EdUp EdTech, hosted by Holly Owens

Episode Overview

On the 16th episode of EdUp EdTech, I got to have a lovely chat with Nandan Keerthi founder of Classe365. Nandan is a self-proclaimed EDUpreneur and innovator. He is a super amazing human and I loved the conversation we had. In this episode, we hear about Nandan's journey and achieving his dream of creating Classe365 and changing the digital landscape of education. You will definitely want to check out all the great things happening at Classe365. 

More Nandan & Classe365 

From Nandan: 

"Founding Classe365 was not only a dream but getting this off on a growth trajectory has been one of the most satisfying journeys. Classe365 is one of the leading EduTech platforms globally today and I am very passionate about driving innovation and contributing to learning and education.

More About Classe365 

Classe365 was founded with the goal of developing the world‘s best student and learning management platform for all sizes and types of education institutions. Today, we have over 4500 educators across 130 countries from student sizes of 15 to 200,000 helping their students achieve new heights.Classe365 has built technology that provides a complete student management software system. This allows teachers and educators to deliver knowledge through traditional and blended learning environments, where students can learn, gain knowledge, and build their future.

Be sure to check out the Classe365 Digitial Transformation Framework by going to -

https://resources.classe365.com/digital-transformation-framework

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On the 15th episode of EdUp EdTech, I was so honored to speak with two of the best and brightest minds in online education Judith Dutill and Melissa Wehler from Online Learning Toolkit (OLT). In this episode, we cover all the things related to online education and talk about all the COOL things happening at OLT, including the Camp Operation Online Learning (COOL) taking place this summer from June 14 to July 23. This is a wonderful episode for anyone looking to develop or makeover their online courses. 

Register for COOL here - https://www.onlinelearningtoolkit.com/cool

More Judith, Melissa, and OLT 

Our story starts and ends with friendship. Judith and Melissa met while working at the same institution. Judith was an instructional designer and part-time faculty member, and Melissa was an administrator and faculty member. Over time, their partnership became a friendship and that friendship would become the Online Lecture Toolkit--an open educational resource dedicated to helping faculty develop online lecture videos--started in 2017. As demand for resources grew, Judith and Melissa expanded their offerings and changed their name to the Online Learning Toolkit in 2018. Since then, they have offered professional development opportunities to thousands of faculty members at institutions all over the world.

Judith's & Melissa's Bios - https://www.onlinelearningtoolkit.com/about-us

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On the 14th episode of EdUp EdTech, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kelly Jura, Vice President of Brand and User Experience at Screencast-O-Matic (SOM). This episode highlights the importance of using videos in the online space to engage students. Kelly also talks about how SOM has really listened to its consumers to make key feature shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly is passionate about the user experience and that really comes through in this episode. 

More Screencast-O-Matic & Kelly Jura 

We believe that video is a powerful communication tool.  It allows people to capture ideas, demonstrate abstract concepts, engage audiences, and drive video conversations.

At Screencast-O-Matic, our mission is to offer easy-to-use, accessible tools that empower people to create and share their ideas through video. Through this, Screencast-O-Matic has helped more than 9 million users worldwide.

Kelly has been interesting places and my career has taken me in a few different directions:

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On lucky number episode 13 of EdUp EdTech, I had the pleasure of speaking with CEO and Co-founder Diego Fanara from Unibuddy. This episode highlights the importance of connecting current students with prospective students and helping them decide which institution is best for them to attend. Peer to Peer connections through Unibuddy helped increase application and retention rates by 65% in situations where a prospective student got the opportunity to chat with an ambassador (current student). Diego also talks about his passion for diversifying college demographics and opening up a world of opportunities to both domestic and international students. This is a fabulous episode is filled with great tips on how to connect students across the higher ed ecosystem. 

Sign-up for a demo of the Unibuddy platform by going to - https://unibuddy.com/

More About Unibuddy 

Selecting the right university is one of the biggest decisions a young person will make. Unibuddy has raised $7 million to help prospective students connect with students currently enrolled in universities. The platform has been embedded into over 250 universities around the world (Forbes 30 Under 30, 2020). 

Unibuddy is an educational technology company based in London, United Kingdom with offices in New York City and Bangalore. Uniuddy is a digital Peer-to-peer communication platform that facilitates conversations between prospective university students and current student ambassadors.

