Otus Expands Sales Team With K-12 Industry Veterans
Chicago-based education technology provider for K-12 school communities, Otus, today announced the appointment of several key additions to their sales team.
Cedric Harrison has been appointed to serve as the Director of Strategic Sales and will be based in South Carolina. A veteran of K-12 education, Harrison has worked for large and small K-12 businesses and at a state department of education specializing in student assessment, data analysis, and special education services.
“We are very excited for Cedric to join the Otus team,” said Otus Chief Operating Officer, Keith Westman. “Cedric's significant experience working with large school systems and state-level education organizations will help Otus continue to scale while doing so in a way that supports our goal of increasing educator efficiency while ensuring that students are seen as unique individuals with unlimited potential.”
"I am thrilled to join the Otus team," said Harrison. "Education, at its core, should be about the empowerment of our young scholars and supporting the teachers, school leaders, and families in that mission. I believe that Otus shares that vision and understands the role EdTech should play in K-12. Otus is doing something special and I wanted to be a part of sharing it with everyone."
Additionally, Otus announced the following additions and promotions:
- Jennifer Gurss has been promoted to Director of Sales
- Sarah Conway has been promoted to Business Development Team Lead
- G. McKay Hawkes joins as a Regional Sales Manager based in Salt Lake City.
- Jennifer Kalis joins as a Regional Sales Manager based in Nashville.
- Kathleen Ciolli joins as a Sales Engineer based in Cleveland.
- Kelly Winkler joins as a Regional Sales Manager based in Michigan.
- Jim Hudson joins as a Regional Sales Manager based in Southern California.
- Laura Spezio joins as a Regional Sales Manager based in New York.
About Otus
Otus is a Chicago-based education technology company that empowers teachers in the classroom, informs school leaders, keeps students engaged and organized, and helps parents stay better connected. We feature three primary components: a Classroom and Learning Management System, an Assessment Platform, and a Data Management system. Otus received a 2019 CODiE Award for “Best Administrator Solution” and was a finalist for "Best Data Solution". For more information, visit www.otus.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Are Data Warehouses Failing K-12 Schools?
While many companies have attempted to solve the massive data problem that exists in schools by providing a K12 data warehouse, the reality is that traditional data warehouses very rarely move organizations forward.
3 Ways Traditional Data Warehouses Fail K-12 Schools
1. Data is coming from too many different sources
In the 90s and into the 2000s, it was relatively simple to organize school district data into a data warehouse. After all, there were really only 3-4 different sources of data that schools would analyze: local assessments, state assessments, attendance, and discipline records.
Today, data is constantly being generated in K-12 schools. Whether it’s teachers who use online tools for formative or summative assessments, texting students and families, tracking student behaviors and awarding points, logging communications with parents and colleagues, and more, data is being generated today more than has ever been before.
The traditional data warehouse was not built to gather all of these different types of data which makes the data warehouse itself less valuable for educators, which brings us to our next point.
2. Many teachers do not find data warehouses helpful
With each tool a teacher uses generating helpful data, data warehouses are competing with each of those different tools for the data analysis attention of a teacher. Teachers, as they should, will use their time analyzing the data that they feel will help them most. Usually, that data will be easy to understand and based on activities that occurred in their classroom (not on a state assessment that was given last year).
If a data warehouse doesn’t show the data that a teacher wants to use, it won’t get used as administrators may expect, which leads us to our final point.
3. Vendors rarely get along well with others
Although it makes perfect sense that K12 vendors would want to share their data with other vendors that are used in your school district, this does not always happen. And, when an integration does exist between two different platforms, oftentimes the types of data that are shared does not meet your needs.
It's okay to disagree
In closing, a note to those who disagree with the premise of this blog post: if you have managed to wrangle all of your data into a platform that is useful for all of the stakeholders in your school system, congratulations! We recognize that there are many school systems who are leveraging traditional data warehouses to move the needle in their school systems.
Has your school system mastered the art of K12 data management? We want to hear from you!
Obligatory Otus Commercial
Otus is a single platform that is a hybrid of three types of typically disconnected systems: learning and classroom management system, assessment management, and data warehousing.
By providing many different tools in one system that is pre-integrated, data seamlessly flows into our analytics tools so that educators are able to see academic, social-emotional, state and district assessments, and more data in one place without having to worry about several integrations.
Can AI help K-12 educators complete rote tasks associated with teaching?
While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already being used to solve significant problems in many industries, AI is relatively untapped in K-12 education.
