Discovery Ed Acquires Ed Assessment and Feedback Company
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 08/10/20
Education
media company Discovery
Education
has acquired Spiral,
a London-based company that supports collaborative learning and
formative assessments. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Spiral
has five modules, each designed to engage learners in different ways:
-
Quickfire
Lite lets the teacher ask verbal questions and get quick responses
from students;
-
Quickfire
provides a planned quiz with multiple format responses;
-
Discuss
turns a presentation into a discussion thread for the class to
participate in;
-
Team
Up allows students to work together on presentations; and
-
Clip
turns public videos into a live chat with questions and quizzes.
Activities
can be saved for use in a live class online or posted as assignments
for students to do on their own.
There's
no need to run Spiral through a learning management system. Teachers
can invite student participation with a code or email link. However,
class rosters from Google Classroom can be integrated into Spiral.
According
to Discovery officials, Spiral's product features complement its own
curated content and existing assessment and student collaboration
tools, adding that the acquisition will provide additional ways for
customers to do their teaching.
"Discovery
Education is focused on providing school systems outstanding digital
services that connect students to learning in and out of the
classroom," said Discovery Education Vice President of Corporate
Development and Strategy, Philip Nanney, in a press release. "The
acquisition of Spiral aligns with our strategy of adding features to
our digital services that save educators time and increase student
engagement.
"Discovery
Education shares our commitment to connecting students to learning no
matter where they are, and we look forward to working closely on that
mission with our new colleagues," said Hamish Kennedy, Spiral's
founder and CEO.
Spiral
is based in London.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.