Kortext Awarded Tender for the Jisc Learning Analytics Purchasing Service for UK Universities

BOURNEMOUTH, England, October 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Kortext has been accepted onto the new Jisc Learning Analytics Purchasing Service, having been appointed as a supplier for Learning Analytics Solutions, Services and Infrastructure. This announcement means that Kortext are now the only company in the UK listed on both the SUPC eTextbook Provision (Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium) and the Jisc Learning Analytics Purchasing Service.

The aim of the new Purchasing Service is to create an efficient and cost-effective mechanism to enable Universities and Colleges nationally to buy add-on services that complement the core Learning Analytics Service they receive from Jisc.

Through our strong partnership with Microsoft, leveraging their Azure platform, Kortext have been able to provide a highly flexible solution to target improvements in student retention, progression and support. Learning analytics enable universities to produce a personalised approach to how they can aid student learning, develop independent study and encourage research skills, as set out by the TEF framework put forward by the Department of Education.

Andy Alferovs, Managing Director of Kortext said, "Being officially recognised by Jisc for our innovative advancements in Learning Analytics on the back of our SUPC announcement earlier this year is a mark of the progress we are making in supplying innovative solutions to support teaching and learning across the world. We would not have achieved so much this year without our university partners that have provided superb feedback and added to our development goals."

Phil Richards, Jisc's Chief Innovation Officer, commented, "Kortext impressed us with the capability of their platform and the flexibility of the analytics services and infrastructure they offered. With the analytics sector rapidly evolving we're excited to welcome such an innovative supplier into the Purchasing Service. We look forward to working more deeply with Kortext as they continue to grow, both in scale and capability, in the UK and internationally."

Anthony Salcito, Vice President Microsoft Education added, "We have worked closely with Kortext for over 2 years now and they have proven to be a great partner in building world class solutions that leverage the best of Microsoft's technologies to support education. We are excited by the developments they are working on in machine learning by leveraging Microsoft's artificial intelligence capabilities and we look forward to ongoing collaboration."

Kortext:  

Kortext is a world leading digital textbook and personal study platform providing access to over 500,000 etextbooks from over 1,000 education publishers such as Wiley, Pearson, Oxford University Press. The platform provides an enhanced learning experience and is rapidly being adopted to support student retention, progression and success. Kortext partners around the world with local distributors, publishers and global technology companies to accelerate adoption of digital learning (http://www.kortext.com).

Jisc:  

Jisc (http://www.jisc.ac.uk) is the UK's expert member organisation for digital technology and digital resources in higher education, further education, skills and research. Our vision is to make the UK the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world.

We play a pivotal role in the development, adoption and use of technology by UK universities and colleges, supporting them to improve learning, teaching, the student experience and institutional efficiency, as well as enabling more powerful research.

At the heart of Jisc's support is Janet - the UK's world-class National Research and Education Network (NREN). Owned, managed and operated by Jisc, Janet comprises a secure, state-of-the-art network infrastructure spanning all four nations of the UK.

Further details about Jisc's R&D Learning Project and the new beta Learning Analytics Service are available from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/effective-learning-analytics and https://analytics.jiscinvolve.org/wp/ .