TALENT DEVELOPMENT
PRnewswire | April 11, 2023
Echo360, the most comprehensive, global, SaaS-based EdTech platform for creating, delivering, and measuring learning engagement outcomes in any learning environment, builds on its DNA of EdTech innovation today by launching EchoPoll™, a revolutionary new learning engagement platform for education and business, and continuing to deliver significant enhancements to its EchoVideo™ and ExamView™ platforms.
With EchoPollTM the company builds on over 20 years of pioneering audience response systems for education and business by delivering a SaaS-based polling solution with unparalleled flexibility, connectivity, and dependability. The company collaborated closely with educators around the world to ensure EchoPoll™ exceeds their needs to create greater engagement and outcomes from learners in any environment, including:
• The flexibility for educators to use EchoPoll™ in "live" sessions with rostered and guest users, or to assign interactive work to individuals and teams outside the classroom or office.
• The ability to transform existing Power Point presentations, files, or websites into interactive Echo360 Poll Decks™ or EchoPoll™ sessions with its Companion App • Seamless connectivity with all major LMS providers such as Canvas, D2L, Moodle, Anthology (Blackboard), and popular education and business applications like Zoom and GoTo Meeting.
• Instructor and administrator dashboards with metrics that assess engagement at the course, team, and individual learner level.
• Scalability and reliability, including 99.999% uptime and 24/7 customer support
"EchoPoll™ is polling, perfected -- the culmination and next-generation technology innovation representing everything we've developed and advanced in educational polling since 2002," said Murad Velani, Echo360 President and CEO. "Thousands of instructors around the world already trust Echo360 to support their inspired learning goals, and EchoPoll™ will introduce the power of SaaS-based educational polling to thousands more."
In addition to launching EchoPoll™, Echo360 also announced new enhancements and future redesigns for two of its most popular products, EchoVideo™ and ExamView™. EchoVideo™, the company's SaaS video management platform, is rolling out new features increasing interoperability, accessibility, and student engagement; ExamView™, the popular exam creation and assessment SaaS platform utilized by some of the world's largest education and trade publishers, will be redesigned and relaunched later this year as EchoExam™ with advanced compatibility, reporting, and mobile app features.
"These innovative and interoperable EdTech SaaS platforms help our customers consolidate disparate vendor offerings by using a comprehensive portfolio of solutions from Echo360 that address their challenges of dealing with increasing costs, support, and scalability," concluded Velani.
To celebrate the launch of EchoPoll™, Echo360 will be hosting a "Worldwide Week of Polling" virtual event April 10 – 14th. Each day the company will post a new EchoPoll™ link on its LinkedIn and Twitter feeds, inviting followers around the globe to answer an interactive question of the day, with results posted at the end of each day.
News of Echo360's continuing innovations to help instructors and learners around the world transform their learning experiences through technology comes on the heels of the company earning top position in The Silicon Review's "5 Best E-Learning Providers to Watch in 2023". In recognizing Echo360, the Review cited the company's "dynamic SaaS platform of innovative solutions that correspond to the relationship, environment, content, and assessment required." Earlier this year Echo360 received similar recognition from Enterprise Viewpoint in their listing of "2023's top E-Learning Providers".
About Echo360
Echo360 is the leading SaaS interactive video learning management, content, engagement, and assessment platform serving over 2 million learners and instructors at more than 1200 higher education institutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Built for the cloud and grounded in principles of learning equity, evidence, and engagement, instructors and learners around the world can use the platform from wherever they are, on any device, to create, record and consume content, give and receive feedback, and gain real-time insights along their inspired learning journey.
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CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Globenewswire | April 18, 2023
ClassIn, a world leader in hybrid, blended, and remote learning solutions, today announced the launch of its globally recognized platform in the United States. The ClassIn platform has been purpose-built for education and based on nearly a decade of research, development, and in-market experience. Through its software and hardware solutions, ClassIn provides the digital infrastructure for the hybrid future of education by building classrooms in both the virtual and physical worlds. ClassIn is the only end-to-end education platform with a full suite of innovative tools and features, all designed with hybrid-first pedagogy at its core. It supports active learning, student flexibility, and various teaching and learning methods.
While schools have worked to embrace technology for decades, innovation has been slow and fragmented, and most new technologies have been designed to solve a singular problem. Today, the average US teacher uses 148 different EdTech products and the average US school district uses over 1,400 EdTech solutions. The pandemic exacerbated this issue, as most schools implemented “emergency remote teaching” instead of pedagogically aligned instruction, cobbling together many disparate technologies that were not built or designed for education.
“Remote and hybrid teaching brought long-touted but previously out-of-reach, student-centric instruction to life, making room for self-guided learning, flexible schedules, and additional time to explore volunteer, hobby, and work opportunities,” said Sara Gu, Co-Founder, and COO at ClassIn. “We’re at an inflection point. The classroom of the future will be networked, digitized, and intelligent, which means our learning solutions must be built on a solid foundation: based on hybrid-first pedagogy and backed by learning science. With over 50 million students using our solution in 160+ countries, our hardware and software solutions reduce districts' need for the patchwork of over 1,400 different technologies by combining many of those capabilities seamlessly.”