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On episode 12 of EdUp EdTech, I had the distinct honor of speaking with Beth Hendler-Grunt, President of Next Great Step. This episode is jam-packed with need-to-knows about how Next Great Step is helping college students step into their first careers, and resolve the disconnect between employer expectations and a grad’s preparedness. Moving into the "real world" can really be tricky, but it doesn't have to be with some coaching help from Beth and her team. 

More About Beth Hendler-Grunt and Next Great Step 

Beth Hendler-Grunt is a dynamic leader, adviser, and facilitator who has extensive experience consulting from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms. She has proven success with guiding firms, sales teams, and individuals to achieve their sales performance and strategic planning goals.

Ms. Hendler-Grunt is leveraging and scaling her corporate expertise by bringing that experience to college students to help them succeed when they graduate. This is based on a clear understanding of the career development process and the requirements needed to succeed in today’s competitive environment. Next Great Step has facilitated student strategy and development sessions for recent graduates and current students at leading universities as well as one-on-one consultations.

Ms. Hendler-Grunt earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters of Business Administration from the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University. Ms. Hendler-Grunt has over 20 years of business and sales leadership success in the high-tech and management consulting sector. She has enabled hundreds of clients to achieve success and has been featured in The New York Times, SiriusXM Radio, and ZipRecruiter to name a few.

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On episode 11 of EdUp EdTech, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alexander Leader, Founder, and CEO of Aviso Retention. We also had a very special guest host, Mike Yates, who is the host of the fantastic Schoolish podcast. We had a great conversation about what Aviso is doing to help those underserved student populations and at-risk students stay in school and earn certificates and degrees. We love systems that help our learners!  

Read the White Paper - The Retention Payoff: How Colleges Can Maximize Return on Investment in Student Success

About Alexander Leader & Aviso Retention 

Alex Leader is the Founder and CEO of Aviso Retention, a software, and AI student success solution that helps colleges and universities keep students engaged, optimize the chances of student success and avoid attrition. After seeing a need for a solution that assists students to succeed beyond the traditional education path, Alex dedicated his focus to higher education where his passion for student engagement, retention, and advocacy, combined with his experience in institutional consulting with technology integration helped mold the Aviso Retention platform into a tool that addresses the timely needs of advisors and success coaches.

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview

On episode 10 of EdUp EdTech, I had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Laster, Chief Product Officer at Ellucian. "Inspired by the transformative impact of education, Ellucian develops solutions that power the essential work of colleges and universities. As the world’s leading provider of software and services designed for higher education, Ellucian works with more than 2,500 institutions in nearly 50 countries—enhancing operations and enriching the experience for over 18 million students." We had a wonderful conversation surrounding higher education and what Ellucian is doing to propel institutions forward as they step into a world of change post-covid. There's a big announcement drop in this episode about their new learning platform. 

Check out the announcement article. 

About Stephen Laster 

As senior vice president and chief product officer, Stephen J. Laster leads all aspects of Ellucian’s product direction and strategy, across the product and research and development organizations.

Stephen is a seasoned technologist, business leader, strategist, e-learning designer, and educator with an extensive background in higher education. He comes to Ellucian from Penn Foster, where he served as chief digital and learning officer. In this capacity, he led the technology, courseware, and education practices to advance the impact and engagement of the organization's learning experiences, both in pursuit of learner success and to advance the technological capabilities of the firm.

Prior to Penn Foster, Stephen served for more than a decade in technology leadership roles related to higher education, including as chief digital officer at McGraw-Hill Education, chief information officer at Harvard Business School, and director of curriculum innovation and technology at Babson College.

His expertise in this field is widely respected and has led to advisory positions for organizations such as EDUCAUSE Corporate Advisory, IMS Global, Microsoft Higher Education, the Online Learning Consortium, Preserve, Inc., and Babson College. A frequent commentator on education technology and innovation, he has spoken and written articles for ASU GSV, EDUCAUSE, IMS Learning Impact, and Campus Technology.

Stephen holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

How to Connect

 We Make Education Your Business!

Episode Overview On the 9th episode of EdUp EdTech, we speak with Kathy Gibson Founder & CEO of APL NextED. 

