Avallain is one of Education Technology Insights’ Top 10 Digital Solution Providers of 2017

With up-to-date articles on current digital education concepts and technologies, Education Technology Insights is an important resource as well as a platform for discussion within the edtech community. For three years now, the US-based magazine has featured articles by some of the most renowned educators and innovators, providing groundbreaking insights into the role of education technology today.

We are proud to announce that this month’s issue of Education Technology Insights features Avallain on the list of Top 10 Digital Solution Providers 2017 – including a feature article about our company which is sure to draw attention.

Presenting 15 years of e-learning innovation

The article charts the course of our company, from the first training software which Avallain co-founder and Managing Director Ignatz Heinz created in 1984 as well as our pioneering Learning Content Management System, developed after the company’s founding in 2002, to our present-day status as one of the world’s leading digital education technology innovators. It also mentions Avallain Foundation’s charitable work in places such as Kenya.

Education Technology Insights’ article also introduces the magazine’s audience to our core products, Avallain Author and Avallain Unity. Doing so, it cites some of our greatest achievements, from Oxford University Press’ Kerboodle platform to our work on Pearson’s Poptropica English.

We are thrilled to be part of Education Technology Insights’ Top 10 Digital Solution Providers this year”, says Ignatz Heinz. “We strongly believe that this is proof of our dedication to the satisfaction of our customers.”

“We hope the article will allow a wider audience to understand just how much digital technology such as Avallain Author and Avallain Unity can improve the effectiveness of education”, says Ursula Suter, co-founder and Managing Director of Avallain. “We appreciate Education Technology Insights for including us in their top 10 list. This is a huge success for the company and living proof of the passionate daily work of our employees, who made this success possible in the first place.

What the future holds

Avallain has never been a company that rests on its laurels. Thus, being one of Education Technology Insights’ Top 10 Digital Solution Providers of 2017 encourages us to go even further. Having recently scaled up considerably, we are confident to be able to provide more technological innovation and even better service to our customers in the future.

Introducing the Avallain Professional Services department

From joining the Westermann Group in creating the highly successful Denken und Rechnen (‘Thinking and Numeracy’) differentiated learning platform to being an integral part in the development of the Bett Award-winning Oxford Owl platform for primary school students, Avallain has been at the very forefront of the digital education sector for many years now. In fact, we have experienced fantastic and consistent growth – to the great benefit of our existing clients, as well as the many new high-profile partners with whom we have teamed up.

To support this development, Avallain will be scaling up all areas of operation, from the Product and Operations departments to the Technology team; this will allow us to free up capacities for further innovation and development regarding our core products and architecture. To further expand the close relationship we have always had with our key clients, we will be introducing Avallain’s new Professional Services department.

What is the purpose of Professional Services?

From the very beginning, one of the most enduring core values of Avallain has been our client-centric approach; in fact, this has been one of the most important factors of our success over the years. Thus, we decided that due to the scale-up, we would also dedicate an entire department to fully supporting our key clients – They want to expand their leading positions on the market, and the new department is determined to support them in this highly competitive environment with the combined experience of both the dedicated Professional Services teams and their respective directors, Dr Nancy Roberts and Markus Hartmann.

Heading the international Professional Services team

After 20 years working in the areas of trade, children’s, educational and academic publishing, Dr Nancy Roberts joins the Avallain Professional Services team as Director of Professional Services International. Her professional consulting experience, her passion for the opportunities that technology can offer to the publishing market and the fact that she is currently studying for an MBA degree on the side make her an exceptionally versatile director – and in a department whose main goal is to understand our client’s point of view, that is exactly what we need. As she puts it, “I am really excited to be joining Avallain to help to shape and deliver the future direction of the organisation, and I am looking forward to working with publishing friends old and new.”

Nancy will be working closely with our international clients, using her knowledge of the publishing market to help them understand how Avallain technology can support them at every step of the way.

“My goal is to ensure that the new Professional Services team delivers the same high standards that customers have come to associate with Avallain, and that we can offer the best possible support to our publishing partners internationally”, says Nancy.

Focussing on Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Markus Hartmann, our new Director of Professional Services DACH also has 20 years worth of experience in the publishing sector, combined with extensive experience in the areas of key account and project management – and he has a keen eye for trends in both the publishing and IT sectors as well. Thus Markus knows both the requirements of professional publishing as well as how digital technology can address these requirements.

He has a clear goal in mind: “Commitment to publishers’ success in the age of digital education is in Avallain’s DNA from the beginning. The new Professional Services team for Germany, Austria and Switzerland is the next level of that principle and will offer integrated consulting and customer service for Avallain’s clients in central Europe.

