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5 Major Benefits of Blended Learning

Modern classrooms are slowly taking a new approach to imparting wisdom and knowledge to the upcoming generation. Traditional classroom teaching techniques are giving way to a new system of blended learning. Teachers who are embracing this new classroom style are easily reaping the benefits of having their old methods enhanced with the use of new technology. Overall, it's the students who will benefit from this unique method of academia.

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Continuing Education

What makes learners successful in online learning?

Article | November 15, 2022

Many factors can influence academic success and your strategies won’t differ too much from face-to-face studies to online learning. But who wouldn’t want some tips to ensure that they are successful in their online learning studies? So, with that in mind, here are some factors that impact your online learning success. Internal factors These are the factors that come from your head and your heart, which you can control if you pay attention to them: Active, timely participation in the course. Lecturers were interviewed in a study and asked what was likely to predict a student’s successful completion of an online course. By far the most common answer was that “the most successful online students participate early, participate often, and allow enough time in their schedule to ensure effective completion of all aspects of the course.” (Mandernach, Donnelli and Dailey-hebert, 2006). This means you need to manage your time and get involved by asking lots of questions early on. Personal initiative and motivation. Although motivation is essential in all aspects of studying, online learning requires a lot more independent effort because of the physical distance between educators and peers. This means to study online you should examine your commitment to the course or programme and make sure you remember “why” you started. Digital literacy. The ability and confidence to navigate technology will mean that you have more time to spend on the actual course content, rather than spending all your time learning how to use the new tech. If you are not comfortable in this arena, spend some time doing a digital literacy course. Reading, writing, and comprehension skills. Being able to read and write with comprehension will set you up for success. The necessity to explain what you have learned is essential in all learning spaces, in the online space however, this extends to the discussion forums and emails to your lecturer. Being clear and succinct will mean you get the help you need quickly.

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Education Technology

21 Fastest-Growing Edtech Startups (2021)

Article | July 20, 2022

This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space. Overall, VC funding in the edtech space grew by 94% last year, reaching $13 billion. Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention. (And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.) But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond. Without further ado, let's dive into the list. Teachoo 5-year search growth: 7500% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: Pune, India Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math. Outschool 5-year search growth: 6300% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $240.2M (Series D) What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class and a total of 140,000 classes. Outschool now has a valuation of $3 billion and teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform. Preply 5-year search growth: 3200% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2012 Location: Brookline, Massachusetts Funding: $50.6M (Series B) What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a "structured learning" option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform. Labster 5-year search growth: 575% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2011 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Funding: $103.5M (Series C) What they do: Labster hosts several "virtual labs" for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients. Cambly 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: Undisclosed (Series B) What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English. Lessonly 5-year search growth: -4% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Funding: $29.1M (Series C) What they do: Lessonly is software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it's a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they'll face in the real world. Embrace 5-year search growth: 1900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 1999 Location: Highland, Illinois Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator's time when creating lesson plans and documenting results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods. GoPractice 5-year search growth: 0% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2013 Location: Simpsonville, South Carolina Funding: Undisclosed What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn't offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. GoPractice includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics. BetterUp 5-year search growth: 600% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $569.8M (Series E) What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform. The company is currently valued at $4.7 billion and has raised $600 million. CuriosityStream 5-year search growth: 273% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Silver Spring, Maryland Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity) What they do: CuriosityStream is "Netflix for educational content", like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream's advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku. In Q3 2021, CuriosityStream posted $18.7 million in revenue and grew their direct subscriber count by 50% over the past year. Udemy 5-year search growth: 223% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2009 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $311.4M (Secondary Market) What they do: Udemy is a platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a "Udemy for Business" plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses. Lingoda 5-year search growth: 900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $79.1M (Private Equity) What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers. GoStudent 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2016 Location: Vienna, Austria Funding: $345.4M (Series C) What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students. In November 2021, GoStudent became the highest valued K through 12 education technology platform in Europe with a valuation of $1.6 billion. Brainly 5-year search growth: 2000% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2009 Location: Kraków, Poland Funding: $148.5M (Series D) What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later. Cuemath 5-year search growth: 300% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2013 Location: Bengaluru, India Funding: $64.5M (Series C) What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class. Quizizz 5-year search growth: 1328% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Bangalore, India Funding: $47M (Series B) What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance. Photomath 5-year search growth: 470% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: San Mateo, CA Funding: $29M (Series B) What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone's camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play. Mursion 5-year search growth: -38% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2014 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $35.1M (Series B) What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing "emotional quotient" (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more. SplashLearn 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2010 Location: Gurugram, India Funding: $25M (Series C) What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts. RangeForce 5-year search growth: 700% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2015 Location: Manassas, VA Funding: $18M (Series A) What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup's product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team's performance with reporting features. CoachHub 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2018 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $133M (Series B) What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network. Conclusion That completes this list of 21 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2021. What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.