We had a great conversation about Kathy's transition from lawyer to the field of education, and also her life's passion for making higher education better for everyone by breaking down silos and bringing teams together. Kathy also discusses women's role in higher ed and how there needs to be more support for women's leadership in this space. 

About APL NextED

APL was designed to bring faculty, administrators, advisors, teaching & learning professionals, instructional designers, and other team members together. Our centralized hub fosters collaboration, greater automation and integration of processes, and increased transparency of information.

More about Kathy 

Kathleen "Kathy" Gibson is the CEO and Founder of APL nextED, a comprehensive academic operations platform that provides workflow support and links faculty and student data to optimize teaching, advising, and mentoring to increase student success.

She has worked as a lawyer, college dean, program developer, professor, and writer. She is a wife, mother, avid reader, and yoga enthusiast. Kathleen has studied and written about trends in higher education for the last 20 years.

Kathy has been described as an audacious leader who knows how to solve big problems by building executable plans and by assembling strong, talented teams. She has a contagious passion for connecting diverse people around a common vision. 

Connecting with Kathy Gibson on LinkedIn 

Follow APL NextED on Social Media Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube 

Connect with the host: Holly Owens 

Join the EdUp community at The EdUp Experience!

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We Make Education Your Business!

Our show is proudly a part of the EdUp Experience Network!

Episode Overview On the 8th episode of EdUp EdTech, we speak with Mark Salisbury Co-founder & CEO of TuitionFit. 

We discuss Mark's experience in higher education and passion for helping students and their families make fiscally sound decisions when choosing a college through using the TuitionFit system. This is also a win for colleges and institutions to inform the tuition process. With pricing transparency, everyone wins!!! 

About TuitionFit 

TuitionFit gives college-bound students, families, and college search counselors the pricing information they need to make the most informed decisions possible. We make it possible for more students to go to college, pay for college, and begin adult life without the burden of excess student loan debt. More about Mark Mark Salisbury has spent 25 years in higher education as a soccer coach, admissions counselor, instructor, director of institutional research, academic administrator. He has a Ph.D. in higher education and studies how colleges and universities succeed (or fail) in helping students learn and grow.  His research has been published and cited in numerous academic journals and has been highlighted by NPR, WNYC, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed.  Two years ago, Mark started TuitionFit to solve the lack of real college price transparency by crowdsourcing information.  When he isn't working on TuitionFit, Mark is busy raising two boys, pedaling long distances on a stationary bike, and wishing he could be an improv comic. Thanks for tuning in! 

Connecting with Mark Salisbury on LinkedIn 

Follow TuitionFit on Social Media Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube 

Connect with the host: Holly Owens 

Join the EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! 

Follow the EdUp Experience Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube       

We Make Education Your Business! 

Our show is proudly a part of the EdUp Experience Network!

Episode Overview

On the 7th episode of EdUp EdTech, we speak with Eric Chiang (Head of Marketing) and Joe Denomme (Account Executive) from the original scavenger hunt app, GooseChase. In this tech-filled episode, Eric and Joe talk about how GooseChase came to fruition and the impact COVID-19 has had on their company. This cool EdTech is as fascinating as the name sounds!

About Goosechase 

GooseChase is inspired by our passion for the outrageous. This tool was created to simplify the process and get back to the fun of scavenger hunts with real-time feeds and leaderboards the excitement is endless. Goosechase is adaptable for learners of all ages, and even your family and friends! 

More about Eric

Eric leads the growth and marketing efforts at GooseChase. He was introduced to the company after participating in his first game (and leading his team to victory!) while traveling in Central America, and brings his background from the experience creation industry to GooseChase as the expert in content creation and funnel building. Having a love for all things competitive and a belief in the power of games to unite people, Eric helps teachers and event organizers everywhere make the most of their digital scavenger hunt experiences.

More about Joe 

Joe always considers himself the voice of the customer and has spent his career creating exceptional customer experiences. His experience includes events, retail, and financial products. Joe's main goal is to understand your vision and help you bring your dream hunt to life! In addition to his work with GooseChase, he also coaches minor hock in Toronto and is passionate about building positive team cultures, and having fun while crushing your goals. When he isn't working you can find Joe hiking, canoeing, or hitting up a stand-up comedy show. 

Thanks for tuning in!