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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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | April 13, 2023
PowerSchool the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced a partnership with Scribbles Software and PowerSchool Naviance. This partnership will nearly double the number of institutions in the Naviance eDocs network, greatly expanding college access for high school students.
“Naviance eDocs has been trusted by thousands of high schools for over a decade to deliver transcripts, letters of recommendation, and other critical documents supporting over six million college applications each year,” said Amy Reitz, Group Vice President of Product at PowerSchool. “Partnering with Scribbles makes college more accessible to students by giving counselors the ability to send supporting documentation for students’ college applications to 2,100 more colleges – our largest ever increase in a single year.”
Scribbles Software has served over 12 million students with transcript requests since 2012 and provides over 400 districts and charter schools with a best-in-class network to ensure easy and equitable access to students pursuing higher education. In the last year alone, Scribbles completed nearly one million electronic transcript requests from districts across the United States, including 25 of the 30 largest districts in the country.
“Scribbles is thrilled to partner with Naviance to expand access to a broader higher education network. Through this partnership, districts, and schools will be able to empower more students with greater access to life-changing opportunities,” said Marshall Simmonds, Vice President of Sales for Scribbles Software.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.
About Scribbles
Scribbles Software empowers education systems to provide life-changing opportunities to students and alumni. Since 2012, the company has partnered with K-12 educational communities to enhance, streamline, and simplify the student and family engagement experience through online student records management, enrollment systems, choice programs, lottery management, and reporting solutions. Scribbles Software helps district and charter school partners provide equitable, open access to administrative resources to students, families, and community organizations– beginning with PreK enrollment and continuing with digital transcript orders post-graduation.
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TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Businesswire | April 19, 2023
PowerSchool ,a leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, today announced two new features coming to the PowerSchool Personalized Learning Cloud. Starting in May, all schools and districts using Schoology Learning, part of the Personalized Learning Cloud, will be able to access a robust lesson planning tool to expedite creating and delivering lesson plans. PowerSchool is also launching a new standards-aligned assessment database, making it easier for educators to use Performance Matters in the Personalized Learning Cloud to build assessments and access meaningful results to guide instruction.
Designed to simplify the task of creating and managing lesson plans, the new lesson planning feature accessible in Schoology Learning will provide teachers with customizable templates to create detailed lesson plans that can be shared with colleagues and students. Teachers can attach resources, such as videos, articles, and assignments, to their lesson plans, making it easy for students to access all necessary materials in one place. Combined with a simplified calendar view to help teachers see all their lessons and assignments in one place, the Personalized Learning Cloud provides teachers with even more tools to create engaging and effective learning opportunities for students.
“We’re dedicated to providing turnkey solutions for educators so they can properly manage any and all tasks related to curriculum planning, personalized instruction, and student performance assessments,” said Jean Teillon, Group Vice President, Product, PowerSchool. “We're confident the updates to the Personalized Learning Cloud will provide teachers with the tools and data-backed insights needed to effectively plan for and deliver quality instruction to students."
With these enhancements, the Personalized Learning Cloud will provide educators building and delivering assessments in Performance Matters with access to numerous standards-aligned items that can be used to support personalized learning efforts. It also helps teachers easily access appropriate assessment items based on state standards and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) that can be used to build both formative and practice comprehensive assessment versions. Now instructors can identify student performance gaps and indicators of learning loss, while also providing educators with the proper support to easily monitor student academic progress. School and district administrators who want to expand their access to pre-made content can also upgrade to the full subscription-based PowerSchool Item and Assessment bank, which consists of an even larger collection of ready-made items, common formative assessments, and summative benchmark assessments built to inform instruction.
The Personalized Learning Cloud is designed to help educators efficiently personalize instruction and learning to support better learning outcomes for all learners. The newly available features are intuitive and will help provide teachers with more time back so they can focus on providing high-quality instruction to their students.
“Educators have made it clear they need access to tools and content so they can create more personalized lessons to meet the unique learning needs of all learners,” said Marcy Daniel, Chief Product Officer, PowerSchool. “The new features within the Personalized Learning Cloud will not only provide teachers with time back but also provide them with clearer oversight of student performance.”
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool is the leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America. Its mission is to power the education ecosystem with unified technology that helps educators and students realize their full potential, in their way. PowerSchool connects students, teachers, administrators, and parents, with the shared goal of improving student outcomes. From the office to the classroom to the home, it helps schools and districts efficiently manage state reporting and related compliance, special education, finance, human resources, talent, registration, attendance, funding, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics in one unified platform. PowerSchool supports over 50 million students globally and more than 15,000 customers, including more than 90 of the top 100 districts by student enrollment in the United States, and sells solutions in more than 90 countries.
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