Thus, Markus will ensure that our regional team for Germany, Austria and Switzerland takes a strongly service-oriented approach to their interactions with our clients and partners. Markus and his team will listen closely to our clients’ wishes and ideas, ensuring that they can use Avallain Technology to its fullest.

Scaling up without losing touch

Adding dedicated Professional Services teams to Avallain’s business structure ensures that our clients and partners can benefit from Avallain’s growth and the full combined experience of our team without losing the direct access they have always enjoyed.

Avallain’s products are already regarded as the best in the industry. With the addition of Nancy and Markus, both highly experienced publishing professionals, Avallain will have one of the strongest teams in the industry regarding both technological development and engineering as well as key account management”, Richard Nathan, Non-Executive Director and Member of the Board of Avallain AG promises – “I believe that this major investment by the company in its team alongside its development roadmap will help transform its customers’ competitive positions and the industry.

The Campus Difusión mobile app – Learning Spanish on the go, powered by Avallain

Difusión – one of the leading publishers of educational material for Spanish as a Foreign or Second Language – and Avallain have been running and continuously enhancing the powerful online ELE platform Campus Difusión since 2015. Built using Avallain Unity’s modular architecture and filled with high-quality interactive content created with the powerful authoring features of Avallain Author, the innovative freemium platform has since become the premier online Spanish learning and teaching solution worldwide. Now, with the increasing significance of mobile devices for learners and teachers alike, the platform innovates yet again – with the new free Campus Difusión mobile app, powered by Avallain Non-Stop.

Sophisticated software, created with reliable technology

We were one of the first companies to recognise the full potential of mobile output for educational software back in 2007. Thus, we started developing Avallain Non-Stop, our groundbreaking mobile app architecture. Today, Avallain Non-Stop is in its 3rd generation, fully reliable and refined for the needs of the education industry. It has already proven itself as an architecture for numerous learning and teaching applications.

Features of the Campus Difusión mobile app

The Campus Difusión app is an interactive mobile learning and teaching application for Spanish. It functions as an addition to Campus Difusión, allowing users to download the app for free and use their existing Campus Difusión login information. Thanks to Avallain Non-Stop, the Campus app is being made available as dedicated versions for both Android and iOS devices, ensuring optimal performance regardless of the device used. For full multi-device flexibility, MS Windows and Mac OS desktop versions are also available.

Only a few months after the initial launch, more than 4’000 users have already taken advantage of this easy-to-use yet highly effective mobile addition to the Campus. They were among the first to enhance their learning experiences with the many features the Campus Difusión app has to offer, such as:

  • More than 150 high-quality dynamic videos
  • More than 2’000 self-correcting exercises for learners
  • Fully interactive digital Spanish textbooks
  • Teaching Materials such as worksheets, class competitions etc.

Aware of the benefits of mobile devices as well as their limitations, the Campus Difusión app can also be used to download this educational content, allowing teachers and learners to use it offline. This is a significant advantage when using unreliable wireless connections or mobile devices with no wireless capabilities at all.

A partnership driven by innovation

Using Avallain Non-Stop to create their mobile app, Difusión have shown yet again that its focus on constant innovation makes it a perfect fit for Avallain.

We are delighted to have such a reliable partner,” say joint Difusión CEOs Katia Coppola and Jaime Sala. “Their experience and efficiency have not only helped turn Campus Difusión into the number one resource for Spanish learners and teachers – but it has also been instrumental in the successful development and launch of our first mobile app.

We, in turn, appreciate the close partnership, as Ignatz Heinz, Co-founder and Managing Director of Avallain, puts it:

Difusión is not only a leading company in the education sector, they have proven time and again that they are willing to go the extra mile to provide their users with innovative and effective educational software on all available devices. We are glad to be on the cutting edge of the industry with them.” This sentiment is mirrored by Katia Coppola and Jaime Sala: “We are already looking for new ways to enhance Campus Difusión and its mobile app in the future, and we are excited to say that Avallain technology will play a huge part in this.

The app has already helped the company in taking the first big step towards this future, as they have gained the ability to create individual course-specific apps for mobile devices in addition to software marketed on physical media like USB sticks. By choosing Avallain Non-Stop, they thus stand to improve their market share in areas with strong preferences towards offline digital distribution models, such as China and the USA.

