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Tag: blended learning

  • Savvas Learning Company Acquires Pointful Education

    Savvas Learning Company Acquires Pointful Education

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    PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY —  Savvas Learning Company, a next-generation K-12 learning solutions leader, today announced the acquisition of Pointful Education, a provider of innovative, online career and technical education (CTE) courses that prepare students with the industry knowledge and skills needed for future careers.

    Specializing in career-focused courses and certification exam preparation for middle and high school students, Pointful Education offers a wide range of virtual and blended learning solutions that engage students in career exploration and prepare them for the workforce. Its robust catalog features 55 courses that are aligned with nationally recognized career clusters. The courses offer engaging instructional design packed with interactives, videos, projects, language translations, and text-to-speech functionality.

    The acquisition of Pointful Education follows news in February of Savvas Learning Company’s strategic acquisition of Outlier, which offers high-quality, online college-level courses that enable high school students to earn dual credit while never having to leave their school building. Outlier by Savvas provides immersive, cinematically-produced courses in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences taught by world-class, charismatic instructors from NASA, MIT, Harvard, Yale, and other top institutions.

    “There’s a growing demand in the education marketplace to provide secondary students with multiple pathways for college and career learning that ignite a passion for career exploration,” said Bethlam Forsa, CEO of Savvas Learning Company. “In addition to providing students an opportunity for college learning with our Outlier offerings, the acquisition of Pointful Education allows us to provide the millions of secondary students we serve with a broader array of high-quality technical, career-focused courses for high-demand, high-skills, and high-paying careers.”

    From CTE courses to exam preparation, Pointful Education courses give students the edge they need to be successful in their field of choice and master career-readiness skills training. Its catalog of elective and career-focused digital courseware includes titles such as: Adobe InDesign; Agriscience; Career Exploration in Healthcare; Construction: Fundamentals and Careers; Cybersecurity; Drones: Remote Pilot; Early Childhood Education; Robotics: Applications & Careers; and Social Media Business Marketing. Nearly half of Pointful Education courses are directly aligned to an industry-recognized certification exam, so when students are done with the course they are prepared to take the exam.

    “We built our courses to give students the tools they need to develop the job-specific knowledge and skills for success in their future careers,” said Steve Southwick, CEO and founder of Pointful Education. “We’re so excited to join Savvas and be able to accelerate the development of new, high-quality career-focused courses that help schools support and expand their CTE pathways and grow their program offerings.”

    ABOUT SAVVAS LEARNING COMPANY

    At Savvas, we believe learning should inspire. By combining new ideas, new ways of thinking, and new ways of interacting, we design engaging, next-generation K-12 learning solutions that give all students the best opportunity to succeed. Our award-winning, high-quality instructional materials span every grade level and discipline, from evidence-based, standards-aligned core curricula and supplemental and intervention programs to state-of-the-art assessment tools and the industry’s most well-rounded portfolio of college- and career-readiness solutions — all designed to meet the needs of every learner. Savvas products are used by millions of students and educators in more than 90 percent of the 13,000+ public school districts across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, as well as globally in more than 125 countries. To learn more, visit Savvas Learning Company. Savvas Learning Company’s products are also available for sale in Canada through its subsidiary, Rubicon.

    eSchool News Staff
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  • Friday 5: Blended learning

    Friday 5: Blended learning

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    Key points:

    Blended learning is not a new instructional approach, but it became more mainstream during and after the COVID pandemic, when educators and students elected to keep parts of entirely-online learning they favored during pandemic learning.

    Here are some facts, trends, and advantages you may not know about blended learning–also known as hybrid learning:

    What are the five pillars of blended learning?

    Blended learning–along with a little empathy–can open up a new mode of teaching and learning and help motivate students on a deeper level. Five important components and advantages of this learning modality are face-to-face instruction, online learning, flexibility, personalization, and integration. Discover the unbeaten path to hybrid learning.

    What is the strength of blended learning?

    Blended learning examples are life-changing for many students, extending personalized and flexible learning options to select individuals or groups. But with onset of the pandemic, widespread adoption of hybrid models suddenly became a necessity across all student populations. Now, years later, how have districts overcome the initial challenges and applied the lessons learned to re-imagine teaching and learning and develop an innovative vision for change in their school communities? Learn about hybrid learning’s strengths.

    What is the argument for blended learning?

    Schools should reimagine the learning processes and leverage in-person and hybrid learning to help students achieve the best possible results. Forced to go online during the pandemic, schools quickly turned to video conferencing and online tools and these tools helped reveal the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid learning. These new approaches offered ways to reduce many of the traditional barriers to services and support. Plus, they provided flexibility to best meet the needs of students and their families. Here’s more on flexible hybrid learning.

    What are the 5 key ingredients of blended learning?

    With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting learners across the world, we’ve witnessed the growing need for an education option that combines the benefits of a traditional in-person classroom and online learning. But the need for this option won’t just be a fleeting trend. The future of hybrid learning is bright, and the benefits and advantages of blended learning to students are unmatched. Here are 5 components of a great hybrid learning program.

    What are 3 positive outcomes of blended learning?