ClassIn’s comprehensive suite of tools helps educators and administrators address multiple challenges by:
• Helping School Districts Address Teacher Shortages: According to the National Education Association, there is a shortage of roughly 300,000 teachers and staff across the U.S. The teacher shortage is particularly pronounced in rural school districts, where the need for special education teachers and STEM teachers is high. ClassIn allows schools to expand the reach of instruction from more experienced faculties to locations where those resources are scarce.
• Encouraging Equitable Learning by Leveling the Playing Field for Virtual and In-Person Learning Modalities: From two-way interactive blackboards to breakout rooms, class polling, real-time interaction, and personalized learning, ClassIn encourages student engagement and interaction and allows teachers to design a classroom that goes beyond successful lectures, incorporating other modalities of instruction and teamwork.
• Offering Strategic Hardware Solutions: ClassIn X transforms traditional classrooms into outcome-driven hybrid learning spaces through an IoT hardware package that digitizes the physical classroom. It offers a 110’’ smart board that comes with ClassIn software, an AI-enabled multi-directional microphone that clearly captures the sound in an 800-square-foot classroom, and a stationary face-tracking camera, which makes it easy for remote students to see the teacher’s face and gestures.
• Providing Fast, Seamless Technology: Built to handle virtual, hybrid, and blended learning, ClassIn’s technology allows up to 2,000 students to interact in a single classroom, with millions more learners able to view and listen to the livestream in real-time.
• Streamlining School & District Administrative Tools: The administration dashboard streamlines school management, enabling batch lesson planning for the entire semester and generating data-rich reports that reflect student participation during and after class. The wide variety of functionality allows schools to handle hybrid and blended learning on their terms in a way that works best for their school district and classrooms. Administrators can also easily review and analyze teacher and student performance through over 40 metrics, including attendance, classroom activity, and test and homework data.
ClassIn makes it easy to teach, learn, and build learning communities with minimal friction, freeing up teachers to do their best work, and students to do their best learning—all in an active, supportive, and flexible environment.
About ClassIn
A world leader in learning environment solutions, ClassIn has pioneered the digital and physical infrastructure for the hybrid future of education. Purpose-built for education based on nearly a decade of research, development, and in-market experience, ClassIn is the only end-to-end education platform with a full suite of tools designed with hybrid-first pedagogy at its core. ClassIn serves over 50 million students across 160+ countries. ClassIn has partnered with more than 80,000+ educational institutions including Oxford University Press, Sony Education, EF, The British Council, Pearson, and Udacity. The Series D company has raised more than $500 million and is backed by Hillhouse and Tencent, among others.
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ENTREPRENEURS AND LEADERS
PRnewswire | April 25, 2023
edX, a leading global online learning platform from 2U, Inc. today announced the launch of Try It courses: 1-2 hour free online introductory courses designed to give learners exposure to foundational skills in a variety of high-demand topics, such as Python, UI/UX Design Thinking, HTML, GitHub, and more. Now, learners can preview these skill areas for free before making the decision to enroll in a full-length program on the topic, such as a technical boot camp, offered by one of edX's partner institutions.
"edX is committed to creating meaningful, accessible on-ramps to online education opportunities offered by hundreds of the world's top universities and leading companies on edX.org," said Anant Agarwal, Founder of edX and 2U's Chief Platform Officer. "These courses are a low-risk way for millions of edX learners to explore new, in-demand professional skills and be connected to one of our partner's full-length programs if they wish to continue their learning journey."
According to the World Economic Forum, over half of all employees worldwide will need to reskill or upskill by 2025. In a recent study by IBM, 40% of respondents said the greatest barrier to professional skill development is knowing where to start. edX's Try It courses create opportunities for learners to gain familiarity with technical subjects and help ensure they are pursuing a journey that aligns with their individual goals before investing additional time and resources in full-length programs. Each course includes one hour of instruction and one hour of practical exercise, followed by a brief assessment.
Currently, Try It courses are designed as easy entry points into full boot camps offered with edX and in partnership with over 50 non-profit colleges and universities around the world. edX plans to launch additional Try It courses that connect learners with a variety of content across edX's free to degree portfolio edX.org, including executive education courses. edX partner institutions, including The Ohio State University College of Engineering and University of Kansas Jayhawk Global, plan to launch Try It courses in the coming months.
About edX
edX is the global online learning platform that exists to help learners everywhere unlock their potential. edX was founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012 to make the world's best education available to everyone. Today, as a 2U, Inc. company (Nasdaq: TWOU), edX connects 48 million ambitious learners with the skills, knowledge, and support to achieve their goals. Together with the world's leading universities and companies, edX offers thousands of free and open courses, professional certificates, boot camps, credit-bearing micro credentials, and undergraduate and graduate degrees.
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