The Campus Difusión mobile app is set for further growth

Of course, this focus on further development also includes the app itself. Both companies are determined to use all of the advantages of mobile devices to further enhance learners’ individual learning experiences and improve options for teachers by allowing interactive learning materials to be accessed and shared from anywhere.We are already developing new features to be included in future versions of the Campus app, such as the option for teachers to ask live questions or screen sharing capabilities for students. Thus, we are sure to provide Spanish learners and teachers with the best possible user experience to support their education on- and off-Campus.

Avallain Author version 4.5 – Greater usability and more options for gamified learning experiences

As the needs of learners and teachers change and evolve, so does the authoring tool used to meet these needs. With the rollout of Avallain Author version 4.5, we have once again listened closely to the wishes and suggestions of our customers, which were loud and clear: Even more options for gamification and digital mathematics, more streamlining and better scaling of production processes. Thus, version 4.5 is all about increasing options for content creators, while simultaneously offering a user experience that is better than ever.

New Activity Type: Catch

This new Activity Type allows our customers to create tasks in which learners have to catch moving objects on the screen. This can be used for tasks where learners have to identify and catch multiple correct answers to a question – or to add a spin to the traditional multiple-choice formula. One way or another, Catch gives content creators another tool to bring gamification elements into their learning materials, encouraging users to employ a self-directed approach to solve meaningful tasks in an effort to elicit intrinsic motivation in learners.

New Activity Type: Maths

Expanding the capabilities of Avallain Author further into the realm of mathematics, the new Activity Type Maths gives content creators the tools necessary to add more numeracy tasks to their Learning Objects. After number pyramids and number beams, version 4.5 adds equations and word problems, opening up the potential scope of learning content immensely.

Enhanced Bookmaker functionality

Version 4.5 also includes several enhancements to the Bookmaker, Avallain Author’s integrated editor for creating interactive digital books:

  • Double-click anywhere to create fully customisable hotspots such as animations, videos or audios.
  • Avoid accidentally deleting hotspots thanks to new confirmation dialog.
  • Previews always open on the currently edited page.Preview and save buttons are always available as floating buttons.
  • Warning when closing Bookmaker with unsaved changes.

These enhancements make all aspects of digital book production in the Bookmaker quicker and significantly more efficient.

Exporting video files in various formats

When exporting videos into offline files, content creators can now choose which file format they wish the file to be saved in. Avallain Author version 4.5 includes the most common video formats – MP4 and WEBM (and accordingly MP3 and OGG for audio files). Thus, videos can now be exported directly into their intended file formats, eliminating the time requirement, disc space usage and loss of video quality associated with re-encoding.

Additions to copy LO function

With the new version of the authoring tool, content creators can now easily copy and paste entire Learning Objects multiple times. This significantly speeds up production time, as LOs can be used as templates when creating and editing multiple similarly structured Learning Objects.

Continuous Enhancement

Together with a number of smaller new features such as the ability to output mathematical formulae as MathML files, circular hotspot areas and a convenient internet connection check function when creating LOs, the new features and enhancements of Avallain Author 4.5 mark the most advanced version of our authoring tool yet. But developing the software is a continuous process.

As Max Bondi, Product Manager for Avallain Author, puts it:

We are keen to see the various inventive ways our customers will use these latest features so we can use their input to further enhance future versions of the software. Like them, we are already looking forward to the rollout of the next version in 12 weeks.

Individual solutions to individual challenges, and a common basis for everyone – Avallain Unity modular architecture

The digital age has given education institutions and publishers the ability to provide fully individualised education by adapting their learning platforms to the specific needs of their user base. But creating bespoke learning platforms can be burdensome, especially when trying to avoid over-complicating the processes of developing, updating and troubleshooting the software. Avallain Unity’s modular architecture is the solution to this problem.

What is modular software architecture?

The Avallain Unity architecture distinguishes between core components and optional ones. Core components are essential to all learning platforms – they provide fundamental features such as assignment or grade book functionality. Optional components, on the other hand, are designed to address specific needs which may differ significantly from platform to platform, offering features such as:

  • User interfaces individually tailored to the end user’s role (e.g. teacher or student)
  • Data collection and analysing methods that are in accordance with regional laws
  • Market-specific access pathways and subscription models

These, as well as virtually any other optional components our customers may require, can easily be added to the core functionality.

How can customers benefit from this architecture?

This modular approach to software architecture offers many advantages to everyone involved in the creation of learning platforms, as well as those that use them:

Individualised software solutions

Avallain Unity can be used to create highly individualised learning platforms including a large variety of functions that customers can choose to use. Thus, Avallain Unity can quickly be adapted to the needs of any customer, from large publishing companies creating learning platforms for primary and secondary schools to individual educational institutions or corporate education programmes. And since individualised learning platforms based on Avallain Unity architecture always include precisely those features which our customers actually use, both content creators and learners benefit from high usability.