Otus is on a mission to increase student outcomes by leveraging a wide variety of data points to help educators make more meaningful and personalized connections and learning experiences for students.
What AI should never do in K-12 education
Otus strongly believes that the power of human teachers and leaders can never be replaced. The role of technology in education should mirror the role of technology in every other sector, it should increase efficiency.
AI should never replace teachers. AI should never replace sound decision making. AI should never decide what a teacher teaches or what a student learns.
At best, AI should make recommendations, assist teachers in completing rote tasks, and help identify patterns and context to data and present it to professional educators who will determine the next steps.
AI is already in our lives
There are many other examples of how AI provides efficiencies in other industries; from being able to predict when train engines fail so that those trains can be fixed before they break down on train tracks (and disrupt many people), to helping doctors diagnose cancer in its earliest stages, AI can be transformational.
Otus uses an AI-powered tool to support our clients. When a user uses our chat tool to ask a question about how to use Otus, this tool uses AI to recommend responses to our client service specialist based on responses that our client services team has previously written to similar questions.
If a user submits a question that has never been asked before, a client services specialist will write a response. By helping our client service specialists spend their time assisting users who have unique or uncommon questions, they are more efficient. In the end, all of our users benefit because they are receiving responses very quickly.
The building blocks of responsible AI in K-12
There are dozens of tasks that teachers need to complete each day, all of which deal with student academic progress, non-cognitive attributes and traits, and social-emotional well-being. Without Otus, each of these tasks below (and more) are completed by hand or through the use of a single-solution technology (Table A). When the data from each of these tasks is disconnected and fragmented, it is virtually impossible to have a holistic and accurate picture of the student, classroom, school, and district performance.
Table A: Common Daily Tasks for Educators
| Student and family communication | Tracking work habits | Designing relevant lessons |
| Attendance | Documenting social-emotional behaviors | Creating reteaching and intervention resources |
| Grading homework assignment | Analyzing high-stakes assessments | Curating web-based content |
| Documenting family contact | Identifying strengths, interests, and passions | Reviewing IEPs and other important student documents |
An AI-driven assistant for every educator
The more Otus is used, the more information about student performance exists on the platform. Through the use of data science, we can help educators identify patterns, develop learning resources, and eliminate redundant tasks so that they don’t have to spend hours analyzing data looking for meaning.
Turn data into meaningful information for educators
K-12 schools are data rich and information poor. Otus can take all of the data that is generated in every classroom, every day, and synthesize the information so that it is meaningful to teachers, students, families, and educational leaders. Most importantly, the data is owned and controlled at the district level.
Ultimately, and in time, we will be able to leverage external data sources so that Otus can recommend early interventions for at-risk students, strategies to keep students appropriately challenged, and, most importantly, empower teachers to spend less time looking at data, and more time building relationships with students.
Standards-Based Grading and Reporting Resources
Below is a collection of all of the standards-based grading and resources we have created over the years. All of these resources may be copied and distributed as needed.
- What is Standards-Based Grading?
- Our teachers don't like standards-based grading. Now, what?
- Have report cards driven a wedge between parents and standards-based grading?
- 3 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Standards-Based Gradebook
- 5 Ways Technology Complicates Standards-Based Grading
- Our parents don't like standards-based grading. Now, what?
Are you looking for evidence, thought leaders, research, books, resources, and more to convince your colleagues and community about making the shift to standards-based learning? Check out, The Ultimate Guide to Standards-Based Learning: 2019 Edition.
Join our Facebook group! The purpose of this group is to connect educators who share a focus on the ongoing paradigm shift in instructional, assessment, grading and reporting practices. Join us to collaborate with prominent educators and walk away with strategies to support your teaching and learning initiatives. bit.ly/ModernMeasuresCommunity
Follow us on Twitter! We share resources and spark conversations about healthy instructional, assessment, and grading practices. Ask your questions using the hashtag #ModernMeasures or follow @Modern_Measures.
3 Ways to Use Otus on the First Day of School
As you begin to plan for the 2019-20 school year, we wanted to share a few ideas on how you could use Otus on the first day of school:
Idea #1: Have students complete the Thrively Strengths Assessment
Instead of having students complete a traditional "get-to-know-you" survey, get to know your students by having them complete the Thrively self-assessment so that you see each student's strengths and interests in the Student Profile in Otus.
Learn about Thrively here.
Idea #2: Create positive/negative recognitions with your class
As a class, decide what 3-5 positive and negative behaviors you want to track throughout the year. Then, add them to Otus so that you can monitor more than just academic performance within Otus.
