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AltSchool Africa Partners With OpenLabs Ghana to Offer Access to Curriculum, Infrastructure

By
Jaswinder Singh
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AltSchool Africa Partners With OpenLabs Ghana to Offer Access to Curriculum, Infrastructure
AltSchool Africa Partners With OpenLabs Ghana to Offer Access to Curriculum, Infrastructure

AltSchool Africa, a Nigerian digital tech training institution, has recently partnered with OpenLabs, a higher education institution leading the tech upskilling of students to meet these growing needs, to provide access to its cutting-edge Learning Management System (LMS) and content infrastructure.

As a part of the collaboration, OpenLabs (previously NIIT Ghana), will be able to offer world-class education to its students, regardless of their location or economic background in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, by leveraging AltSchool’s online programs and learning management system.

This partnership aims to bring together the best of both worlds–the vast experience and expertise of OpenLabs in face-to-face learning and the innovative online approach of AltSchool Africa that will improve the quality of digital education in Ghana and beyond, according to an official statement.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, Chief Executive Officer of AltSchool Africa, Adewale Yusuf, said:

AltSchool Africa “is thrilled to partner with Open Labs to provide access to our cutting-edge learning programs and learning management system”. The platform is also “committed to ensuring that every African has access to quality learning and programs in line with in-demand skills, and this partnership is a significant step towards achieving that goal.”

Adewale added:

Africa missed out on the industrial revolution and slowly asserted itself within the knowledge economy,” as the world now transitions into the skills economy, Africa needs to be “part of—or even leading—the conversation”. Africa is committed to ensuring that every African can access its updated curriculums and programs, with the OpenLabs partnership being a great start. We believe that by providing our curriculum in all areas and a learning management system, we can support OpenLabs’ curriculum in other fields besides technology.

Commenting on the partnership, Director of OpenLabs Ghana, Sujith Jayaprakash, added:

Post-Covid, we had tried to get into the online learning space, but it’s been challenging. Partnering with AltSchool Africa and offering our target audience access to both worlds is exciting. This partnership will help us to provide our target audience with a world-class education and will enable us to contribute to the development of a skilled and empowered workforce in Ghana and across Africa. We are thrilled to be part of this momentous occasion and look forward to the positive impact this partnership will have on the tech education landscape in Africa.

Launched in October 2021 by Adewale Yusuf, who is also the Co-founder and CEO of Nigerian tech talent developing and outsourcing company, TalentQL, Akintunde Sultan and Opeyemi Awoyemi, AltSchool provides a solution as an online school with a curriculum to improve/upskill non-technical people with technical and soft skills while partnering with higher institutions to provide diploma certificates. The company aims to help individuals get started on their desired careers. Whether fresh out of high school, seeking extra education, or wanting to transition to a career in tech, it will give an individual the skills and insight to achieve the desired success.

The platform is structured around a comprehensive curriculum designed to impart the knowledge required to gain employment as a qualified software engineer without the rigours of a traditional four-year undergraduate degree programme. Students can use a flexible study schedule to complete all the modules while attending to their professional and personal commitments.

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 Educators – Effectively manage your groups using the Auto Group plugin

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Moodle Educators - Effectively manage your groups using the Auto Group plugin
Moodle Educators - Effectively manage your groups using the Auto Group plugin

Moodle LMS allows multiple ways to increase student collaboration and participation. One of the most efficient & popular ways for improving the student collaboration is to use Groups in Moodle. The Moodle groups allows educators to group course participants together to work on an activity like an assignment.

However, creating groups in Moodle can be tedious if you need the groups to be based on user information. It will eat a lot of your time if you need to update the groups when any student leaves the class. Now, you can use the Auto Group plugin to easily manage your groups.

Here is a screencast showing how to setup Moodle groups:

The Auto Group Moodle plugin automatically assigns enrolled users on a course into groups dependent upon information within their user profile. You can also make use of the custom profile fields. This plugin will create, update, and delete groups automatically to match the users on your course. All behaviour is event-driven and so will occur within page loads.

You can download the latest version of the Auto Group plugin from the official Moodle plugins repository here. In case you are new to Moodle, please follow this guide to understand how to install a Moodle plugin.

The plugin seems to be working quite beautifully and can be extremely helpful to save your time. You will not need to manage your groups manually anymore once you start using this plugin.

What are the other useful Moodle plugins you are using to save your time? 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.

Join the Bett UK 2023 from March 29-31 in London

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Join the Bett UK 2023 from March 29-31 in London
Join the Bett UK 2023 from March 29-31 in London

Bett UK 2023 – one of the best edtech conference is back at ExCel London for three days of inspiring content, networking and product discovery. The Edtech conference will be attended by more than 40,000 participants.