    The most important thing to remember when implementing new blended instructional strategies is that there is no universal way to do it. Examples of blended learning activities combine a mix of face-to-face and online instruction for students. Gen Z is the first truly internet-dependent generation–getting their entertainment, information, and socialization online, oftentimes from social media. Therefore, to reach these students where they are, we need to evolve our instructional strategies. Here are some positive outcomes of blended learning.

    Laura Ascione
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  • Lifetime Opportunity for Startups to Win Free Showcase and Recognition at Major National Foreign Language Conference

    Lifetime Opportunity for Startups to Win Free Showcase and Recognition at Major National Foreign Language Conference

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    Press Release



    updated: Apr 5, 2018

    The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center and American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) are sponsoring a language education technology competition called LaunchPad, which offers startups a lifetime opportunity to attend, showcase and receive recognition at the world’s most comprehensive language education expo: the ACTFL World Languages Expo.

    Inspired by the show Shark Tank, the competition consists of a 90-minute session at one of the convention venues during which a small group of startup companies pitch their innovation and receive feedback from a highly specialized audience of world language educators. The winner of the competition will receive an honorary plaque from American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center. All participating companies showcase and demonstrate their products at the Tech Center booth during ACTFL World Languages Expo hours on Nov. 16 and 17, 2018.

    Benefits:

    1. The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center (Tech Center) will provide shared booth space at the 2018 ACTFL World Languages Expo at no cost for qualifying participants.

    2. Exposure to thousands of language education professionals and several successful companies in the field during the ACTFL convention and through the Tech Center News and website.

    3. 2018 participants will be featured in publications, promotional materials and press releases.

    4. Inclusion in our network of innovators, which includes highly specialized professionals in the field of language learning technology.

    5. Mentoring time with 2017 Launchpad participants during the ACTFL Convention.

    6. Winners will be featured in promotional materials for future events.

    Application deadline: April 10, 2018

    Registration and details about LaunchPad: http://lftic.lll.hawaii.edu/launchpad/

    For additional information, please contact tech.center@hawaii.edu.

    About The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center (Tech Center):

    The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center (Tech Center) is one of the prime sponsors of LaunchPad and is an initiative sponsored by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO). The mission of the Tech Center is to enhance The Language Flagship experience through the effective use of technology. http://lftic.lll.hawaii.edu/

    About the ACTFL Expo:

    American Council on The Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is one of the prime sponsors of LaunchPad and the host of ACTFL World Languages Expo, which brings together more than 8,000 language educators around the world from all languages, levels and assignments. https://www.actfl.org/convention-expo

    Source: The Language Flagship Technology Innovation Center

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  • Online Christian Consortium Raises the Bar in Online Learning by Partnering with BocaVox Software Solutions

    Online Christian Consortium Raises the Bar in Online Learning by Partnering with BocaVox Software Solutions

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    Press Release



    updated: Dec 6, 2016

    Oaks Christian Online (OCO), one of the finest college preparatory online schools in the nation and the founding school of the Online Christian Consortium (OCC), has adopted Maestro SIS, by BocaVox as their Student Information System (SIS) and Canvas, by Instructure as their Learning Management System.

    BocaVox CEO Sue Diseker comments, “We are thrilled to be partners with top-tier consortiums like the OCC, as they reflect our commitment to excellence and ongoing innovation, and help us achieve our goal of developing technology that raises the bar for education.”

    By using innovative online learning technology like Maestro SIS and Canvas, we are able to provide our Partner Schools with the platform to support an engaging and fully accredited college preparatory program.

    Christy Cleugh, VP of Operations and Curriculum Development at OCO

    Students from partner schools belonging to the OCC can now take courses through the online program in addition to attending their on-campus classes. The OCC manages both part-time and full-time online students through the Maestro database. The hierarchical architecture of Maestro SIS enables the Online Christian Consortium to offer customized services for different schools, programs and student types – all within a single, user-friendly application.  This flexibility will enable OCC to extend partnership opportunities internationally.

    “By using innovative online learning technology like Maestro SIS and Canvas, we are able to provide our Partner Schools with the platform to support an engaging and fully accredited college preparatory program,” states Dr. Christy Cleugh, VP of Operations and Curriculum Development at OCO.

    The BocaVox and Canvas teams worked together to implement an enhanced integration called a Trust Relationship for schools that have their own Canvas LMS but wish to utilize the OCC courses through Maestro and Canvas.

    About Oaks Christian Online

    OCO is the founding school of the Online Christian Consortium, a leadership organization of schools committed to theologically engaged, college-preparatory, accredited, online programs. The organization’s vision is that its courses provide an education that uplifts, transforms and inspires students around the world. For more information on The Online Christian Consortium, please visit: http://onlinechristianconsortium.org.

    About BocaVox

    Founded in 2003, BocaVox developed Maestro SIS, an integrated Student Information System that manages online and blended learning schools and colleges.  Maestro SIS is a comprehensive, high performance administrative software that is customizable to meet unique business procedures for K12 and higher education institutions, with features to support individualized learning. For more information, visit https://bocavox.com.

    Media Contact:

    Christy Cleugh
    Ed.D., VP of Operations and Curriculum Development
    Oaks Christian Online
    818-824-9463

    Source: Oaks Christian Online

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