Be sure to download the mobile app for Apple or Android!
Idea #3: Have students set a BIG goal for the year using the Blog
Use the blog feature to have your students set a goal for the coming school year.
Learn how the Otus blog works here.
Otus Partners with Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District to Empower K-12 Educators with Data
CHICAGO, IL —July 16, 2019— Otus, a fast-growing K-12 edtech company that provides the Otus Student Performance Platform, today announced a partnership with Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD), one of 56 education service agencies in Michigan that provides support to school districts in the counties of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau.
The partnership means that all schools served by TBAISD will have access to Otus for common formative assessments, teacher-created formative and summative assessments, data warehousing and analytics, and the entire suite of learning and classroom management features that exist within the Otus platform.
TBAISD conducted a thorough RFP process during the spring of 2019 and received many responses from companies throughout the country. The biggest challenge that was faced by TBAISD was finding a way to empower district, building, and classroom level educators with data so that instructional decisions could be made in order to provide every student with the most appropriate learning experiences.
“The TBAISD Instructional Services Team uses a deep evaluation process, anchored in research, to guide decision-making and execute the best practices relative to instruction, student assessments and using data to drive performance improvement,” said TBAISD Instructional Services Director Paul Bauer. “Our partnership with Otus is founded on a common understanding of the power of data dialogue and efficient use and visualization of student performance. We see this as a benefit to students, parents, and educators to work together through the Otus platform to track results and target areas of development or needed support any given day.”
“We are very excited to begin our journey with TBAISD,” said Chris Hull, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Otus. “From our first meeting, we realized that the team at TBAISD not only had a vision for where they wanted to go with how data is used in their schools, they had the team and plan in place to make it happen. This is our ideal partner.”
The onboarding and implementation team at Otus has already started meeting with TBAISD staff and district stakeholders in preparation for the start of the 2019-20 school year.
K-12 Educators Need Less Technology and More Efficiency
According to a June 2019 report by the LEARN Platform, U.S. school districts used an average of 703 different edtech products every month in the 2018-19 school year, which, according to the study, “represents a 28% increase from the 2017-18 school year, a dramatic rise that likely reflects the expanded number of tools available to learners, increased connectivity, and an increase in point solutions and supplementary tools.”
In general, the 703 different edtech products that teachers use fall into one of five different categories. The categories are: learning management, classroom management, assessment management, data management, and content.
An insider's view of edtech
“Overwhelmed." That's how most classroom teachers say they feel, according to Christopher Hull, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer for Otus, a Chicago-based edtech company. Hull should know. He's also a 7th Grade Social Studies teacher.
The edtech community has given teachers many important tools and at some point, Hull says, we have to ask if we are helping or doing more harm.
At some point, the edtech community will need to take a look around and say to themselves. “Is what we are doing helping teachers become less overwhelmed. Or are we just adding more to the current state of edtech chaos?”
Hull co-founded Otus in 2014 with a teaching colleague, Pete Helfers, is currently a district-level administrator in the Chicago area. Helfers knew first-hand how experienced how the number of different and disconnected edtech tools available to them impacted their efficiency as teachers. A colleague connected them to Andy Bluhm, a Chicago-based investor. Bluhm also saw the disconnectedness of technology in K-12, as the father of three boys.
Their goal was to create an edtech platform that would address a very simple need for K-12 educators: help them be more efficient completing all of the tasks associated with teaching in today’s classrooms.
While many school districts turn to traditional learning management systems to create efficiencies for teachers who are overwhelmed by the number of edtech tools given to them, Otus sees things differently.
“A traditional LMS is not designed for K-12 educators who are face-to-face with their students every day,” Hull said. “Most of the tasks that teachers need to complete each day can’t be done in a traditional LMS so we knew we needed to be much more than that.”
The cause of teacher inefficiencies
Many professions where an employee has a known “to do” list that they are able to work through on a given day. Teachers are faced with hundreds of tasks each day that can often times come at them on a moment’s notice. They need to review assessment results for a student and discuss them with a colleague. Additionally they need to document work habits that students are exhibiting, send text messages to families about field trips, and provide feedback to dozens of students on an assignment.
The edtech community has responded to the needs of K-12 educators by providing single-solutions: one tool to grade assignments, another to communicate with families, another to look at data...the list goes on.
When teachers need to bounce around from system to system in order to complete these tasks, their efficiency plummets. And, where technology improves efficiencies in many industries, it can have the opposite effect on educators.
