Otus (education)

Last updated
Otus
Otus-logo.png
Type of business Private
Type of site
 Education Technology
Available inEnglish, Portuguese
Founded2012
Headquarters Chicago, IL
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s) Chris Hull, Pete Helfers, Andy Bluhm
Industry Education
Services Student Performance Platform, Learning management system, Data warehouse, Classroom management tools
URL www.otus.com
Current statusActive

Otus is an educational technology company providing a learning management system, data warehouse and many classroom management tools for K-12 students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Otus was nominated as a finalist of two 2016 Codie awards in the "Best Classroom Management System" and "Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution" categories, one 2018 Codie award for "Best Student Assessment Solution", and two 2019 Codie awards for "Best Data Solution" and "Best Administrative Solution". [1] [2] Otus was a finalist in EdTech Digest's 2016 "District Data Solution" and "Learning Management System" categories. [3] Otus co-founder Chris Hull was also announced as one of the National School Boards Association's "20 to Watch Educators for 2016". [4]

Contents

History

Founded in 2012 by Chris Hull and Pete Helfers, two social studies teachers at Illinois' Elm Place Middle School, Otus was designed to replicate the ideal K-12 classroom experience that the two teachers envisioned. [5] After receiving a grant to bring 1:1 computing iPads to their students, both quickly recognized the limitless potential that classroom management tools offer, but were disappointed with the effectiveness of the current apps on the market. [5] Believing that they could do better, Chris and Pete started to develop Otus while continuing to work their respective teaching jobs, their end-goal being to create an all in one classroom management system integrating everything necessary to run a classroom. [6] After reaching out to Chicago-based hedge fund manager Andy Bluhm, who provided them with $2M in funding, Otus was officially launched in August 2014 and has grown domestically and internationally since. [7] As of May 10, 2016, Otus owns the trademark phrase "Student Performance Platform." [8] Otus has recently partnered with NWEA to become a MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Authorized Data Partner. Starting Fall 2016, all users of Otus will be able to see and take advantage of MAP data directly in the Otus platform. [9]

Functions

Otus competes with other learning management systems such as Edmodo, Blackboard Learn, Schoology, Moodle and Canvas by Instructure to provide educational tools on a district and school wide basis. Otus in particular aims to offer "everything a mobile classroom could possibly need for both teachers and students" [10] and does so by providing attendance tracking, a digital bookshelf for uploading files, in-app annotations, assignments, papers, polls, blogs, quizzes, and more. Otus integrates third-party apps, such as Khan Academy, PARCC, and many more through their "toolbox" program. Everything a student does through the Otus platform is integrated into a deep learning program called "analytics" on the Otus app, which compiles information from all first- and third-party apps and creates a student profile easily accessible by teachers and parents at the teacher's discretion. Otus is freely available for use by students, teachers, and parents, but requires a subscription fee for district administrators. [11] Otus is available on iOS for teachers and students, and the web for all users. [12]

Related Research Articles

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech", it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology. In EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age, Tanner Mirrlees and Shahid Alvi (2019) argue "EdTech is no exception to industry ownership and market rules" and "define the EdTech industries as all the privately owned companies currently involved in the financing, production and distribution of commercial hardware, software, cultural goods, services and platforms for the educational market with the goal of turning a profit. Many of these companies are US-based and rapidly expanding into educational markets across North America, and increasingly growing all over the world."

Mimio is a brand name of a line of technology products aimed at the education market. The primary products were originally focused around computer whiteboard interactive teaching devices. MimioCapture devices also allow users to capture all of the ink strokes that are written on the whiteboard. When used in conjunction with a video projector it turns the ordinary whiteboard surface into a fully interactive whiteboard. The product line has been dramatically expanded in the last two years as described in the "Hardware Products" and "Software Products" sections below.

Futurekids, Inc. is a privately held internationally franchised K–12 educational software company headquartered in El Segundo, California, which focuses on technological literacy and computer literacy.

PD 360 is an online library of educational professional development video programs broken into segments. The product was developed by the School Improvement Network, and it has since been renamed Edivate. The segments are topical based with classroom examples featuring various educational experts. PD 360 has increased student achievement in schools in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D2L</span> Global software company

D2L is a Canada-based global software company with offices in Australia, Brazil, Europe, India, Singapore, and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmodo</span> Discontinued learning management system

Edmodo was an educational technology platform for K–12 schools and teachers. Launched in 2008, it enabled teachers to share content, distribute quizzes and assignments, and manage communication with students, colleagues, and parents. The service was shut down on September 22, 2022.