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Education Technology, Continuing Education

International Students Face Challenges Studying Abroad Amid COVID-19

Article | August 8, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unique challenges for colleges and universities, and finding ways for international students to return to school amid travel bans or other pandemic-related restrictions will be one of the most complex. Many international students finished the previous semester via remote connection after colleges and universities encouraged students to return home in March, but doing so hasn’t been simple. Students living in alternate time zones from their professors are forced to stay awake all night to complete online seminars, and some are contending with a poor internet connection as well as social isolation. There will be additional challenges for students abroad who hope to return to school in the fall, from travel restrictions to securing visas with closed consulate offices.

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Education Technology

How K–12 Schools Can Use Artificial Intelligence in Education

Article | December 9, 2021

What role will artificial intelligence play in the future of education? For educators, AI can feel like an exciting development — or a terrifying unknown. AI technology is advancing quickly and creating solutions once thought impossible. It’s widely available in various technologies and, in many places, already being integrated into the classroom. The pandemic spurred the development of educational technology out of necessity, including the development of AI. Suddenly, educators needed ways to obtain more information virtually. “We were starting to work on AI during the pandemic, but it sped up because there was a huge demand for it. All these things were happening online, and teachers were saying. I don’t know what’s happening in my classroom anymore." - Mike Tholfsen, principal group product manager at Microsoft Education With educators busier than ever, Tholfsen says, the greatest benefit AI can offer them is time. AI programs can gather data teachers would traditionally have to gather themselves manually. What Is Artificial Intelligence? Trying to define artificial intelligence is a bit like asking about the meaning of life: You will get a slightly different answer from everyone. At its core, AI is an area of computer science addressing the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. Michelle Zimmerman, a classroom teacher, researcher and school leader at Renton Prep Christian School in Washington state and author of the book Teaching AI: Exploring New Frontiers for Learning, notes that psychologists and neurologists in the field don’t even agree on what counts as human intelligence. The definition also changes over time. Not too long ago, simple calculators were considered AI, while the term now is associated with a variety of innovative technologies, such as those that power content filtering and endpoint security. Artificial Intelligence vs. Machine Learning: What’s the Difference? Though not all AI involves machine learning, it is a popular subcategory of the technology. Machine learning refers to machines that process vast amounts of data and also have the capacity to get better at it the more they “learn,” Zimmerman says. “You can train models with machine learning to improve things. An example is speech-to-text technology,” Tholfsen says. “Machine learning needs a lot of data to train it to look for patterns and understand what it is looking for. The more data, the more refined or accurate the results. The results, though, are only as good as the data included,” Zimmerman says. How Can AI Be Used in K–12 Education? AI is already playing a role in many classrooms and has promising benefits that can be integrated now and in the future. Intelligent tutors What if an AI program could play the role of a teacher or coach, leading students through lessons and even motivating them? Nancye Black, founder of the Block Uncarved and project lead for ISTE’s AI Explorations program, says AI can support learners in a variety of ways. As a Columbia University researcher, she’s exploring how avatar interactions impact students. “There is some really promising research around the use of AI agents supporting girls and students of color, who are able to — in a lower-risk situation — ask for help and have social learning, even when they are learning independently,” Black says. Reading workshops If educators could host reading workshops around the classroom with each individual student, they would. Instead, AI-powered products such as Microsoft’s Immersive Reader can help educators focus on improving education for the 1 in 7 learners who have a disability, Tholfsen says. The product uses text decoding solutions to individualize instruction. "Machine learning needs a lot of data to train it to look for patterns and understand what it is looking for. The more data, the more refined or accurate the results.” - Michelle Zimmerman Classroom Teacher, Researcher and School Leader, Renton Prep Christian School Translation capabilities Translation technology is improving quickly, and these tools include more dialects and language nuances every day. A teacher in New York, for example, used AI technology to host a virtual parent night for families who speak multiple different languages, Tholfsen says. Microsoft Translate allows the teacher to generate a code, which broadcasts to everyone connecting to the stream. It translates the speaker’s language into listeners’ languages without the necessity of a human interpreter. “Listeners can type or speak back in their languages, and it cross-translates, so when you type back in Spanish, it goes to me in English, translates to Mike in Italian, and to the person speaking Arabic or Chinese,” Tholfsen says. “It’s like the Star Trek universal translator.” Low-vision accessibility Accessibility checkers are helping educators increase access for low-vision students. “We use AI and computer vision to identify what is in an image and generate a caption,” Tholfsen says. “It’s a massive timesaver to do auto-captioning on images, so people are much more likely to make their content accessible.” The implementation of AI tools won’t replace educators but will instead help them save time. The tech can be customized to fit any classroom, putting educators in control of the AI tools — not the other way around.

