TF-EDU community session: Stepping Up and Reaching Out: EdTech Startups, Virtual Classrooms and reaching out to our International Students.

In this workshop, hosted by Jisc, we will have three speakers covering three distinct areas of Jisc’s activity.

Andy McGregor, Jisc’s Director of EdTech will focus on our step up programme.$16.1bn was invested in edtech start-ups in 2020;  this is not a one off, with a 32x increase in edtech investment since 2010. At Jisc we are trying to ensure that UK universities and colleges can benefit from the innovation bought about by this investment in education technology. In this session we will describe our edtech step up, helping leaders find the right startup for our organisation.  

Showcasing our trailblazing ‘Virtual Classroom’, Simon Farr will cover how Jisc have looked at the ever changing macro issues that affect the sector, and discuss how we have built an environment where we can explore those challenges with our members and see how technologies and Jisc services can help address them. 

Senior Account Manager David Patterson will then describe how we responded to our members needs in supporting international students unable to travel to the UK to start or complete their studies as a result of the pandemic. Our Global Education Access Framework has enhanced access to educational resources for our students, no matter where they are in the world.  

The session will be chaired by Esther Wilkinson, Jisc’s Head of International.