EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY

Instructure to Acquire Kimono to Expand Integration and Interoperability with the Instructure Cloud-based Learning Platform

Instructure Holdings, Inc. | November 09, 2021

Instructure Holdings, Inc. (Instructure) today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Kimono, a leader in cloud-based data integration and interoperability for education. A long-time partner, and preferred integration solution of Canvas LMS, Kimono will be rebranded as Elevate Data Sync as it joins the Instructure Learning Platform. Elevate Data Sync is a solution built specifically for education that enables secure syncing of student, staff, and learning data across applications within a school environment.

"The acquisition underscores Instructure's vision of building education's most integrated platform and demonstrates our deep commitment to openness. We want to give schools the freedom of choice to connect with their preferred applications. By incorporating Kimono's adaptable, cloud-based integration and interoperability solution as Elevate Data Sync, we strengthen our ability to more seamlessly connect users with the applications they love."

Steve Daly, CEO of Instructure

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, the team at Kimono has over 20 years of experience developing integration solutions for K-12 and higher education. The company serves six state education agencies, over 2300 districts, 27,000 schools and universities, and more than 16 million students globally.

The move extends Instructure's learning data integration and rostering capabilities for student information systems (SIS). With bi-directional sharing, Elevate Data Sync ensures data, grades, and rosters stay synchronized between edtech applications and student information systems (SIS). Schools ensure the accuracy, security, and accessibility with complete control of their integrations—sharing only the data elements they choose and only with the applications they authorize. Because Elevate Data Sync is standards-agnostic, it supports industry-standard data models and protocols—such as OneRoster, LIS, SIF, APIs, and CSV—and also offers the flexibility to meet needs of schools and applications.

"We developed an adaptable, cloud-based platform that is the most comprehensive education interoperability solution available," said Steve Curtis, CEO of Kimono. "Adding that technology to the Instructure Learning Platform will accelerate Instructure's plans to provide broad support and deeper integration points to the platform for thousands of edtech providers globally. As a result, schools and higher education institutions will be further empowered to craft the digital learning environment that meets the unique needs of their students."

The Instructure Learning Platform is an open, reliable, and extensible learning ecosystem enabling a digital learning environment for educators, students, and institutions. The platform is made up of several key pillars—such as learning management, assessment, and analytics —that work together to enrich, support, and connect every aspect of teaching and learning. Elevate Data Sync will be a vital part of the platform, driving interoperability and ease of use.

ABOUT INSTRUCTURE
Instructure is an education technology company dedicated to elevating student success, amplifying the power of teaching, and inspiring everyone to learn together. Today the Instructure Learning Platform supports more than 30 million educators and learners around the world.

Spotlight

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an advanced large language model developed by OpenAI. This generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot was trained on massive amounts of text data from the internet using machine learning algorithms. ChatGPT is capable of answering prompts and invites users to interact in a conversational way—it can even answer follow-up questions.

Spotlight

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is an advanced large language model developed by OpenAI. This generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot was trained on massive amounts of text data from the internet using machine learning algorithms. ChatGPT is capable of answering prompts and invites users to interact in a conversational way—it can even answer follow-up questions.

Related News

CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING

StrongMind(SM) Rostering Earns 1EdTech Certification for OneRoster® 1.1

StrongMind | March 21, 2023

StrongMind recently earned the 1EdTech™ certification for OneRoster® 1.1 for its StrongMind Rostering product. With OneRoster, schools can securely and reliably exchange roster information, course resources, and grades between learning tools, platforms and systems, saving educators time in their already busy days. Using OneRoster to reduce the administrative burdens of ensuring the technology works, gives educators the space and time to leverage their tools to create more impactful and personalized learning experiences. StrongMind is invested in the mission of 1EdTech, as a Contributing Member of the member-led, non-profit ed tech organization that is accelerating the digital transformation of learning. As such, StrongMind prioritizes privacy and security for student data and interoperability among systems, leading to ease of use for StrongMind products by schools. StrongMind Rostering helps teachers and administrators easily share student information between different education programs, such as class rosters, grades and enrollment data. With StrongMind Rostering, districts and schools can save time and reduce errors because it utilizes the 1EdTech One Roster specification, making it easy to use and ensuring security of student information. Schools can say goodbye to manually transferring data between systems and hello to seamless information exchange with StrongMind Rostering. "We are excited to announce the adoption of the OneRoster specification for our StrongMind Rostering product, which will enhance our product's interoperability and streamline data management for educators, ultimately improving student outcomes," said Derek Neighbors, Senior Vice President Technology, StrongMind. "To earn this certification, StrongMind had to put in the work and not only say they complied with the OneRoster standards but prove they made it work," said 1EdTech Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Rob Abel. "With this certification, it will be easier for StrongMind's customers to get the data they need when and where they need it." About StrongMind StrongMind partners with schools for forward-thinking solutions to address unique challenges. With engaging digital curriculum and SEL, a suite of edtech tools, services, and clear insights, we maximize student achievement and help schools thrive. With multiple Digital Promise Research-Design certifications and more than 60 awards, we innovate into the future.

