Continuing Education

Learnfully, a Tech-Enabled Personalized Learning Service, Launches to Bring Personalized Learning to Scale

Learnfully | December 13, 2021

Learnfully, a first of its kind personalized learning platform, today announced its initial fundraising and emergence from stealth.With 1 in 5 students diagnosed with learning differences — and countless more dealing with emotional and developmental obstacles, Learnfully empowers all individuals to gain access to the most effective learning approach for them. Learnfully tailors a programming plan to their needs based on the expertise of educators and connects them with proven specialists to provide individual instruction.

"For too long our system has overlooked those who learn differently and left them to fend for themselves, instead of emphasizing their strengths and catering to their unique challenges. We're proud to launch Learnfully to bring personalized learning solutions to scale for all learners and empower them to reach their potential."

Letha McLaren, CEO & Co-Founder, Learnfully

The launch of the Learnfully platform is especially timely given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as many learners are struggling to adapt to a digital environment. In fact, the Brookings institute found that students may make just 70% of the reading gains this year compared to the progress they'd see in a normal school year; this forecast found the gains would be less than 50% for mathematics.

While other offerings only tackle tutoring services or an initial assessment, Learnfully takes a holistic approach to every learner. Its assessment includes human insights which complement its groundbreaking technology platform that analyzes information, responses, and measurable impressions to create and maintain each learner's profile and plan. Based on these inputs, Learnfully creates curated learning plans and provides access to specialized professionals, such as educational and behavioral therapists, tutoring services, insights, and instructions.

Once a learner begins programming, Learnfully adjusts the educational approach on the fly through its feedback and progress engine, as behaviors and emotions can change rapidly. This helps learners, parents, and educators ensure that both short- and long-term goals are attainable. The result is the only true end-to-end solution — from assessment to instruction — available.

"Learnfully seamlessly helped my two kids from assessment to tutoring plan to finding the right instructor," said Joy Leonard, a California parent of two Learnfully learners. "The highly targeted learning sessions have been invaluable, making an enormous impact on my kids' abilities in a short period of time."

Learnfully is co-founded by Letha McLaren and Suchi Deshpande. McLaren has more than 20 years of diverse product management, marketing and business leadership experience in the technology and energy industries. Deshpande previously served as a product leader at MuleSoft, Edmodo, Opya and more.

"During the pandemic, parents have a front-row seat to their children's education, and many are realizing that they learn differently — and yet they have nowhere to turn for guidance," says Suchi Deshpande. "As a parent of neurodiverse kids, I know firsthand how challenging it is to navigate the educational landscape. Learnfully helps parents seamlessly get the support they need to unlock all learners' potential."

Learnfully raised $1.25 million in initial funding. Investors include Amol Deshpande, CEO & Co-Founder of Farmers Business Network, founder of Divergent Investments. Goodwater Capital, Incite.org, Figure Eight Investments and other investors also participated in the round.

"Learnfully is a mission-driven start-up focused on providing technology and specialists to children with learning differences," said Swati Mylavarapu, Founder of Incite.org "At Incite, we’re believers in Learnfully’s mission to better outcomes for neurodivergent learners and their families by empowering them with tailored support. Keely and I are proud to support Suchi and Letha in making this important mission central to the company they’re building.”

Learnfully is a win-win for educators and learners alike.

“Millennial families seek bespoke, digital-first learning solutions where they can access world class experts from the comfort of their homes,” said Diana Anthony, a K-12 teacher turned education investor, and Co-founder and Managing Partner of Figure Eight Investments. “Learnfully is bringing this model to neurodiverse learners and their families, providing them with unprecedented access to the educators and behavioral specialists that can transform their educational experience.”

Learnfully offers great benefits to professionals as well: they are matched with a learner that needs their skills and learns best with their teaching style. These learning sessions cater to the educator's schedule, so they can accommodate additional work. Educators, behaviorists, tutors, and therapists can all apply to join the platform. Accepted professionals gain unlimited support services, content resources, and access to an unparalleled educational community.

About Learnfully
Learnfully is on a mission to ignite learning and unlock the potential of every learner. Based in San Francisco, Learnfully is a tech-enabled personalized learning service, empowering all individuals to gain access to insights into the most effective learning approach and build a programming plan based on the expertise of educators. Through its groundbreaking tech platform, best-in-class learning assessment, and expert educator network, Learnfully delivers true engagement and tangible results for every learner.

