ApprenNet is a Philadelphia-based educational technology startup company founded in 2011 by Emily Foote and

Drexel University School of Law The Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law (previously the "Earle Mack School of Law") is the law school of Drexel University located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The School of Law opened in the fall of 2006 and was the first ne ...

Professor Karl Okamoto. The company provides apprenticeship-like job experiences online. AppreNet's first release was LawMeets, an online experience similar to a

moot court Moot court is a co-curricular activity at many law schools. Participants take part in simulated court or arbitration proceedings, usually involving drafting memorials or memoranda and participating in oral argument. In most countries, the phrase " ...

competition. With LawMeets, students enact their response to a legal problem, and can not only then review their own performance, but also receive feedback, including critiques by experts. According to the '' Journal of the American Bar Association'', LawMeets "quickly ecamea very big deal." ApprenNet next added K12Meets, a program enabling teachers to practice their classroom techniques, and created a training program for employees at a Philadelphia restaurant. In 2013, ApprenNet was one of five startup companies selected to participate in the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

's Education Design Studio Inc. (EDSi), an innovation incubator dedicated to funding and launching education technology companies.

Grants

In 2012, the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

awarded Okamoto a $500,000 grant to expand LawMeets' approach to learning in other disciplines. Okamoto told an interviewer that ApprenNet technology could be applied to many fields, not only training teachers and restaurant employees, but even musical training. "We'll take care of law first," said Okamoto, "and then use it in lots of different places. Why can't we crowdsource violin?" By 2015, after ApprenNet hired

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one of the oldest busin ...

graduate

Rachel Jacobs Rachel Jacobs (October 3, 1975 – May 12, 2015) was an American businesswoman and social entrepreneur. She was killed at age 39 in the 2015 Philadelphia train derailment while commuting between her home in New York and the Philadelphia offices o ...

as CEO, the start-up had received more than a million dollars in Small Business Innovation Research grants. Jacobs was hired to lead ApprenNet in an expansion from its original focus on educating lawyers to applying its online teaching technology in training health care professionals, college level instructors, and K-12 teachers.

Merger

Following Jacobs's death in May 2015, ApprenNet merged with Handsfree Learning of California. In June 2016, ApprenNet changed its name to Practice and announced a $4 million Series A fundraising round.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ApprenNet Educational technology companies of the United States Privately held companies of the United States Companies based in Philadelphia