Read More

CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS

Carnegie Learning Adds Multilingual Math and Literacy Tutors in Gadsden ISD

Businesswire | April 18, 2023

Carnegie Learning, a leader in K-12 education innovation, high-quality products and services, and AI, announced today that the company has added new multilingual and bilingual certified math and literacy instructors to the high-dosage tutoring team in Gadsden County, New Mexico, to meet the needs of students in the state’s fourth-largest school district. “It’s gratifying to see improvements in student proficiency and attendance as well as increasing parent participation in the Gadsden Independent School District (ISD),” said Courtney Lewis, Vice President of Tutoring Services at Carnegie Learning. “The results are impressive. We have been able to fulfill 100% of the requests from students and families in Gadsden ISD who requested a bilingual tutor. We’ve also appointed a bilingual tutor as a liaison to answer questions from families in their native language. Families have a direct dial number to call the liaison directly for support.” Lewis recently presented a webinar on how to partner with a high-dosage tutoring provider to launch an effective summer school program, which can be accessed here. Demand for high-dosage tutoring is growing among students in all grades at Gadsden ISD, led by elementary-age students, who are reaping the benefits of one-on-one and small-group tutoring. To meet the needs of the district, Carnegie Learning is expanding their offerings in Gadsden ISD with new K-12 math and literacy, SAT and PSAT preparation to their portfolio of services. Students and their families are already feeling the impact of tutoring. A third-grade student expressed delight about their tutor, who is a certified teacher like all Carnegie Learning tutors: “I have the best teacher ever!” A kindergarten parent commented that a tutor demonstrated dedication consistently: “She did awesome with our son!” Personalizing tutoring services to meet the needs of Gadsden ISD reflects Carnegie Learning's commitment to partnering with districts and ability to flexibly develop solutions for emerging challenges. In fact, their national high-dosage tutoring services originated when Maryland district Prince George's County Public Schools approached Carnegie Learning with a need for remote tutoring in 2020 during school closures, and Carnegie Learning built a tutoring team from scratch. Carnegie Learning has the largest certified tutoring team in the U.S., with an ever-increasing portfolio of new curriculum offerings being added as district needs arise. Carnegie Learning's high-dosage tutoring services include: • Live tutors who are all certified teachers with deep content and pedagogical knowledge. • Bilingual and multilingual tutors are available. • Instruction that aligns with districts’ standards, scope, and sequence. • Standards-aligned, high-quality instructional materials to support grade-level learning. • Robust pre- and post-assessments to regularly track student growth and performance. Carnegie Learning believes that students can reach far beyond their perceived potential, academically as well as socially and emotionally. To help students achieve this, they strive to bridge the gap between access to high-quality instructors, award-winning AI software, and high-quality instructional resources. About Carnegie Learning, Inc. Carnegie Learning is the leading provider of K-12 education technology, curriculum, and professional learning solutions. With award-winning offerings for K-12 math, literacy, world languages, professional learning, high-dosage tutoring, and more, Carnegie Learning is delivering real and lasting results for teachers and students. Born from more than 30 years of learning science research at Carnegie Mellon University, we are known for using the power of data to improve student performance. Our range of products allows us to support more than 2 million students and educators in all 50 states and Canada. Named a Top Place to Work for six years in a row, our 700+ employees across North America are passionate about partnering with educators in the classroom

Read More

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Flatiron School Launches Artificial Intelligence Curriculum Enhancements For Students

Businesswire | May 18, 2023

Flatiron School, a global provider of technical education, launched curriculum enhancements designed to teach students how to leverage powerful, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The curriculum enhancements affect Flatiron School’s four disciplines - software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and UX / UI product design - and come at a time where AI requirements are increasingly appearing in job descriptions. For the past 10 years, Flatiron School has been committed to keeping curriculum modern, aligning with the ever-evolving tech landscape. Now, as new AI tools emerge, Flatiron School continues to lead tech education in providing students with the skills needed to thrive in today’s job market. “Even as AI reshapes the industry, we expect demand for tech talent to remain strong,” said Kate Cassino, Flatiron School CEO. “The most competitive talent will have the skills needed to unlock the full potential of AI, and that’s why now is the time to invest in our students. Our latest curriculum enhancements empower students with the skills needed to not only excel in an evolving job market, but also to advance the future of tech through innovation.” The enhancements cover topics such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and prompt engineering. Students will learn how to use generative AI as a research tool, effectively communicate with AI chatbots, build AI models, and leverage machine learning (ML) for testing. Curriculum enhancements include: • Software Engineering. Discover how AI can help with code debugging, enable code completion, and integrate AI features into apps. Students will also learn prompt engineering and how to successfully correspond with chatbots. • Data Science. Learn the fundamentals of AI theory, including concepts such as data leakage, overfitting, and regularization. Students will also learn scikit-learn (a popular AI library for Python programming language) as well as how to build AI models for text data (also known as natural language processing). • Cybersecurity. Gain experience leveraging AI and machine learning for threat intelligence feeds, vulnerability and penetration testing, and detecting anomalous and behavioral events. Students will also learn how bad actors could leverage AI to crack encryption. • UX / UI Product Design. Explore how to co-create with AI for inspiration, as well as how to analyze potential biases in AI-generated design solutions. Students will also learn about the implications of AI on intellectual property, how to develop user journeys with generative AI, and how to use natural language processing to automate identification of patterns in user data. Taught by instructors with real-world experience, Flatiron School’s courses are offered online or in-person on New York City or Denver campuses. Students can choose full-time or part-time programs, which are paced between 15 and 60 weeks. Upon graduation Flatiron School provides up to 180 days of 1-on-1 career coaching. About Flatiron Since 2012, Flatiron School has been an education innovator, training over 10,000 graduates in software engineering, data science, cybersecurity, and product design. Flatiron School works with students, universities and colleges, and industry-leading companies around the world to provide essential technical training. When it comes to landing a job, Flatiron School graduates have a proven track record of success thanks to experienced instructors and dedicated career coaches.

Read More