Bett UK 2023 is biggest Education Technology exhibition in the world which brings together Educators from across the entire education landscape and 600+ innovative EdTech and resource solution providers showcasing cutting-edge and impactful products and services

You can still register for Bett UK 2023 for free of cost, but you will not be able to participate in Connect@Bett which is a completely new, tech-enabled, meetings programme.

The edtech event will have multiple topics and solution zones, such as:

  • Equipment & Hardware
  • Teaching & Learning tech
  • Management Solutions
  • Education Show
  • Global Showcase
  • Bett Futures

The event will be held at ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London E16 1XL

Check out the Bett UK 2023 website for complete details here – https://uk.bettshow.com

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 Online Music School Trala Raises $8M in Series A Round

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Chicago-Based Online Music School Trala Raises $8M in Series A Round
Chicago-Based Online Music School Trala Raises $8M in Series A Round

Trala, the music education app empowering students to learn violin at any age, recently announced that it has raised $8 million as part of its Series A round led by Alexis Ohanian’s firm, Seven Seven Six, with participation from Lachy Groom Fund, Altman Capital, Next Play Ventures, and Concrete Rose Ventures, bringing its total capital raised to $15 million.

With this new fundraising, the Chicago-based firm intends to use the funds to continue expanding its core offering for learning the violin while also exploring additional instrument options.

Founded in 2017 by college roommates Sam Walder and Vishnu Indukuri, Trala provides a platform that combines technology that listens to users play their instruments and provides instant feedback, with personalized 1-on-1 lessons from diverse and talented teachers. The online music school has already attracted a diverse group of 1,000 students, including truck drivers, politicians, firefighters, grandmothers, surgeons, construction workers, and more.

With over 600,000 downloads and violin students in 193+ countries, Trala has received support from top musicians and investors at Duolingo and LinkedIn. Trala violin students are surgeons, moms, graphic designers, truck drivers, grandparents, middle schoolers, martial arts teachers, and CEOs. They live and make music in rural Montana, Beirut, Juneau, Perth, and their hometown of Chicago.

Speaking about the investment, the Founder of Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian, said:

I didn’t get far in my childhood piano or saxophone lessons, but that’s probably because I didn’t have Trala. Now I’m 39, hungry to learn to play an instrument finally, and excited that I have Trala to help me.

The platform also offers live video instruction with teachers rather than just pre-recorded classes. It also uses advanced signal processing technology that provides students instant feedback on their rhythm and pitch while practising, which Walder and Indukuri spent a year developing.

Partner of Seven Seven Six, Cristina Georgoulakis, added:

Trala is an incredibly accessible platform for those interested in learning an instrument. By making great music education so widely accessible, especially to those who haven’t typically had access to it, Trala will create a new generation of musicians from all walks of life.

The company believes that global access to excellent music education will allow hundreds of millions of new people to learn an instrument for the first time. This will usher in an “all-ships-rise” moment for the music industry: more musicians, more instrument sales, and more great new music that inspires more people to learn and teach an instrument in a beautiful, virtuous cycle.

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.

EdTech Startup ITOT Africa Raises New Funding From DRC Impact Angels

By
Jaswinder Singh
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EdTech Startup ITOT Africa Raises New Funding From DRC Impact Angels
EdTech Startup ITOT Africa Raises New Funding From DRC Impact Angels

ITOT Africa, a Lubumbashi-based education technology startup, has recently raised an undisclosed amount in a new funding round from DRC Impact Angels, an investment club in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ITOT Africa is a key player in the DRC’s technological ecosystem, being also a founding member of Ukamili Digital City — the Katanga technological collective aiming to make the Lush region — a leading international specialized centre. The firm is the fourth DRC Impact Angels investment club transaction in the DRC and the second outside the capital Kinshasa. It is also the first company co-founded by a woman in the DRC to receive local institutional funding.

Founded in 2018, ITOT Africa provides training and other digital educational tools to businesses, SMEs, NGOs and individual entrepreneurs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) and internationally, opening a branch in the United States. It also owns www.okademy.africa, the first on-demand training platform in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. The company claims to have collaborated with several leading international entities, including Amazon, GIZ and Enabel. It was also a finalist in the technology startup competition organized by the American University Yale.

Commenting on the fundraising, ITOT Africa said:

With this investment, ITOT Africa will strengthen its educational tools offering, expand its client portfolio in the DRC and internationally, strengthen its institutional shareholder base and once again demonstrate the ability of Congolese startups to provide world-class services.

