Corporate Education and Training
PR Newswire | August 25, 2023
Based on nationwide research, the majority of high school graduates face a lack of preparedness in making crucial college or career decisions upon graduation, often feeling uncertain about their chosen educational or career paths. • Nearly 75% of high school graduates did not feel fully prepared to decide on their future career or education during high school. • 37% of high school graduates are not sure they are where they want to be in their education or career path
Moreover, the strain on counselors and teachers–due to heavy workloads and limited resources–exacerbates the issue by creating gaps in essential discussions about postsecondary opportunities. There is an acute need for solutions that bridge this gap, and help students who are struggling to transition from high school to college, trade school, and career.
YouScience® is the leading technology provider dedicated to solving the skills gap crisis for students and employers. Thousands of middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities, trade schools, chambers of commerce, and employer partners use various applications from YouScience. The award-winning education technology company recently launched YouScience Brightpath, which supports educators in addressing critical issues facing students in one unified platform.
With Brightpath, educators can:
1. Personalize students' education pathways for increased academic and career success.
2. Provide deeper purpose for classwork by supporting real-world career outcomes into every student's educational journey.
3. Connect students to their future by bridging the gap between education and industry in meaningful and personalized ways.
4. Support every student's growth through the major transitions between middle school to high school, high school to post-secondary learning, and from the classroom to careers.
"Brightpath has been an incredible tool to measure student growth in the classroom," said Joel Casiday, from Coldspring-Oakhurst High School in Coldspring, Texas. "Our teachers can give their pre-assessment at the beginning of the year and then the certification exam for the course at the end of the year. The student receives real-time certifications and the teacher has valuable data that shows student growth and instructional impact. With the launch of the career research tools and all the full Brightpath suite offers, our students will be poised for success after graduation."
YouScience Brightpath makes it easier for educators to help students connect what they are learning in the classroom to real-world applications. This includes career and technical education (CTE) programs, skill certifications and credentials, and resume creation.
"Having a comprehensive platform that helps us connect what students are learning in the classroom with real-world career opportunities turns education into a tangible experience," said Thalea Longhurst, State CTE Director for the Utah State Board of Education. "Local employers also like YouScience Brightpath because they can engage with students, who have the aptitudes and certifications they need, to start building a talent pipeline. It opens doors and opportunities for all Utah students to have a successful future—whether that's 4-year college, trade school, or jumping into a career."
Research shows that helping students discover their aptitudes, and building personalized high school and postsecondary pathways, enables student success. In 2022, nearly 80% of high school graduates reported feeling better prepared to choose their educational and/or career pathway based on understanding their natural aptitudes.
"Unleashing student potential is at the heart of what we do," said YouScience CEO Edson Barton. "To do that we must empower educators with the best professional tools. Brightpath makes it easier to collaborate across schools and districts, between middle and high schools, and from grade to grade. Brightpath is designed for today's professional educator. Speed, ease of use, scalability, and systems simplicity is top of mind."
About YouScience
YouScience is the leading technology provider dedicated to solving the skills gap crisis for students and employers. Its end-to-end platform, YouScience® Brightpath, connects education with career applications designed to help students unlock their potential for future pathways. YouScience leverages proven research, artificial intelligence, and industry input to help individuals identify their natural talents, validate their skills and knowledge, and get matched with real-world educational and career pathways in high-demand occupations. YouScience is the preferred choice of individuals, parents, educators, and counselors to guide and support educational and career pathways, currently serving more than 7,000 educational institutions and nearly one million users.
Read More
Education Technology
PRnewswire | July 18, 2023
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, today announced its future of incorporating generative AI capabilities into its ecosystem of EdTech solutions in collaboration with Microsoft.
By using Microsoft's advanced AI technologies with Anthology's purpose-built suite of higher education solutions, Anthology is bringing forth new capabilities to help institutions personalize learning journeys, improve efficiencies and operations, and bolster recruitment and enrollment programs.
Anthology selected Microsoft as its AI solution partner because of Microsoft's vision and leadership in cloud AI developer services, long-standing relationship, and shared commitment to responsible AI by design.
Leveraging the power of AI across its solution suite is a key differentiator for Anthology and core to its mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Microsoft to drive the next wave of innovation in education and open a world of possibilities for the global education community," said JD White, Chief Product Officer at Anthology. "While other vendors might be looking at AI within a point solution, Anthology is assessing the power of generative AI technology across our vast stack of EdTech solutions. By thoughtfully integrating AI into our ecosystem, we can harness its power to foster innovation.
The collaboration with Microsoft ensures these solutions are scalable, secure, and seamlessly integrated into existing educational ecosystems, making them easily accessible to institutions worldwide."
"We're excited about our collaboration with Anthology to power new AI solutions for education with a shared commitment to responsible use," said Serena Sacks-Mandel, Global Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft Education. "Anthology is a proven partner that has consistently demonstrated innovation and is aligned to our mission of empowering education through technology."
Anthology's collaboration with Microsoft represents a significant step forward in delivering state-of-the-art AI capabilities tailored to the unique needs of higher education institutions. By integrating Microsoft's AI features into Anthology's purpose-built higher education solutions, institutions can unlock new opportunities for personalized student engagement, advanced data analytics, and streamlined administrative processes. For example, using Microsoft's Natural Language Processing capabilities, institutions can gain deeper insights from unstructured data sources, such as student feedback, surveys, and communications, empowering administrators to make data-informed decisions to improve student success and satisfaction.
