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Ednition Raises $1.35M in Funding Round to harness AI in Edtech

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April 15, 2024

Ednition Raises $1.35M in Funding Round to harness AI in Edtech

Ednition, an “infrastructure-as-a-service” platform designed for K-12 EdTech providers, has announced a $1.35 million investment round. Co-founded by Mick Hewitt and Doug Weber, Ednition aims to help EdTech developers build and scale EdTech applications.

Its platform, RosterStream, is designed to solve “vendor infrastructure needs rather than focusing on school and district tools. This approach eliminates costly vendor-side work, like SSO and LTI setup, bypasses the tolls of dated data exchange services, and allows applications to integrate with any SIS or third-party data provider.

Speaking about the company, Co-founders of Ednition, Doug Weber and Mick Hewitt, said:

Our unwavering commitment to delivering holistic data is clearly demonstrated in our recent releases, including our ”Extended Data Domains” feature, which goes beyond core rostering and includes data domains such as: attendance, discipline, assessment, school calendar, intervention, and more.

This means RosterStream users can connect with and support the smallest schools to the largest districts,” according to co-founders, Weber and Hewitt. Most importantly, RosterStream saves EdTech teams thousands of hours of integration, support, and engineering time, significantly relieving the usual workload.

Regarding the future of EdTech, Weber and Hewitt noted, “Companies are grappling with how to integrate AI-powered solutions into their products meaningfully. Seamless data flow in the EdTech ecosystem is a precondition for AI to move from experimental and theoretical to genuinely transformational in the space! Unlocking data flows empowers EdTech to harness AI’s power and actualize whole-child, learner-centered education.

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What is QuizWiz and how students are using it to ace online exams?

Jaswinder Singh

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April 15, 2024

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What is QuizWiz and how students are using it to ace online exams?

QuizWiz is the byproduct of AI tools but it allows the students to search for the answers using AI. The students can just search for the question text and get the correct answers while sitting in the online examinations.

As per the authors of the Quizwiz “the tool accelerates student learning by providing fast and accurate answers to homework and exam questions. With advanced AI capabilities and rapid fire mode, Quizwiz is the perfect tool for last-minute studying.”

However from a teachers perspective this seems to be like a tool perfectly designed for cheating in online exams. The students can make use of Quizwiz to get the correct answer without actually learning the actual content. It is available as an extension for the Chrome browser with a paid membership plan. It allows the students to search 100+ questions at once.

The problem with this extension is that it allows the students to pretend the information possessed which they have answered through AI without the actual learning taking place. This is a recipe for disaster for the future of the students as it snatches the opportunity for them to think on their own and get the correct answer.

Last week, I posted about the AI Jammer plugin for Moodle which makes it easier to block the Quizwiz to operate on the Moodle quizzes by adding random piece of text strings. However, we are developing tools to counter the use of AI for different views without actually harnessing the power of AI.

There are many other ways through we can use AI in education such as:

Instead of having annual curriculum based schooling, we can have personalized learning plan for each students and they can complete the learning at their own pace.
We can teach them about a topic in the classroom and ask them to work on a physical project to get more details about that topic instead of submitting the project online.

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Moodle 4.4 QA Updates – two-third tests marked as completed

Jaswinder Singh

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April 10, 2024

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Moodle 4.4 QA Updates – two-third tests marked as completed

Moodle 4.4 – the next major Moodle LMS version is scheduled to be released soon. Currently it is under QA testing to check the new features added in the LMS by the actual users.

The Moodle 4.4 QA tests are marked as 65% with another 33% tests are marked as open and few are marked as failed or on hold. If you are a Moodle enthusiast then you can participate in the Moodle 4.4 QA testing and contribute for a better LMS.

The Moodle 4.4 version is scheduled to be released on 22 April 2024. It will be supported till 21 April 2025 while the next major Moodle version will be the LTS version.

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.

Lirvana Labs Raises $5.3M in Early-Stage Funding Round

Jaswinder Singh

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April 8, 2024

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Lirvana Labs Raises .3M in Early-Stage Funding Round

Lirvana Labs, the creator of the Yeti Confetti Kids app, an AI-powered personalized learning companion for preschool to elementary-grade children, recently announced it had raised $5.3M in early-stage financing.

The startup plans to use this funding to expand its flagship product, the Yeti Confetti Kids app, focusing on how large language models (LLMs) and generative AI capabilities can be harnessed to deliver personalized learning opportunities for globally diverse environments. It also aims to pursue efficacy studies with leading research institutions plus further its partnerships with pilot schools and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Speaking about the platform, Christie Pang, Co-founder and co-CEO of Lirvana Labs, said:

As a mother of three, I’m driven by the promise and challenge of applying generative AI purposefully. We aim to democratize education worldwide, ensuring every child, from makeshift classrooms to elite schools, benefits from innovative technology built by the best engineering minds. We’re proud that our mission is supported by parents, global investors, and school operators.

