College Financing Platform Yelo Funding Raises $1.2M in Pre-Seed Round
Yelo Funding, a fintech startup aiming to provide college financing that is more equitable and better suited for students’ needs, announced that it has raised $1.2 million in its pre-seed round. With this fundraising, the New York-based company plans to launch its operations in select markets and provide financing for students’ college tuition, room and board.
Founded by Daniel Rubin, Yelo Funding offers a socially responsible solution to close the funding gap in higher education, reduces loan repayment, improves access to education, and helps students choose degree programs with favourable career outcomes. The platform also provides students with a flexible financing repayment schedule directly aligned with their employment status during the years after graduation.
Sharing about the company, Founder & CEO of Yelo Funding, Daniel Rubin, said:
The current debt burden on students’ lives is unsustainable, and higher education financing is now ripe for disruption. YELO aims to bridge the gap when more than lower-cost federal programs and scholarships are needed. We are investing in the next generation of students and have skin in the game. College education has unfortunately become a luxury product, but in 2023, it shouldn’t be a privilege to get an education; it should be a right. YELO makes access to education more equitable and helps students evaluate the career outcomes of degree programs, giving graduates a clear path to financial success and, of course, the means to repay.
Rather than offering private loans that can carry high-interest rates, with repayment terms that can extend as many as 25 years or more, the firm finances student tuition using a financial instrument known as an Income Share Agreement (ISA). ISA payments are tied to earnings rather than to a fixed principal amount. They are limited in time and capped at a maximum dollar amount.
Yelo’s mission is to address the growing student debt crisis in the United States, ultimately improving access to education and helping students make better career choices independent of their financial obligations.
Moodle 4.2 released with exciting features along with other minor releases
Moodle LMS has released the Moodle 4.2 version which includes many exciting features and improved efficiency. In addition, other minor versions are also updated with security fixes and enhancements.
The Moodle 4.2 version is the next Moodle version which is focused on improved User Experience. It includes many improvements e.g. Gradebook improvements, enhanced course design page, report builder enhancements.
You can download the latest version of Moodle LMS from the official website here or through GitHub repo.
Check out more details about the new versions released today in the released notes:
If you’re looking for a free and easy-to-use design tool for your classroom, Canva for Education is an excellent option. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and extensive library of templates and graphics, it’s an ideal platform for creating engaging presentations, posters, infographics, and more.
As an educator, you know how important it is to create visually engaging materials for your classroom. Whether you’re designing presentations, posters, or infographics, having the right tools can make all the difference in engaging and inspiring your students.
That’s where Canva for Education comes in. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and extensive library of templates and graphics, Canva for Education is an ideal platform for educators to create eye-catching materials for their students.
What is Canva for Education?
Canva for Education is a free online design platform educators love for its simple interface and vast library of ready-to-use templates and resources. It’s used by millions of users worldwide, including teachers, students, and educational institutions. Canva for Education offers all the features of Canva Pro but with added benefits specifically tailored for educators.
Best Features of Canva for Education?
Canva for Education includes all features of Canva Pro account with added benefits specifically for educators. These includes:
You can choose from hundreds of ready-to-use educational templates for every topic, subject, and grade.
You may use copyright-free photos, animations, videos, typefaces, and features to create exciting lessons and activities.
You can reach out and inspire students wherever they are. You can comment on your students’ work in real-time: share it, review it, and offer feedback.
Add text or visual sticker comments to demonstrate your appreciation for someone’s work.
Google Classroom, Schoology, Moodle, D2L, Blackboard, and Microsoft Teams are popular classroom tools that can readily be integrated into your lesson plans with Canva.
Who can apply for a Canva for Education account?
Any teacher or other staff member at a Qualified Educational Institution can apply for a 100% free Canva for Education account.
To access Canva for Education, you must be currently active in one of the following roles:
A certified K-12 (primary or secondary) teacher from a formally accredited school, who is currently in a teaching position
A certified K-12 (primary or secondary) school librarian
A certified K-12 (primary or secondary) learning support assistant or teacher
A certified K-12 (primary or secondary) curriculum specialist
A certified teacher at a technical or vocational school, serving primary and/or secondary students (or any equivalent)
Google Certified Educators (GCEs), Google Certified Trainers (GCTs), and Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIEs) who are teaching at a K-12 (primary or secondary) level
The following government recognized and formally accredited organizations can also access Canva for Education:
K-12 (primary, secondary, or pre-college) schools
School districts
Departments of education
Other global school systems
Please note that Canva for Education’s free edition is only intended for primary and secondary (K-12) educators and institutions, not higher schools.
