Another day, another Microsoft effort to transform education for the masses. The company is leading the push towards a more interactive and effective way of learning with 21st century tools and technologies using their technologies.
Microsoft’s Office 365 has already been well accepted by educational institutions thanks to its suite of useful tools such as OneDrive for Business, Lync, Skype, Office Mix and OneNote. The suite was designed so that third-party developers could develop apps that integrate into the productivity platform to fulfill institution-specific tasks and needs. Office 365 is open, enterprise-ready, safe, and scalable, and that makes it perfect for the evolving needs of educators.
At the Microsoft in Education Forum, Microsoft showcased some of the solutions developed by its partners for Office 365. One system in particular, developed by Oxford University Press, was designed to make it simpler for schools and universities to distribute textbooks to large amounts of students in a fast and cost-effective way, so that they always have access to textbooks regardless of where they are.
Another project from Desire2Learn places entire courses online, along with additional learning content, quizzes, and surveys — all at the fingertips of students. The apps also allows students to manage their school emails and calendars, while collaborating with fellow classmates. If only every university used this platform.
ITWORX Education developed an e-learning app that integrates with Office 365 and used Microsoft Azure to host an e-learning repository. This knowledge bank includes lesson plans, research, multimedia content, and other educational resources that teachers can access on any internet-connected device. The app is available for free thanks to the Global Alliance Agreement established between ITWORX Education and Microsoft.
A larger system was developed by Datenlotsen called CampusNet; the system is cross-platform and based on Office 365 and SharePoint. It aims to help educational institutions improve student experiences with the cloud, so both students and teachers can have access to collaboration and communication tools using a single sign-on access process.
You can read about more innovative apps developed by Microsoft partners for Office 365 by heading over to the VIA link below.
Further reading: Apps, Education, Microsoft, Office, Office 365, Partners