Founded in 2022, Lirvana Labs’ Yeti Confetti Kids harnesses AI and cognitive research as a versatile educational companion while empowering parents and teachers with actionable insights into each child’s mental, social and emotional development. The platform creates engaging, healthy, and multi-modal learning experiences spanning over 200 English Literacy, Mathematical Reasoning, and Social-Emotional Skills aligned with Common Core, UN CASEL, and Bloom’s Taxonomy frameworks.

Brian Dixon, Managing Partner of Kapor Capital, added:

Our partnership with Lirvana Labs is an investment and a step towards building a more equitable and impactful future for all students. I’m confident that Christie and Clement’s lived experience will improve student literacy, math, and especially social-emotional learning outcomes. As a parent, I know the importance of navigating screen time and can wholeheartedly suggest Yeti Confetti.

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Having Problems managing Web Services in Moodle? Check out this awesome plugin today

Jaswinder Singh

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April 8, 2024

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Having Problems managing Web Services in Moodle? Check out this awesome plugin today

Web services in Moodle LMS allows other systems to login to Moodle and perform operations. However the managing web services in Moodle is still tough task for the Moodle Administrators.

One of our community members shared an upcoming Moodle Plugin with us for review which is perfectly able to bring all pages & information about Web services under a single dashboard. The plugin developed by Lilia Smirnova is named as Web Services Manager.

The Web Services Manager Moodle plugin simply the web services management. It allows you to:

Quickly check status/errors and enable or disable WS globally
Add a new instance
Switch REST and SOAP protocols
Manage Mobile App settings
Test Web Services through creating a tiny one just to look how does WS works
Create a new instance
Manage all of Web Services settings and instances in one window.

As of now the plugin is waiting in the Approval queue to appear in the official Moodle plugins repository. We will update you once it is approved and available in Moodle Plugins directory. Till then you can download the plugin from the GitHub repository here.

Have you faced any problems managing the web services in Moodle? You can check out this awesome plugin to ease your 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.

a2zebra Announces $542k Funding to Use AI for Math Learning Success With TukToro

Jaswinder Singh

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April 5, 2024

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a2zebra Announces $542k Funding to Use AI for Math Learning Success With TukToro

The German educational technology company a2zebra has successfully secured a substantial funding round, raising $542,000 (€500,000). This significant financial backing is a testament to these investors’ confidence in a2zebra’s vision and the potential of its AI platform, TukToro, for math learning.

The startup plans to use this funding round to develop the AI platform, officially launch TukToro to the market, and further company growth. The next fundraising round, which will be in the single-digit millions, is already planned to increase manufacturing and sales even further.

Speaking about the platform, Co-founder & CEO of TukToro, Elisha Benner, said:

The combination of haptic experiences with the TukToro figure and digital interactions on the end device appeals to children’s various senses and increases learning progress and motivation. It is just as important to us to give children individual and direct feedback. This is a significant difference to the teaching methods commonly used in schools.

Children as young as four can learn math engagingly and amusingly with TukToro. The platform additionally offers basic media skills. Connecting the play figure to a tablet or smartphone is simple. Children can select from various math games on the companion app (iOS, Android), specifically designed for preschoolers and elementary school students. The child shakes the die-containing figurine. Sensors identify the dice’s outcomes, and the game on the end device incorporates them. AI-managed learning narratives are also employed. The app is equipped with LEDs to provide children with direct feedback. The AI suggests difficulty levels and games depending on learning behaviour and speed.

Sebastian Heide-Meyer zu Erpen, CTO at Tonies and advisor and investor at TukToro, added:

At Tonies, we have started to explore the potential of AI storytelling to engage children’s imaginations. Our goal is to give children responsible and child-friendly access to technology. We share this mission with a2zebra, and I look forward to supporting the team with my knowledge.

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 – Blocks students from using AI tools with Moodle QUiz

Jaswinder Singh

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April 5, 2024

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Moodle Teachers – Blocks students from using AI tools with Moodle QUiz

With the popularity of Artificial intelligence in all areas of life, the students are also affected with the positive and negative use of AI. While the AI can be useful in many aspects of life by easing your life but there are other discouraging use cases also lies there.

Many students often tend to find shortcuts to their problems to get good grades without actually learning about the topic. In recent months they have inclined towards AI to find out the solutions to their quiz questions. With a lot of tools e.g Quizwiz, available online to suggest a correct answer it is getting difficult for teachers to judge actual learning of the students.

There is a new Moodle plugin – AI Jammer which allows to make copy-pasting of online exams subjects into third-party tools (e.g. AI-based tools) more difficult. It is a text-filter type Moodle plugin, and it will inject random letters within texts. These letters will be made invisible on pages with CSS, but will be present to jam copy-pasting or automatic page reading.

You can download the AI Jammer Moodle plugin from the official Moodle plugins repository here. However you need to enable this filter per activity and make sure to apply this filter as the last filter, as it will break words in HTML.

