EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Otus | November 10, 2022
Otus, a leader in K-12 student-growth edtech, today announced that CenterPoint Education Solutions’ Illustrative Math (IM) certified and EL Education aligned interim assessments, along with state standards assessments will now be available on the Otus integrated learning platform. With these assessments available on the Otus platform, educators and students will have instant access to high-quality assessments aligned with their curriculum or their state’s standards
Since its launch in 2016, Otus has been used by educators to optimize learning and help accelerate student growth for over 1 million students nationwide. Otus provides educators with one place to gather, visualize and act on data to maximize student outcomes. The all-in-one platform saves educators time by integrating traditional and standards-based grading, assessments, progress monitoring, data-informed instruction, and more.
“CenterPoint is excited to bring our aligned assessments to Otus; we hope more districts look toward incorporating assessments that are aligned with their curriculum and (state) standards, Aligned assessments allow educators to gauge both student understandings and misunderstandings paramount information to guide instructional planning. Otus’ learning platform gathers student-growth data and visualizations in one place, which models CenterPoint’s larger mission of monitoring student achievement around assessments.”
LJ Sylvester, Vice President of Growth at CenterPoint.
Interim assessments are administered throughout a school year and are key to supporting learning. They empower educators to measure student learning, identify where students are on their path to grade-level expectations, and provide data to drive instructional strategy. With Otus now hosting CenterPoint’s IM-certified, EL Education, and standards-aligned interim assessments, students and educators are provided with expanded access to high-quality curriculum-aligned assessments. Via Otus’ platform, CenterPoint’s assessments will make use of the existing assessment functionality, including technology-enhanced question types to heighten student engagement and real-time standards-aligned data reporting for teachers to inform instructional strategy. Otus is thrilled to add CenterPoint Education Solutions to its ever-growing network of partners and to be able to offer their top-notch, curriculum-aligned assessments to Otus users,” said Phil Collins, Ed.D., SVP of Client Success. “As Otus continues to expand its offerings of partner assessments available to users on the platform, we aim to provide high-quality, diverse options, and ultimately empower educators to make data-driven decisions that improve their schools. By integrating CenterPoint Education Solutions’ assessments into Otus, we are taking a huge step in that direction. Both the Illustrative Math and EL Education curricula are green rated by EdReports and have shown consistent results for student achievement. CenterPoint was the first organization to develop interim assessments aligned to these curricula to support the important work of teaching and learning at the ground level.
The following grades and content areas are licensed for use on Otus’ platform:
Illustrative Mathematics Aligned Interims Assessments: Grades 3-8, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry
EL Education Aligned Interim Assessments: Grades K-8
Eureka Math Topic Items: Grades K-8
CenterPoint Standards Aligned Interim Assessments in ELA: Grades K-11
CenterPoint Standards Aligned Interim Assessments in Mathematics: Grades K-8, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry
About Otus
Otus significantly improves the way we support students by providing an all-in-one platform for educators to gather, visualize, and act on student data to ensure every child – no matter their learning level or background – is on a trajectory to achieve their true potential. Otus was created and built for teachers, by teachers. It saves educators time through the streamlined integration of assessment, performance tracking, and third-party data, while its gradebook and dashboard reports make it easy for teachers, administrators, and families to understand each student’s growth. Otus has delivered improved results for more than 1 million learners.
Read More
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Promethean | December 02, 2022
Explain Everything, a leading online digital whiteboard platform for creating engaging lessons, activities, and interactive presentations, today announced it has officially joined Promethean®, a leading global education technology company. The Explain Everything app provides users with an infinite canvas to draw, animate, create videos, and collaborate and is available on iOS, macOS, ChromeOS, Android and the web. Joining forces with Promethean will bring Everything to Promethean's award-winning panels as well, enabling both companies to have a greater positive impact on the future of education. Long-time Explain Everything users can rest assured that the app will simultaneously continue to be offered on all other platforms. Promethean's educational technology solutions deliver a robust, seamless, and secure experience, with features that respond to educators' and workplace users' unique needs around the globe. Its comprehensive edtech solution also includes superior professional development and customer support. The inclusion of Explain Everything's digital whiteboard platform into Promethean's product portfolio will build upon both companies' visions in edtech and beyond. Explain Everything remains deeply committed to providing the highest level of service, and users will continue to have uninterrupted access to their projects and materials. Likewise, the Explain Everything pricing model does not change. The aim of this strategic merger is to expand on both companies' offerings and provide more rapid technology innovation that addresses global teaching, learning, and collaboration needs. This and much more will be possible when working with a top educational leader in the USA and EMEA, and the Explain Everything team looks toward the future with great excitement. We're thrilled to now be part of the Promethean team," said Reshan Richards, co-founder and chief executive officer at Explain Everything. "Explain Everything's mission to impact teaching and learning in all settings is in perfect alignment with Promethean's more than 25 years of education technology leadership. Together, we will continue to provide the most effective interactive learning tools for students and teachers around the world.
