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Even hedge fund managers aren’t experts in everything. So when Chicago-based hedge fund manager Andy Bluhm noticed the impact digital textbooks were starting to have and decided to create a do-it-all education tech tool, he turned to two professionals in the field—social studies teachers Chris Hull and Pete Helfers.
Over the course of two years, they created the learning management system Otus, designed for teachers and students in a one-on-one classroom environment. It allows teachers to organize their classes, create multimedia presentations, poll students for instant feedback, and take split-screen notes all linked to one’s Google Drive. And its arguably most attractive feature: it’s totally free for students and teachers, without any ads or in-app purchases.
“Otus is a social enterprise: the number one goal is to improve education by making education technology easy-to-use and available to everyone,” said spokeswomen Jennifer Amdur Spitz. “We’re not necessarily focused on maximizing profit. In the long-term Otus can replace older computer systems for grade management and other functions, and share with districts in the savings.”
After being released as an app in March 2014, Otus has been downloaded by more than 11,000 teachers, not to mention the “several thousand” new accounts created this week since the team launched a website version for Chromebook and other web-enabled devices.
The order is important, Amdur Spitz said: “Most learning management systems (LMS) and apps were created for desktop computers, and then they create an iPad app as an afterthought. That’s why the teachers found most LMS clunky and hard to navigate,” she said. “We all love the intuitive flow of iPads and wanted to create a learning environment that was clean and as easy to use, felt natural on an iPad.”
And it’s just in time for the new school year. “It incorporates functions like Class Dojo, Socrative, Edmodo, Schology, Google Classroom and more all in one place,” Helfers said. “But it’s also about collegial conversation on how technology in education improves learning for everyone.”
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