Not Just Another Edtech Tool
“When I was first told that our district was using Otus, I immediately thought, ‘Oh boy! Yet another edtech tool that I need to use,’" said Jon Szychlinski, a middle school PE teacher in suburban Chicago. "I quickly realized that Otus was not only helping me see students much more holistically than I could before... everything was in one place, but it was saving me time that I was able to reinvest in my face-to-face interactions with my students.”
Otus is available to all teachers, their students, and their students’ families for free. Unlike many edtech companies, Otus has a proven business model that is allowing them to generate revenue. School districts who wish to have their entire systems use Otus as a common teaching and learning platform pay an annual fee. This includes includes integrating Otus with their legacy systems such as their SIS. Additionally, it includes the ability to aggregate data into meaningful visualizations that can help guide organizational decisions. Lastly it includes the ability for administrators to create district-wide settings (i.e. grading scales, grading periods, common assessments, etc.).
“We designed Otus to be that single place where teachers can complete all of the tasks associated with being an educator so that more time can be spent focusing on the human part of teaching. Why we all became teachers in the first place,” said Hull.
Looking Ahead
In looking ahead to the 2019-20 school year, Otus has a packed product roadmap. Driven by the needs of teachers, administrators, families, and students. Amongst other things, Otus will introduce integrations with GradeCam and Desmos, offering a refresh on its standards-based gradebook. Additionally, this releases enhanced data analytics and reporting tools for school and district administrators.
Client Success Specialist
The Job
Do you have a passion for providing a world-class customer onboarding experience? Furthermore, do you see yourself as a trusted partner to your customers? Otus, a fast-growing EdTech company based at 1K Fulton in the West Loop of Chicago, is looking to expand our team!
As a Client Services Specialist, you will provide product onboarding, training and guidance to our customers to ensure their initial and continued adoption and success of Otus. Additionally, as an early member of a growing team, you must possess a strong work ethic and be upbeat, driven, intelligent, well-organized, articulate, share a passion for making people smile, learning new technology and thrive in a fun, fast-paced environment.
E-mail your resume and introduction to Phil Collins, Chief Learning Officer, at phil@otus.com.
Essential Functions
- Work with customers and sales team to identify and understand customer requirements that need to be addressed in both onboarding and ongoing training- Handle customer technical cases during the onboarding process, managing any questions, issues, and other items for follow-up
- Help improve customers’ product knowledge and offer guidance on best practices to ensure adoption and success
- As well as, create, deliver and maintain onboarding material- Possess an in-depth understanding of Otus
- Additionally, develop and maintain clients relationships with new users
- Other job-related duties as assigned
Desired Skills & Experience
- Strong technical skills and ability to quickly learn and become a subject matter expert on a new – product and ongoing product changes
- Previous professional experience with the creation and delivery of technical software training
- Additionally, Exceptional customer service skills and customer-facing onboarding/training experience
- Excellent presentation and facilitation skills and the ability to lead a positive, productive session either in person or via webinar
- Solid experience in project management
- Knowledge and experience with SaaS services/cloud technologies
- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within the team and across various departments
- Strong analytical skills, detail oriented and ability to prioritize, effectively multi-task and meet deadlines
- A willingness and ability to “dive right in”, be effective, and make a difference
- Furthermore, curiosity about “how things work” and “how to make them better”
Perks
- Laptop of your choice and dual monitors
- Stock options in a growth-stage company
- Competitive salary
- Flexible hours so you can be at your most productive
- Paid time off (20 days per year)
- Flexible work from Home policy
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Life insurance and disability benefits
- 401(k) with an employer match (up to 4%)
- Pre-tax commuter benefits
- Flexible PTO policy, generous parental leave, and great work/life balance
- Fun perks like snacks, catered lunches, happy hours, wellness programs, and Otus swag
- The opportunity to collaborate with fun, innovative, and passionate people in a casual, yet highly productive atmosphere.
- Really smart colleagues who work hard and play well
- Meanwhile, Working in arguably the best neighborhood in the city with the best food, drinks, coffee and donuts all within walking distance
- Finally, working in an amazing office building with gym, rooftop deck, frequent social events, shuttle to and from train stations
Otus is an Equal Opportunity Employer and embraces diversity of every kind. However, you must be legally authorized to work in the US. Unfortunately, the company is unable to support sponsorships at this time.
Otus and Illinois HB 3606
The following information details many of the ways in which Otus helps schools comply with Illinois HB 3606.
Since Otus allows Illinois K-12 school systems to consolidate the number of duplicative and disconnected edtech tools that are used in their schools, there is an additional benefit of Otus in that there is only one platform for many pieces of student data that are traditionally stored across different platforms and vendors.