Adding further about the investment, DRC Impact Angels said in a statement:

 ITOT Africa’s mission in DR Congo is a perfect fit with the impact that DRC Impact Angels (DIA) seeks in the country, for example, by supporting charismatic and talented teams with both world-class technical skills, strong business acumen and understanding of the DRC operational ecosystem. Furthermore, it is another testament to DIA’s ability to transact nationwide in the DRC and the Congolese business community to work together. Of course, it’s also a fantastic opportunity to support a tech company co-founded by a woman. We are delighted to welcome ITOT Africa to the DIA family.

DRC Impact Angels is an investment club specializing in financing and supporting technology startups and innovative SMEs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC Impact Angels is an affiliate member of the African Business Angels Network (“ABAN”) and have previously invested in the agribusiness, financial services and industrial production sectors in the DRC.

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.

North Carolina-Based EdTech VitalSource Acquires Akademos

By
Jaswinder Singh
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North Carolina-Based EdTech VitalSource Acquires Akademos
North Carolina-Based EdTech VitalSource Acquires Akademos

The premier digital content delivery and learning platform provider VitalSource has acquired Akademos. This acquisition unites two organizations with the purpose of driving student success, affordability, and impact through next-generation technology and brings together complementary course materials distribution expertise. However, the company did not disclose the amount of the deal.

Akademos, founded in 1999, has been a leader in building technology to create efficient, cost-effective course materials delivery solutions. In addition to their supply chain expertise and EA innovations, their work in analytics and syllabus management capabilities will enable VitalSource to provide a more complete set of capabilities to campus stores and institutions.

Speaking about the acquisition, Chief Executive Officer of VitalSource, Kent Freeman, said:

VitalSource’s goal is to build and provide technology that supports student, campus store, and institutional success. This acquisition accelerates our ability to deliver on that promise by providing more comprehensive services and next-generation tools. Together, we are poised to help even more students and campus stores evolve and thrive in today’s learning environment.

Founded by Kent Freeman, ViralSource Technologies is an education technology solutions provider committed to helping partners create, deliver, and distribute affordable, accessible, and impactful learning experiences worldwide. The company works to partner with thousands of publishers and resellers to deliver learning experiences to millions of active users globally. It’s products and technologies, including the leading learning platform, Bookshelf, are used by more than 18 million learners worldwide every year.

Chief Executive Officer of Akademos, Raj Kaji, said:

At Akademos, our vision is to be the leading software and logistics platform to impact student success through course content positively. This union allows us to accelerate on several dimensions to realize that vision.

Akademos’ customers will continue to receive the top-notch service they are accustomed to and an enhanced ability to serve those customers with an expanded slate of offerings.

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 Educators – Create STEM questions easily using the Formulas Question type plugin

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Moodle Educators - Create STEM questions easily using the Formulas Question type plugin
Moodle Educators - Create STEM questions easily using the Formulas Question type plugin

Moodle LMS is used across a variety of learning environments. It is used by corporates, medical institutes, schools, colleges, universities for teaching all subjects. In this post, we will have a look at the Formulas Question type plugin which can be used to create STEM questions easily.

The Formulas Question type plugin allows you to create STEM based questions like Mathematics, Physics and Engineering subjects easily. You can set up the question to have unit checking also.

The Formulas question type aims to be generic so that various type of non-trivial questions can be created easily. The variable system and answer boxes allow great flexibility to define question and simplify the job of making complex questions.

The answer fields can be placed anywhere in the question so that you can create questions involving various answer structures such as coordinate, polynomial, matrix, etc. Other features such as unit checking, and multiple parts are also available. These functionalities can simplify the creation of questions in many fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Blocks in a bag example with Formulas Question type plugin
Blocks in a bag example with Formulas Question type plugin

You can download the latest version of the Formulas Question type plugin from official repository here. You can follow this guide in case you want to learn how to install Moodle plugin.

The plugin comes with strong documentation on its website here. The documentation includes several examples and explains all configuration option in detail. You can also download the example question in xml format and import which makes your life easier.

What are the other plugins/tools you are using for teaching STEM subjects? 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.

Join 55th NCSM Annual Conference from October 28 – 31, 2023, Registrations Open

By
Jaswinder Singh
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Join 55th NCSM Annual Conference from October 28 – 31, 2023, Registrations Open
Join 55th NCSM Annual Conference from October 28 – 31, 2023, Registrations Open

The 55th NCSM Annual Conference will be held from October 28 – 31, 2023 in Washington, DC. The edtech conference will be a perfect platform to share stories of bold mathematics leadership.

