Echo360 Captures LectureTools
Echo360 this week completed its acquisition of education technology developer LectureTools.
Echo360 is best known for its lecture capture, interactive, and online learning tools, collectively known as the Echo360 Active Learning Platform. Echo360's tools are in use in some 6,000 classrooms in 500 institutions around the world, serving about 1 million students, by the company's reckoning.
LectureTools develops a range of software tools (part of the LectureTools software suite) designed to increase student engagement, including a computer- and cell phone-based student response system, study aids, note-taking tools, and an interactive presentation creation system. LectureTools also offers an iPad app designed to help students take notes, ask questions of teachers digitally, and respond to questions asked by the instructor. LectureTools software is in use at about 30 institutions in the United States, Canada, and parts of Asia, according to the company.
Echo360 reported that LectureTools "will be seamlessly integrated with the ... Echo360 lecture capture and blended learning platform to provide a unique option for institutions seeking to immediately improve and extend their on-campus experience." According to the company, LectureTools users will be able to continue using the suite uninterrupted.
"There are over 20,000 universities and colleges globally serving 100 million degree seeking students every year," said Echo360 CEO Fred Singer in a prepared statement. "These institutions face technology chaos right now. They need solutions and partners that help them immediately improve the on-campus teaching experience while they continue to aggressively experiment with professors, administration and students on the latest methods in distance and social learning. Echo360 with LectureTools now helps institutions deliver these approaches including flipped classes, virtual office hours, live distance learning, academic continuity, and even experiment with MOOCs. They can choose what is right for their needs."
"LectureTools was founded on the principle that boosting interaction in the classroom will positively impact the student and professor," said Perry Samson, LectureTools founder and professor at the University of Michigan, also in a prepared statement. "Our vision of providing pedagogically sound digital teaching tools has been realized, and now it is time to share the benefits with more institutions. By joining Echo360, we can deliver the benefits of LectureTools solution to more than one million students attending 500 universities, in 30 countries around the globe quickly and easily."
Samson will continue on as head of "Teaching Innovation" at Echo360.
Additional details can be found on Echo360's site. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.