[Article]
Venturing out for success
Winnipeg digital-education startup to attend influential New York conference
August 10, 2016
Winnipeg Free Press • Not unlike every other legacy institution in society, education is being disrupted by digital technology.
If the fact Winnipeg-based Quipped Interactive Learning Tools is one of only 12 companies accepted to participate in a private conference for the world’s top education-technology founders in New York next week is any indication, it is at the vanguard of that process.
[Press Release]
Winnipeg Startup part of exclusive group selected for NYC VentureOut EdTech Expedition
August 10, 2016
Winnipeg-based Quipped Interactive Learning Tools is one of a small handful of companies selected to attend the VentureOut Edtech Expedition conference in New York City held August 14-19. The private conference, in partnership with StartEd, helps early-stage international edtech companies connect with opportunities, raise capital, and launch in the U.S. market.
“We’re excited and honoured to have been invited to such an exclusive event,” says Quipped co-founder and CEO Suzanne Braun. “Several startup companies have benefitted from attending this conference, and we’re hopeful about making similar gains. Authorea, a startup that is revolutionizing the way academic papers are written, is just one inspiring example.”
Quipped’s software application, called QUIO Learning Map, supports teachers in their evaluation of student learning using methods informed by the latest research on learning and assessment. It offers a more accurate assessment that goes beyond what a letter grade can achieve. It’s assessment that improves learning.
The software guides teachers step by step to create a visual learning map based on learning standards and corresponding descriptions of student performance. It provides an overall picture of a student’s progress based on actual evidence of learning. This complete picture is then communicated in an easy-to-use e-portfolio. The Learning Map is interactive and individualized and becomes the central point of conversation between the teacher, student, and parents.
“Research shows that students do significantly better when they receive descriptive, personalized feedback on their progress, explains Braun. “This kind of assessment prepares students for today’s economy because it focusses on critical 21st century skills such as problem solving and critical thinking.
The Quio Learning Map has been evaluated by educators and approved as a resource for use in British Columbia schools. A number of schools in Western Canada are also using the software.
[ARTICLE]
When Tech Meets Project-Based Learning
June 22, 2016
At last week’s PBL World conference in Napa, EdSurge’s Tech for Schools Ed Leader Workshop surfaced 14 tools aimed at supporting teachers and students engaged in project-based learning. Here they are (and their uses):
[ARTICLE]
14 Tech Tools to Enhance Project-Based Learning
June 17, 2016
Bob Lenz (@pblbob) and Sally Kingston (@SallyKingston5) shared 17 Teacher Tech Tools for High-Quality Project-Based Learning. Many of these tools can be used to help facilitate PBL and to best meet the needs of students working on projects. At the Buck Institute for Education PBL World event this week, we attended an EdSurge workshop and learned about some additional tools that can be used to help address PBL questions you might be having.
[PRESS RELEASE]
Winnipeg EdTech Company off to California EdSurge Summit
June 13, 2016
Winnipeg-based Quipped Interactive Learning Tools is one of thirteen companies that has been selected to attend EdSurge’s Tech for Schools Summit at PBL World in Napa Valley, California on June 16, 2016.
Quipped’s software application, called QUIO Learning Map, helps teachers communicate student learning using methods in step with the latest research on student learning and assessment.
Quipped is taking part in the Ed Leaders Tech for Schools Workshop, a small group event for senior administrators to work with a curated group of edtech companies.
“QUIO Learning Map is a great fit for the Summit and PBL World audience,” said Suzanne Braun, Quipped’s co-founder and CEO. PBL is an acronym for Project Based Learning, a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge.
“QUIO is adaptable for a variety of teaching approaches, including PBL,” said Braun. “The Learning Map includes learning standards and descriptions of performance that, in turn, are connected to evidence to create a complete picture of student learning.”
Students do significantly better when they receive descriptive personalized feedback on their progress, said Braun. “This kind of assessment prepares students for today’s economy, as it’s focused on 21st century skills like problem solving and critical thinking.”
[ARTICLE]
12 Resources that Teachers Need to Know About for the Inclusive Classroom: A Professional Development Guide
June 8, 2016
Anyone who is or knows a teacher also knows that summer vacation is a time for professional development. Whether it is attending workshops, reading about the latest teaching trends or finding new lesson ideas on Pinterest, teachers are using their summer vacation time to plan for the school year ahead. Here is a list of helpful resources that teachers can read and use in the inclusive classroom.
[ARTICLE]
City a tech-expansion hub
December 11, 2015
Winnipeg has become the headquarters for efforts to expand Western Canadian information technology companies around the world.Last month, a delegation of about 20 people from B.C. to Manitoba attended the Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, a three-day technology conference that attracted more than 30,000 attendees from more than 100 countries.
[ARTICLE]
Collaborating for a Creative Future
November 6, 2015
The MaRS Centre for Impact Investing and the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are proud to announce the 2015 RBC Impact Entrepreneurs who will be showcased at the 8th annual Social Finance Forum. Taking place on November 12th and 13th, the Social Finance Forum is the best place to engage and profile leaders in Canada’s diverse social finance scene and to capture advancements from the world stage.