According to the official website:

NCSM celebrates its 55th Annual Conference, continuing our dedication to the life-long learning of bold mathematics education leaders. NCSM is committed to supporting leaders’ work in inspiring high-quality mathematics teaching and learning every day for each and every learner.

The registrations for the 55th NCSM Annual Conference are open now. You can book your seat until 31 July 2023 to avail the Early Bird registration discounted pricing. Check out this page for more details about the Registration including pricing.

Join the 55th NCSM Annual Conference to hear from bold math leaders share their stories of:

  • Advocacy
  • Empowerment
  • Redesigning Mathematics instruction
  • Yet to be Told

Check out the conference website for more details about the event here – https://www.mathedleadership.org/55th-ncsm-annual-conference/

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.

Edtech Startup Pivot Raises $1.4 Million to Support Student and Teacher Wellbeing

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Edtech Startup Pivot Raises $1.4 Million to Support Student and Teacher Wellbeing
Edtech Startup Pivot Raises $1.4 Million to Support Student and Teacher Wellbeing

Melbourne-based education tech startup Pivot has recently raised $1.4 million. The funding round was led by the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and technology firm DiUS, with support from LaunchVic’s women-led investment program, the Alice Anderson Fund.

Pivot’s survey-based technology collects students’ feedback and helps teachers improve their practice. Over 50,000 teachers have used their data insights and resources, and over 1500 schools across Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia use its survey technology. Pivot’s students and teacher wellbeing tools equip school leaders with an evidence-based, actionable performance trajectory that can improve student engagement, quality of teaching and overall school performance.

The company plans to use the funds for its schools’ feedback platform to improve teaching. They plan to re-platform their survey-based technology and launch a new suite of student and teacher well-being tools. Pivot CEO Tim Watts says, “with 3 out of 4 teachers making a change to their practice after doing their ‘Pivot’, while 9 out of 10 leaders use Pivot data and insights in school planning and reporting.”

We’ve had a terrific start to the year with hundreds of schools across Australia and internationally using Pivot’s leading data-driven approach to improve teaching practice and student and teacher wellbeing. Our mission is to transform teaching practice, and that starts with teachers who have the tools, resources and support to perform at their best. We know this leads to real impact, with improvements in student learning engagement and learning outcomes, as well as teacher workplace satisfaction and retention.

On the new fundraise, founding member Harries said they’re pleased to have the financial support of three key investors. “Their expertise and resources will help us to bring our groundbreaking approach to even more schools and support more teachers to improve their effectiveness in the classroom,” she said.

Pivot was founded in 2014 by Caitlin Macleod, Cleo Westhorpe and Belinda Harries. Intending to transform teaching practice, they have changed the teaching dynamics by including and translating student feedback to classrooms. Student feedback helps teachers and school leaders to be better educators.

Egyptian Online Video Learning Platform Almentor Raises $10M funding to accelerate growth

By
Jaswinder Singh
-
Egyptian Online Video Learning Platform Almentor Raises $10M funding to accelerate growth
Egyptian Online Video Learning Platform Almentor Raises $10M funding to accelerate growth

Egyptian Online Video Learning Platform Almentor , the leading online video learning platform in Arabic, has raised $10mn in growth capital in a pre-series C round led by e& capital, the tech investment arm of e&.

Founded in 2016, Almentor has worked with more than 950 prominent experts to create over 1,000 online courses for individuals, corporations, and government entities. It combines a personalised learning experience with high-quality Arabic content.

With a choice of a monthly or annual subscription, learners get unlimited access to a library of over 700 courses on topics as diverse as health, humanities, technology, entrepreneurship, business management, lifestyle, drama, sports, corporate communication, and digital media.

The company aims to serve 10 million learners across the MENA region, and with that in mind has now banked a US$10 million pre-Series C round. Commenting on the funding, Dr. Ihab Fikry, Co-founder & CEO of Almentor, and Ibrahim Kamel, Co-founder & COO, said in a joint statement,

Empowering ten million learners is a key milestone in Almentor’s broader vision of creating hope and development opportunities for the people in MENA. We are very proud and excited to partner with an institution such as e& to create further impact in Almentor’s journey.

Eddy Farhat, Vice President at e& Capital, said,

Our investment in Almentor aims to capitalise on this economic opportunity while driving tangible educational impact in our fast-growing region. We believe that Almentor’s personalised learning experiences and high-quality Arabic content will be instrumental in achieving this goal. We are impressed with the experience of the founding team and the fresh perspective that the new senior hires bring onboard, and we will collaborate with them to support their vision and help them realise their aspirations.

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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