EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Spark Education Group | October 31, 2022
Spark Education Group, an innovator in global online education and the parent company of VISPARK and Allschool, won the "Best Interactive Learning Experience" award at the EdTech Asia Summit. The premiere EdTech conference took place at the Raffles Convention Centre in Singapore, discussing emerging trends in learning and innovation in education. "We are thrilled that Spark Education Group is recognized for providing interactive learning experiences through our VISPARK and Allschool platforms. We have always believed that the combination of a research-based curriculum designed by expert pedagogues, imaginative designers and technologists, provides the best learning experiences and educational outcomes for children. This award marks that achievement and celebrates the tremendous effort by our team of best-in-class educators," said Mr Xiaonan Wang, co-founder of Spark Education Group, Head of South East Asia Region. Spark Education Group was founded by parents hoping to improve learning experiences and achieve superior educational outcomes for their children by combining technology and education. Headquartered in Singapore, the company introduced two new brands, VISPARK and Allschool, this year for Singapore, US and other international markets.
VISPARK
VISPARK is an online education provider of enrichment learning programs. Its flagship program, Spark Math, offers online classes taught by certified teachers using innovative and interactive courseware. It aims to provide a fun and rewarding learning experience and improve student's academic outcomes.Its flagship product, Spark Math, is aligned with the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore's Math curriculum and the United States Common Core State Standards. The program uses technology to epitomise Singapore Math's concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to technology. Interactive hands-on learning, animated content, gamified exercises and differentiated pacing combined with live instruction by certified teachers, ensures Spark Math students are more engaged, motivated, and achieve better academic results. In the recent Gifted Education Program Screening test conducted in Singapore, 87.5% of Spark Math students passed the test, which is more than 8 times the pass rate of Singapore's national average.
Allschool
Allschool is an innovative online platform connecting educators and students around the world. With award-winning, purpose-built teaching and learning technologies, Allschool empowers teachers to create and deliver uniquely interactive classes across a wide variety of subjects and topics. Gamified and interactive classes such as Virtual Escape room sessions and Dinosaur explorations are amongst some of its most subscribed classes. On Allschool, parents and students can find hundreds of classes offered by teachers from around the world. With thousands of students attending Allschool classes, teachers can use Classpod, another Spark Education Group product, to easily administer and host small-group, interactive classes. With PowerCourse, our proprietary courseware creation software, educators can easily and efficiently create interactive course content that improves engagement and learning experiences for their students. The platform has received positive reviews with over 97% from users who attended interactive classes. Allschool continues to enhance learning experiences with interactive class offerings in a variety of topics and formats to enable educators and connect them with students around the world.
"We are honored to give Spark Education Group this year's award for Best Interactive Learning Experience. It is apparent their products, including VISPARK and Allschool, are designed to actively engage and educate their students. By merging pedagogical expertise with imaginative design and interaction, educators are enabled to achieve quality learning outcomes. We look forward to seeing what other innovation Spark will bring to market in the years ahead."
Michael Michalec, the Managing Director at EdTech Asia
Spark Education Group is committed to the goal of improving learning experiences and outcomes for students. The group continues to invest in developing expertise and capabilities to stay at the forefront of educational technology development, continuing to experiment and innovate, to inspire a passion for learning and igniting lifelong growth.
About Spark Education Group
Headquartered in Singapore, Spark Education Group was founded in 2017 by a father who saw the challenges his son faced within a traditional learning environment. He believed that every generation should be better than the last, and that we should work to make the world a better place, especially in making education better for children in the coming generations. Spark Education aims to create the next generation of e-learning through extensive research-based curriculums designed by expert pedagogues. Our products centre around the belief that technology can improve the learning experience and achieve better educational outcomes compared to traditional classroom settings.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
Anthology | October 13, 2022
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire student lifecycle, announced today that North-West University (NWU) has selected Anthology Student to optimize the student administrative lifecycle and deliver a more seamless experience for students and staff. NWU also will implement Anthology's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution to enhance recruitment processes and enable more strategic engagements with prospective students, current students and alumni. Acting as a cornerstone in the institution's technology ecosystem, Anthology solutions will give momentum to NWU's digital business strategy and long-term goals for enrollment, retention and the overall growth of the institution. The pandemic brought new dimensions to our thinking around how we enable learner success and create more intentional experiences for students using technology," said Professor Marlene Verhoef, Registrar at North-West University. With Anthology, we are not just replacing our existing system in pursuit of this objective. We are truly transforming the way we serve students and creating a digital environment that supports our future vision for NWU. Anthology Student and Anthology CRM will integrate critical data into a unified solution and deliver insights to support astute decision-making among NWU administrators, which will permit the identification of new and improved ways of connecting with students to drive outcomes. The cloud-based system will also automate manual processes to increase the efficiency of university staff and reduce the lift for internal information technology teams. For learners, Anthology Student will create a holistic digital-first experience spanning everything from degree planning to accessing career services, helping NWU meet the needs of today's students while also attracting new enrolments in the institution. We chose to partner with Anthology not just because of the product roadmap, but because they have a history in the market and a deep understanding of what students are looking for," said Professor Verhoef. The merger with Blackboard only reaffirmed our decision because it shows that Anthology is focused on delivering a holistic set of solutions to meet all of our needs and a way to future proof our investments.
"We are committed to partnering with NWU and supporting the South African education community to deliver technology that opens up new possibilities for education.NWU is experiencing staggering increases in enrolment and establishing core systems that can grow with the institution. These developments are crucial to effectively scale services for students while also equipping administrators and faculty with the technology they need to work more efficiently."
Oleg Figlin, Vice President of Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Anthology
NWU is a public university with multiple campuses across two South African provinces serving nearly 53,000 active students. Read more about how Anthology solutions are creating dynamic, data-driven experiences for institutions like NWU.
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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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Frontline Education | October 06, 2022
Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, today announced the completion of its sale of Frontline Education, a leading provider of administration software purpose-built for educators in K-12, to Roper Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ROP) in an all-cash transaction that values Frontline at approximately $3.725 billion. Frontline, which offers solutions for human capital management, student and special programs, and business operations with powerful analytics to increase productivity and improve overall performance for K-12 administrators, has been a trusted partner to K-12 leaders across all 50 states for decades.
"We are grateful to Thoma Bravo for their invaluable partnership over the last five years which has allowed us to further expand the use of our critical solutions by educators across the country,As part of Roper, we are excited to bring enhanced innovation and value to our clients in alignment with our mission to empower K-12 schools with the technology capabilities they need to succeed."
Mark Gruzin, Chief Executive Officer of Frontline Education
We are extremely proud of our partnership with Frontline and what we have been able to achieve together," said Holden Spaht, a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. Applying our deep sector expertise, we worked with Mark and the Frontline team to make strategic acquisitions, increase revenue and expand product offerings and headcount in order to drive sustainable long-term growth. We look forward to following Frontline's continued success with Roper as their partner. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Jefferies LLC and Macquarie Capital served as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Thoma Bravo and Frontline Education. Cooley LLP also served as legal advisor to Frontline Education.
About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is one of the largest private equity firms in the world, with more than $122 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2022. The firm invests in growth-oriented, innovative companies operating in the software and technology sectors. Leveraging the firm's deep sector expertise and proven strategic and operational capabilities, Thoma Bravo collaborates with its portfolio companies to implement operating best practices, drive growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings. Over the past 20 years, the firm has acquired or invested in more than 400 companies representing over $220 billion in enterprise value. The firm has offices in Chicago, Miami and San Francisco.
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