Simple Guide to Understanding Key EdTech Terms and Acronyms
Technology has revolutionized the way we learn and teach, making education more accessible and engaging than ever before. However, with new technology comes new jargon, and the world of education technology (EdTech) is no exception. The number of EdTech terms and abbreviations can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve put together the ultimate guide to common EdTech terms and abbreviations. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or administrator, this guide will help you navigate the world of EdTech with confidence.
Booklist Review
For both new and existing clients, EdTech will take the current book list your school is usingand do an analysis by taking each ISBN and searching all kinds of databases to find out if the books are still available, if the price has increased, and if there’s a new series out for the edition being requested.
CAB – Course Access Bundle
The Course Access Bundle is made up of materials that EdTech or the School decides students are required to purchase. The CAB appears at the top of the store and will automatically be added into the shopping cart. Students cannot remove items from the CAB.
CMS – Course Management System
A CMS is a software application that enables the creation, management, and delivery of online courses and content. It is typically used by educators and instructional designers to create and manage digital learning materials, such as course syllabi, multimedia presentations, discussion forums, and assessments. A CMS provides tools for organizing and presenting course content, tracking student progress, and facilitating communication between instructors and learners. Common examples of CMSs include Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
This is a feature that ensures that software or tools can be used across multiple platforms or devices. Cross-Platform Compatibility can help ensure that students have access to learning materials and tools regardless of the device they are using.
Digital Platform
A digital platform is an online learning software that structures and organizes information to make it easily accessible for students, teachers, and parents. The learning material can be in the form of courses, videos, electronic documents, slide decks, ebooks, and more. This material can be accessed anytime from anywhere if you have an internet connection and an electronic device such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.Digital learning platforms deliver learning experiences that enable students to actively engage with educational content. They will typically have an eText with an online environment with many bells and whistles depending on the publisher. These may have additional resources, grading, and assignments.
Examples of common digital learning platforms in schools:
- ConnectEd
- HMH Ed
- IXL
- Math Nation
- McGraw Hill
- MyMathLab
- Sapling Plus
- VHL Central
Ebook – Electronic Book
An ebook is a book available in digital form. When a physical copy of a book is converted to the digital format of an ebook it can be accessed and read on any digital device, such as a computer, phone, tablet, or e-reader.The format can be ePubs or PDFs. They’re typically going to be just the book with no bells and whistles.
E-texts – Electronic Text
Etext is a general term used for any type of document that is read in digital form. It’s an online, interactive text that allows you to hear the whole text read aloud and see words highlighted as they’re read. Usually, this type of document doesn’t contain images.
LMS – Learning Management System
LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. For a school, it’s where teachers and administration can have students see class assignments, announcements, and icons/links to important publishers, items, etc.
LTI – Learning Tools Interoperability
LTI is the language that allows a person to Single Sign On (SSO) into a software/platform. It’s a method where a learning system communicates with external systems/platforms. For example, an LMS may use LTI to host course content and tools provided by external systems on a website, vendor, or platform without requiring a student to log in separately on the external systems, with information about the student and the learning context shared by the LMS with the external systems.
Online Platforms (or Publisher Platform)
Digital learning platforms deliver learning experiences that enable students to actively engage with educational content. A school can have its own online platform. Each publisher could also have its own online platform, and each publishers’ platform is different. What they all have in common is the ability to do assessments, assignments, quizzes, and grading help.
PrintedBook
Print version of the book that can be paperback, hardback, or looseleaf.
RGM – Relationship General Manager
The main contact for admin, teachers, and staff for administrative issues, course-level issues, issues affecting the course itself, the teacher of the course, or all/ multiple
students in the course, booklist planning, curriculum questions, etc.
ShelfIt
Your own private online bookstore provided by EdTech Solutions that offers a turn-key solution, competitive pricing on books, thousands of books from dozens of the top publishers in the United States, and an available partnership with Amazon for low print book prices.
SIS – Student Information System
This is where teachers have their class roster, gradebooks, see their schedules, send class emails, print report cards, often take attendance, see attendance reports, etc.
Examples: Powerschool, Synergy, Blackbaud, Gradelink, Aeries, Skyward, FACTS SIS, Infinite Campus, AXIS, Veracross, Schoolinsight, FTP, Rediker, Genius SIS, etc.
SO – School-Owned Content
The school purchased the product.
SSO – Single Sign On
Single Sign-On is an authentication method that enables users to securely authenticate multiple applications and websites by using just one set of credentials. Once the user signs in through an SSO service, the rest of the applications connected with that SSO service that the user needs to sign in to will be signed in automatically because the SSO service creates an authentication token that remembers that the user is verified. Examples of SSO services: Google, Clever, Blackbaud.
Whitelist
The whitelist is an index of approved URLs, necessary for the access and usage of digital online content and platforms.
Understanding the language of EdTech is essential to make the most of its benefits. This guide is just a starting point, and there are many more terms and abbreviations that you may come across in the world of EdTech. However, by familiarizing yourself with the terms and concepts covered in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an EdTech expert. So, whether you’re using EdTech to enhance your learning experience or to improve your teaching skills, remember that the ultimate goal is to empower students to achieve their full potential.
EdTech Solutions leverages education technology to improve learning by making it easy and simple for schools and students to manage and access individualized digital content on any device. EdTech’s cutting-edge approach to schoolwide ebook implementation and our innovative online platform and tools give school administrators and teachers the controls they need while providing students and parents with access to all their content on one easy-to-use platform with a single login, in most cases.
When you work with us, we create a personalized bookstore for your school where students can access and purchase their ebooks and textbooks on Shelfit.com. We also help publishers make their content available digitally to students on our robust multi-publisher ebook reader platform. We strongly believe that knowledge and good education should be available to all, and we are committed to developing and providing the online learning tools and modern services that make it possible.