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San Francisco-Based Reach Capital Raises $215M to Invest in Education Startups

By
Jaswinder Singh
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San Francisco-Based Reach Capital Raises $215M to Invest in Education Startups
San Francisco-Based Reach Capital Raises $215M to Invest in Education Startups

Reach Capital, one of the first venture firms to focus exclusively on EdTech, announced that it has closed $215 million in fresh Capital for its fourth fund, the largest in its history, bringing its total raised to $570 million. With these funds, the San Francisco-based startup plans to back companies in the US and abroad, especially in Latin America.

Co-founded by Jennifer Carolan, Shauntel Garvey, Wayee Chu, and Esteban Sosnik in 2015, Reach Capital is a thesis-driven, sector-focused, early-stage EdTech investor. Since its inception, the company has intentionally built an expansive network of investment expertise, support partners, and resources for the EdTech community. The firm has funded 120 EdTech startups in total. Some of them have since been acquired by larger companies like Renaissance, Turnitin and Chegg or have billion-dollar valuations themselves.

According to Shauntel Garvey, for years, the firm has successfully spotted startups at the helm of technological disruptions that have spilled into the American classroom. From introducing iPads as a learning tool for K-12 students to the rise of AI-based teaching assistants, Reach Capital has financed companies that have helped teachers and students use these devices and technologies efficiently.

Speaking about the company, Co-founder of Reach Capital, Shauntel Garvey, said:

The firm looks for early signs that customers will adopt a product. Sometimes that could mean traction that a startup’s development has received on Twitter. We want the tools people use for teaching and learning to mimic the tools we use in our everyday lives.

With a team of 15 diverse partners and employees, the startup has been ranked as one of the most varied investment firms in the country. The platform focuses on seed, Series A and Series B rounds. Over the last decade, it claims to have invested in more than 130 education startups, sat on more than 75 boards, supported 23 companies through acquisitions and hosted 13 annual Founders’ Day convenings.

Reach Capital also announced its first founder’s fund, through which 40 participating founders can invest in and mentor founders of other startups.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Generate Multiple-choice questions from text using QuestionWell

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Create AI-generate multiple-choice questions from text using QuestionWell
Create AI-generate multiple-choice questions from text using QuestionWell

How many times as an educator you felt that you are trapped in writer’s block while creating questions. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools, you can now create Multiple-Choice questions easily. In this post we will see a new such tool named – Questionwell and how you can use it.

The new tool – Questionwell is an AI based tool which can create Multiple choice questions from a piece of text. Then, Questionwell will create a number of learning objectives, creates essential questions to guide student learning, and creates multiple-choice assessment questions.

The most important thing is that you can export the questions created into vide variety of formats supported in different LMS’s. You can export the questions in various formats for Quizziz, Kahoot, Canvas, Gimkit, Blooket, and more.

You can access the QuestionWell tool here – https://www.questionwell.org The tool is free to use with a Google user account.

Create AI-generate multiple-choice questions from text using QuestionWell
Creating Questions using Questionwell

How to use Questionwell

To create your Multiple-Choice Questions using QuestionWell, please follow the steps:

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  • Navigate to https://app.questionwell.org/ and Click Get Started.
  • Login with your Google account on the next screen.
  • Enter your topic, Subject & grade and Paste your text in the Reading field.
  • Optionally, you can click more options and enter your Learning Objectives.
  • You can also choose your Language. It offers English, Spanish, French, German, Latin & Russian.
  • Click Generate Set button and wait for around 30 seconds.
  • The AI takes the text, pulls out several learning objectives, and creates essential questions to guide student learning.
  • The numbers next to the LO show the number of questions generated and the number of those questions that is currently “selected”.
  • To add a question to your quiz, simply click the + button in the top left corner.
  • Export the selected questions according to your required format.
  • Optionally you can also include the answers.

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Overall, it seems a very handy tool to quickly create multiple choice questions for your online class. I recommend you try it and share your views.

