EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Thought | August 08, 2021
Thought Industries, the world's #1 platform for customer learning management (CLM), today announced interactive video assessments from Bongo are now available through the Thought Industries CLM platform. The video assessments build on the platform's scalable education tools, offering experiential learning and soft skill development training within a real-world context to increase confidence and enhance learning outcomes for customers, partners and professionals.
The native Bongo integration reflects the growing demand for customer-centric learning technology to help businesses drive loyalty and revenue growth, and the need to assess skills and progress along the way. Users of the Thought Industries CLM platform can now practice, self-assess, or record and demonstrate competency to an accrediting body or community of peers for feedback and coaching using three modes of video learning:
Individual Assignment: Learners record or upload a video of themselves presenting on a topic or specific skill. Prior to submission, learners incorporate automated machine-driven feedback and insights into the delivery and content of their videos, providing an opportunity for self-assessment, improvement and continuous learning.
Innovate. Coach. Consult (ICC), a technology based, leadership development and outplacement solution firm with 225 offices in 28 countries, is a Thought Industries client taking advantage of the Bongo video assessment integration. The firm, which trains leadership in industries ranging from financial services and manufacturing to healthcare and oil and gas, is using the assessments for role-play scenarios and practice, as well as interview simulations.
"We're constantly searching for the best modalities to keep the learner engaged. The ability to have interactive videos and evaluated videos will be a true selling point for us," said Susan Ruhl, President and CFO of ICC. "Bongo will improve the learner experience through AI features such as filler words and grading against a transcription. The ability for the learner to quickly review their submission with feedback sets our solution apart from those who simply have the ability to record and submit."
"Customer learning can take many shapes and forms, but in the end, it's all about meeting customers where they are so they can get more out of their learning efforts. Increasingly, that means video, and Bongo's video assessments are yet another way for us to provide vital multimodal capabilities for exceptional learning experiences," said Todd Boes, chief product officer, Thought Industries. "Whether they're selecting blended, synchronous and asynchronous options, or employing interactive video assignments and assessments, customers now have another way to measure competency and subject matter understanding."
"Video assessments are a powerful way to measure learning outcomes, but they're only effective if organizations properly incorporate them into their customer learning efforts. Thought Industries provides the scalable learning platform that makes this possible," said Josh Kamrath, chief executive officer, Bongo. "From professional training companies to product companies, organizations of all kinds stand to benefit from enhanced learning experiences. Bongo's interactive video assessments, coupled with the Thought Industries customer learning platform, empower organizations to turn knowledge into action—and to track learner progress at every step."
About Bongo
Bongo is an embedded solution that drives meaningful assessment, experiential learning and skill development at scale through video-based engagement and personalized feedback. Organizations use our video workflows to create opportunities for practice, demonstration, analysis, and collaboration. When individuals show what they can do within a real-world learning environment, evaluators get an authentic representation of their competency.
About Thought Industries
Thought Industries provides the world's #1 software platform for customer learning management (CLM). CLM empowers businesses to create compelling learning experiences for customers, partners and professionals. These experiences help businesses grow revenue, increase customer loyalty, and ensure customer success across technology, manufacturing, healthcare and other industries with complex products and training requirements. Thought Industries was founded in 2014 around the core belief that online learning experiences should be modern, intuitive, engaging, and scalable. Headquartered in Boston, Thought Industries has offices across North America and Europe.
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CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS
EdCast | November 08, 2021
-Spark by EdCast and Zenefits today announced a platform integration and business collaboration that will provide small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) the ability to offer upskilling as a benefit to their employees. This will help staff train and retrain for changing jobs today and in the future, helping small businesses engage and retain their employees.According to Gartner, 64% of companies surveyed view the talent shortage as the most significant barrier to adoption of emerging technologies. For cash- and resource-strapped small businesses, this skills gap compounds the current challenges that are making it harder than ever to hire and retain staff.
This new learning experience and HR platform integration between Zenefits and EdCast’s Spark will enable small and mid-sized businesses to seamlessly create, access and manage their teams’ learning alongside all of their hiring, performance and benefits information. An entrepreneur can now identify and align requisite skilling areas needed for their staff to power business growth. They can also create training plans, track completion and success against performance plans at individual, group and company levels. Spark offers access to thousands of pieces of content from premium content providers across a wide spectrum of topics through expert-curated pathways, courses, videos, podcasts and more.
"Zenefits is excited to bring together our leading people operations platform with EdCast’s Spark learning experience platform to provide small businesses a unified place to attract, retain, engage—and now develop—talent,” said Andrea Shannon, Vice President of Business Development at Zenefits.
“Spark by EdCast is focused on helping SMBs achieve their rapidly-changing learning and training goals. In partnering with Zenefits, we are excited to provide an integrated solution for SMBs to help meet their talent development and HR needs, while maximizing employees’ skills and job satisfaction.”
Karl Mehta, CEO and Founder of EdCast
Spark by EdCast is the leading learning experience platform (LXP) for career-enhancing training and upskilling in the moment of need for SMBs and individual learners. The mobile-friendly Spark platform includes AI-driven personalized learning with a simple user experience featuring targeted access to training and upskilling both remotely and securely.
