Aplia

Aplia Inc. is an educational technology company founded in 2000 by Stanford University professor Paul Romer that offers online homework products geared toward college-level courses. In March 2007 Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning) acquired Aplia Inc. Aplia was based in Belmont, California until March 2014, when it relocated to Cengage Learning's new Mission Bay, San Francisco office.

History

In 1998, Romer created an online experiment system for use in his economics courses at Stanford University so his students would come to class better prepared and become more engaged with the course material. After other professors expressed interest in his approach, Romer decided to turn this system into the basis for a new company. He raised $10 million in venture capital to start Aplia, an online learning system. Since 2000, it has been used by over 4,300 professors, 1,200,000 students, at 1,300 colleges and universities worldwide. .

Product

Aplia’s basic product includes online homework assignments that professors can assign to students in accounting, business communication, business law, developmental reading, economics, finance, marketing, philosophy, statistics, and taxation. While the basic premise behind each course is the same, course materials vary; in many cases, Aplia problem sets are designed to complement specific textbook from a variety of the leading publishers.