ONLINE EDUCATION
One League | September 05, 2022
One League, a new global education institution connecting the world's promising changemakers to best-in-class education and opportunity, today announced its launch.One League offers an Ivy League quality graduate-level education, via globally accessible live, synchronous online classes, with curriculum curated and licensed from Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, in collaboration with Harvard Business Publishing, MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), and Stanford Online. The organization offers a two-year Master of Business Administration (MBA), along with a MicroMasters® in Statistics and Data Science from MITx, and a Certificate of Achievement in Innovation & Entrepreneurship from Stanford Online. One League fellows are championed by the organization's extensive coalition of industry executives and leaders and receive guidance, support, and access to opportunities to seek venture funding to propel world-changing ideas.
One League's inaugural class of 60 fellows has received a 100% tuition-free scholarship covering all expenses of the program, as well as a monthly technology access stipend. The fellows represent over 30 countries including Afghanistan, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Uganda, and the United States. The cohort includes a Forbes 30 Under 30 Awardee, a Presidential Award Winner, a Human Rights Fellow, a Global Prize Winner to Combat Energy Poverty, and a Top 100 Women in Technology Awardee. Fellows are working on audacious projects such as realizing energy equity across Africa, creating agents of change in Southeast Asia, and building technology incubators in the Middle East. The class includes survivors of war, first generation college graduates, refugees, ethnic and cultural minorities, and sole breadwinners for their families living under the poverty line.
One League is founded by Umaimah Mendhro, an accomplished Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Harvard Business School alum. Mendhro grew up in rural Pakistan and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia, with limited access to formal education for much of her life. Mendhro went on to attend two Ivy League institutions, Cornell University and Harvard Business School, where she was amongst the top 5% in her graduating class. She applied her education to build a multi-million-dollar e-commerce brand, VIDA. One League fulfills Mendhro's lifelong mission to empower changemakers and unlock human potential around the world.
"Our mission is to democratize access to privilege and opportunity. One League's Inaugural Class has the ambition, grit, and potential to become future leaders in their countries, build economic engines in their regions, and ultimately help raise nations out of poverty, if only given a seat at the table.Our inaugural class represents the millions of gifted individuals who acutely experience the vast global challenges our world faces today. They each have the empathy and capability to build the critical solutions our world demands, given the opportunity."
Umaimah Mendhro, Founder and President of One League
All One League classes are conducted in real time via online sessions. Fellows join from their respective countries to learn from award-winning faculty. The MBA program is led by a set of distinguished One League faculty, who have taught at top-tier institutions, authored award-winning books and published articles, and are dedicated to the rigor of One League's world-class learning opportunities. Distinguished One League faculty that will teach the Harvard Business School curriculum using the HBS case study method, includes Dr. Rob Austin, Dr. June Cotte, Dr. Noel Maurer, Dr. Partha Mohanram, Dr. Gautam Mukunda, and Dr. J. Peter Scoblic. "Harvard Business Publishing is pleased to support One League in their mission of democratizing access to world-class management education. The delivery of the core curriculum through the case method pioneered at Harvard Business School is evident of One League's commitment to rigor and high-quality learning experiences that should be accessible to all qualified students, regardless of their means," said Ellen Desmarais, Senior Vice President of Higher Education at Harvard Business Publishing. "We're thrilled One League joined the MIT IDSS Alliance to expand our joint mission to provide top-notch online learning with hands-on group interaction. We strongly share One League's commitment to providing high-quality education regardless of financial circumstances," said Professor Devavrat Shah, Faculty Director, MITx MicroMasters® program in Statistics and Data Science. "Our collaboration with One League and other institutions opens the door for more students, regardless of means, to develop an innovation and entrepreneurial mindset, learning from leading faculty at Stanford and from industry experts to solve real-world challenges and create lasting positive impact," said Carissa Little, Associate Dean, Global and Online Education, at the Stanford School of Engineering, and Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Professional Development, which manages Stanford Online. One League is providing access to the knowledge, networking and opportunity that are hallmarks of top-tier educational institutions. One League has created a Global Mentorship Board that connects each fellow with an accomplished industry leader for the duration of their two-year program, as well as for two years after graduation. Mentorship Board members are alumni of Harvard, Stanford, and MIT and include over 50 industry leaders and executives from business, technology, finance, healthcare, education, social impact, strategy consulting, and venture backgrounds. They include Bobby Barnes, John Coleman, Dalia Rahman, Ajay Sudan, Aduke Thelwell, and Board Chair Esther (Hsu) Wang. One League is a Public Benefit Corporation, is funded by a $1 million restricted grant Mendhro directed from her e-commerce company VIDA, which was initially backed by Google Ventures, Y Combinator, and other investors
About One League:
One League is a new global education institution that is connecting the world's gifted, underserved changemakers to world-class education and opportunity, irrespective of financial means. The organization collaborates with highly select top-ranking universities to offer life-changing education, via live synchronous sessions, led by world-renowned faculty members. Each One League fellow is championed by the organization's extensive coalition of industry executives and leaders, and receives access to competitive opportunities for recruitment and to seek venture funding to propel world-changing ideas.
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ONLINE EDUCATION
Anthology | August 26, 2022
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, today announced that its Blackboard Learn Ultra solution was named the winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the Postsecondary Learning Management Solution category in the 19th Annual International Business Awards® (IBA). The 2022 IBAs received more than 3,700 nominations from organizations in 67 nations and territories.
"We're continuing to accelerate the development of new features for Learn Ultra with the goal of delivering the premier teaching and learning experience, and we're honored to see that work reflected in this recognition,. "The LMS is at the center of learners' educational journey and our team is focused on delivering innovation that fuels their success while also meeting the needs of faculty and institutions."