One common core architecture

Individualised learning platforms without a common core software require a considerable amount of time and resources to be updated – in addition, their greater complexity also increases the risk of unstable operation. And that is exactly what our modular architecture is designed to prevent. Thanks to the common core components of Avallain Unity’s architecture, we can update and improve all builds simultaneously. This also ensures that learners are always up-to-date with the latest improvements, have the easiest access to the learning platforms and experience the most optimised software performance as well.

Less complexity, more business benefits

The modular approach also has very tangible benefits from a business perspective. Creating highly individualised builds of Avallain Unity by simply combining core and optional components significantly cuts down on development time and costs. Likewise, customers using multiple learning platforms based on different builds of Avallain Unity do not need to train their staff to operate three entirely different platforms, as the core functionality is identical. Our modular architecture can even be integrated with existing systems, as it expresses itself in a micro-service architecture, representing the latest in scaled architectures. Thus, adding Avallain Unity functionality to existing software is highly cost-efficient and reliable.

A solution based on experience

Our modular approach to software architecture allows us to create creative digital learning spaces that feel like bespoke software, but actually derive from a common core architecture. This allows users to benefit from both up-to-date educational innovation as well as streamlined production and code,” says Cristina Musso, Product Manager for Avallain Unity. “It is greatly rewarding to see our wide array of customers and their end users benefiting from the same modular concept at every step of the way.

Our customers agree. The related publishers Difusión and Éditions Maison des Langues benefit from employing the same core architecture while catering specifically to three different markets. One key difference: the Avallain Unity build used for the French schools market uses a token access pathway, while the other two use freemium pricing models – due to the modular approach, all platforms were able to benefit from optional functionality at no cost to usability or reliability.

Towards the hub-based future of education

Our unique blend of the advantages of bespoke software solutions and those of a common core architecture is not only appreciated by Difusión and Éditions Maison des Langues. All over the world, companies and educational institutions are working with learning platforms powered by Avallain Unity.

They provide individualised education to millions of learners in different learning environments and markets, all benefiting from the same reliable software and support.The future of digital education involves moving away from the unnecessary complexity of using fundamentally different software solutions, towards using hub-based architectures that provide a holistic learning experience by serving different platforms, apps and various learning scenarios from the same data. Our experience with many customers all over the world has shown this to be the right approach, and thus, we will continue to make Avallain Unity the premium hub architecture of the future.

Avallain Author version 4.4 – new features to improve learners’ revision, support content creators, and more

For over 15 years, Avallain Author has been one of the world’s premiere authoring tools for digital educational media – thanks in large part to continuous upgrades based on the direct feedback we receive from our customers.

As Max Bondi, Product Manager of Avallain Author puts it:

By listening to our customers, we are able to offer them the technology and functionality they need to turn digital education into the most effective, individualised and exciting learning experience their user base could possibly engage in.

To this end, Avallain Author version 4.4 offers four all-new features, further increasing our customers’ options when creating learning materials.

Randomised Learning Objects

To ensure proper learning success, it is important to help learners fully understand tasks and find correct solutions instead of simply recognising patterns in successive tasks. Thus, Avallain Author version 4.4 offers the ability to randomise the order of individual Learning Activities within Learning Objects. This is particularly useful during revision, preventing learners from consciously or subconsciously following patterns to solve tasks, while also providing for an engaging and fresh learning experience every time.

Solution view

Avallain Author version 4.4 now gives the option to let end users toggle between book pages and corresponding solutions pages. This is particularly useful when used within a classroom environment. In conjunction with smartboards or individual digital workstations, it improves classroom management, allowing teachers to give immediate feedback to learner input by quickly switching between task and solutions pages.

Solution hotspot

When revising individually, learners do not need the solutions to an entire book page all at once – sometimes, all they need to succeed is a nudge in the right direction. Thus, we have also implemented a new type of hotspot which can be used in digital books to reveal solutions gradually. This gives learners the option to gain just enough information to be able to prevent stagnation and finish the rest of the Learning Activity by themselves.

Our customers now have the ability to store custom copyright information against assets in the media library. End users can then be given the option of displaying this information by clicking a button, enabling content creators to use legally acquired media from a variety of sources without fear of copyright issues. This allows them to significantly increase the variety of media within their media libraries without incurring the additional costs of producing media content themselves. Also, since this functionality is integrated seamlessly into Learning Activities, it does not interfere with the actual learning experience in any way.