What is the eligibility criteria to get a Canva for Education account?
If you don’t already have a Canva account under your current school email address, create one. If your school is already recognized as a qualified institution, you will get a Free Canva for Education account straightaway. However, you might still be asked to verify your teaching credentials.
Step by Step guide for getting a Canva for Education account
In case your school is not recognized, your application will take some time to process. Here’s how it works:
Sign up for Canva for Education with a verified educational email domain. You can also sign up with your school or district’s Clever, Microsoft, or Google account.
Follow the sign up prompts.
After signing up, select that you are a Teacher.
Click Get verified.
If you signed up with a verified educational email domain, you’ll get access right away.
If you didn’t sign up using an educational email domain, upload a photo or scanned copy of an approved document (see section below). We’ll review your application within 7 days.
Approved documents
Official teacher identification that shows status, like the following:
Photo or scan of a license/certification indicating teaching qualification
Photo or scan showing employment status at a school (e.g. letter of employment)
Photo or scan of school ID indicating teaching status
Document proving an organization’s status as a government recognized, formally accredited K-12 (primary, secondary, or pre-college) educational institution
FAQs on Canva for Education
Is Canva for Education free?
Canva for Education account is free for primary and secondary (K-12) educators. In addition, higher education institutions can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro.
Is Canva Pro free for students?
To help students develop their designs and graphics, Canva has teamed up with GitHub Education to provide the company’s most popular design tools. You’ll get a $119 value of a whole year of Canva Pro for FREE.
What if I already have a free Canva or Canva Pro account?
If you have an existing Canva account, you can easily upgrade to a Canva for Education account (https://www.canva.com/edu-signup/) by signing in with your education email address. This implies that all of your existing designs will be accessible.
How can students get a Canva for Education account?
It’s only accessible to K-12 students now. Students must be invited to Canva for Education by a teacher. Students at an Educational Institution can maintain the account during studentship and use Canva under the supervision of a registered teacher.
With a free Canva for Education account, you can unlock powerful design tools and create visually engaging materials for your classroom. Whether you’re creating presentations, posters, or infographics, Canva for Education is a versatile and user-friendly platform that can help take your teaching to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and start designing!
Class Technologies Inc., the global leader in synchronous virtual classrooms, today announced the acquisition of CoSo Cloud LLC, a technology and services company that provides secure private cloud managed services, custom software applications, and expert professional services for the Federal and Corporate markets.
The acquisition expands Class’ ability to support distributed workforce development and training with government and Federal agencies, and corporate learning teams globally, with added security and compliance protection regardless of the virtual classroom.
According to a press release, the combination of Class and CoSo will deliver workforce development solutions to both companies’ customers and the market at large:
Class brings its product and services expertise to the Higher Education and K-12 markets.
CoSo brings its managed services expertise, enriching enterprise applications for the Federal and Corporate markets where security and compliance are crucial requirements. This includes high-consequence meetings, virtual trainings, and eLearning platforms for the Federal government with FedRAMP authorization; and commercial certifications to comply with Federal regulations such as HIPAA, HITRUST, GDPR, IPEDA, and more.
With the addition of the CoSo team, Class will bring together an industry-leading team of technologists, compliance experts, and education experts that will serve 10M+ users representing 1,500+ institutions worldwide.
With the acquisition, CoSo will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Class and will continue to support a diverse range of virtual eLearning, high-consequence meetings, and training products, including Adobe Connect, Class, and Zoom. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Michael Chasen, co-founder and CEO of Class, said:
We are excited to expand our support for learning and development across the Federal and Corporate training markets. The acquisition of CoSo Cloud brings to Class substantial experience and proven expertise to broaden our reach to global corporations, Federal government agencies, and high-consequence businesses of all sizes.
