Category: News

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has long been the holy grail of the digital education industry. Few companies know this as well as L-Pub, which specialises in the use of AI in language-based applications. Thus, L-Pub and Avallain are now entering into a partnership, which will add the unique skills and technologies of the German language technology company to Avallain products, while introducing L-Pub’s customer base to Avallain technologies in turn.

What L-Pub brings to the table

Founded in 2015, L-Pub is a young and energetic startup with a clear goal: Instead of working on education technology solutions in general, L-Pub focuses specifically on developing highly advanced language technologies. These include automated natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, allowing computer programmes to understand or even produce natural language autonomously, e.g. for automated exercises or individualised learning tips.

“What makes us most excited to work with L-Pub is the fact that they do not follow a generalised approach to AI programming,” says Ignatz Heinz, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Avallain: “They are specialised in providing language processing technologies to publishers as well as educational institutions and that focus has allowed them to achieve great expertise in this area.”

Practical benefits for content creation

This partnership between L-Pub and Avallain is sure to provide numerous advantages to both companies and their end users down the line. Some specific benefits are already tangible and are already scheduled for inclusion in Avallain Author:

• Automated analysis of learner performance and learning success
• Analysis and curation of learning content via automated NLP tools
• Automated support for editorial processes and content creation
• Support for individualised exercises and information retrieval

For Avallain’s customers, this will bring about a faster and more versatile content creation workflow and Avallain users will be able to design even more individualised learning experiences.

Automated processes create more individualised learning environments

Thanks to AI automation support of the content creation process, Avallain Author will be able to create much larger and more varied sets of learning activities. This provides language learners with more didactic choice, allowing them to skip materials they already excel at in favour of learning areas in which there may be a need for improvement.

This degree of individualisation will be further expanded via adaptive learning algorithms, which L-Pub is currently developing in collaboration with the Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Leading the way to advanced learning technology

While Avallain will be able to use the unique expertise of L-Pub in its long-term strategy of AI integration, L-Pub will be able to offer their customers access to Avallain Author as an integrated authoring tool to simplify their workflow. Likewise, L-Pub customers will be able to increase their reach thanks to platforms and apps created with Avallain Unity. But in the end, the partnership may benefit learners the most.

David P. Steel, Founder & Managing Director at L-Pub puts it most succinctly:

Together, Avallain and L-Pub hope to offer the niche skills that L-Pub has honed to a wider audience. On the one hand, we will provide more publishers with access to cutting-edge language technology solutions, on the other hand, we will be able to reach more end users, making their learning experience better.

EtonX, Eton College’s prestigious online learning business, has partnered with Avallain, engaging in a proof-of-concept and research project. The goal of this project is to create high-quality online learning content as well as designing advanced online tutoring tools.Specifically, EtonX and Avallain have been researching new ways to teach important soft skills effectively in an online learning environment.

Soft skills are future skills

Knowledge and experience are not the only things that modern employers seek in their future employees. In the workplaces of today, so-called soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork are every bit as important as academic skills. EtonX recognises this and offers a number of ‘future skills’ courses to help students develop those abilities which will genuinely define their personal and professional futures.

EtonX and Avallain

EtonX chose to partner with Avallain for one reason in particular: Avallain is the most experienced provider of digital authoring technology worldwide. In over 15 years, the company has worked with some of the leading global publishers in the field. Perhaps most importantly, Avallain realises that the focus of development should always lie on the learner instead of purely technological considerations. Thus, Avallain is no stranger to teaching soft skills via a digital medium.

For EtonX, partnering with Avallain has further enhanced the company’s focus on soft skills research and developing ways to support soft skills teaching on an online-only platform. The research of this successful collaboration now feeds directly into the creation and deployment of custom content as well as application design within this growing educational area. EtonX is spearheading this particular area online for learners across the globe.