What are the other tools you are using to create MCQ questions? Please share with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle Teachers – Let students reflect on their learning using the Diary plugin

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Moodle Teachers - Let students reflect on their learning using the Diary plugin
Moodle Teachers - Let students reflect on their learning using the Diary plugin

Moodle LMS is one of the most flexible and customizable learning management system in the world. It has been used by more than 350 million users across the world. Best thing about Moodle is that you can add new features using Moodle plugins. In this post, I will share about the Diary plugin which can be used to let the students reflect on their learning every day.

The Diary plugin is based on the Journal plugin, but it allows you to post multiple entries in the diary every day. Each entry can be individually reviewed, provided with feedback, and graded, with overall rating results being shown based on the selected aggregate type of rating.

You can download the latest version of the Diary plugin from the official plugin’s repository here. In case you are new to Moodle, please go through this guide to learn how to install a Moodle plugin. The plugin is compatible with all Major Moodle versions. It is one of the most actively maintained Moodle plugins.

Once installed you can add a Diary activity in your Moodle course by going to the Editing Mode and choosing Diary from ‘Add an Activity or Resource’.

The diary activity allows you to have automatic time released prompts with each one having its own auto-rating settings. Auto-rating for each writing prompt can use characters, words, sentences, or paragraphs for automatic rating of the entry. All the teacher needs to do for the automatic rating is click a button to add the results to the entry’s feedback, then save all the feedback.

You can setup the diary to have a min/max combination of characters, words, sentences, or paragraphs to track revision progress of a student’s writing.

Overall, Diary plugin has lot of benefits for the blended learning environment, and it can help you increase student’s retention.

Have you used the Diary plugin? Please share with us the creative use of this plugin for your course in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Paper Acquires Readlee to Enhance Literacy Crisis With Artificial Intelligence

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Paper Acquires Readlee to Enhance Literacy Crisis With Artificial Intelligence
Paper Acquires Readlee to Enhance Literacy Crisis With Artificial Intelligence

Paper, the leading Educational Support and tutoring provider, has recently acquired Readlee, an innovative learning tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and speech recognition technology to help students improve their reading skills.

Paper’s acquisition of Readlee will allow the two companies to combine their expertise and resources to develop even more innovative solutions to the literacy crisis.

Co-founded by Philip Cutler and Roberto Cipriani, Paper offers an unlimited, on-demand Educational Support System (ESS) that includes 1:1 virtual tutoring, a Review Center for writing assignments, MajorClarity college and career support, Paper Reading, and Paper Missions —a math gamification tool to hone essential skills. The platform’s highly qualified educators provide an instructional framework emphasizing inquiry-based learning to empower students to pursue lifelong learning and prepare for life after school. Multilingual academic support is available in English, Spanish, French, and Mandarin.

Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder & CEO of Paper, Philip Cutler, said:

This acquisition reflects our commitment to providing the academic support that empowers students throughout every stage of their learning journey. Improving literacy proficiency is an essential component of our mission, and we believe research-backed technology and repeated practice are the keys to addressing the mounting literacy crisis.

Post the acquisition, Readlee will become Paper Reading, fully integrated into Paper’s ESS (educational support system) and available to over 3 million students nationwide. The tool listens to students as they read aloud and provides immediate feedback, individualized support, and measurable success. The platform uses the latest in AI, speech recognition, and learning science, which shows that reading aloud improves memory, vocabulary, and confidence.

Cutler further added:

We are excited to join our forces and aligned missions to have an even bigger impact on students. Our teams are already working together to change the future of education. Our mission is to help create a world where everyone can read, learn, and become a success.

The startup serves over 3 million students from about 300 unique school districts across 41 US states and Canada. Its recent statewide partnerships with Mississippi and Tennessee added about 200 additional sections to this total. Speaking about the latest development, Co-founder of Readlee and Paper’s Head of Impact, Drew Madson, said:

Literacy is the foundation of transformational education. A lifetime of opportunity is lost when a person can’t read. Paper shares our commitment to positively impacting the literacy rate and improving learners’ confidence nationwide.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

US-Based Learneo Acquires Multilingual Writing Assistant LanguageTool

By
Jaswinder Singh
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US-Based Learneo Acquires Multilingual Writing Assistant LanguageTool
US-Based Learneo Acquires Multilingual Writing Assistant LanguageTool

Learneo, an ambitious new platform of productivity and learning businesses and technologies, recently announced its acquisition of LanguageTool, a Germany-based multilingual writing platform for English, Spanish, and 30 other languages.