Glen D. Vondrick, former CEO and now GM of CoSo Cloud, a Class company, said:
We are thrilled to join together with Class on a shared vision. Together, we are one global team united and capable of driving the next generation of virtual training, eLearning, and high-consequence meetings solutions to serve all industries and preferences of our customers.
Class is software developed by Class Technologies Inc., a company founded by edtech pioneer Michael Chasen. Class enables the secure and active learning of 10M+ users from 1,500+ institutions worldwide and is the largest provider of virtual classroom software for education.
Mesa School of Business Raises INR 34 Cr to build a cutting-edge application-based curriculum
With an aim to build India’s first business school focused on creating startup leaders, Mesa School of Business has raised INR 34 crores from Elevation Capital and notable angel investors. With the fresh funds, Mesa School of Business aims to build a cutting-edge, hands-on, and application-based curriculum, designed and delivered in partnership with startup leaders and potential future employers for a founding cohort of just 60 hand-picked students.
The company said the founding cohort will be a 12-month, full-time PG program in Startup Leadership, based out of Bangalore. The program is aimed at transforming young professionals by preparing them for the challenges of leadership roles in Indian startups. With access to founders and seasoned startup practitioners as mentors, students will get the opportunity to learn about running and scaling startups by building their own startup businesses as part of the coursework.
At the end of the program, students will get access to opportunities for leadership roles at top startups and technology companies in the country, the company said. Explaining the program, the founding team of Mesa School of Business said in a joint statement,
We believe startups will be responsible for creating the bulk of the new aspirational jobs in India, and yet there isn’t a b-school focused on preparing candidates to be successful in these leadership roles. This gap inspired us to start Mesa School. We have kept ‘learning by doing’ as the core principle of the program where every candidate will get to learn business directly from startup CXOs and practitioners, build startup businesses from scratch as part of coursework and deeply immerse themselves into Bangalore’s startup ecosystem. We have kept our inaugural cohort small at only 60 exceptional students to keep the experience personal, deliver an unparalleled learning experience and ensure strong outcomes for our students.
The program will also focus on individual leadership growth for students with 200+ hours of leadership workshops with army veterans, communication & stage presence hackathons with coaches & theatre artists, and 1:1 industry mentorship.
The campus is strategically located in Bangalore with 500+ startup offices within a 5 km radius, providing unprecedented access for students to the startup ecosystem and its prominent leaders. Additionally, the campus will offer a state-of-the-art, immersive learning, and living space for students to build lifelong peer and industry connections through 20+ boot camps & hackathons to learn, get feedback from, and network with top startup CEOs in new-age industries and skill areas like EV, B2B SAAS, Open-AI applications, Design Thinking & UI/UX for leaders, Product & Growth Hacking, Agritech, Building for Bharat, etc.
Commenting on the investment, Mukul Arora, Managing Partner, Elevation Capital, said,
We believe there is a clear opportunity to build new age, outcome-focused higher-ed institutes in India. Therefore we could immediately relate to Ankit and Varun’s vision of building a business school of the future, focussed on entrepreneurship and the start-up ecosystem. Their long-term orientation and their focus on creating a very high-quality experience and outcome for students really stood out for us. We are thrilled to partner with them on this journey to create an iconic Indian higher-ed institution.
Top tips for educators to use Google Classroom in 2023
Google Classroom has become an essential tool for educators around the world, providing an easy-to-use platform for organizing assignments, communicating with students, and facilitating online learning. In this post we will see the top tips for educators to make the most of Google Classroom.
Google Classroom provides an easy-to-use platform for educators to manage their classes, assignments, and communication with students all in one place. With the ability to create, distribute, and grade assignments, provide feedback, and engage in class discussions, Google Classroom makes it simple for teachers to provide a personalized and interactive learning experience for their students.
Additionally, Google Classroom allows for seamless integration with other Google tools, providing endless possibilities for creating engaging and interactive lessons. With its accessibility and convenience, Google Classroom has become an essential tool for educators looking to enhance their teaching and streamline their workflow.
Top tips for educators to use Google Classroom
Use templates for consistent organization: You can save time and keep your Google Classroom organized by using templates for your assignments, announcements, and questions. You can use Canva for Education to create many wonderfully looking templates.
