Corporate Diary: May 2007

PARTNERSHIP

TutorVista partners with Vocabulary.com

Online tutoring company TutorVista.com and online education site Vocabulary.com have signed a deal under which TutorVista will serve as the exclusive tutoring service provider for Vocabulary.com. The affiliation between TutorVista and Vocabulary.com is expected to enable more than 19,000 schools to gain awareness of TutorVista's innovative tutoring resources.

 TutorVista will offer, for a limited period, Vocabulary.com's students USD25 off on its test preparation services and USD25 off on the first month of tutoring subscription. Vocabulary.com students will also be able to receive two free weeks of tutoring and two free hours of test preparation when they register on TutorVista. Vocabulary.com is claimed to generate 250,000 unique visitors a month.

IOL Broadband empowers e-Learning market in India

IOL Broadband is planning to launch interactive broadband services to boost the e-Learning market in India. The company has signed an agreement with Chennai based, ABAN Informatics Pvt Ltd. to provide this service. ABAN Informatics is the  firm offering curriculum specific web enabled content for CBSE and ICSE board exams.

This joint venture will allow millions of students to get instant online access to high end 2D and 3D multimedia content of CBSE and ICSE curriculum. The company promises to deploy cutting edge technology including, fast connectivity and has partnered
with some of the leading e-Learning content providers including,
IL&FS ETS, Educational Initiatives and W3Varsity.

PROJECT

Smart to expand ICT programme in more schools in Philippines

Leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) will expand the Smart Schools Programme to include 50 more public high schools and 30 public elementary schools through out Philippines this year.

To date, 100 public high schools nationwide are Smart Schools Programme partners. Under the Smart Schools Programme, Smart constructs or upgrades computer laboratories into Smart Teachers Learning Resource Centers and provides free Internet connection for one year.

Partner schools are trained in Basic Computer Literacy, ICT Integration, Basic Troubleshooting and Maintenance, Leadership and Basic Web Page Design. In cooperation with content partners, Smart hopes to make local online content available to educators. Last month, Smart also launched Smart Mentors, a specialised training and development programme for faculty members of Smart Schools Programme partners.

Intel brings ICT for Education initiative to Malaysia

Intel Malaysia and the Ministry of Education have proposed an initiative to nudge the country towards becoming more competitive in the knowledge-based global economy by helping students develop digital skills.

Part of Intel's billion-dollar, five-year World Ahead initiative, ICT for Education will commence in Malaysia with Intel's donation of Intel-powered Classmate PCs to 10 classrooms at selected public schools during the second quarter of this year. Inclusive of the pilot, a total of 2,000 units of Classmate PCs will be donated over the span of three years.
 
This 1:1 e-Learning initiative, where each teacher and student has a dedicated laptop computer, offers both teachers and students continuous access to a wide range of software, Internet and all other digital resources for teaching and learning. In fact, it exceeds the government's aim to reduce the ratio of students sharing computers from 1:40 to 1:20 in increasing the child's exposure to ICT learning.

Aladdin eToken to secure e-Learning network of Indian IT students

Aladdin Knowledge Systems, the leader in Software DRM, identity management, and content security solutions, announced that The Consortium for Indian Information Technology Education (CIITE), a nodal agency at the national level focusing on IT education throughout the country, selected the Aladdin eToken authentication solution to secure its vast network of e-Learning resources throughout India.

Over the next three years, Aladdin eToken will be provided to CIITE's students wishing to access the CIITE Educational Portal. eToken will secure access to online academic services, including online libraries, video-based learning, and IT-related texts. In addition to eToken, Aladdin has provided CIITE with an Aladdin Authentication Course – a comprehensive, academic-level DVD training course detailing authentication and security. This course will be used by students in CIITE-supported institutes and high-level educational organisations. Aladdin also announced that it won a deal to supply its award-winning eSafe content security solution to educational institutes run by CIITE.

Product

SumTotal and HP Education Services deploy learning system for Singapore Prison Service

SumTotal Systems, a global provider of talent and learning management solutions, and HP Education Services have deployed SumTotal TotalLMS – 7.2 for Singapore Prison Service (SPS).

Total LMS is an enterprise software system for delivering and analysing learning over the Internet. With SumTotal's software, prison staff spread across 14 correctional institutions has online access to not only prison procedures and doctrines but also best practices designed to boost employee performance. With an LMS now in place, administrators can quickly create or adapt learning to meet the ever-changing situations that officers and staff face inside the prison. Unlike classroom instruction, SPS staff can tap into e-learning when the need arises. And the reports and data that administrators can pull from the LMS such as an officer's knowledge about, say, resolving conflicts give SPS leadership another way to manage the service's talent. In the coming months, SPS will convert many paper-based training materials into an electronic format for delivery and access by the SPS learner population.

Manipal offers distance education in Banking

The Bangalore-based Manipal Education Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) to start a diploma course in banking and finance. The course, targeted at graduates from any academic stream, will be a distance learning course and students will be provided with the course material, e-Learning support and contact classes.

Likely to be priced at INR 5,000 for the whole course, this is a self-paced course, for which exams will be held twice and year, and students can decide when they want to take the exam. The course will also be targeted at IT professionals as statistics show that nearly 20 per cent of the employees in IT companies are banking professionals. The exams for the course will be held offline and online.

Techweb launches SMS Reach Out

Techweb Technologies, a one stop e-shop offering cutting edge solutions to address the communication needs of all,  announced the launch of  its new innovative customer acquisition cum brand-building tool – SMSReach Out. Techweb is on the verge of obtaining
a process patent for its service SMSReach Out.

SMSReach Out the flagship product of Techweb Technologies integrates SMS (mobile), email and Internet technologies into the sales cycle. By incorporating the dedicated SMS number in the advertisement, corporates/institutions can open a new avenue for lead generation.  The SMS Reach Out service would acknowledge each and every enquiry and send the appropriate e-brochure of the product/service to the potential customer.

Headquartered in Bangalore, Techweb Technologies has a liaison office in the US catering to the North American market. Techweb has offered business solutions to different verticals including manufacturing, retail and education institutions.
Adobe to focus on training for deeper penetration
To provide designers and developers with a broad spectrum of creative options, Adobe introduced Creative Suite 3 product line in India and will also be conducting road shows to foray into the B and C class cities with the new product.

Adobe is also going to host a number of marketing activities to promote their products. As far as the verticals are concerned, the company will focus on education, e-Learning and content providers, advertising, printing and publishing, BPO, and animation.

To make the Suite 3 widely acceptable among the educational institutions Adobe wants specialised courses be made available to the students so as to make them well versed with the product. The education segment is having a tremendous potential and for that it is going to conduct design and other relevant institutional workshops in the colleges.  

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