Instructure Holdings, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS), and Mastery Connect, an assessment management system. Prior to its IPO in 2021, the company was owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy</span> Subscription based education program for children 2–8

ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a digital education program for children ages 2–8, created by the edtech company Age of Learning, Inc. The program offers educational games, videos, puzzles, printables, and a library of regular and “read-aloud” children’s books, covering subjects including reading and language arts, math, science, health, social studies, music, and art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udemy</span> American online learning platform

Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company, founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States, with hubs in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; İstanbul, Turkey, and Gurgaon, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edsby</span>

Edsby is an educational technology company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. It is the developer and publisher of the Edsby platform, a web-based K-12 learning management system (LMS) and analytics platform, and Unison, an educational data aggregation product.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Classroom</span> Blended learning platform by Google

Google Classroom is a free blended learning platform developed by Google for educational institutions that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. As of 2021, approximately 150 million users use Google Classroom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kahoot!</span> Norwegian online educational quiz game

Kahoot! is a Norwegian online game-based learning platform, similar to Quizlet, Gimkit, and Blooket. It has learning games, also known as "kahoots", which are user-generated multiple-choice quizzes that can be accessed via a web browser or the Kahoot! app.

ClassDojo is an educational technology company. It connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages. It also enables teachers to note feedback on students' skills and creates a portfolio for students, so that families can be aware of school activities outside of meeting with teachers.

Concentric Sky is a software development company located in Eugene, Oregon. The company was founded in 2005 by Wayne Skipper, and grew to nearly 90 employees prior its sale to Instructure in April 2022. In 2015, Cale Bruckner was promoted to President of the company. Skipper continued to serve as CEO until the company's sale. Concentric Sky is the maker of Badgr and is a well-known contributor to the development of open technology standards focused on advancing equity outcomes for learners and workers.

<i>Early Learning House</i> 1990s collection of educational video games and compilations

Early Learning House or simply the House Series is a collection of four main educational video games and two compilations for the Windows and Macintosh platforms, developed by Theatrix Interactive, Inc. and published by Edmark software. Each different game focuses on a particular major learning category with selectable skill settings for preschooler, kindergarten and elementary learners. Millie's Math House (1992) on mathematics, Bailey's Book House (1993) on language, Sammy's Science House (1994) on science, and Trudy's Time and Place House (1995) on history and geography. A spin-off, Stanley's Sticker Stories (1996), sees players create animated storybooks with the series' characters. Millie & Bailey Preschool and Millie & Bailey Kindergarten each contain the combined activities from two of the four software products. In addition the programs can be configured by an adult mode to suit students with special needs. Most of the activities in every game have two modes, one to allow learners to explore and try it out for themselves and the other for learners to follow specific tasks set by the game characters. Learners also have the option to print pictures of creative activities and record sounds in phonics activities. Later the games were re-developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology and re-published by The Learning Company with newer graphics and additional activities.

Cambridge Semantics is a privately held company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with an office in San Diego, California. The company is an enterprise big data management and exploratory analytics software company.

Fishtree Inc. is an Educational Technology Company that provides a personalized learning platform for K–12 and Higher education. As of March 2015, the Fishtree platform is being used by nearly 500,000 users worldwide in multiple languages including English, Spanish, and Mandarin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MobyMax</span> Educational technology website

MobyMax is an online education program used by grades K-8. MobyMax includes 27 subjects including math, reading, phonics, language, vocabulary, spelling, writing, science, social studies, preparations for state examinations, and more. The program also provides classroom tools such as assessments and progress monitoring and offers games, badges, and contests for the students.

Decisions, Decisions is a 15-part educational role-playing video game series by Tom Snyder Productions, released from the 1980s to the early 2000s. It has also been described as a "media-assisted Simulation Game" series.

Learnosity is an Irish-based education technology company. It produces a set of tools that businesses use to build online assessment and learning products. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and has offices in Sydney, Australia, New York, USA and Los Angeles, USA.

References

  1. ↑ "2016 Finalists". www.siia.net. Archived from the original on 2016-04-10.
  2. ↑ LLC, Otus. "Otus Named SIIA Education CODiE Award Finalist for Two K-12 Categories". PRWeb . Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  3. ↑ victorrivero (2016-03-15). "2016 – Finalists & Winners". EdTech Digest. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  4. ↑ Tech & Learning published (2016-03-05). "National School Boards Association Names "20 to Watch" Education Technology Leaders". TechLearningMagazine. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  5. 1 2 Specht, David (2022-07-13). "The Otus Story". Otus. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  6. ↑ "EdTech Management Platform Otus Expands To District Level | Chicago Inno". chicagoinno.streetwise.co. Archived from the original on 2015-08-18.
  7. ↑ Pletz, John (2014-08-24). "Andrew Bluhm makes leap from hedge fund to iPads". Chicago Business. Archived from the original on 2024-02-24. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  8. ↑ "STUDENT PERFORMANCE PLATFORM Trademark of Otus - Registration Number 4957673 - Serial Number 86819392 :: Justia Trademarks". trademarks.justia.com. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  9. ↑ LLC, Otus. "Otus Chosen as Northwest Evaluation Association MAP Authorized Data Partner". PRWeb . Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  10. ↑ "Otus: The Complete Learning Management System for the K-12 Classroom". The EdTech Roundup. Retrieved 2024-06-15.
  11. ↑ "EdTech Management Platform Otus Expands To District Level | Chicago Inno". chicagoinno.streetwise.co. Archived from the original on 2015-08-18.
  12. ↑ "Announcing… Otus on Any Device! - Otus". otus.com. Archived from the original on 2016-06-05.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.