With this deal, LearningTool will join the six existing brands CliffsNotes, Course Hero, LitCharts, QuillBot, Scribbr and Symbolab. According to Learneo, the acquisition bolsters the company’s suite of writing solutions and ”advances the company’s larger international expansion strategy”. LanguageTool brings its 60.000 paying subscribers and millions of free users.

Speaking about the acquisition, Co-founder & CEO of Learneo, Andrew Grauer, said:

We are committed to supporting builder-driven businesses that help people learn and do more, faster, better, and more affordably—wherever learning occurs. The LanguageTool business fits squarely in our investment thesis. It accelerates our mission thanks to their values-aligned and ambitious co-founders, their broad customer reach of B2C and B2B clients across the globe, and their unique language and AI expertise.

Started by Daniel Naber, LanguageTool offers multilingual grammar, style and spell-checking on the web as browser extensions and applications. The company has created Office plugins and extensions for specific purposes, including email. It aims to unleash professional writing skills in every one of its users.

At LanguageTool, transparency and openness are its primary values. The startup made its core technology available as open-source software to substantiate this. This not only allows anyone to review it and contribute to it but also enables the users to set up their own LanguageTool server wherever they want.

Founder of LanguageTool, Daniel Naber, commented:

Having built LanguageTool over the last 20 years, it has been exciting to find a partner so clearly aligned with our mission who also understands our advanced technology and can support our continued innovation in a moment of rapid technological evolution. Joining the Learneo team and having the ability to work alongside talent with phenomenal writing and AI expertise to accelerate our vision has been a dream come true. We are deeply motivated by the possibilities that lie ahead.

Co-founded by Andrew Grauer Gregor Carrigan, As a platform of businesses, Learneo helps create mobility and opportunity across the portfolio. The company believes meaningful progress brings shared understanding, opportunity, and work. It builds fellowship with one another to help each entrepreneur drive their business to exponential success and impact. Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, the platform is a virtual-first organization with US, Canada, Israel, India, and the Netherlands office hubs.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

SpeakIn Partners With NSDC to Offer Upskilling to Students and Corporate Professionals

By
Jaswinder Singh
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SpeakIn Partners With NSDC to Offer Upskilling to Students and Corporate Professionals
SpeakIn Partners With NSDC to Offer Upskilling to Students and Corporate Professionals

SpeakIn, Asia’s leading digital platform for professional learning, has joined hands with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Under the programme, 12 live-learning sessions are delivered over the year to help early career professionals and students ready to climb the corporate ladder, delivered by top global CXOs and thought leaders. The live sessions focus on four pillars of professional success – people management, self-development, organizational understanding, and communication.

As a part of this collaboration, NSDC and SpeakIn will jointly provide certification upon completing the programme. With marquee clients like Accenture, SAP, Shell, VISA, Omron, BCG and more, SpeakIn is at a hyper-scale stage backed by a rock-solid mobile and web platform.

Speaking on the partnership, Chief Executive Officer (officiating) of NSDC, Ved Mani Tiwari, said:

As the corporate world rapidly evolves, upskilling has become vital for success. Technology and business models are quickly changing, so keeping up with the latest trends and developments in the job market is essential. NSDC’s partnership with SpeakIn aims to empower students and early-career professionals to achieve their full potential. As part of SpeakIn’s Pro program, top global CXOs and thought leaders will impart knowledge on four pillars of professional success. We are hopeful that this collaboration will play a key role in bridging the gap between academia and the job market.

Founded in 2018 by Deepshikha Kumar Anand, SpeakIn aims to transform executive education and the professional learning landscape by connecting the world’s best coaches and mentors with learners. Headquartered in Singapore, the startup delivers learning over 500 topics taught by over 18,000 global experts. Over 400 enterprise clients and 1.5 million professional learners across eight countries have learnt on the platform through 1-on-1 coaching, group speaker sessions and self-paced videos, blogs and podcasts—all delivered by SpeakIn experts.