Avallain technologies for future skills development

Over the course of this research, EtonX used both of Avallain’s flagship products, Avallain Author and Avallain Unity, experimenting with different approaches to educational content and types. This process benefited immensely from Avallain’s vast experience of supplying high-quality education platforms across multiple territories, for both students and teachers. Some of Avallain Author’s features, in particular, are already well-suited for soft skill development:

• Advanced feedback features to allow easy communication between learners and tutors
• Audio, video and image integration to embed exercises in tangible, real-life scenarios
• Multiple features that can be used to fully individualise the learning environment

Rahim Hirji, COO of EtonX, says:

EtonX is looking forward to further collaboration with the team at Avallain as we look to build different types of courses in the fast-evolving educational area of ‘Future Skills’. The research phase with Avallain was an important piece of work to help launch a groundbreaking pilot of our Making an Impact Course in 2017. This pilot used a custom-built live virtual classroom and was hugely successful with interest from more than one hundred countries. With further collaboration, EtonX will launch more courses and courses with different formats building on Avallain’s many years deploying online education solutions around the world.

Bringing future skills into the digital classroom

For Avallain, working with EtonX has also been an exciting project. Commenting on the collaboration, Ignatz Heinz, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Avallain, said “In the complex and quickly developing area of online tutoring, Avallain is delighted to support EtonX as it continues to grow around the world. Our products support education businesses that operate in primary, secondary and further education all around the world and so we were happy that our experience could help EtonX fine-tune its offering for learners in countries that value these important educational areas.”

Given the technological affinity of both EtonX and Avallain as well as our shared focus on learners, EtonX users all across the world stand to gain from this exciting new partnership for advanced global online tutoring.

Update (25.01.18): We are proud to announce that Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software won the Primary Content award at last night’s Bett Awards.

Mathematical concepts can sometimes be hard to teach, as they are often difficult to connect to student’s real-life experiences. This is why Oxford University Press developed Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software in conjunction with Avallain. The Numicon teaching approach includes physical apparatus for primary school level Maths that are designed to teach mathematical concepts by employing a multi-sensory approach and taking advantage of children’s natural ability to recognise shapes and patterns in physical objects.

Thanks to Oxford University Press’ partnership with Avallain, these teaching resources have since been successfully adapted into the Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software, enhancing a proven pedagogy with all the possibilities offered by advanced digital technology. The revolutionary software has now earned a place among the finalists of the 2018 Bett Awards for Primary Content, perhaps the most prestigious award in the modern education industry.

What is the Numicon concept and how does it improve Maths education?

Numicon is a proven approach to teaching mathematics using a multi-sensory approach and a significant degree of interactivity. In its original form, Numicon teaching resources include physical shapes representing numbers which can be freely put together and manipulated. Thus, the Numicon approach demonstrates mathematical concepts in a way that is easily understandable and relatable in the physical world. As this pedagogical approach has been shown to improve learners’ mathematical abilities, the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics decided to fully endorse Numicon as a teaching tool.

Recently, the same teaching approach has become part of Oxford Owl, Oxford University Press’s digital learning platform for primary school learners. The Bett-Award-winning platform powered by Avallain Unity software architecture now includes the Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software.

Adapting Numicon into a digital learning software

The Numicon software uses all of the advantages of Avallain Author to allow teachers and learners to project and interact with digital Numicon apparatus on whiteboards, both regular-sized and widescreen. This allows learners to interact directly with a great number of building elements by dragging and dropping them directly on the whiteboard. This object-focussed approach not only makes mathematical concepts easy to grasp, the physical interaction on the whiteboard and the use of spoken language to explain what they are doing also serves as a significant inspirational factor for students.

Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software allows teachers to create highly motivational and effective Maths exercises using a great variety of digital resources and building elements such as different shapes, rods, base-ten apparatus, counters and numerical cards as well as explanatory text. All of these elements can be fit into various digital workspaces, including baseboards, number rod tracks, number lines and place value frames. This allows large sums and complex mathematical concepts such as division and multiplication to be handled more easily and conveniently than with physical resources.

Thanks to Avallain Author, all of these teaching materials and the ability to interact with them in a classroom setting are accessible via a highly intuitive user interface. Since the software is designed with primary education in mind, there are also many features that help children to use Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software, such as the ability to minimise the interface panel at the bottom of the screen. This makes it easier for them to reach the Numicon apparatus projected on the whiteboard.

A partnership that is driven by innovation

The highly advanced capabilities of Avallain Author have been instrumental in the success of Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software, as Simon Tanner-Tremaine, Director Digital & Home/School Services at Oxford University Press notes: “Our long-term partnership with Avallain has given us the tools to provide teachers and learners with highly effective and enjoyable interactive software. Being among the 2018 Bett Awards finalists is the most recent achievement in a long success story of award-winning Oxford University Press products created with Avallain Author and Avallain Unity.”