Spotlight

Globibo's e-Learning Interactivity Levels enhance the learning experience with varying degrees of engagement.
Level 1 offers basic navigation and content display, while Level 2 includes quizzes and assessments. Level 3 incorporates interactive elements like drag-and-drop exercises, simulations, and branching scenarios. Level 4 brings gamification elements for increased motivation. Finally, Level 5 features immersive experiences with virtual reality and augmented reality.
With these diverse options, learners can interact and participate actively, ensuring effective and engaging learning journeys.


Other News
Talent Development

UWorld Launches Premier Online Learning Tools for the UKMLA Exam

PRnewswire | July 13, 2023

UWorld, a worldwide leader in online learning tools for high-stakes exams, today announced the launch of its U.K. Medical Licensing Assessment® (UKMLA®) test preparation resources. Aligned to the MLA Examination Blueprint, UWorld's new UKMLA AKT QBank provides educators and students with over a thousand clinically relevant questions developed by practicing doctors to complement existing medical curriculum. The UKMLA will be a new requirement for all medical students graduating in the academic year 2024-2025, replacing the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) exam. The exam will assess the fundamental knowledge, abilities, and behaviors required to practice safely as a doctor in the U.K. International Medical Graduate (IMG) students that wish to practice medicine in the U.K. will be required to take the MLA starting in January 2024 and U.K. medical students will be required to sit for the MLA starting with the 2024-2025 academic year. Designed to help students build effective study habits and improve test-taking endurance, UWorld offers practice questions that help prepare them for their high-stakes exams. UKMLA Study tools include vivid, context-specific illustrations and animations that deepen understanding of critical concepts. For each answer choice, UWorld provides concise, detailed rationales that describe the clinical reasoning behind correct and incorrect answers. Personalized performance reports and customizable flashcards ensure students recognize areas of weakness to help create efficient study sessions that maximize impact. For educators, UWorld provides tools that can be customized to supplement their medical curriculum. Formative and summative assessments can be built using UWorld's 1,500+ question bank. These questions are also easily integrated into presentation format for classroom learning. UWorld's gradebook and reporting tools for teachers provides valuable insight into classroom performance to easily identify knowledge gaps to ensure early-stage remediation and support. Additionally, students are able to continue learning on their own with access to the self-study student AKT QBank. "We are thrilled to offer U.K. medical students and educators our award-winning tools to help them succeed on the UKMLA," said Chandra S. Pemmasani, M.D., Founder and CEO of UWorld. "The expansion to the U.K. market is a natural next step after supporting more than 90% of all U.S. medical students in their preparation for the USMLE for more than 15 years. We are proud to offer content that is meticulously developed by subject matter experts, which underscores our commitment to providing resources of exceptional quality." UWorld aims to make difficult topics easy to understand so that learners at all levels are empowered to succeed in the testing room and to accomplish their career goals. About UWorld UWorld is the worldwide leader in online learning to prepare for high-stakes exams. Since 2003, UWorld has helped millions of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students prepare for their exams. At the core of UWorld's mission is an obsession with quality so that students receive only the best in learning resources. Whether students are preparing for the, ACT®, SAT®, College Board®, AP®, CFA®, CPA, MBE®, MCAT®, NAPLEX®/MPJE®/CPJE, NCLEX®, PANCE/PANRE, COMLEX®, USMLE®, ABIM®, or ABFM®, UWorld ensures success by using active learning methods. With challenging practice questions that mirror the real tests and unrivaled explanations, students can efficiently and effectively prepare for every topic on their exams.

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Talent Development

WuKong Education Awarded "Language Learning Innovation of the Year" By EdTech Breakthrough