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Continuing Education

3 Ways to Monitor Student Progress in Class with Classroom Management

Article | November 15, 2022

Many factors can influence academic success and your strategies won’t differ too much from face-to-face studies to online learning. But who wouldn’t want some tips to ensure that they are successful in their online learning studies? So, with that in mind, here are some factors that impact your online learning success. Internal factors These are the factors that come from your head and your heart, which you can control if you pay attention to them: Active, timely participation in the course. Lecturers were interviewed in a study and asked what was likely to predict a student’s successful completion of an online course. By far the most common answer was that “the most successful online students participate early, participate often, and allow enough time in their schedule to ensure effective completion of all aspects of the course.” (Mandernach, Donnelli and Dailey-hebert, 2006). This means you need to manage your time and get involved by asking lots of questions early on. Personal initiative and motivation. Although motivation is essential in all aspects of studying, online learning requires a lot more independent effort because of the physical distance between educators and peers. This means to study online you should examine your commitment to the course or programme and make sure you remember “why” you started. Digital literacy. The ability and confidence to navigate technology will mean that you have more time to spend on the actual course content, rather than spending all your time learning how to use the new tech. If you are not comfortable in this arena, spend some time doing a digital literacy course. Reading, writing, and comprehension skills. Being able to read and write with comprehension will set you up for success. The necessity to explain what you have learned is essential in all learning spaces, in the online space however, this extends to the discussion forums and emails to your lecturer. Being clear and succinct will mean you get the help you need quickly.

Read More
Education Technology

6 Technology Trends That Redefine Data Analytics in Higher Ed

Article | July 20, 2022

This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space. Overall, VC funding in the edtech space grew by 94% last year, reaching $13 billion. Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention. (And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.) But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond. Without further ado, let's dive into the list. Teachoo 5-year search growth: 7500% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: Pune, India Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math. Outschool 5-year search growth: 6300% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $240.2M (Series D) What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class and a total of 140,000 classes. Outschool now has a valuation of $3 billion and teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform. Preply 5-year search growth: 3200% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2012 Location: Brookline, Massachusetts Funding: $50.6M (Series B) What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a "structured learning" option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform. Labster 5-year search growth: 575% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2011 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Funding: $103.5M (Series C) What they do: Labster hosts several "virtual labs" for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients. Cambly 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: Undisclosed (Series B) What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English. Lessonly 5-year search growth: -4% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2012 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Funding: $29.1M (Series C) What they do: Lessonly is software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it's a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they'll face in the real world. Embrace 5-year search growth: 1900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 1999 Location: Highland, Illinois Funding: Undisclosed What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator's time when creating lesson plans and documenting results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods. GoPractice 5-year search growth: 0% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2013 Location: Simpsonville, South Carolina Funding: Undisclosed What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn't offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. GoPractice includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics. BetterUp 5-year search growth: 600% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $569.8M (Series E) What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform. The company is currently valued at $4.7 billion and has raised $600 million. CuriosityStream 5-year search growth: 273% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Silver Spring, Maryland Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity) What they do: CuriosityStream is "Netflix for educational content", like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream's advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku. In Q3 2021, CuriosityStream posted $18.7 million in revenue and grew their direct subscriber count by 50% over the past year. Udemy 5-year search growth: 223% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2009 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $311.4M (Secondary Market) What they do: Udemy is a platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a "Udemy for Business" plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses. Lingoda 5-year search growth: 900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2013 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $79.1M (Private Equity) What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers. GoStudent 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2016 Location: Vienna, Austria Funding: $345.4M (Series C) What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students. In November 2021, GoStudent became the highest valued K through 12 education technology platform in Europe with a valuation of $1.6 billion. Brainly 5-year search growth: 2000% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2009 Location: Kraków, Poland Funding: $148.5M (Series D) What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later. Cuemath 5-year search growth: 300% Search growth status: Exploding Year founded: 2013 Location: Bengaluru, India Funding: $64.5M (Series C) What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class. Quizizz 5-year search growth: 1328% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2015 Location: Bangalore, India Funding: $47M (Series B) What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance. Photomath 5-year search growth: 470% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2014 Location: San Mateo, CA Funding: $29M (Series B) What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone's camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play. Mursion 5-year search growth: -38% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2014 Location: San Francisco, CA Funding: $35.1M (Series B) What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing "emotional quotient" (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more. SplashLearn 5-year search growth: 4900% Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2010 Location: Gurugram, India Funding: $25M (Series C) What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts. RangeForce 5-year search growth: 700% Search growth status: Peaked Year founded: 2015 Location: Manassas, VA Funding: $18M (Series A) What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup's product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team's performance with reporting features. CoachHub 5-year search growth: 99X+ Search growth status: Regular Year founded: 2018 Location: Berlin, Germany Funding: $133M (Series B) What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network. Conclusion That completes this list of 21 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2021. What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.