And that’s not all

We will continue to listen, and to add new functionality to Avallain Author according to the wishes of our customers – in fact, the next update is less than 12 weeks away. Until then, we are eager to see how our customers will implement the new features introduced in Avallain Author version 4.4 to make their users’ learning experience as exciting and effective as it should be.

Implementing LehrplanPLUS curriculum in secondary schools in Bavaria – Cornelsen and Avallain cooperate successfully

The Bavarian school system is set to shift from its 8-year advanced secondary school model back to a 9-year model by September 2018. The state will also introduce a new curriculum, LehrplanPLUS, which had already been introduced in primary schools in 2014 and will be implemented in secondary education institutions starting Summer 2017.

Notably, this curriculum has been adapted to fit the needs of the modern digital world. To meet these new requirements, Cornelsen – one of the leading publishers of educational media in the German-speaking world for over 70 years – trusts in Avallain Author.

The focus of LehrplanPLUS

One important goal of the new curriculum is to implement the most recent educational guidelines set forth by the assembly of ministers of education of the German federal states. The changes to both Bavaria’s educational mandate and the goals of the curriculum are heavily focused on modernisation:

  • Supporting individual learning in heterogeneous classes
  • Imparting both knowledge and skills
  • Providing media education

LehrplanPLUS acknowledges that modern learning groups are composed of students whose performance, personal interests and needs may differ significantly. Thus, one stated goal of the new curriculum is to provide individualised education to all students in a diverse learning environment.

The education that students will receive focuses on imparting knowledge as well as skills – Students are expected to not only learn facts but to develop disciplinary and cross-disciplinary abilities as well. For example, they should not only learn when the Battle of Waterloo took place, but also gain the competence to independently research and assess the reliability of such information.

Notably, LehrplanPLUS defines media know-how as a cross-disciplinary skill. Thus, engaging with digital media is considered a skill which can not only be used as the subject of entire classes but one which can also be taught by actively using digital media in school. The Bavarian education ministry has created an incentive to use digital learning materials as an integral part of school education.

Ready for LehrplanPLUS with Avallain Author

A call for teaching materials that relevantly use digital media, imparting both knowledge and digital media skills – at the same time and in a fully individualised manner? For Cornelsen, satisfying all of these requirements as soon as LehrplanPLUS comes in effect is no problem at all.

After all, they are using Avallain Author. Cornelsen’s interactive learning tasks are already up to the challenge as, thanks to the powerful authoring tool, learners have the choice of accessing the tasks either via Scook or through the respective apps and CDs.

With the reform of the Bavarian school curriculum, it has become evident once again that planning for the future pays off”, knows Sandra Hestermann, Senior Product Manager at Cornelsen.

We have started cooperating with Avallain early on to be able to offer digital learning tasks as soon as needed – tasks which are not only easy to integrate into Scook but are also didactically valuable and simply fun for the students”, she says.

As a learning platform designed to be used alongside course materials, Scook offers interactive learning tasks designed using Avallain Author to function as digital additions to printed Cornelsen schoolbooks. The result is well worth viewing (Video), as the numerous features of the program fulfil all requirements of LehrplanPLUS.

Supporting students individually

Avallain Author allows Cornelsen to create learning activities which are perfectly adapted to the abilities and needs of students. Thus, Scook can provide its tasks with multiple degrees of difficulty to choose from, according to student performance. Individual feedback and assistance features are also integral to Avallain Author, allowing students in heterogeneous class environments support on an individual basis.

Imparting knowledge and skills

With Avallain Author, Cornelsen has access to a powerful tool which allows them to take full advantage of the possibilities of digital education. The program not only allows the creation of all-new types of tasks, but it also offers more than 100 standard activity types that can be combined into endlessly varied complex tasks. Thus, Scook can merge Drag-and-Drop, Multiple-Choice and interactive speech elements into sophisticated chains of learning activities. This not only allows Scook to impart knowledge and skills – but the entire learning process is also more exciting for the students.

Training digital media skills

Avallain Author follows an object-oriented approach, which means that learning content is independent of its technological realisation. This gives Cornelsen the freedom to update the technology behind Scook at any time without having to edit the learning content as well. For students, the object-based approach means that they can work on their interactive learning tasks on various devices, from desktop computers to smartphones, experiencing a variety of digital media in a safe environment.

Cornelsen and Avallain – ready for the future

With its focus on digital education, LehrplanPLUS brings the Bavarian educational system up to date. Publishers who have not invested in the digital sphere early now need to put in a lot of effort or risk being left behind by technological progress. Cornelsen, however, can look forward to the future, as Avallain Author is continually being developed further using highly advanced and sophisticated technologies.