“Oxford University Press has firmly established itself as a publishing house driven by innovation and we are happy to be able to support them in this regard”, concurs Ignatz Heinz, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Avallain. “We have had great success using our technology and expertise to enhance many of their great products. With the help of Avallain Unity, Oxford Owl has already won a Bett Award in 2016, and we are confident we can do it again with Avallain Author and Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software this year.”

Enhancing Maths education with advanced technology

The Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software provides primary education teachers with the resources they need to make mathematical concepts instinctively understandable for their students. By combining the multisensory teaching approach of Numicon with the advanced digital capabilities of Avallain Author, we have created a digital education tool which is proven to enhance primary mathematical education significantly.

After already winning a number of Bett Awards, Digita Awards and ELTons for products created in cooperation with many of our partners in the past, we are thrilled that Numicon Interactive Whiteboard Software is among the finalists for the 2018 Bett Awards for Primary Content. We believe this is a testament to our high standards of quality and we hope to once again be able to conclusively demonstrate the positive impact of digital technology in Maths education with Numicon.

Image © Johannes Berrens, genuina.de. With kind permission.

Language is a vital part of human life. Not only do language skills allow people to get involved with their community, but they are also necessary for engaging with educational programmes and vocational training schemes. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a large part of the prison population in countries like Germany is comprised of young immigrants and unaccompanied child refugees. Their often poor language and social skills leave them with few prospects within German society.

Effectively teaching the German language to these people is the only way to prepare them for further education, with the final goal of successful rehabilitation. Simultaneously, it also enables prison staff to communicate with the inmates. For these reasons, German prisons are now using a specially adapted offline version of the e-learning platform ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de (‘I want to learn German’ or ‘IWDL’), based on Avallain technology.

The fundamentals of teaching languages inside the prison system

After the highly successful launch of IWDL, it did not take long for German correctional institutions to take note of the e-learning platform, which had been officially commended by then-President Gauck. They wanted the opportunity to use the software, which combines Avallain software architecture with high-quality learning materials created using Avallain Author, as an e-learning tool for German prisons.

However, IWDL had initially been conceived as an educational tool for immigrants and thus needed to be adapted to the realities of prison life first:

• It needed to be fully usable even without an internet connection.
• The platform’s collaborative learning materials needed to be modified.
• Its blended learning focus needed to be expanded with exercises for individual learning.

All of these changes are vital for using the highly successful learning platform within a prison environment, as places such as Ottweiler Prison had learned. More than 70 % of this prison’s inmates are first or second-generation immigrants, often with very limited German language skills. Many of them also have a history of substance abuse or mental health issues, preventing them from taking part in regular educational programmes. Thus, our software’s cooperative learning approach – which made it the first ever e-learning platform approved for use in German immigrant integration courses – could not be employed to its full extent within a prison environment.

The IWDL intranet version

We created a special offline variant of IWDL which was integrated into E-Learning im Strafvollzug (‘E-learning in the prison system’ or ‘ELIS’), the official e-learning platform of German prisons. This allows the software to be installed on individual computers or a prison’s intranet, giving inmates easy access.

“Thanks to the modular structure of the Avallain software architecture, switching to offline usability and integrating the software into ELIS was the easiest part of adapting IWDL”, Ursula Suter, co-founder and Managing Director of Avallain recalls. “Due to the limited internet connectivity of prison computers, the rollout of updates may take a bit longer, but the added security is well worth it”, she says.

We also used Avallain Author to adapt the existing learning materials for use within prisons. Due to time restraints, limited availability of staff or individual correctional measures, it is often not possible for inmates to attend regular German language classes. Thus, the software’s newly adapted learning materials can be used for blended learning as well as individual learning.

Social integration as the ultimate goal

However, the actual purpose of teaching the German language in prisons also includes a social component, as inmates are meant to acquire three sets of skills:

• Language skills
• Social skills
• Knowledge of German social norms

These skills are useful not only for re-integrating inmates into German society but also for managing their time in prison. For example, German language skills are vital for successfully communicating with prison staff on a daily basis.