What are the useful tools you are using to discourage the unethical use of Artificial intelligence in online learning. 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 LMS – Easily Gamify your Moodle course using the MooDuell Plugin

Jaswinder Singh

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April 4, 2024

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Moodle LMS – Easily Gamify your Moodle course using the MooDuell Plugin

Moodle LMS is used by more than 410 million users around the world. A collection of more than 2,200 free-to-use Moodle plugins allows the easy customization and flexibility to extend. In this post we will see how you can use the MooDuell Moodle plugin to gamify your Moodle course.

The MooDuell allows you to add questions from your Moodle course question bank and the users will be able to play the quiz questions in a multiplayer game. It allows learning and repeating learning content in a playful way. It also offers social interaction and comparison through a multiplayer context, which increases the motivation of the players.

The increased motivation to engage with the learning material as well as the learning success have already been tested in studies and it could be proven that these were significantly increased. The general gamification in the learning context shows the further development of modern society also in the areas of school and learning – it integrates a social context that was not previously present in self-study and a collaborative context is created.

It supports multiple question types such as:

Multiple choice with single right answer
Multiple choice with multiple right answers
True/False

PS – The plugin allows to play only one quiz per Moodle site to be played for free. For additional quizzes you need to get a license key directly from the plugin owner. We are neither affiliated nor getting any other benefits from the plugin.

You can download the Mooduell Moodle plugin from the official plugins repository 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.

Moodle LMS – Migrate whole Moodle site to a new location easily by using the Vault – Site Migration

Jaswinder Singh

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April 3, 2024

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Moodle LMS – Migrate whole Moodle site to a new location easily by using the Vault – Site Migration

Moodle LMS is used by more than 410 million users in more than 242 countries around the world. It has been used in all types of online learning requirements from Primary schools, colleges, Universities, Corporate training requirements etc.

Often the Moodle Administrators need to migrate the Moodle site from one server to a new server. It may be arising due to multiple reasons such as Server Migration, Server Upgrade or change of hosting provider etc.

Migrating from a server to a new server involves a lot of careful steps to be taken care by the Moodle administrator to avoid any data loss and avoid any problems. The steps to migrate any Moodle site involves taking a backup of your Moodle database, Moodle code and Moodledata directory. Then you need to move the backed up files to the new server and complete the upgrade process.

Recently, Marina Glancy – Moodle Workplace Architect launched a new Moodle plugin – Vault- Site Migration which allows you to make a full backup of the site, push it to the cloud and then restore on the other Moodle site.

It includes a lot of exciting features such as:

Vault will export and import database structure, schema modifications, tables content and sequences.
Vault can restore not only into a different DB version but also into a different DB type (i.e. from mysql to postgres or vice versa);
Vault plugin does not need to have access to mysqldump or pgdump, database will be exported using Moodle DML.
Vault will export and import all files, regardless of the file system (local disk, S3, etc), the file system on the restored site can be different from the backup site;
Vault will export and import additional folders in the dataroot.
After restore Vault will perform some necessary post-restore actions, for example, purge caches, kill all sessions, optionally uninstall missing plugins etc.
Vault does not back up or restore Moodle code or add-on plugins code.
Vault does not back up or restore its own tables.
Other plugins can also be excluded during backup/restore (with some limitations).
You may choose to set passphrase during backup which will be used to encrypt uploaded files. Vault API never has access to your passphrase, it is only used to sign the requests to AWS S3.

Check out the Vault – Site Migration Moodle plugin 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.

Saudi-Based HAD Raises $5M in Pre-Seed Round to Boost Its Expansion

Jaswinder Singh

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April 3, 2024

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Saudi-Based HAD Raises $5M in Pre-Seed Round to Boost Its Expansion

HAD, a Saudi educational technology platform, has raised a significant $5 million pre-seed round led by Dar Al Majed Investment, marking an important milestone in its growth trajectory. With this financing round, the company aims to support its expansion and innovation efforts by establishing a dedicated business studio to foster educational technology initiatives.

With successful projects like the Teach Me Arabic application and Arabic Dictionary, HAD expands its offerings with new products like the Arabic Academy and Teach Me Hajj, establishing itself as a leader in the developing e-learning market. Since its inception in 2020, the startup has achieved success with noteworthy products, including the Teach Me Arabic app, the Arabic Dictionary, and Arabic on the Air.

A significant aspect of Saudi Vision 2030 is the emphasis on education sustainability, focusing on developing comprehensive frameworks for flexible learning. In keeping with this aim, Saudi EdTech companies like HAD are essential in achieving these ambitious educational targets.

Building on its success, the company constantly expands its product offerings by developing new ones, such as Teach Me Hajj and the Arabic Academy. According to recent market analysis, the global e-learning business will produce more than $15 billion in revenue in 2021. From 2021 to 2028, it is predicted to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5%.

Majd is a prestigious investment company that manages the wealth of the illustrious Al Majdouie family. Driven by well-defined investment strategies, the company aims to provide compelling risk-adjusted returns to its stakeholders. Inspired by its founder, Shaikh Ali Al Majdouie’s vision and values, the firm adheres to responsible investing principles, connecting its strategies with local and global sustainability goals. With a strong emphasis on industries and sectors forging a brighter and more sustainable future, it aspires to make responsible investments that benefit society and the environment.

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.