Utilize Google Meet for virtual office hours: You can also make yourself available to students for questions and discussions on classroom topics by hosting virtual office hours through Google Meet.
Use the comment bank for efficient grading: You can create a set of comments to use on Student assignments and use it for grading student assignments.
Enable the originality report for plagiarism prevention: You can run the originality report on assignments to ensure that students are submitting original work. The reports compare the submissions files against webpages and books on the internet.
Utilize the “Ask a question” feature for class discussions: As an educator you can encourage class discussions by using the “Ask a question” feature to spark conversation and allow students to share their thoughts.
Set up a class website with Google Sites: Use Google Sites to create a class website, providing students with access to essential information such as the syllabus, class schedule, and important dates.
Use Google Forms for formative assessment: Use Google Forms to create quizzes and assessments to monitor student progress and adjust your teaching accordingly.
Create collaborative projects with Google Docs: Foster collaboration and teamwork by having students work on group projects using Google Docs.
Use the Google Classroom mobile app for on-the-go teaching: Use the Google Classroom mobile app to communicate with students, grade assignments, and manage your classroom from anywhere.
Integrate other Google tools for enhanced learning experiences: Utilize other Google tools such as Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Drawings to create interactive and engaging learning experiences for your students.
What are the other useful Google Classroom tips which you want to share with other educators around the world. Please share with us in the comments section below.
Moodle Educators - Use PCast plugin to create Podcast in your Moodle course
Moodle LMS allows you to extend the features by using the Moodle plugins. There are more than 2k free plugins in the official repository. In this post, we will see how you can use the Moodle PCast plugin which allows you to easily create, upload, and manage podcasts right in your Moodle course.
Podcasts are a wonderful way to deliver content to students, especially those who prefer audio-based learning. The PCast plugin allows Moodle users to upload audio files and create podcast feeds, which can be subscribed to by students through their favorite podcast apps.
One of the excellent features of PCast plugin is its flexibility. Moodle users can create podcasts for individual courses or for the entire Moodle site. This allows for a variety of uses, such as delivering course lectures, sharing interviews with experts, or even creating a school-wide podcast for announcements and news.
You can download the PCast plugin from the official repository here. In case you are new to Moodle, please follow this guide to learn how to install a Moodle plugin.
Another useful feature of PCast plugin is its integration with other Moodle plugins. For example, Moodle users can use it with the Assignment activity to create podcasts as an assignment for students. This is a wonderful way to encourage student engagement and creativity, as students can create and share their own podcasts with their peers.
Pcast also includes features for managing podcast feeds. Moodle users can easily add, edit, and delete podcast episodes and feeds, as well as set the frequency of podcast updates. This makes it easy to keep students up to date with the latest content.
Finally, Pcast includes accessibility features to ensure that all students can access the podcast content. Moodle users can add captions and transcripts to podcast episodes, making them accessible to students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Additionally, it supports the creation of audio descriptions, which can be used to describe visual content to students who are blind or have low vision.
To add a new Podcast activity to your course:
Click the “Turn editing on” button.
Select Pcast from the “Add an activity” dropdown menu.
On the Adding a new pcast page give your new pcast a descriptive name.
Describe the purpose of the pcast, provide instructions or background information, links etc. in the Description area.
Select the general and grade options and the common module settings.
Click the “Save changes” button at the bottom of the page.
What are the other Moodle plugins which you would like to recommend to other Moodles around the world. Please share with us in the comments section below.
Employee Morale Platform Loopin Raises $2M in Seed Funding
Loopin, a UK-based HRTech startup providing an employee morale platform, has recently raised $2 million (£1.6 million) in seed funding from angel investors. With these funds, the company plans to develop its platform further and bring morale to the workplace. It’s yet to roll out its coaching platform to the public.
Founded by two former Royal Marine Commandos, Ben Williams and Antony Thompson, Loopin is a tool for managers to keep track of and motivate their staff. Employees provide updates on their progress and general status, which managers can view in a feed. It uses NLP and ChatGPT to assess the team’s mood and generate predictive behavioural analytics, measuring and forecasting team morale.