About EdCast
EdCast offers a unified SaaS platform powering end-to-end employee experience journeys, spanning learning, skilling and career mobility. Its award-winning platform is used internationally by organizations ranging from large Global 2000 companies to small businesses and government organizations. With EdCast’s platforms, our customers are able to attract, develop and retain a high-performance and future-ready workforce. EdCast’s offerings include its Talent Experience Platform, Spark for SMBs, EdCast Marketplace and MyGuide Digital Adoption Platform. EdCast is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer award recipient.
About Zenefits
Zenefits helps thousands of small and mid-size companies drive performance by streamlining people operations: the workforce, compliance and performance issues that are the difference between success and failure. Zenefits' People Operations Platform delivers the most comprehensive, easy to use, mobile HR experience on the market. Its HR, Benefits, Payroll, Wellness, Engagement, Performance and People Analytics apps are intuitive and interoperable. Combined with advisory services and tightly integrated partner apps, Zenefits enables better business agility and performance for emerging businesses.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Verizon | January 14, 2022
Verizon and Arizona State University are exploring how 5G can enable immersive educational experiences and transform the future of learning. To do this, Verizon has launched a 5G Innovation Hub at the University's Learning Futures Collaboratory, Studios and Emporium. Students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and corporate partners can now work together at the Hub to test and create 5G-powered educational experiences that are more inclusive, equitable and accessible. Digital equity is on the national agenda as leaders aim to address the digital divide, deepened during the pandemic. And in Arizona where as many as one million residents, including more than 200,000 students, do not have regular access to the internet, ASU has been instrumental in leading a series of initiatives aimed at surfacing solutions to help further close the digital divide.
The first program to launch out of the 5G Innovation Hub at ASU will be “The Digital Equity Jam” sponsored by Verizon, AWS and Inseego. This program kicks off in early February 2022. Competing teams will develop use cases showcasing how Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and mobile edge compute can be used to help bridge the digital divide. Focus areas will include health, climate, poverty, human rights and education. The winning team will receive project seed funding, access to intensive summer entrepreneurship training in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and VentureWell, and the opportunity to pitch their venture to CGI in fall 2022.
“Working with ASU, we have an extraordinary opportunity to research and develop new 5G-enabled experiences that can improve remote learning and help bridge the digital divide. Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband’s super-fast speeds, high bandwidth and low latency can enhance applications ranging from immersive education to connected communities. By collaborating with ASU’s researchers, we hope to accelerate the innovation process and develop technology that will harness the full potential of 5G and edge compute.”
Tami Erwin, Verizon Business CEO
“We are in the most transformative technological moment since the early stages of the industrial revolution. And even with the social, political, and economic impacts that we are still learning to navigate as a society, there have been incredibly meaningful results from this use of technology,” said ASU President Michael Crow this morning during a keynote with Erwin at the Smart Region Summit. “Who gets educated is no longer socially stratified, we are able to unleash human creativity in ways not possible before…and so what these technologies that leverage broadband at the fastest speeds and most advanced level imaginable allow us to create is an environment in which the person, the learner, becomes emotionally connected in the story around the learning process itself. At ASU, we’ve become, with this next phase of our partnership with Verizon, the furthest at the tip of the spear to be empowered with technology and continue to improve the ways in which we learn, work and live.”
Additionally, ASU plans to continue testing and deploying a variety of immersive educational experiences, powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband and mobile edge compute. Students will be able to enter a Dreamscape pod where they can experience a Biology class in virtual reality (VR). Remote students will have access to a VR and web browser version. 5G use cases being explored will also include a career arcade using VR, where students can experience a day in the life of certain careers. 5G applications are also being tested for athlete performance analytics applications and virtual fighter pilot training.
This engagement is part of Verizon’s broader strategy to partner with enterprises, startups, universities, national labs and government/military to explore how 5G can disrupt and transform nearly every industry. Verizon operates five 5G Labs in the U.S. and one in London that specialize in developing use cases in industries ranging from healthcare to public safety to entertainment. In addition, Verizon is collaborating with several customers to establish 5G Innovation Hubs on-premises as part of an ongoing initiative to co-innovate and create new 5G applications.
Verizon's long-standing relationship with ASU includes collaboration and support for Verizon Innovative Learning, Verizon's award-winning education initiative addressing barriers to digital inclusion and a key program under Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental and social advancement. The initiative includes bringing 5G to schools, enabling more robust, immersive learning experiences via technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing, augmented and virtual reality. Students leverage technology, social innovation and design thinking through a project-based online curriculum, developed by the J.Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at ASU, to positively impact their communities. Verizon's partnership with ASU also extends to Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, a free next-gen online education portal that includes content curated by ASU, among other academic institutions, that provides immersive AR and VR experiences paired with lesson plans. Through Citizen Verizon, the company is committed to providing 10 million youths with digital skills training by 2030, among other goals.
About Verizon:
Verizon Communications Inc. was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and communications services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $128.3 billion in 2020. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.
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