Corporate training in the 1990s usually meant flying employees to a hotel ballroom. Centra offered a virtual classroom instead. An instructor could speak, show slides and take questions from people sitting at their own desks. When Centra filed to go public in early 2000, e-learning was a hot category. Live teaching over ordinary internet connections still felt almost like science fiction.

Slides Over Slow Lines

Leon Navickas founded Centra near Boston in 1995. He bet that live, interactive learning could work over the internet if the software handled voice, slides and participation well on slow connections. Companies spent large sums flying people to training. Centra argued it could cut those costs and reach more employees, more often, wherever they were. Most of its customers were big companies with staff spread across many offices.

Folded Into Saba

Centra priced at $14 a share in February 2000. It kept building its virtual classroom and meeting tools through the downturn. It also faced growing competition from web conferencing firms with simpler products. In 2006 the learning software company Saba bought Centra in a deal worth about $60 million. Years later, live online classes became an everyday part of work and school.

Cover: A Lecture!, Hablot Knight Browne. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lecture in progress (the classroom, moved online).