The company already has 40 paying customers, including Reed, Farfetch, and JD Sports. Loopin aims to help 1 million employees boost performance and reduce team turnover by 2028. Speaking about the company, Co-founder & CEO of Loopin, Ben Williams, said:
As a former Royal Marine, I know first-hand that teams with high morale can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Coaching business leaders after leaving the Royal Marines, I was stunned to find that they had no way to measure and manage morale across the organization in real time. We built Loopin because morale is a metric on every board’s list of core KPIs. We’re excited to roll out Early Access to help more companies that care about their people and their performance.
Commenting on the fundraising, Stuart Neal, former General Manager of Boku Identity and Chairman of Loopin, added:
This seed funding has been raised from angel investors who have founded and led companies – and who understand the value of what Loopin has built. At any one time, a staggering 45% of employees actively think of leaving their job. The average cost of replacing an employee is £30,000, so the price businesses are paying for low morale is huge. Loopin has developed the first-ever metric for measuring morale, and, combined with cutting-edge Generative AI; it’s going to transform the way all successful companies operate.
Headquartered in Bristol, Loopin plans to eventually take anonymized data from companies to allow them to benchmark themselves against other similar external organizations. The firm believes it will almost become a marketplace for morale and performance coaching inside businesses.
'MindPrint Learning' Partners With Digital Promise to expand opportunities for each learner
MindPrint Learning, the only evidence-based MTSS solution for K–12 schools based on objective cognitive data, has announced a significant partnership with Digital Promise, a global nonprofit working to expand opportunities for each learner, according to the press statement.
Following the key partnership, MindPrint also announced its 2 million financing round led by Martinson Ventures. The round also saw participation from Edulab Capital Partners, Scout Fund, and individual EdTech investors Mike Bingle, Jean Hammond, Gillian Prozes, and Susan Wolford. MindPrint Learning plans to utilize the funds to fuel its growth beyond its core northeast market.
The Walton Family Foundation funded the research partnership with Digital Promise. It aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of MindPrint Learning’s solution in improving teacher self-efficacy, student self-efficacy, and student achievement in nine districts representing more than 5,000 students and 500 teachers.
Speaking on the partnership, Senior Director of Digital Promise’s Learner Variability Project, Barbara Pape, said:
We are excited to work with MindPrint Learning to explore how supporting teachers’ understanding of learner variability could make a difference teacher efficacy and student outcomes. MindPrint Learning’s unique approach to supporting student cognitive variability helps a universal classroom challenge.
Mindprint provides insight into how each student learns best so educators can deliver instruction in the most accessible format for that student to understand and retain. With its one-hour, cloud-based self-administered assessment, the startup can accurately measure a student’s core learning skills in executive functions, complex reasoning, memory, and processing. These skills are the foundation for learning across academic subjects, developing good study habits, and social-emotional well-being. It aims to ensure every child’s strengths are accurately understood so they can reach their full potential.
The company pinpoints how students learn best, enabling teachers to provide simple, effective differentiation in Tier 1 and personalized learning plans in Tier 2. Hundreds of schools, colleges, and tutoring organizations worldwide use the platform to improve academic outcomes, support social and emotional skills, and increase student engagement.
Chief Executive Officer of MindPrint Learning, Nancy Weinstein, added:
We look forward to showcasing how MindPrint accelerates student achievement, regardless of zip code. Based on over 20 years of cognitive research, our methodology works for all types of schools—urban, suburban, and rural— and for students at all performance levels—gifted, struggling academically, or anywhere in between. We are so grateful to the Walton Family Foundation for their generosity in funding this efficacy research.
Digital Promise works with educators, researchers, technology leaders, and communities to design, investigate, and scale up innovations that empower learners, especially those who have been historically and systematically excluded. The company aims to shape the future of learning and advance equitable education systems by bringing together solutions across research, practice, and technology.
What is Canva and How to use it for Education? Tips & Tricks
Canva is a user-friendly graphic design platform that has gained immense popularity over the years. It is widely used in businesses and marketing, but Canva’s potential in education is often overlooked. With Canva, teachers can create visually appealing presentations, infographics, posters, and other classroom materials with ease. In this article, let’s dive into what Canva is and how it can be used for education.
What is Canva?