[ARTICLE]
Home Team Talent Brings Possibility
October 21, 2105
The software by Winnipeg-based Quipped Interactive Learning Tools provides teachers with a flexible environment to collect, analyze and communicate their students’ progress.
The bleeding edge approach means the code used is something that may have been written just days ago and is now being actively developed and continually improved along with the software it’s used in, says Quipped’s Chief Technology Officer James Black.
[ARTICLE]
Education and employment ventures from across Canada graduate from MaRS Impact8 accelerator
June 24, 2015
Impact8’s third cohort graduated from the eight-week accelerator after demoing their social innovations to an audience of accredited investors and industry stakeholders yesterday at the MaRS Centre.
[ARTICLE]
Social Finance Showcases: Quipped
June 8, 2015
Here at SF.ca, nothing excites us more than the opportunity to share stories about the great work happening in Canadian social finance! In April, Marie Ang introduced the 3rd cohort of Impact8, Ontario’s first social venture accelerator. Now with Impact8’s Demo Day just around the corner, we’re profiling this year’s Impact8 ventures. Today we’re chatting with Suzanne Braun, the CEO of Quipped.
[ARTICLE]
Newest Technology for Grading Helps Teachers Manage Time
May 7, 2015
At one time, Scantron forms – with their rows of empty circles for recording answers to multiple-choice questions – were the latest in classroom technology. Put down your No. 2 pencils.
Quipped, an educational technology company based in Winnipeg, is here for education’s future.
Technology is a great tool for educators to use. “Research into how students learn and innovative instructional practices create an opening for technology in the classroom,” says Catherine Gerbasi, one of Quipped’s founders.
[ARTICLE]
Announcing the Impact8 Work & Learning cohort
April 21, 2015
The MaRS Centre for Impact Investing (MCII) is thrilled to announce the participants of Impact8: Work & Learning.
Impact8 is a social venture accelerator and investment readiness program now in its third year of delivery. Our two previous cohorts have enjoyed great success refining their models for social impact and scalability, and accessing capital to grow their ventures. Impact8 graduates have successfully raised almost $1 million in financing directly through Impact8 and related MCII activities, including the SVX, as well as through pitch events such as ImpactOntario and the Social Finance Forum.
The spring 2015 program is a partnership between the MCII and the MaRS Education Technology (edtech) Cluster. The edtech cluster brings invaluable sector-based expertise to the program, which is targeted to ventures that are working in education and employment, and that are delivering outcomes related to access and inclusion, workforce planning, youth employment, system transformation, and curriculum and content enhancement.
[ARTICLE]
February 4, 2015
QUIO Product Review
Assessment regimens, philosophies and expectations, and the endless dialogue that is interwoven through these mazes of thought and discourse would make a non-educator cringe. To be sure assessment is a ‘hot topic’ today in education, perhaps it always has been, however there is no reason an educator today should be without the knowledge or the tools to do assessment well, especially in light of the global impetus to improve education seemingly at all costs. We have the means, but do we have the professional will to change current practices and adopt new and powerful methods to meet today’s current learning climate? In short, assessment is one of the linchpins of a cogent classroom program and as educators we must keep current with best practices in evidence-supported research in assessment.
This certainly is possible in the 21st Century. In this day and age there are a plethora of software tools both computer and web-based – that educators can use to observe, document, analyze and report on student achievement. There seems to be no shortage of such tools with some offering the educator the ability to collect a huge variety of evidence to support an educator’s assessment of students in his or her classroom. Some of these tools are standalone in that they offer little else but the ability to set up assessment parameters, collect evidence, analyze said evidence and then report on that evidence. In some cases students and parents have instant access to this cumulative evidence and the ‘right on time’ ability that is built into some of these programs enables students and parents to make right adjustments according to the evidence so that corrective paths can be inculcated into a student’s learning habits.
[PRESS RELEASE]
Quipped joins The Eureka Project
September 4, 2014
At one time, Scantrons for multiple-choice tests were the latest in classroom tech. Put down your No. 2 pencils. Quipped, an educational technology company based in Winnipeg is here for the future of education.
Technology is a tool for educators to use. “Research into how students learn, and innovative instructional practices create an opening for technology in the classroom,” says Catherine Gerbasi, one of Quipped’s founders.
“We’re designing tools for 21st Century learners,” says Suzanne Braun, Quipped’s co-founder and CEO.
Quipped is set to launch its software as a service, known as QUIO, based on the work of authors Caren Cameron and Kathleen Gregory. “They developed a way to assess student learning that goes beyond the traditional way of collecting a string of marks and calculating a grade, to one that provides an overall picture of student learning,” says Gerbasi.
The Eureka Project continues to be a valuable resource for Quipped, says Braun. “The innovators at The Eureka Project are wonderful mentors who have been with us from the start, from our initial feasibility study to our pilot in Canadian schools.”
“We are excited to see where this technology goes next, in the classroom and beyond,” says Gary Brownstone, President and CEO of The Eureka Project.