Founder & CEO of SpeakIn, Deepshikha Kumar, added:

Most early career professionals need help understanding the nuances of how things work in the corporate world and how their role fits into the larger organizational success and structure. SpeakIn Pro is meant to solve just that. The Focus of this program is to help students become ready for the job market and help early career professionals to understand what it takes for them to grow in the hierarchy. All this while they learn from top corporate leaders, CEOs and more, at the same time getting a prestigious upskilling stamp from NSDC providing added credibility to the highest quality of learning. I am delighted that SpeakIn partners with NSDC’s vision of upskilling India’s aspirational youth and workforce.

National Skill Development Corporation aims to promote skill development by creating large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. The organization offers funding to build scalable and profitable vocational training initiatives. It catalyzes skill development by funding enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. The platform also develops appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Join InnovateEDU 2023 from May 19 -20, 2023 in Johannesburg

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Join InnovateEDU 2023 from May 19 -20, 2023 in Johannesburg
Join InnovateEDU 2023 from May 19 -20, 2023 in Johannesburg

The InnovateEDU 2023 – South Africa’s STEAM -focused teacher professional development conference will be held on May 19-20 in Johannesburg. The edtech conference will be a key opportunity for all teachers to focus on students learning.

InnovateEDU 2023 will replace the previous conference EdTechTeam Summits. This year, there will be a team of international education experts—not only in ed tech, but also in innovative STEAM pedagogy.

The edtech conference will be held in Steyn City School, Fourways, Johannesburg. InnovateEdu 2023 will be a perfect opportunity to reunite with your professional learning family, connect with friends and make new ones, and re-ignite your passion for teaching and learning at this live, in-person professional learning event.

The attendees will choose from half-day, deep-dive workshops that transform teaching and enable them to engage in deep learning that transfers back to their classroom and school.

The tickets for the InnovateEDU 2023 are on sale and you can register first to avail the Early Bird discounts. Here are the tickets pricing:

  • First 150 tickets* (“Early Bird”) — R 1,600 exVAT
  • Group of Five (or more!) rate — R 1,800 exVAT
  • Standard Ticket rate — R 2,050 exVAT

You can register your seat for the edtech conference here.

For more details and complete information, please check out the event website here.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Chicago-based Edtech Company Innovare Raises $2M in Additional Seed Funding

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Chicago-based Innovare Raises $2M in Additional Seed Funding
Chicago-based Innovare Raises $2M in Additional Seed Funding

Chicago-based EdTech company, Innovare, announced that it has raised $2M in additional seed funding. The company will use the new funds to continue to scale its impact on education leadership via its cloud-based strategy and analytics platform Inno.

Investors in this round include Cleveland Avenue of Chicago,Mexico City/Austin-based Dux Capital, Chicago-based Tawani Ventures, and returning investor Portfolia‘s Rising America Fund of San Francisco, among others. 

Innovare was founded in 2017 to meet the unique needs of K-12 education administrators and executives in nonprofits. The company’s web-based application Inno™ aggregates the siloed data of K-12 schools such as student information systems, standardized assessments, attendance, reading and math ed-tech programs, and spreadsheets, into one personalized dashboard.

The platform enables leadership teams to develop data-driven strategies, build a continuous improvement culture, and measure real-time impact using the synthesized data. In nonprofit organizations, the application is used by executive directors and boards to visualize impact data, manage key initiatives, and measure program ROI.

AJ DeLeón, Co-Founder and CEO said:

We are proud to inspire additional venture interest in our platform; given the current economic environment, we’re more committed than ever to leverage our technology to ensure the impact of education and philanthropic investments across the US and beyond

Andrea Zopp, Managing Partner of the CAST US Fund of Cleveland Avenue stated,

Innovare’s cutting edge analytics and strategy platform not only enables educators to better access and understand the massive amounts of student related data they receive, but also removes the silos between various data sources allowing for strategic analysis and impactful use. We are excited to support Innovare’s continued growth and critically important work, which drives improved outcomes for students.