As part of ELIS, the offline version of IWDL teaches these skills by applying a scenario-based approach to learning. The software includes over 11’000 interactive exercises and 30 learning scenarios that are designed to embed activities within situations of everyday life. This allows learners without German language skills to gain a better understanding of the exercises while simultaneously conveying the values of a culture that might still be completely alien to the inmates at this stage. As a digital learning platform, IWDL is perfectly suited to support this approach by drawing from a large library of images, audio files and videos. These allow inmates to experience and understand everyday scenarios interactively.

Education and rehabilitation

For all of these reasons, ich-will-deutsch-lernen is one of the most popular learning platforms used within the German prison system today.

“The fact that IWDL is being used within the German prison system is more than just another accolade”, says Ursula Suter. “We believe that people who have become offenders due to a lack of education can be re-integrated into society by providing them with such an education. Our German language learning software allows them to actually take advantage of educational programmes offered in German prisons – preventing them from completely losing touch with the rest of society.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even in our tech-savvy modern world, the term “big data” can divide opinions. To some, the term is synonymous with surveillance, to others it represents the unique opportunity to analyse and gain a thorough understanding of complex situations by means of technology. Within the educational sector in particular, big data can significantly improve the effectiveness of differentiated and individualised learning processes.

But how is it possible to observe the various ethical and legal restrictions of the international marketplace at the same time?

Information overload in the digital age

Detached from its moral and political connotations, the term “big data” simply describes sets of data which can only be processed by technological means. In most cases, the information is in a state of constant flux or it is too unstructured to be successfully processed by the human brain. Often, the datasets are also simply too large.

Only a few decades ago, this would have been an insurmountable problem, leading to the loss of valuable information. But today, even particularly large and complex datasets can be collected and processed thanks to advanced digital systems. Now more than ever, software is being used to perform tasks that are simply too difficult for humans to perform at the same level. Notably, such tasks include:

• Collecting vast datasets
• Analysing and correlating individual pieces of information
• Interpreting all available information

Processing information this way saves both time and resources – while yielding surprisingly precise results. One need only look at the institutions that already rely on such systems to realise just how useful big data processing can be.

The economic and social role of big data

Advertising companies were among the first to use computers to collect, analyse and process big data. This entails automatically correlating highly complex subjects such as personal thematic preferences as well as patterns of media consumption and purchasing behaviour. The resulting insights are then used to create advertising strategies designed to psychologically affect a target audience by catering to its specific communicative needs.

Today, even taxi companies rely on collecting and processing big data to optimise their workflow. And since the US election in late 2016, it has become obvious that big data is not only processed by big business, but by political and social entities as well. Big data has become an integral part of modern society, and it is a subject of much discussion in the educational sector as well.

Can the EdTech Industry take advantage of abundant information while avoiding the risks involved?

There are two major discussion points: complexity and the legality. Big data processing solutions are highly complex by nature, which is why there are ethical as well as legal considerations to be made. For example, many countries do not allow for large individual sets of learner data to be merged with each other for analysis, on grounds of privacy protection.

Of course, there are good reasons for extensive privacy protection legislature. For example, the ethical concerns over the complete surveillance of classrooms practised by some US start-ups are completely reasonable. However, prohibiting big data processing techniques such as merging learner data across municipal borders can cause the artificial intelligence behind the system to form conclusions based on insufficient information. Consequently, any resulting analysis of such a limited dataset would be distorted, negatively impacting the individual learning experience.

The Avallain solution – One comprehensive system, fully customisable

We at Avallain have been tackling the topic of “big data” for a very long time. How can the available big data be collected to improve individual learning experiences – while simultaneously observing ethical and legal restrictions, which may differ from country to country?

Does big data provide big advantages to e-learning?

One of the unique benefits of education technology is its ability to adjust to the needs and preferences of individual learners in order to support individualised and differentiated learning approaches even within heterogeneous groups. However, when developing our own system, we found that most contemporary tools are solely focused on collecting trivial information, such as counting click-through-rates via Google Analytics, collecting administrative statistics as well as individual test results and tracking the frequency in which learners use particular pieces of content. Using such tools, one may be able to calculate average scores, but it is impossible to easily determine which educational approach has most significantly supported a learner in their studies. Finding such information usually requires a lot of additional work on the part of educators.

