IBM deal expands Watson's behind-the-scenes presence in higher education

The alliance is the latest by IBM in a bid to harness Watson's cognitive learning capabilities to benefit millions of college students and professors. The announcement follows a separate agreement announced at the end of June between IBM and Blackboard, and the roll out of an IBM Watson-enabled app for Apple earlier this month, among other initiatives. For Pearson, the alliance represents a chance to combine its global offering of digital learning products with IBM's cognitive learning platform in an effort to give students a more immersive learning experience with their college courses. And it promises to give instructors greater insights about how well students are navigating through their courses. To accomplish that, Watson will essentially ingest and analyze all of Pearson courseware.