PRnewswire | July 24, 2023

WuKong Education, a leading online education technology company with over 300,000 students worldwide, today announced that it has been selected as the winner of the "Language Learning Innovation of the Year" award in the 5th annual EdTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by EdTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies and solutions in the global educational technology market. WuKong Education's technological empowerment through game-like interactive homework functions provides students with a fun and engaging way to reinforce their learning. WuKong's scientific teaching method is based on New Zealand's Inquiry-Based Learning methodology and the 5C Core Competence Model, aimed at providing quality education in a more efficient manner. WuKong Chinese formed and followed a Chinese curriculum framework with four core programs: Pre-K Chinese, International Chinese, Advanced Chinese and Basic Chinese, with specialized sessions covering Chinese pinyin, idioms and readings, allowing students from different age groups to learn Chinese in an efficient manner. The company's rigorous teacher selection process ensures excellence, with more than 4,000 certified teachers graduating from top universities such as Harvard and Peking University. In addition, over 76% of WuKong's teachers have at least a master's degree, and most teach bilingually. WuKong is also comprised of a multicultural and multinational team, with employees from 11 countries and regions worldwide. "WuKong Education demonstrates a commitment to quality education, technological innovation, and multiculturalism. Their rigorous teacher selection process along with their scientific teaching method and commitment to empowering students through technology make them our choice for the 'Language Learning Innovation of the Year' award," said James Johnson, managing director, EdTech Breakthrough. "Exposing students to languages results in improved empathy by the introduction of customs and values belonging to a different society. Language learning is not just a means to communicate but helps develop a disposition to explore different perspectives." The mission of the EdTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of educational technology categories, including Student Engagement, School Administration, Adaptive Learning, STEM Education, Remote Learning, Career Preparation and many more. This year's program attracted more than 2,400 nominations from over 16 different countries throughout the world. "Thank you to the EdTech Breakthrough Awards for recognizing the quality of our courses, innovative teaching methods, and accomplished teachers," said WuKong Education's founder and CEO, Vicky Wang. "We ground our courses in evidence-based, child-friendly approaches that instill an initiative for learning, spark interest in the subject matter, and establish a strong foundation for future academic performance. Following the tremendous success of our Chinese courses, we're excited to expand our offerings to provide English courses as well. With our proven technology and expert teachers, we look forward to supporting students across the globe with inquiry-based online education." About WuKong Education</p> Headquartered in Silicon Valley, WuKong Education is the premier online education provider for students 3- to 18-years old. Since 2016, WuKong Education has been the first choice for families who want to provide their children with language and mathematics skills for future success in the 21st century. With more than 4,000 teachers around the globe and a dedicated curriculum team developing original courses for the platform, WuKong Education brings the best of online live classes and self-paced learning together in a single, interactive, engaging platform that is available anytime, anywhere. About EdTech Breakthrough Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the EdTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in educational technology products, companies and people. The EdTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough educational technology in categories including e-learning, student engagement, school administration, career preparation, language learning, STEM and more.

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Corporate Education and Training

ChildCare Education Institute Offers No-Cost Online Course on An Introduction to Learning Stories

Globenewswire | July 05, 2023

ChildCare Education Institute® (CCEI), an online child care training provider dedicated exclusively to the early care and education workforce, offers CUR134: An Introduction to Learning Stories as a no-cost trial course to new CCEI users July 1-31, 2023. A Learning Story is a record of what a caregiver has observed about a child or group of children. Learning Stories can use text, images, or videos in any combination. They usually focus on a specific moment in time but may also include an accumulation of a child′s experiences over an extended period. They can also focus on a group experience or a moment when children were engaged in learning experiences together. Learning Stories highlight children′s thinking skills, approaches to learning, and dispositions. Dispositions are described as characteristics or attitudes toward learning that children demonstrate. The retelling of an event becomes a Learning Story when the teacher adds their perspective or feedback about the child′s learning and development. This might include a description of the concrete skills the child demonstrated or a more theoretical perspective such as the child′s approach to learning. Learning Stories help teachers connect to the aspects of early education that bring them joy and fulfillment. Using Learning Stories can also help teachers nurture their love of teaching. The first-person format makes the documentation personal. The narrative format gives educators a chance to share their feelings about the steps in a child′s unique developmental journey. Rather than spending time identifying what children cannot do, teachers focus on documenting children′s success stories. This focus on success creates a positive mindset for both the children and the teacher. Reviewing Learning Stories with children helps teachers build emotional connections with children, which creates a nurturing, curious, and supportive learning environment. This course will introduce participants to Learning Stories, a powerful assessment tool in early childhood education. When fully embraced by educators, directors, and families, Learning Stories are a transformative approach to assessment. They deepen connections between teachers, families, children, and the broader community. Participants will discover the essential components of Learning Stories and how to develop each component. "Learning Stories create an understanding of both children and adults in a way that promotes further discussion and ongoing learning," says Leslie Coleman Education Director of CCEI. "They provide educators with a chance to share ideas, plan for future learning, and reflect on their practice." CUR134: An Introduction to Learning Stories is a two-hour, intermediate-level course and grants 0.2 IACET CEU upon successful completion. Current CCEI users with active, unlimited annual subscriptions can register for professional development courses at no additional cost when logged in to their CCEI account. Users without subscriptions can purchase child care training courses as block hours through CCEI online enrollment. About ChildCare Education Institute ChildCare Education Institute®, provides high-quality, distance education certificates and child care training programs in an array of child care settings. Over 200+ English and Spanish child care training courses are available online to meet licensing, recognition program, and Head Start requirements. CCEI also has online certification programs that provide the coursework requirement for national credentials including the CDA, Director and Early Childhood Credentials. CCEI, a Council for Professional Recognition approved training partner, is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and as an IACET Accredited Provider, offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.