"As technology evolves, Promethean continues to look to the future to provide the best solutions to transform learning experiences. Joining the Explain Everything team with ours is part of our commitment to continuously innovate and work towards providing a superior interactive experience from anywhere, This exciting opportunity and new relationship for both companies will allow us to expand our already robust offerings to better serve customers' needs."
Vin Riera, chief executive officer at Promethean
About Explain Everything
Explain Everything Whiteboard is developed by Explain Everything Inc, a New York, NY, and Wroclaw, Poland-based team of innovators, artists, learners, and leaders dedicated to developing creativity-inspiring technologies. Released in 2011, Explain Everything is now used by millions of educators, students and creative professionals around the world. In December 2020, Explain Everything Whiteboard was recognized as one of the Apple App Store's Best of 2020 for Leading the Classroom. The app is available on iOS, iPadOS, Android, Chromebooks and the web, and is developed by the Wrocław-based team.
About Promethean
Promethean is a leading education technology company working to transform the way the world learns and collaborates. From our founding in Blackburn, England, more than 25 years ago to our global operations in 22 countries today, we've continued to explore, innovate, and inspire —designing learning and collaboration tools that are built for breakthroughs. Our award-winning interactive display, ActivPanel, and lesson delivery software, ActivInspire and ClassFlow, were designed to engage students, connect colleagues, and bring out the brilliance in everyone. With headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and offices worldwide, Promethean is a member of the NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) group of companies.
Read More
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
CLASS101 | December 08, 2022
CLASS101 (CEO Daisun Kong), South Korea's #1 online class platform, today announced the global consolidation of its subscription service, CLASS101+. In a phased rollout that had begun in August 2022, CLASS101+ had become available on three separate platforms – English, Japanese and Korean. Now, all three will begin sharing each other's class offerings via a globally-integrated product. This latest development is set to accelerate CLASS101+'s foray into the global online learning market, bringing its fast-growing number of subscribers and its 130,000+ registered creators all the closer. Breaking down language barriers is necessarily the most important key to success, and to this end CLASS101 is embracing Neural Machine Translation (NMT). Using this state-of-the-art technology, the company plans on gradually making available its 4,000+ classes across all its subscription platforms together with AI-generated subtitles in English, Japanese, and Korean. CLASS101's new language capabilities are unparalleled domestically, and so is its ability to internalize innovations in personalization and localization. Leveraging both the previously accumulated data and the expanded catalog of classes on offer, the company is actively honing its algorithm to deliver more accurate class recommendations on CLASS101+. Its machine translation capacity is being put to use for all aspects of UI localization, too. Together, these attempts aim to present a more personally gratifying learning experience to each and every subscriber.
"CLASS101 aspires to build a world where people live doing what they love, and the consolidation of our subscription platforms and class content is a momentous step toward achieving our vision on a global scale, The number of subscribers from South Korea has been on the rise, and we're confident that our enhanced ability to serve global users would help us attract more learners from Asia, Europe and the United States. For all intents and purposes, CLASS101+ is now a wholly globalized service, and our hope is for both our subscribers and creators from around the world to inspire one another and discover new and unexpected possibilities for growth and development."
Daisun Kong, CEO of CLASS101.
CLASS101, in fact, has a proven track record of producing content that could reach a global audience. In the past, classes from such famed South Korean creators as InHyuk Lee and Lia Kim (from ONE MILLION Dance Studio) had been translated from Korean into English and Japanese. These translated versions ended up accounting for about 36% of the revenue generated outside South Korea. An even stronger case in point is the fact that a number of classes produced abroad and taught in English were purchased in South Korea without translation. Precedents like these indicate that the sheer desire to learn new skills, hobbies and knowledge has no boundaries, be it lingual or geographical. It goes without noting that CLASS101+ has a truly exceptional roster of internationally-acclaimed creators. Yehuda and Maya Devir, married Israeli comic artists, share how to create webcomics as enthralling as theirs, which have led to their building a community of more than 9 million followers. Kathy Nakajima is a pioneering Hawaiian quilt designer and a renowned media personality in Japan. Hisanori Yoshida, an announcer and an award-winning radio host, teaches effective communication skills. David Yungin Kim is a world-class audio engineer and a three-time Grammy winner who has recently released a class on song mixing. In its fully-evolved form, CLASS101+ will be offering 4,000+ classes in 3 different languages (English, Korean and Japanese) in 25 categories, including digital drawing, crafts, photography, and fitness. For $19.99 per month, subscribers can access them anytime, anywhere.
Read More