The ability of technology to connect learners, teachers, mentors and support collaboration grows at pace. If conceived and developed beyond the narrow confines of current schooling, further and higher education paradigms it really can become an effective tool for personalising the educational landscape ‘… a powerful learning environment and toolkit for learners and teachers to co-construct, collaborate, communicate and develop their skills ..’
Press Release: Dynamic Educational Partnership delivers a new world of collaborative learning opportunities with an integrated 21st Century learning solution for c.1.5 million learners and teachers in 21 countries
UniServity, the leading global Learning Platform provider, announces a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The integration with Microsoft Live@edu, will provide c. 1.5 million learners and their teachers globally with a dynamic and integrated e-Learning solution to support their learning and collaboration within the secure 21st Century learning environment of the UniServity cLc (connected Learning communities) Learning Platform.
The new partnership combines the educational expertise and learning vision of UniServity and its award-winning online social learning platform, the UniServity cLc, with the technical expertise and scale of Microsoft and its Live@edu service to create a powerful learning environment and toolkit for learners and teachers to co-construct, collaborate, communicate and develop their skills and improve educational outcomes.
Steve Beswick, Head of Education, Microsoft UK commented “Microsoft is very excited to be working with UniServity to bring the most powerful and appropriate social media learning tools to a worldwide educational audience. UniServity has rapidly built a very large, secure, global community of students, teachers and increasingly, parents that is unrivalled in the global education sector. Microsoft is keen to help this community continue to utilise powerful collaborative tools to achieve important educational outcomes. Microsoft wants to help people around the world realise their full potential; and UniServity’s global educational community is a great fit.”
Alan Wood, CEO, UniServity, added “UniServity’s unique approach to supporting the improvement of learning and teaching focuses on giving learners and teachers the best, most appropriate and easy-to-use tools to co-construct their own learning and collaborate with a diverse range of people who can support their learning – hence a ‘social learning’ platform. Our partnership with Microsoft will enable us to take this offering to a new level of value for our customers offering even greater opportunity to blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning.”
The first phase of the partnership will integrate the powerful social learning tools within the cLc Learning Platform with Microsoft’s Windows Live infrastructure and Live@edu service. The cLc learning community will benefit from Microsoft’s advanced suite of online communication and collaboration tools including Outlook Live hosted email and calendaring, SkyDrive online storage, Office Live Workspace document sharing and collaboration plus mobile alerts, instant messaging, videoconferencing, mobile access and address books, all accessible on a range of devices.
The second phase of the partnership will look to combine UniServity’s expertise in connected learning communities with Microsoft technical capabilities and scale to provide a connected 21st century educational ecosystem that will encompass every aspect of learning both in the classroom and at home.
For UniServity, the partnership supports the company’s vision of creating the world’s largest connected learning community and builds on global educational partnerships with Singtel in Singapore, The Chinese Government’s Anhui Publishing Group (APG) in China and Capita SIMS in the UK. In the past year the cLc Learning Platform has become the global leader in 21st Century Learning Platforms with thousands of learners from the USA, Germany, Singapore, China and Australia joining the cLc learning community and creating new and innovative learning experiences.
In the UK, UniServity is established as the market leader on the BECTA Learning Platform Framework, having been awarded over 40% of all Local Authority Learning Platform contracts since the Framework was launched in 2007. www.uniservity.com
About UniServity:
Founded in the U.K. in 1999, UniServity is the global leader in next generation Web 2.0 learning. UniServity cLc (connected Learning communities) Learning Platform provides a secure social learning environment and tools to enhance learning, collaboration, communication, administration and support parental engagement. The cLc serves as a container for favourite Web 2.0 applications, creating safe spaces to empower students and teachers; enabling co-construction; local and global collaboration; authentic learning and formative assessment. The cLc serves circa. 1.5 million learners and teachers across 21 countries The cLc places schools in a secure, contained, systemised, pedagogically-sound, sustainable 21st century learning framework. UniServity has offices in the UK, USA, Hong Kong and Singapore
