Marketplace K-12

ACT Rolls Its Recent Acquisitions Into a New, Integrated Learning Platform

Brian Bradley
Staff Writer

ACT today launched Mosaic, a learning platform that integrates the products it scooped up through a number of recent mergers, acquisitions and investments.

Mosaic combines the features of seven platforms, including: personalized adaptive learning platform ScootPad, the open educational resources of OpenEd and Knovation, the curriculum and assessment framework services from ACT SkillSuite, social-emotional learning from Mawi Learning and ACT Tessera, as well as learning and professional resources from ProExam.

ScootPad, which ACT acquired in May, is the heart of the platform, ACT President of Learning Jonell Sanchez said in an interview.

The platform is geared specifically for students in grades K-8, though it also touches on some aspects of high school learning, and will continue to expand in that area at some point, he said.

“That’s where the learning and the exchange of all that takes place,” Sanchez said. “What we did in this integration strategy was, we took what was open-ed innovation, these OER assets that we have, and we combined them.”

Through this launch, ACT officials say teachers can access over 80,000 curated and standards-aligned digital assets, and there will be a comprehensive suite of social-emotional learning services around assessment and curriculum for students in early grades through 12th grade, the organization said.

The announcement comes as companies across the testing industry, financially struggling amid COVID-19, are looking for ways to diversify their revenue streams. Many testing providers have seen major disruptions to traditional assessment cycles and practices, as the pandemic has forced school districts to pursue remote learning, and knocked school schedules askew.

ACT is also using the launch to integrate its individual learning tools into school districts’ curricula, irrespective of the learning management systems they use, Sanchez said.

“Whatever you’re using in your institution, you don’t have to come to us,” he said. “We’ll pop up in your particular LMS.”

After hiring several experts to facilitate teacher professional development in the last several months, ACT is also launching training and consulting services to assist educators with operating the newly debuted Mosaic.

Next month, the company plans to roll out in-person and virtual training sessions, which will be bundled with the software as one complete package, Sanchez said.

In a statement, ACT CEO Janet Godwin said the Mosaic rollout is part of ACT’s efforts to broaden its focus from measuring student progress via assessments to providing actionable solutions to improve learner outcomes.

COVID-19 accelerated the rollout of Mosaic and all of its elements, he said.

“When March and April hit with COVID, we started to quickly deploy these individual pieces,” Sanchez said. “But what we realized that what the market’s asking for is, ‘Please give it to me in a more comprehensive way. And that’s the unique differentiator.”

ACT acquired OpenEd in 2016, Knovation and ProExam in 2018, and Mawi Learning in 2019.

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