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Education Technology, Continuing Education

3 Ways K-12 Can Benefit from Classroom Management Software

Article | August 8, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic is presenting unique challenges for colleges and universities, and finding ways for international students to return to school amid travel bans or other pandemic-related restrictions will be one of the most complex. Many international students finished the previous semester via remote connection after colleges and universities encouraged students to return home in March, but doing so hasn’t been simple. Students living in alternate time zones from their professors are forced to stay awake all night to complete online seminars, and some are contending with a poor internet connection as well as social isolation. There will be additional challenges for students abroad who hope to return to school in the fall, from travel restrictions to securing visas with closed consulate offices.

Read More
Education Technology

How K–12 Schools Can Use Artificial Intelligence in Education

Article | December 9, 2021

What role will artificial intelligence play in the future of education? For educators, AI can feel like an exciting development — or a terrifying unknown. AI technology is advancing quickly and creating solutions once thought impossible. It’s widely available in various technologies and, in many places, already being integrated into the classroom. The pandemic spurred the development of educational technology out of necessity, including the development of AI. Suddenly, educators needed ways to obtain more information virtually. “We were starting to work on AI during the pandemic, but it sped up because there was a huge demand for it. All these things were happening online, and teachers were saying. I don’t know what’s happening in my classroom anymore." - Mike Tholfsen, principal group product manager at Microsoft Education With educators busier than ever, Tholfsen says, the greatest benefit AI can offer them is time. AI programs can gather data teachers would traditionally have to gather themselves manually. What Is Artificial Intelligence? Trying to define artificial intelligence is a bit like asking about the meaning of life: You will get a slightly different answer from everyone. At its core, AI is an area of computer science addressing the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers. Michelle Zimmerman, a classroom teacher, researcher and school leader at Renton Prep Christian School in Washington state and author of the book Teaching AI: Exploring New Frontiers for Learning, notes that psychologists and neurologists in the field don’t even agree on what counts as human intelligence. The definition also changes over time. Not too long ago, simple calculators were considered AI, while the term now is associated with a variety of innovative technologies, such as those that power content filtering and endpoint security. Artificial Intelligence vs. Machine Learning: What’s the Difference? Though not all AI involves machine learning, it is a popular subcategory of the technology. Machine learning refers to machines that process vast amounts of data and also have the capacity to get better at it the more they “learn,” Zimmerman says. “You can train models with machine learning to improve things. An example is speech-to-text technology,” Tholfsen says. “Machine learning needs a lot of data to train it to look for patterns and understand what it is looking for. The more data, the more refined or accurate the results. The results, though, are only as good as the data included,” Zimmerman says. How Can AI Be Used in K–12 Education? AI is already playing a role in many classrooms and has promising benefits that can be integrated now and in the future. Intelligent tutors What if an AI program could play the role of a teacher or coach, leading students through lessons and even motivating them? Nancye Black, founder of the Block Uncarved and project lead for ISTE’s AI Explorations program, says AI can support learners in a variety of ways. As a Columbia University researcher, she’s exploring how avatar interactions impact students. “There is some really promising research around the use of AI agents supporting girls and students of color, who are able to — in a lower-risk situation — ask for help and have social learning, even when they are learning independently,” Black says. Reading workshops If educators could host reading workshops around the classroom with each individual student, they would. Instead, AI-powered products such as Microsoft’s Immersive Reader can help educators focus on improving education for the 1 in 7 learners who have a disability, Tholfsen says. The product uses text decoding solutions to individualize instruction. "Machine learning needs a lot of data to train it to look for patterns and understand what it is looking for. The more data, the more refined or accurate the results.” - Michelle Zimmerman Classroom Teacher, Researcher and School Leader, Renton Prep Christian School Translation capabilities Translation technology is improving quickly, and these tools include more dialects and language nuances every day. A teacher in New York, for example, used AI technology to host a virtual parent night for families who speak multiple different languages, Tholfsen says. Microsoft Translate allows the teacher to generate a code, which broadcasts to everyone connecting to the stream. It translates the speaker’s language into listeners’ languages without the necessity of a human interpreter. “Listeners can type or speak back in their languages, and it cross-translates, so when you type back in Spanish, it goes to me in English, translates to Mike in Italian, and to the person speaking Arabic or Chinese,” Tholfsen says. “It’s like the Star Trek universal translator.” Low-vision accessibility Accessibility checkers are helping educators increase access for low-vision students. “We use AI and computer vision to identify what is in an image and generate a caption,” Tholfsen says. “It’s a massive timesaver to do auto-captioning on images, so people are much more likely to make their content accessible.” The implementation of AI tools won’t replace educators but will instead help them save time. The tech can be customized to fit any classroom, putting educators in control of the AI tools — not the other way around.