Avallain and the environment – What connects e-learning with a forest in Spain?

An old saying claims a healthy mind needs a healthy body. But, in turn, a healthy mind and a healthy body both need a healthy environment to develop in. Thus, protecting our environment has been a central part of Avallain’s DNA ever since the company was founded in 2002. We offer our customers carbon-neutral e-learning solutions which not only train minds but also minimise the CO2 emissions of entire learning courses as well.

In addition to providing sustainable education for people in need via the charitable Avallain Foundation, established in 2016, we will also commit ourselves more actively to projects focused entirely on environmental protection in the future. For example, we are currently helping specialists of the People for Cause foundation with their ReTree Initiative, planting a new forest area in the barren steppes of Spain.

Avallain supports the Spanish forests

The project in Spain ties into an almost 10-year-old Avallain tradition. In 2008, we helped the NGO Trees for the Future to plant 25’000 trees in Keroka, Kenya, celebrating the 250’000th learner that was educated using e-learning systems developed with our technology (today, they number in the millions).

In celebration of our 15-year anniversary, we want to set another example. Reforestation projects are vital in this part of southern Europe. While the ancient Greek geographer Strabon once wrote that a squirrel could “hop through the trees from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar without touching the ground”, deforestation has turned much of the country into steppes largely dominated by soil degradation. The Iberian Peninsula of today is suffering from frequent droughts and forest fires. In many areas, the ground is no longer protected against erosion by strong roots, and the once-fertile soil is gradually turning to dust or karst. For us humans, this means a steady decrease in agricultural usability – for Strabon’s squirrel and the Spanish wildlife, it might mean extinction.

With this new Avallain initiative, we are working to counteract this process. Of course, we also realise that small individual forested areas are not a viable long-term solution to the problem. Thus, we are planning to extend our efforts to other countries very soon as well.

Our success in this task is also the success of our customers, whose trust in our work allows us to engage in such projects in the first place.

Avallain works sustainably every step of the way

Our customers appreciate our innovative spirit, our reliability and our experience – as manifested both in our products Avallain Author and Avallain Unity, as well as in the e-learning systems created with them. Such systems are fully sustainable, protecting the environment at all stages, from the initial design process to maintenance and most importantly, the active use by learners.

Digital education is more environmentally friendly by its very nature

It may sound counter-intuitive, but e-learning constitutes a more environmentally sustainable alternative to analogue learning models such as brick and mortar learning groups. Though the digital infrastructure needed for e-learning tools does require energy – as well as digital devices which need to be produced and will be turned to waste eventually – neither the energy usage nor the CO2 emissions generated by e-learning approaches are even close to those of analogue learning methods.

According to a 2008 Open University study which focused on 13 fixed-location university courses and 7 online courses, e-learning courses require 87 % less energy than analogue courses, while emitting 85 % less CO2. The tangible benefits of e-learning are known throughout the industry:

  • It eliminates carbon emissions created by each learner’s commute.
  • It does not require heated and powered course premises or individual workstations.
  • It minimises the use of printer cartridges and paper.
  • It eliminates the need for non-recyclable utensils such as marker pens.

Thus, our customers can minimise the environmental impact of each learner enrolled in a course. Eliminating the CO2 emissions from commuting alone is enough to make many e-learning courses almost entirely carbon-neutral.

Sustainability in Avallain’s operating procedures

Of course, these principles work not only to minimise the CO2 emissions of individual learners – but they can also be applied to the working environment. As a staunch advocate of Remote Company structures, Avallain has been following this strategy for years, offering a large degree of home office flexibility to our workforce. Thus, we can avoid long daily commutes, minimising our CO2 footprint in the process. A Carbon Trust analysis suggests that, given average commuting distances, this saves approximately 260 kg of CO2 equivalent per worker each year.

Green business experts note that these carbon savings already apply to commuters travelling more than 7 km by car, 11 km by bus or 25 km by train. To an international company like us, this only serves to support our approach. Being a Remote Company allows us to offer our customers software solutions developed by a tight network of international specialists – without incurring the costs in CO2 which this might otherwise entail.

Limiting CO2 emissions with sophisticated technology

Not just our operating procedures are chosen on the basis of environmental questions – our technologies are, as well. Server systems, in particular, can have an enormous impact on the environment.