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Online Education

EpicQuest Education's Davis College Announces Continued Articulation Agreement with Lourdes University

PRnewswire | July 06, 2023

EpicQuest Education Group International Limited , ("EpicQuest Education", "EEIQ" or the "Company"), a provider of comprehensive education solutions for domestic and international students seeking college and university degrees in the US, Canada and the UK, today announced that Davis College and Lourdes University will officially sign an Articulation Agreement (the "Agreement") signifying their continued academic partnership. Davis College President Diane Brunner and Lourdes University President William J. Bisset will officially sign the Agreement tomorrow, July 6th, at 10:30 am ET on the Lourdes University campus in Sylvania, Ohio. The purpose of the Agreement between Davis College and Lourdes University is to renew the transfer pathway for Davis College students where course credits earned at Davis College could be transferred and accepted by Lourdes University. As specified by the Agreement, certain transfer credits can be applied towards one of the baccalaureate degree programs offered by the Lourdes University College of Business and Leadership and allocated as per the programs' requirements. "Educational partnerships and articulation agreements such as this are vital to providing a seamless transfer for students looking to further their education and careers. We continue to focus on developing career training programming and partnerships with renowned universities that will expand our students' options in today's challenging job market. Davis College is committed to student success, and we are pleased to recommit to this partnership," commented Diane Brunner, President of Davis College. "The Lourdes University College of Business and Leadership has a long history of providing transfer pathways and articulation agreements for Davis College business graduates. We are so pleased to reaffirm our commitment to this region's higher education students and employers," added Jami Curley, Interim Dean of the Lourdes University College of Business and Leadership. In addition, the Agreement states that the faculty and staff of both Davis College and Lourdes University are encouraged to visit each institution to plan, survey, observe and/or participate in meetings with students and/or faculty. The Agreement will take effect in the Fall of 2023 and will be reviewed periodically to ensure any updates of courses applicable from either institution are reflected for accuracy. The Company believes that its academic partnership programs are important as they offer students a clear pathway for continued academic advancement and expanded career opportunities. Through articulation agreements with select universities, both Davis College and EduGlobal College students can pursue university degrees in a variety of fields. The Company's mission is to provide cost-effective and high-value academic experiences of a practical nature for its students. In addition, EEIQ's international collaborations offer enriched multicultural experiences that can help students reach their full potential and better prepare them for careers in the global economy. About EpicQuest Education Group International Limited EpicQuest Education Group International Limited ("EpicQuest Education" or the "Company") provides comprehensive education solutions for domestic and international students seeking university and college degrees in the US, Canada and the UK. The Company owns and operates EduGlobal College, based in British Columbia, Canada, which focuses on English proficiency educational programming for students pursuing academic degrees. The Company operates and is a 70% owner of Davis College, a career training college located in Toledo, Ohio. In addition, the Company has a recruiting relationship with the Miami University Regional campuses, where it maintains residential facilities, a full-service cafeteria, recreational facilities, shuttle buses and an office for the regional campuses that provides study abroad and post-study services for its students; these facilities are not owned, maintained, operated or are a part of Miami University. The Company is also a recruiting agent for the University of the West of Scotland (through The Education Group (London) Ltd) and Coventry University, both of which are located in the UK.

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Spotlight

Globibo's e-Learning Interactivity Levels enhance the learning experience with varying degrees of engagement.
Level 1 offers basic navigation and content display, while Level 2 includes quizzes and assessments. Level 3 incorporates interactive elements like drag-and-drop exercises, simulations, and branching scenarios. Level 4 brings gamification elements for increased motivation. Finally, Level 5 features immersive experiences with virtual reality and augmented reality.
With these diverse options, learners can interact and participate actively, ensuring effective and engaging learning journeys.

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