JD White, Chief Product Officer at Anthology
Blackboard Learn is Anthology's flagship learning management system, designed to support the student experience while enabling pedagogical best practices for faculty. Blackboard Learn Ultra delivers a simpler, more powerful teaching and learning experience that fosters student self-expression, offers a leading test-taking experience, and delivers the ability to surface actionable data insights that help learners, instructors and institutions meet their goals. With a modern, intuitive, fully responsive interface, Learn Ultra better engages students, removes barriers for instructors and clears the path to success. Last month, Anthology announced a 46 percent increase in the number of courses using Blackboard Learn Ultra, and a 30 percent increase in the number of institutions deploying Learn Ultra courses, year-over-year. Following the merger with Blackboard, Anthology tripled Learn Ultra development resources and increased opportunities for client feedback in the development process. The expanded resources powered the largest Learn Ultra release to date, delivered in July. "Statistics show that the stress and mental health experienced by students over the past couple of years has increased significantly. Products like Blackboard Learn Ultra are an essential tool to 'normalizing' the experience of students and helping them to reduce the mental health load. Congratulations to Anthology for creating a product that is making a significant impact in the lives of generations to come," commented one Stevie Award judge. The International Business Awards are the world's premier business awards program. All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small - are eligible to submit nominations. "We're thrilled that we're able to return to celebrating Stevie winners in person this year," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Miller. "This year's class of honorees are as innovative, adventuresome, persistent and successful as we've ever had. We look forward to celebrating their achievements with them during our October 15th awards banquet in London.www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.
About Anthology
Anthology offers the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale for education, supporting more than 150 million users in 80 countries. With a mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™, we help learners, leaders and educators achieve their goals by offering over 60 SaaS products and services designed to advance learning.
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ONLINE EDUCATION
D-ID | September 09, 2022
Skilldora, an Ed-Tech startup based in Fort Mill, S.C., known for its modernized app-based eLearning community, today announced a partnership with D-ID, using its Creative Reality™ technology to deliver courses exclusively by A.I. Instructors, also referred to as digitally created humans. With the global eLearning market on track to reach 1.72 trillion by 2026 according to Yahoo Finance, evolving Ed-Tech enhancements give the academic sector a boost in growth, and online-learning is now the largest and fastest growing method for modern learners. Skilldora’s mission is to use the power of A.I. to deliver a new world of eLearning and is pleased to be the first online-learning platform in the U.S. to be a front-runner in pioneering the use of all A.I. Instructors on its platform, as a nod to the future of eLearning. The recent growth in the eLearning market also comes with its usual growing pains of high course drop-out rates, and astronomical refund costs creating significant challenges for e-Learners, course creators and platform owners. Research shows much of this is due to antiquated outdated online-course platforms and an influx of new course creators producing courses at varying levels of skill, leading to inconsistent and unpredictable user experiences. Skilldora's new e-Learning platform & app, seeks to solve this problem using its A.I. Instructed Courses™ to deliver consistently structured, high quality courses, perfectly presented in under an hour. Set up as a free-to-download membership site, with an in-app, pay-per-course, a la carte model, Skilldora is designed to appeal to the modern learner, offering advanced engagement functionality, collaborative learning features such as its ‘learn with friends capabilities,’ allowing for real time sharing and invites, social learning groups, community news feeds, etc.
“We believe the world of eLearning is rapidly changing and learners want more interactive learning experiences, consistency in content quality and compact courses they can take over a lunch break. And Skilldora is answering the call by offering A.I. Instructed Courses™ across a bevy of professional development categories, interactive Personal Discovery Assessments with instant A.I. Coach feedback, and a ‘done-for-you’ B2B solution, which produces eLearning products on demand.
DeMario and Dawn Nicole McIlwain, Skilldora's Co-Founders.
Skilldora's vision is to be the A.I. eLearning solution leader for modern learners, and future-forward companies, and now through its partnership with D-ID, is one step closer. Behind the vision of Skilldora, are Husband and Wife Co-founders, DeMario and Dawn Nicole McIlwain. DeMario McIlwain, the brainchild behind Skilldora’s innovative platform and sleek functionality, brings deep technical expertise in UI/UX design with proven experience running tech ventures, while Dawn Nicole, the heartbeat of Skilldora’s course products, brings design-thinking as a certified Agile coach and globally accredited training program creator. With this perfect marriage of skills and background, the powerful duo merges their expertise to make something magical in Skilldora.
About Skilldora
Skilldora is a modernized e-Learning company specializing in A.I. Instructed Courses™ by using digitally created humans to deliver course content. Skilldora’s products and services span from its A.I. Instructed Courses™, to Personal Discovery Assessments with interactive A.I. Coach feedback, and a ‘done-for-you’ Corporate Training solution which produces eLearning products on demand, and to spec. Through collaborative strategic partnerships, and its competitive advantage of being first to the U.S. market, Skilldora is on track to virtually disrupt the eLearning industry, improve the user experience, and offer corporations more diversification options in eLearning, with advanced features that drastically increase the speed to market. To find out more, visit myskilldora.com.
About D-ID
D-ID is a Creative Reality™ company specializing in patented video reenactment technology using AI and deep learning. D-ID's products range from animating still photos, to facilitating high-quality video productions, and creating viral user experiences. With funding from tier 1 VCs, D-ID aims to radically disrupt the time, hassle and costs involved in video production, allowing for the creation of highly personalized media using AI, specifically in e-learning, corporate training, marcoms, AI assistants, history and the Metaverse. With international customers, D-ID's core competencies in the human face and deep learning technology enable its partners to create exciting and engaging content that was until now unimaginable. To find out more, visit D-ID.com
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