We recognised the potential of Cloud-based server structures early on, consequently taking on the responsibility to push for sustainable server use strategies with professional Cloud server providers. Today, providers such as Amazon Web Services are continually improving their technological solutions to operate their Cloud-servers as energy-efficient and as close to carbon-neutral as possible, devising strategies such as:

  • Using renewable energy as a power source
  • Employing energy-efficient cooling systems
  • Optimising energy usage according to workload

Put together, such strategies allow Cloud systems to significantly reduce the number of servers used when compared to on-site servers. This also minimises the energy usage of Cloud systems by as much as 84 % compared to on-site servers. Thanks to our good business connections to Amazon, we are able to use CO2-neutral Cloud systems for 80 % of all Avallain services thus far – without increasing the price for our customers, as we compensate the additional costs.

The education of the future is carbon-neutral

What does all of this mean to the users of learning software based on Avallain Author and Avallain Unity? It means that they can not only improve their individual learning success thanks to innovative, technologically mature and reliable software – they can also do so while supporting a sustainable and future-proof approach to treating the environment.

Because this is what ultimately connects Avallain solutions with our Spanish forest: They both provide the roots on which future generations may tread.

Reliable voice technology, at last – Avallain supports individualised learning approaches

What could be the perfect user interface for interactions between humans and machines? The IT industry has been pondering this question ever since the advent of advanced computer systems. When it comes to digital language learning, however, the answer is obvious – The ability to input language verbally offers unique possibilities for learners, something that keyboard-driven written input simply cannot match. Unfortunately, early attempts at tapping the potential of this input method tended to fail because of the rather underdeveloped technology that was available at the time.

How, then, does Avallain use Avallain Author and Avallain Unity voice technology to individualise and improve learning experiences and results as decisively as we do today?

How voice technology supports the learning process

Traditional user interfaces based on visual feedback, such as keyboards and touch screens, have one noteworthy disadvantage when used for learning a language – Users can only enter their words into the e-learning software via a keyboard. Consequently, they are able to train their reading, listening and writing skills in their language of choice, but they cannot effectively train their speaking skills. This is where integrating voice technology into the language learning process opens up a whole new set of possibilities:

  • Users can actively train their speaking skills.
  • Learners can receive immediate individualised feedback.
  • Errors in pronunciation can be detected before they fossilise.
  • Language teaching approaches no longer need to be based solely on written language.

Avallain has recognised the advantages that voice technology can offer early on. We have been following the developments in this field for many years, keeping an eye out for voice technology advancements which can be integrated into our products to improve them in a meaningful way. However, we do not blindly follow any new approach, as underdeveloped technology could impact both the user experience as well as the ultimate goal of learning a new language very negatively.

The three milestones on the road to a mature voice technology

Only 15 years ago, no one would have believed that voice technology – which, back then, was rather limited and frequently unreliable – would mature into advanced voice recognition software such as Siri and Alexa. Today, people all over the world can control these virtual assistants by speech, using countless different languages and dialects. And when these assistants are asked questions, their ability to give fitting answers has become remarkably reliable.

Today, voice technology is advanced enough to meet our standards of quality, which means it can offer significant benefits to users of Avallain Author and Avallain Unity. Our products allow educators to create and publish interlocking e-learning solutions which would have been considered science fiction, even in the nineties. In addition, research suggests that real breakthroughs in some of the most complex areas of voice technology have been made over the last couple of years as well.The path to the current state of the art has been very demanding, requiring us to overcome three key milestones.

First milestone: Audio recording and playback

From today’s point of view, recording and playing back speech over the internet could be considered the easiest of the three milestones to be overcome. This technology constitutes the basis of all further developments in the field. And since it already managed to meet our standards of quality in 2002, we could successfully integrate it into our Macmillan English Campus project even back then.

Today, our software supports a variety of recording and playback methods and applications. For example, Avallain Author allows user input and pre-recorded files to be merged into complete dialogue sequences, both online and offline. Thanks to Avallain Unity, the final recordings can then be sent directly to teachers for feedback, or simply as a means of verbally communicating outside of the fixed course locations.

Second milestone: Synthesised language

Compared to recording and playing back speech, creating synthetic voices audio is a much more complicated topic. For this reason, we waited until the technology had sufficiently matured in 2004 before integrating speech synthesis as a feature into our e-learning software. Back then, we entered into several partnerships with leading speech synthesis companies such as Acapela Group. These cooperations allowed us to offer exciting new features to our customers, all based on language synthesis technology. Some of these features include:

  • The ability to translate pre-written text into synthetic audio (text-to-speech).
  • Adjusting specific features of recorded speech – e.g. changing dialects to fit specific markets.
  • Controlled and scalable production of audio recordings.
  • Learners can directly translate their own written input into audio using text-to-speech (TTS).