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Online Education

Parkway School District Optimizes Blended Learning Environments with PowerSchool Solutions

PowerSchool | January 15, 2022

PowerSchool, the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education, today announced that Parkway School District in Chesterfield, Missouri, utilizes PowerSchool solutions to create optimal learning environments for students. Through their partnership, Parkway Schools sees benefits from PowerSchool’s Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool solutions to support district-wide teacher collaboration and student career preparation efforts, respectively. “As a long-time Unified Classroom Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool user, both solutions have played an instrumental role in improving our in-person, distanced and hybrid learning environments,” said Bill Bass, Innovation Coordinator - Instructional Technology, Information, Library Media, and Federal Programs, Parkway School District. “Thanks to PowerSchool's dedication to interoperability and teaching and learning, we have been able to transform our work and foster more meaningful learning experiences for our students and staff. PowerSchool continues to serve as a trusted partner and resource for our district, and I look forward to working with them for years to come.” Parkway Schools cited PowerSchool’s Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning as an instrumental solution that has helped the district foster improved learning environments over the years, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With the district’s ongoing usage of Schoology prior to school shutdowns, the district was prepared to shift from in-person to virtual classrooms in a timely and efficient manner, creating a seamless virtual (and now blended) learning environment for students and staff. Additionally, the district said Schoology’s Assessment Management Platform (AMP) enables educators to collaborate with one another to create improved question-based assessments for students. Prior to partnering with PowerSchool, the district used various learning management systems and realized the need for a comprehensive platform to manage student assessments, district curriculum, e-learning efforts and digital content. Since integrating Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning, Parkway School District has seen improvements related to personalized student instruction, teacher collaboration and student performance. The district has also used Naviance by PowerSchool, providing students self-discovery tools that help them uncover their strengths and interests to make informed decisions about their futures. “Parkway School District’s use of our Unified Classroom Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool solutions truly shows the expanded capabilities educators can have by partnering with PowerSchool. We’re proud to see the continued impact our solutions make for Parkway Schools’ educators and look forward to empowering these changemakers for years to come.” Craig Greenseid, PowerSchool Chief Revenue Officer Parkway School District is a diverse, suburban school district located in Chesterfield, Missouri. The district serves over 17,000 students across 29 campuses within the St. Louis County community. Since its founding, Parkway Schools has received several accolades within the broader St. Louis community, including a designation as a Top Workplace by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Business Health Culture Award from the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition, among others. About PowerSchool PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 45 million students globally and more than 13,000 customers, including over 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries.