Even simple tasks like merging large datasets across platforms and devices using xAPI has not yet become an established standard for these tools. Such a limited and unstructured approach to big data does not yield useful information; it only contributes to “data lakes“. This means that the software collects input and simply stores it without analysing or collating it. Because of limited resources, such information tends to only accumulate over time without ever being processed.

The Avallain system – Think big

Our software solution, first released in 2016, is the result of our observations. It was designed to process big data efficiently without crossing ethical boundaries. Our system is based on the very same philosophy that Avallain has been following for more than 10 years now. Combining the most advanced technologies with the maximum amount of user friendliness thanks to complete flexibility. Our system cannot only be adapted to the personal needs of individual users, but also to the ethical and legal restraints of any given country.

Our system combines an xAPI learning record store with additional event storage capabilities. Not only does this allow learner progress to be recorded, but it also allows any given event to be recorded, ranging from menu usage to voice recordings in interactive audio tasks. Such events are stored in a separate big data warehouse system and can be processed using any common business intelligence suite. We also focus on usability when retrieving information – the process is particularly quick and does not require any additional training. This allows for effective big data mining from the very first day of using our software, giving immediate answers to questions such as:

• Which content is especially popular?
• Which content is popular with which age group?
• Which content may be too hard or too easy?
• Which content yields the best learning results?
• Which channels of communication are being used within the learning platform?

Both the event storage system as well as the business intelligence suite can be completely customised according to the customer’s requirements. Our big data analysis system is compatible with database systems ranging from open source software to professional cloud storage solutions. In addition, it can operate with any of the most common analysis tools such as Amazon Elastic Map Reduce. Thanks to the cross-industry approach of our architecture and the established standards which it is based on, we can quickly adjust to future developments and new methods of big data analysis as well. These can be integrated into the software at any time, while remaining cost-efficient.

Responsible use of big data supports individual paths to learning success

Avallain provides systems for efficiently using big data in digital education – which is done without crossing any ethical or legal boundaries. Our intelligent systems offer educators, institutions and corporations the ability to collect, analyse and interpret information in a very cost-effective manner.

We have recognised that by using big data consistently and responsibly, we can revolutionise individualised and differentiated learning approaches. To learners, this paints a particularly bright future, as their education will be more individualised, more interesting and more effective thanks to big data.

When the market leader in educational material for “German as a Foreign Language” / “German as a Second Language” enters into a partnership with Avallain, exciting times for language learners are guaranteed. The renowned publishing house Hueber will be using Avallain Author and Avallain Unity in the future; which means that they will build didactically and methodologically sound educational content on an innovative yet reliable technological foundation.

Almost 70 years of experience with 30 different languages

Hueber offers some of the most successful textbooks on the market, being an international pioneer in the field since 1955. Aside from their focus on German as a Foreign Language (GFL), they offer various products for learners and educators in more than 30 languages, ranging from textbooks to audiobooks as well as online courses.

Imparting comprehensive language skills

The name Hueber is synonymous with high-quality educational content, which employs the most recent didactic insights while creating a fun language learning atmosphere at the same time. However, to achieve both requires catering to learners’ abilities with customised content.

Interactive learning environments can be the answer to this challenge”, says Sylvia Tobias, chief sales and marketing director at Hueber. Avallain solutions meet her requirements completely: “Avallain Author allows us to create interactive learning content which adjusts itself to the abilities of the learner. Thus, we can support each learner individually, preventing the frustration of perceived setbacks.”

Ignatz Heinz agrees wholeheartedly, based on his own experience as co-founder of Avallain:

Over the last 15 years, we have been working with renowned publishers such as Macmillan, Oxford, Cambridge and Pearson, successfully creating various solutions for English-based language training. Most recently, we built a unique digital learning environment for Spanish language learners with Difusiòn – in a matter of months. Unarguably, we are the leading partner for publishers when it comes to interactive language learning.” Looking forward to the new partnership, Heinz says: “We are especially thrilled to now support Hueber as well – after all, they have spent more than half a century establishing themselves as the international vanguard of GFL education.

Thanks to Avallain Author, future educational content created and published by Hueber will be entirely independent from technological change. Thus, Hueber’s e-Learning expertise will endure in the face of technological progress.