Our current voice technology is flexible enough to create and play back authentic speech using various languages and dialects. Even UNESCO has noted how useful this feature has been for literacy programmes all over the world, describing our successful efforts to provide Swahili education to the coastal population of Kenya on page 16 of their report on international education initiatives.

Third milestone: Speech recognition

Until recently, speech recognition and assessment has always required the attention of an educator, particularly because of the great variety of possible pronunciations. And even the specialised software solutions of today, which can be valuable to automated pronunciation analysis, still only apply to very specific cases of language analysis.

Because of these limitations, our focus has been on general voice recognition features, meaning the ability of the software to recognise and accurately transcribe spoken language. In the early days, even technology developed by giants such as Microsoft, Apple and Google could fail, regardless of the quality of speech. The first companies to offer significant advances in this area were niche software providers such as Nuance who would often go on to be market leaders in areas such as recording dictations and automating customer services. However, their solutions usually required users to be trained in using their specific software.

For us, this approach to voice recognition was not an ideal solution for the education sector, as the need to teach learners how to use a learning software only creates additional obstacles on the way to education success. For this reason, we initially concentrated on using less technologically ambitious, more intuitive e-learning solutions. For example, when working on the learning platform iwdl.de, we deliberately limited voice input options in gamified exercises to individual words instead of entire sentences. Using this approach, iwdl.de has managed to become the first ever digital learning tool to be approved by the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees for use in immigrant integration courses.

2017 – Visions of the future become a reality

Now that we have successfully overcome these milestones, voice technology opens up a whole new world of exciting possibilities to learners and educators alike. In the summer of 2017, for the first time, we will introduce an Activity Type which allows the software to give direct feedback to learners regarding the quality of their pronunciation of texts within an Activity. After that, the next important step is to introduce the ability to use spoken language within any given Input Activity. This could be used for exercises in which learners have to enter elements verbally or even for gamified exercises in which learners can simply utter the answers to specific questions – these are the near-future milestones for Avallain.

To achieve these goals in 2017, we are currently working primarily with Google’s Speech API, however we will be using three of the key software solutions in this area in the near future.

What’s next for Avallain? That will be decided through constant communication between us and our customers. But one thing is certain – as always, our customers will be the first to be able to offer the latest technologies to their end-users in a comprehensive and fully reliable form. Together, we will make individual education more comprehensive, more efficient and more exciting.

German federal immigration agency approves the first digital learning tool for use in integration courses

The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has officially approved the German Adult Education Association’s (DVV) free adult education platform Ich-will-Deutsch-lernen.de (iwdl.de) for use in immigrant integration courses. It is the first ever digital learning tool to be officially approved by the agency. The platform, which has been created using Avallain Author and the Avallain platform architecture, can now be used as a blended learning tool for the courses.

Flexible learning paths for German as a second language

The educational platform iwdl.de transposes the German integration course curriculum into a digital learning environment. To support the integration of immigrants into German society both in terms of language and culture, iwdl.de offers more than 11’500 exercises in various areas of learning:

  • 4’500 different language exercises which guide learners from proficiency level A1 (beginner) to B1 (intermediate language use).
  • A learning area focusing on German as a second language literacy skills, expanding the level A1 language course with exercises that focus on acquiring written language skills.
  • 30 comprehensive scenarios for occupational language learning, encompassing exercises that increase occupational language skills up to level B2 (upper intermediate).

Whenever possible, the Avallain Author created learning content is combined with multimedia elements such as videos or audio exercises. To navigate the content, learners can use an interactive board game-like learning map illustrating their learning path.

The structure of iwdl.de is based on the Avallain platform architecture, which allows learners to choose exercises based on their own interests as well as their learning progress. Meanwhile, their DVV tutors can supervise everything digitally, giving individual feedback and help when needed. This allows the tool to be used both to provide a foundation for individualised learning within heterogeneous groups and to support independent learning efforts.

After one-and-a-half years of use and great success by four German adult education centres, BAMF has officially approved iwdl.de starting 1st of May 2017. This makes it the first ever digital learning tool to be officially approved by BAMF as a fundamental learning tool for immigrant integration courses.

With reference to:
https://www.dvv-vhs.de/presse/details/news/detail/News/erstes-digitales-lehrwerk-fuer-integrationskurse-zugelassen.html
https://portal-deutsch.de/unterrichten/deutsch-unterrichten/ich-will-deutsch-lernen/