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Skillsoft launches Skillsoft Aspire to address shortfall in data expertise

Skillsoft | January 24, 2019

Leading corporate learning company Skillsoft, with APAC operations headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, has unveiled a new range of learning journeys designed to upskill technologists and developers as the global shortage of data expertise continues The rapid growth of data-driven business operations has led to a shortfall in skilled staff for key technology roles at a host of companies around the world. Skillsoft Aspire, designed with this gap in availability and demand of skilled data workers, will enable firms to broaden the skillsets of their staff to meet demands in data analysis, security, programming and machine learning. In its press statement, Skillsoft said that Aspire will provide the tutelage, guidance, and credentials that could vastly increase the opportunities for data analysts to progress to data scientists, as one of many potential examples. “There are certain functions, tasks and activities that a person does in their current role and there are other tasks that are part of an aspirational role,” said Mike Hendrickson, Vice President of Technology and Developer Products at Skillsoft, said in the press release. “For instance, you can't promote a Data Analyst to Data Scientist just because they have been in an organisation for a long time.

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Fosway Group Recognizes Skillsoft as a Core Leader for the Third Consecutive Year in the 2019 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning

Skillsoft | February 05, 2019

Skillsoft, a global leader in corporate learning, announced today that Fosway Group has recognized Skillsoft as a Core Leader for the third year in a row in the 2019 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning. Skillsoft’s solidified position as a Core Leader is attributed to its continued innovation across its broad and deep multi-modal learning content portfolio. Throughout 2018, Skillsoft launched new and/or enhanced Compliance, Leadership and Technology and Developer solutions available on Percipio, Skillsoft’s intelligent learning experience platform. Percipio Compliance: Percipio Compliance is a new solution that delivers Skillsoft’s comprehensive compliance training comprised of 500+ critical risk topics in 32 languages on Percipio. The solution provides one of the most extensive global libraries of legal coverage, ethics training and workplace safety training available with robust functionality and a modern UX that delivers an engaging user experience while addressing complex regulatory needs. Centralizing an organization’s entire learning program on one platform allows learners to use Percipio to take required compliance training and access Skillsoft’s proprietary content, the customer’s own content as well as third-party content to build critical skills and competencies. Skillsoft Leadership Development Program: The Skillsoft Leadership Development Program (SLDP) features an innovative, scalable and cost-effective course series aimed at accelerating leadership learning at all levels. Courses average 45-60 minutes of high-definition, video-based instruction, each comprised of 5-8-minute single-concept segments to support micro-learning across today’s critical leadership competencies for the digital economy. A unique learning design and scenario-based pedagogy based on brain science research set SLDP apart in the market. Skillsoft’s approach leverages a common set of characters throughout the curriculum, including a “leader mentor.” Through compelling drama and pragmatic storytelling, Skillsoft models the critical human-interaction elements of leadership and demonstrates effective implementation strategies within the team context, allowing learners to tie learning to on-the-job behaviors.

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Online Education

Parkway School District Optimizes Blended Learning Environments with PowerSchool Solutions