Innovare will use the capital raised to continue to grow across the largest education markets in the United States. The company will also enhance its proprietary platform’s IP by launching a new version of its app Inno™ that will make data aggregation and analysis seamless and will leverage machine learning to provide strategic planning insights. Innovare’s future roadmap includes the launch of the first edtech marketplace to match educators with vetted solutions to their most pressing problems.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Moodle Teachers – Create Multi-Language content for your course easily using Multi-Language Content plugin

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Moodle Teachers - Create Multi-Language content for your course easily using Multi-Language Content plugin
Moodle Teachers - Create Multi-Language content for your course easily using Multi-Language Content plugin

Moodle LMS is fully customizable and flexible in adapting the requirements of online learning for a wide variety of institutions. It works well with schools, colleges, medical education, universities, corporates, and many others. In this post, I will show you how you can create your course content in different languages to address the requirements of learners coming from different regions.

Imagine, you are a language teacher, and you want the course content to be visible in Language X for students coming from region XX and language Y for students coming from region YY. Moodle doesn’t have any inbuilt translation mechanism, but it has filter plugin which can help you with this.

The Multi-Language Content plugin is a TinyMCE editor plugin which is the default editor in the upcoming Moodle 4.2 version. The plugin will add a new button to the TinyMCE editor toolbar through which you can easily create content in different languages.

You can download the Multi-language Content plugin from the official Moodle plugins directory here. In case you are new to Moodle, please follow this guide to learn how to install Moodle plugins. However, this plugin needs the Multi-Language Content Filter plugin installed.

After the installation there is a new Button (with a globe icon) and a menu entry in the Format section where you can select a language. Clicking on a language entry adds a language opening and closing tag to your text at the current cursor position. If there is a selection, then the language tags are places around the selection. In case you use the highlighting option, and see the yellow language tags, you may click one of these tags then select a new language from the menu and that will change the language of the existing tag. You may also remove it by
hitting the backspace or delete key. This will remove the tag, and its counterpart in case the formatting is correct.

Here is a brief screencast showing how you can create multi-Language content in Moodle (Without this plugin):

This plugin can save you a good chunk of time in case you are using Moodle for language teaching. You can easily add the language tags around your content to serve for different language students.

How are you creating your content for different languages? Please share with us in the comments section below.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

Online Healthcare Platform MedCerts Partners With Lifetime Learning by Ball State University

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Online Healthcare Platform MedCerts Partners With Lifetime Learning by Ball State University
Online Healthcare Platform MedCerts Partners With Lifetime Learning by Ball State University

MedCerts, the innovation leader in online career training in allied health and information technology and a subsidiary of Stride, Inc, an EdTech company that provides online and blended education programs, recently announced a new partnership with the non-credit division of a major public research university; Lifetime Learning by Ball State.

Founded in 2009, MedCerts offers short-term training for IT and healthcare certifications to get one into a higher-paying career fast. The platform has helped over 50,000 students gain credentials and start new careers. The startup has partnered with private universities, public universities, and employers, intending to help students find pathways to well-paying, in-demand jobs and fill workforce vacancies.

As a part of this partnership, several certificate training programs are now offered in the Lifetime Learning by Ball State catalog, including Phlebotomy Technician, Surgical Technician, Cisco CCNA Network Associate, and Cloud Computing Technician.

Speaking on the collaboration, Assistant Vice Provost of Lifetime Learning by Ball State, Amy Barsha, said:

At Ball State, we are excited to accelerate opportunities in the healthcare and IT fields. We’re addressing talent gaps with real solutions through convenient online, industry-recognized certifications and career training, funding opportunities to help pay for courses, and career success coaching.

Chief Executive Officer of MedCerts, Craig Sprinkle, added:

We are pleased that Ball State has chosen MedCerts as a student training option. As a Ball State graduate, I know first-hand the tremendous opportunities this partnership will bring to those who seek to further their education and start a new career.

Lifetime Learning by Ball State is the non-credit division of the respected research university Ball State University. The division offers non-credit micro-credentials, badges, and skill-building programs delivered in seamless experiences on individual terms one schedule, lifestyle, and goals. Ball State helps individuals chart a fulfilling career and a meaningful life.

For regular updates about Moodle, eLearning and edtech industry, please visit us regularly at https://lmsdaily.com. You can also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, or Subscribe our YouTube Channel.

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