Anthology unveiled new real-world applications of AI capabilities today at Anthology Together within its Blackboard Learn learning management system that are using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, including:
• A course-builder aide for instructors that create draft modules, titles, descriptions, etc. The integration of Azure OpenAI Service will enable instructors to streamline content creation processes, saving valuable time and effort.
• Content-based test generation. AI-powered algorithms analyze a document's content and quickly generate a diverse set of questions. This allows educators to allocate more time to other important tasks, such as lesson planning and individual student support.
• Rubric creation. Rubric creation powered by AI streamlines the rubric creation process and ensures consistency and fairness in evaluating student performance.
Educators will have the ability to customize and fine-tune these AI-generated rubrics according to specific learning objectives and assessment criteria, providing a balance between automation and instructor expertise.
These features are built following Anthology's commitment to responsible AI use, ensuring that human judgment and ethical considerations always guide AI-facilitated decision-making and to use AI as a tool to enable positive outcomes while respecting privacy, fairness, and transparency. Learn more about Anthology's approach to ethical and responsible AI use.
Anthology uses Azure for cloud services and the Microsoft Power Platform for business intelligence solutions. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the foundation of its customer relationship management (CRM), Anthology® Reach, and Finance and Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions, which will allow Anthology to use Dynamics 365 Copilot features to accelerate innovation. Anthology also harnesses the power of Microsoft 365's collaboration and productivity tools within many products, including its learning management system (LMS), Blackboard® Learn.
Microsoft awarded Anthology the Microsoft Business Applications Inner Circle award in 2022/2023 and 2021/2022. The award recognizes Outstanding Achievements in EdTech and Anthology's rank in the echelon of Microsoft's Business Applications global network of partners.
About Anthology
Anthology offers the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale for education, supporting more than 150 million users in 80 countries. With a mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™, we help learners, leaders and educators achieve their goals by offering over 60 SaaS products and services designed to advance learning.
Read More
Corporate Learning Systems
PRnewswire | August 04, 2023
edX, a leading global online learning platform from 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), today announced the launch of a new Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp in partnership with leading universities nationwide. The intensive online program is designed for learners with little to no prior technical training who want to rapidly build the skills needed for an entry-level technical role requiring AI skills.
Classes will begin in fall 2023, with Michigan State University, University of Denver, The Ohio State University College of Engineering, and Southern Methodist University welcoming their first cohorts in September, and Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Utah, and University of North Carolina at Charlotte welcoming their first cohorts in November.
The part-time, 24-week boot camp program will educate early- to mid-career professionals in practical and technical skills across data science, machine learning, and AI. Informed by real-time industry needs, the program curriculum covers marketable technologies and foundational concepts including Python, unsupervised and supervised machine learning, transformers, natural language processing, AI applications, time series forecasting, and AI and data ethics. The Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp with edX is guided by seasoned industry practitioners with the support of on-demand tutors and is designed to ensure graduates emerge with the dynamic, in-demand skills to succeed in today's rapidly changing tech landscape.
"Every individual, irrespective of their profession or trade, stands to benefit from a fundamental understanding of AI–it is now a requisite literacy in our times," said Anant Agarwal, Founder of edX, Chief Platform Officer at 2U, and former director of CSAIL, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. "The Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp with edX will help equip more people with the AI knowledge and skills necessary to augment their capabilities and ensure they're harnessing the myriad opportunities unfolding in this fascinating and rapidly shifting technology."
edX recently commissioned a survey of technical hiring managers and learners from across the U.S. It found that while hiring managers surveyed expect close to half (42%) of all job candidates hired in the next five years will need AI skills, they believe less than 20% currently have these skills. The survey also revealed strong demand for AI training, with 82% of learners surveyed saying they've researched AI-related higher education programs in the last six months. At the same time, there has been a surge in interest in AI-related programs on edX, as evidenced by an 80% increase in searches for 'artificial intelligence' on the platform in the first six months of 2023.
"We have leveraged the edX platform through our partnership with 2U in developing innovative and affordable educational programs that serve the evolving needs of learners and employers," said Michael J. Robertson, Assistant Provost for Global, Online & Continuing Education at SMU. "By broadening our partnership to include the Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp, we're helping equip individuals in Dallas and beyond with the tools to navigate and shape this new era of AI innovation while creating meaningful and rewarding careers pathways."
edX and its partners continue to invest in high-quality, cutting-edge AI content. In addition to the Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp program, learners can access a dozen Machine Learning and AI MicroBootCamps™ and five ChatGPT open courses available on edX.org. The open courses, which are free to audit, include Prompt Engineering Advanced ChatGPT, and ChatGPT for education, business, healthcare, and tech/coding/data.
The Artificial Intelligence Boot Camp adds to edX's portfolio of boot camp programs in coding, data science, cybersecurity, UX/UI, and fintech. As one of the world's largest developers of technology talent, edX has supported more than 70,000 boot camp graduates globally with the skills, knowledge, and career resources to achieve their goals. According to a 2U-Gallup survey, boot camp graduates surveyed reported being nearly four times happier with their jobs after graduation from the boot camp, and over 86% reported achieving a positive outcome.
About edX
edX is the global online learning platform that fuels the world's ambition. edX was developed in 2012 by Harvard and MIT to make the world's best education available to everyone. Today, as a part of 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), edX connects over 76 million people with online learning to meet every professional moment. Together with top-ranked universities and organizations at the forefront of their fields, edX offers thousands of job-relevant programs across nearly every career discipline, from artificial intelligence and robotics to sustainability and public health. Find online courses, certificates, boot camps, and degrees that fuel your ambition at edX.org.
Read More