OpenClass Goes Beyond the LMS

Of course OpenClass has all the LMS functionality needed to manage courses, but that’s just the beginning. OpenClass uses the latest, most effective social technologies to encourage collaboration and communication for students, faculty, and institutions. And because OpenClass is built to be mobile, it’s easy to log in and stay connected from anywhere. We even have a beautiful new app built just for iPad so OpenClass looks and works great on the go. Sign up to request access to OpenClass.

OpenClass is unbelievably easy to set up. It even works with what you’re already using. Get set up with just a few clicks and instantly import content from other learning management systems such as Blackboard, Angel, or Moodle.

LMS Features

OpenClass has all the features you need. The updated UI improves upon some essential LMS features:

• Dashboard – At a single glance, see a list of all your classes and get an aggregated view of activity from students and instructors
• Submissions – Conveniently submit and retrieve assignments and graded activities from one central location inside OpenClass
• Gradebook – Get a large space to assign grades, leave feedback for hundreds of students at once, and export your gradebook easily
• Scheduling –Manage and enter due dates for class assignments. Plus new scheduler view just for students
• Assessment & Reporting – Easily evaluate student performance, offer personalized remediation, and create custom reports

Social Features

OpenClass embraces social. Together, instructors and students can engage and interact just as they would in Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other social networking applications. Use OpenClass to easily share, collaborate, and start conversations. Initiate a chat or a Skype discussion with instructors or students within your institution or around the world. OpenClass helps you stay connected beyond the classroom.

• Create personal networks of peers
• Post to courses and followers
• Stimulate social learning with threaded comments
• Get notifications about course activity and comments
• Respond to comment threads

Mobile Features

OpenClass is already extending the experience of learning to mobile phones and tablets—and it’s improving every day. Dedicated apps for Apple iOS and Google Android are in constant development, and our newly-released iPad app is now available with a revamped UI that makes OpenClass easier than ever to use on the go. Plus, we’ll be opening up our mobile APIs for institutions to advance and customize as they choose.

• New dedicated iPad app for OpenClass
• See current and upcoming course content
• View Activity Stream
• Participate in discussions and post remarks
• View gradebook

A Destination for Amazing Educational Content

The OpenClass Exchange is a place where any educator at any institution will have access to the best in educational content. The Exchange will deliver all kinds of amazing content: free, Open Educational Resources (OER), third-party, faculty-generated, and Pearson content.
Sign up to learn how to create content for OpenClass.

OpenClass will make it easy for institutions and educators to create and curate content designed by the most transformative educators and perfected through community participation.

Open Education Resources (OER)

The OpenClass Exchange Beta provides educators with a simple integrated solution for finding and adopting OER content to extend and enhance their OpenClass courses. We have sifted through myriad sources to curate best-in-class OER content we believe instructors want as they build out their courses/learning experiences. The searchable and browsable database of OER content includes video from The Khan Academy, Ted-Ed, and YouTube EDU along with many other OER product types and sources utilizing the Creative Commons license.

Educators can review detailed product pages and preview learning materials before making the decision to adopt a piece of content. Adoption of content is as easy as clicking an add-to-course button and choosing from a list of their existing OpenClass courses. Once a piece of content is added to a course, Educators can easily organize the embedded content within their course and continue to search and browse the Exchange for additional learning materials.

Born-Digital Content

Pearson has been investing heavily in technology and partnering with institutions around the US to usher in a new era of collaboratively-created course content. And we’re leveraging the advice of leading experts in pedagogy, social networking, and gaming to create best of breed content. The result will be a revolutionary set of courses that aren’t simply digital versions of printed material. Rather they’re “born-digital”— meaning they’ve been created from scratch and optimized to take advantage of 21st century technology.

Born-digital courses are more engaging, more intelligent, and more effective than anything that’s ever been available to educators and students. In fact, we’re already working with a variety of educational teams to combine first-class content and assessments with continuous improvement driven by data and analytics.

With projects like The Projector and interactive courses like Habitable Worlds and Digital Photography and Image Editing from PeachPit, we’re demonstrating a whole new level of student engagement.

Harnessing the Power of Big Data

Content and courses delivered in OpenClass have another important advantage. By delivering across institutions on a single platform OpenClass is uniquely positioned to harness the power of Big Data.

Through fully-supported, open APIs, we’re making it easy for anyone to connect content to OpenClass. Because when you have a critical mass of students learning from content on a single platform and allow access to that data, the future opens up. With deep insights into student progress, engagement, and performance, it’s possible to optimize content, boosting course efficacy, and bringing about amazing strides in personalized and adaptive learning.