experience

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Lumen Learning product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Lumen Learning provides cloud-based open educational resources (OER) courseware and faculty professional development for higher education institutions. Its products include Lumen One (gateway course courseware), OHM (online homework for math/quantitative courses), Waymaker (business, humanities, and social sciences courseware), Candela (course building platform), and Lumen Circles (faculty fellowship programs). All products integrate with major LMS platforms via LTI 1.3 to deliver assessments, grade passback, learning analytics, and ready-to-teach course content.

Product overview

Lumen Learning is a higher education courseware and teaching tools company offering a portfolio of integrated products: Lumen One (comprehensive courseware for gateway courses), OHM (Online Homework Manager for math/quantitative courses), Waymaker (courseware for humanities/business/social sciences), Candela (course building platform), and Lumen Circles (faculty professional development). Products integrate with major LMS platforms via LTI and support features including assessments, gradebook, video library, and Desmos calculator. Course content is available through a course catalog covering subjects like statistics, psychology, business, and quantitative reasoning.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

Lumen One: Courseware backed by learning science, developed to promote equitable outcomes in gateway courses
Lumen Online Homework Manager (OHM)
Waymaker
Candela
Lumen Circles

Products and services

Lumen One Comprehensive courseware platform combining the best features across Lumen courseware, developed to promote equitable outcomes in gateway college courses and backed by learning science principles. It is sold to higher education institutions seeking ready-to-teach, OER-based content for high-failure introductory courses.
Online Homework Manager (OHM) Online homework management system designed by educators for math and quantitative courses. It draws from thousands of interactive assessment questions to help students master math and quantitative skills, and includes assessments, gradebook, video library, and Desmos calculator integration. It is sold to higher education institutions teaching introductory and quantitative courses.
Waymaker Courseware for business, humanities, and social sciences courses. It uses high-touch personalized learning tools to strengthen student metacognition and automated messaging to better support faculty and improve student success. It is sold to higher education institutions seeking ready-to-teach content for introductory non-STEM courses.
Lumen Circles Faculty professional development program that uses virtual learning communities to connect faculty members with peers and help them develop expertise as student-centered teachers. Fellowships are 9-week virtual experiences priced at $750 per fellowship and include a Fellowship Certificate in Effective Teaching Practice. It is sold to individual faculty members and academic administrators.
Candela Course platform for building and delivering online courses, supporting equations, formulas, content embedding, assessments, and LMS integration with Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle. It is sold to higher education institutions and faculty building or customizing OER-based online courses.

Companies that use Lumen Learning

Customer profile

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Lumen Learning technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: No
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature8 records

Lumen Learning partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

The Dana Center at UT AustincoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLumen Learning partnered with The Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin to develop the Introductory Statistics course. The Dana Center contributes expertise in mathematics education and learning science to create courses focused on helping students see the importance and relevance of statistics in everyday life.
American Psychological Association (APA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLumen Learning's Introductory Psychology course aligns with the APA Introductory Psychology Initiative's student learning outcomes and integrative themes, ensuring research-based curriculum design.
Canvas (Instructure)coreTechnology or IntegrationDeep LTI 1.3 integration enabling seamless single sign-on, grade passback, and course synchronization between Lumen OHM and Canvas LMS.
BlackboardcoreTechnology or IntegrationCartridge and LTI integration for Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Ultra platforms, enabling course import and grade return functionality.
Brightspace (D2L)coreTechnology or IntegrationIMS Common Cartridge integration with Brightspace/D2L platform for course content delivery and assessment management.
MoodlecoreTechnology or IntegrationLTI and cartridge integration with Moodle for seamless course deployment and grade synchronization.
State University of New York (SUNY)majorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerDedicated support and integration resources for SUNY system's use of Lumen platforms with Brightspace, including custom documentation and training materials.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights5 records

Lumen Learning competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Direct peers

OpenStax: Rice University-affiliated OER textbook publisher for higher education gateway courses. Directly comparable to Lumen's open courseware model and shares the same affordability-driven adoption thesis, though OpenStax focuses on raw textbook content while Lumen adds the assessment and LMS-integrated platform layer.
Top Hat: Higher-education courseware and classroom engagement platform with interactive textbooks and assessment tools. Directly comparable to Lumen's mission of replacing expensive textbooks with digital courseware, though Top Hat emphasizes active-learning classroom tools over OER.
XanEdu: Custom and OER textbook publisher for higher education, including affordable digital course materials. Comparable to Lumen's OER mission and institutional sales motion, particularly in custom course content for gateway subjects.
Akademos: Online bookstore and course materials platform specializing in OER and affordable textbook programs for colleges. Directly comparable to Lumen's institutional OER adoption motion, though Akademos focuses on materials distribution rather than courseware delivery.

Broad incumbents

Cengage Group: Major higher-education publisher and courseware provider with Cengage Unlimited and OER-inclusive offerings. Competes with Lumen for the same institutional courseware budget, but at significantly larger scale and with traditional publisher content depth.
Pearson Education: Global education publisher with extensive higher-ed courseware and digital platforms (e.g., MyLab). Overlaps with Lumen's courseware and assessment offering, but at much larger scale and with traditional publisher pricing models.
McGraw-Hill Education: Higher-education publisher with adaptive learning platforms (Connect, ALEKS) directly competing in math and quantitative assessment. Comparable subject-matter focus to Lumen OHM but at significantly larger scale and with proprietary rather than open content.
VitalSource Technologies: Digital content delivery and e-textbook platform used across higher education, providing infrastructure for course materials access. Comparable in serving the LMS-integrated digital textbook layer that Lumen also occupies, but as a broader distribution and access platform.
Instructure (Canvas): Maker of the Canvas LMS and a core Lumen integration partner. Comparable as the platform on which Lumen delivers courseware; potential competitor if Instructure vertically integrates into OER courseware offerings.
D2L (Brightspace): Maker of the Brightspace LMS and another core Lumen integration partner. Comparable as the LMS platform that hosts Lumen courseware; risk of vertical integration into courseware offerings, similar to Instructure.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Lumen Learning compliance and trust

Trust signal

Compliance1 record

Lumen Learning financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Lumen Learning leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Lumen Learning funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Lumen Learning M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lumen Learning

What does Lumen Learning do?

Is Lumen Learning a public or private company?

Lumen Learning is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.

When was Lumen Learning founded?

Lumen Learning was founded in 2013. It employs 1 to 10 people.

Where is Lumen Learning based?

Lumen Learning is headquartered in Portland, United States, in the North America region.

How does Lumen Learning make money?

Two revenue lines are on record. Courseware Subscription is the primary driver. The others are professional Development (Lumen Circles).

Who are Lumen Learning's main competitors?

Direct peers on record are OpenStax, Top Hat, XanEdu and Akademos. Broad incumbents are Cengage Group, Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill Education, VitalSource Technologies, Instructure (Canvas) and D2L (Brightspace).

Does Lumen Learning have an API?

No public API is recorded for Lumen Learning.

What industry is Lumen Learning in?

Lumen Learning's product category is Higher Education Courseware. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAGAEAB, Higher Education Digital Courseware & Modules, with a secondary code of MPAJABAH, Educational Digital Courseware & Learning Platforms (LMS-Integrated). Its NAICS code is 611710 and its SIC code is 8200.