Canvais a graphic design tool that works to simplify the process of digital design. You can create an account easily and everything works either via a web browser or on the iOS or Android apps. Canva allows for image editing, Video Editing, Financial Literacy, and project-based learning using a simple drag-and-drop interface that works well even for younger students. From brainstorming as a group working collaboratively to individual project creation, it has lots of potential uses in the classroom.
How to use Canva for Education?
Canva provides a variety of templates for unique design needs. These templates are customizable, allowing users to change colors, fonts, images, and other design elements to fit their needs. The platform also provides a library of over 1 million stock photos, illustrations, and icons that can be used in designs. Canva’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for users to create designs without any coding or design skills.
Canva can be a valuable tool for educators looking to create engaging and visually appealing classroom materials. Here are some ways in which Canva can be used in education:
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Presentations – Canva offers a range of presentation templates that can be used to create dynamic and engaging presentations. Teachers can customize these templates to fit their specific needs, adding images, graphs, and other design elements to make their presentations more visually appealing.
Creative Infographics – Infographics are a wonderful way to present complex information in a visually appealing way. Canva offers a wide range of customizable infographic templates that can be used to create visually stunning infographics.
Posters and Flyers – Canva offers a variety of poster and flyer templates that can be used to create promotional materials for school events, classroom decorations, and more.
Social Media Posts – Teachers can use Canva to create eye-catching social media posts to promote classroom activities or to share important information with students and parents.
Collaborative Projects – Canva’s collaborative feature allows multiple users to work on the same design project simultaneously. This can be a great way for students to work together on group projects and assignments.
Student Engagement – Using Canva to create visually appealing classroom materials can help to engage students and make learning more fun. Visual aids are known to improve learning outcomes and help students retain information better.
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What are the best Canva features?
Canva is crammed full of exciting features but let’s share the best from an educator’s point of view:
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Use for Screencasting – This is one of the most useful feature for teachers in Canva. You can use Canva to record your screen and share the video’s with your team as well as students. There is no need to turn towards another software for your screen recording tasks.
Subject Specific templates – Recently Canva for Education introduced Financial literacy templates in partnership with NGPF. Similarly, there are thousands of subject specific templates available to get started e.g. Earth Day templates.
Edit your images easily – With its inbuilt AI powered technology, Canva for education can be used to edit your images. You can easily remove anything from your image as well as replace it with the Canva’s Magic Edit feature.
Write your classroom lessons with Magic Write – Magic Write is Canva’s AI based writer which can help you get started from a blank page. All you need to do is to enter your goal in the prompt and it will create the content for you.
Convert your documents into presentations – As a teacher how many times you are caught converting your data from documents into presentations. Canva Docs has this wonderful feature inbuilt which can convert your data in Canva Docs into aesthetically pleasing presentations within seconds.
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How much does Canva cost?
Canva is free to use both personally and in a classroom. While that does offer a whole host of tools and features, there are more that can be accessed with a paid for Canva Pro or Enterprise account. As an educator you can sign up for free of cost for Canva for Education account which allows all features available in Pro account.
Canva Free plan gets you more than 250,000 templates, more than 100 design types, hundreds of thousands of photos and graphics, collaboration, and 5GB of cloud storage.
Canva Pro is available for $119.99/year per person. It offers all free features as well as Image/Video background remover, 1 TB cloud storage, Beat Sync to match your video footage to your sound track, Schedule Social media posts, 100+ million premium stock photos & videos and 24/7 customer support.
Canva also offers Canva for teams which starts from $149.90/year for team of 5 people. The Canva for teams allows all features of Canva Pro as well as it allow the teams to collaborate with ease through real time comments and tasks assignment.
Conclusion
Canva is a powerful tool that can be used to create visually appealing classroom materials and engage students in the learning process. With its user-friendly interface and extensive library of templates, Canva is a valuable tool for educators at all levels. Whether you’re creating presentations, infographics, posters, or social media posts, Canva makes it easy to create professional-looking designs without any design skills. Give it a try and see how it can transform your classroom materials.
Overall, the use of Canva in education has numerous benefits. It helps teachers create visually appealing classroom materials and promotes student engagement. With its collaboration feature, Canva can also be used as a tool for group assignments.