PowerSchool | January 15, 2022

PowerSchool, the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education, today announced that Parkway School District in Chesterfield, Missouri, utilizes PowerSchool solutions to create optimal learning environments for students. Through their partnership, Parkway Schools sees benefits from PowerSchool’s Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool solutions to support district-wide teacher collaboration and student career preparation efforts, respectively. “As a long-time Unified Classroom Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool user, both solutions have played an instrumental role in improving our in-person, distanced and hybrid learning environments,” said Bill Bass, Innovation Coordinator - Instructional Technology, Information, Library Media, and Federal Programs, Parkway School District. “Thanks to PowerSchool's dedication to interoperability and teaching and learning, we have been able to transform our work and foster more meaningful learning experiences for our students and staff. PowerSchool continues to serve as a trusted partner and resource for our district, and I look forward to working with them for years to come.” Parkway Schools cited PowerSchool’s Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning as an instrumental solution that has helped the district foster improved learning environments over the years, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With the district’s ongoing usage of Schoology prior to school shutdowns, the district was prepared to shift from in-person to virtual classrooms in a timely and efficient manner, creating a seamless virtual (and now blended) learning environment for students and staff. Additionally, the district said Schoology’s Assessment Management Platform (AMP) enables educators to collaborate with one another to create improved question-based assessments for students. Prior to partnering with PowerSchool, the district used various learning management systems and realized the need for a comprehensive platform to manage student assessments, district curriculum, e-learning efforts and digital content. Since integrating Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning, Parkway School District has seen improvements related to personalized student instruction, teacher collaboration and student performance. The district has also used Naviance by PowerSchool, providing students self-discovery tools that help them uncover their strengths and interests to make informed decisions about their futures. “Parkway School District’s use of our Unified Classroom Schoology Learning and Naviance by PowerSchool solutions truly shows the expanded capabilities educators can have by partnering with PowerSchool. We’re proud to see the continued impact our solutions make for Parkway Schools’ educators and look forward to empowering these changemakers for years to come.” Craig Greenseid, PowerSchool Chief Revenue Officer Parkway School District is a diverse, suburban school district located in Chesterfield, Missouri. The district serves over 17,000 students across 29 campuses within the St. Louis County community. Since its founding, Parkway Schools has received several accolades within the broader St. Louis community, including a designation as a Top Workplace by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Business Health Culture Award from the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition, among others. About PowerSchool PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 45 million students globally and more than 13,000 customers, including over 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in over 90 countries.

Read More

Skillsoft launches Skillsoft Aspire to address shortfall in data expertise

Skillsoft | January 24, 2019

Leading corporate learning company Skillsoft, with APAC operations headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, has unveiled a new range of learning journeys designed to upskill technologists and developers as the global shortage of data expertise continues The rapid growth of data-driven business operations has led to a shortfall in skilled staff for key technology roles at a host of companies around the world. Skillsoft Aspire, designed with this gap in availability and demand of skilled data workers, will enable firms to broaden the skillsets of their staff to meet demands in data analysis, security, programming and machine learning. In its press statement, Skillsoft said that Aspire will provide the tutelage, guidance, and credentials that could vastly increase the opportunities for data analysts to progress to data scientists, as one of many potential examples. “There are certain functions, tasks and activities that a person does in their current role and there are other tasks that are part of an aspirational role,” said Mike Hendrickson, Vice President of Technology and Developer Products at Skillsoft, said in the press release. “For instance, you can't promote a Data Analyst to Data Scientist just because they have been in an organisation for a long time.

Read More

Fosway Group Recognizes Skillsoft as a Core Leader for the Third Consecutive Year in the 2019 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning

Skillsoft | February 05, 2019

Skillsoft, a global leader in corporate learning, announced today that Fosway Group has recognized Skillsoft as a Core Leader for the third year in a row in the 2019 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning. Skillsoft’s solidified position as a Core Leader is attributed to its continued innovation across its broad and deep multi-modal learning content portfolio. Throughout 2018, Skillsoft launched new and/or enhanced Compliance, Leadership and Technology and Developer solutions available on Percipio, Skillsoft’s intelligent learning experience platform. Percipio Compliance: Percipio Compliance is a new solution that delivers Skillsoft’s comprehensive compliance training comprised of 500+ critical risk topics in 32 languages on Percipio. The solution provides one of the most extensive global libraries of legal coverage, ethics training and workplace safety training available with robust functionality and a modern UX that delivers an engaging user experience while addressing complex regulatory needs. Centralizing an organization’s entire learning program on one platform allows learners to use Percipio to take required compliance training and access Skillsoft’s proprietary content, the customer’s own content as well as third-party content to build critical skills and competencies. Skillsoft Leadership Development Program: The Skillsoft Leadership Development Program (SLDP) features an innovative, scalable and cost-effective course series aimed at accelerating leadership learning at all levels. Courses average 45-60 minutes of high-definition, video-based instruction, each comprised of 5-8-minute single-concept segments to support micro-learning across today’s critical leadership competencies for the digital economy. A unique learning design and scenario-based pedagogy based on brain science research set SLDP apart in the market. Skillsoft’s approach leverages a common set of characters throughout the curriculum, including a “leader mentor.” Through compelling drama and pragmatic storytelling, Skillsoft models the critical human-interaction elements of leadership and demonstrates effective implementation strategies within the team context, allowing learners to tie learning to on-the-job behaviors.

Read More

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