Quick Facts:
- Otus clients own their data, not Otus.
- Otus does not sell any data that is managed on the platform.
- Otus employees sign a Data Privacy Pledge upon being hired into our company.
- Otus will notify school districts within the five-day mandated window in the unlikely event of a data breach. In all likelihood, school districts will be notified within 24 hours.
- Otus offers both student and family rights with regard to how data is stored within the system.
- Data is stored with Otus only as needed for educational purposes by an authorized user.
- Data is then deleted once the data is no longer needed for the student within the context of school.
How can students, parents/guardians, and other access our Privacy Policy?
Our privacy policy is available on our company home page and may be viewed by anyone by visiting https://otus.com/privacy-policy/
How does Otus manage information provided to Otus by a school organization?
We receive and store any information you knowingly enter through Otus. This information may include, but is not limited to, the following:
- Registration information, including your name, username, email address, profile picture, and school affiliation
- The grade level and names of classes that you teach or attend
- Any documents that you upload, create, or complete using Otus, such as items added to your bookshelf, as well as notes, groups, and assessments (including tests, quizzes, assignments, and papers) that you create or complete
- Information that Educators provide about Students, including evaluations, grades and test results, attendance, notes and feedback, and any other information provided by the Educator about a Student
- Information about parents/guardians provided by Educators or Students, including name, relationship to Students, email address, and phone number
- Any other information uploaded to or entered into Otus
- If you use our referral service to tell someone about Otus, we will collect that person’s name and email address
How does Otus manage information collected automatically through the appropriate use of the system?
We receive and store certain types of usage information whenever you use Otus. When you access or use an Otus mobile application, navigate to our websites or use the browser provided in an Otus mobile application, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs, including your IP address, cookie information and the page you requested. We also record the details of your activity and the number and frequency of visitors to Otus, including your location when accessing Otus. For example, we receive and store information about whether you access Otus from a school, home, or other location. We use various technologies to collect web browsing information, and this may include sending cookies to your computer or tablet. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us to improve Otus and your experience, understand which areas and features of Otus are popular, and count visits. We may also collect information using web beacons (also known as “tracking pixels”). Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in Otus or emails and that help deliver cookies, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness, and determine whether an email has been opened and acted upon. For more information about cookies, and how to disable them, please see “Your Choices” below. When you download an Otus mobile application, we automatically collect information about the type of device, name and version of the operating system, name and version of the application, the unique device ID, as well as actions performed by the user in accessing the application. We also use analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our application and Services. This software may record information such as how often you use Otus, what you do using Otus, and performance data.
How does Otus use information that is managed on the platform?
We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, personalize, and improve Otus; to respond to your comments, questions, and requests; to provide customer services, including technical support; and for any other purpose for which the information was collected. If you are an Educator, we may use the information we collect to send you marketing and product communications to the email address you provide or by other means. If you are a Student, we may use your email address to send you product updates, such as information about new features or functionalities. We use automatically-collected information to enable us to figure out how often users use parts of Otus, so that we can make Otus appealing and relevant to as many users as possible, and customize and improve those Services.
How does Otus share information managed on the platform?
We may share information about you as described in this section below or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. Our Services are designed to facilitate the sharing of certain information among Educators, Students, and parents and guardians. For example, Educators may use Otus to share information with Students or with parents and guardians or with other Educators within their school or school district. Such information includes, but is not limited to, Students’ grades, notes about Students, assessments (including blank assignments, quizzes, and tests as well as those that have been completed by students), and flags. In addition, certain material posted to Otus by Educators may be shared with the broader Otus community, which includes Educators outside of your school district. This information includes, but is not limited to, bookshelf documents (including online resources and original material prepared by you) and assessments (including tests, quizzes, and assignments, but not Student information). When sharing these documents, your user profile, including your screen name and email address, may also be shared with the Otus community. If you are a Student, your Educator may use the Service to facilitate the sharing of information you provide with others in your class or with your parent or guardian.
How does Otus protect information managed on the platform?
We may release personal information if we believe the disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule or regulation, or if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our user agreements or policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of Otus users or others.
We reserve the right to share aggregated information gathered from our user base (without personally-identifiable information about individual users) or de-personalized individual information (with names and other personally identifying characteristics removed) with our affiliates and partners. Given the nature of this information, there are no restrictions under this Privacy Policy upon the right of Otus to aggregate or de-personalize your personal information
How does Otus protect the information that is managed on the platform?
Otus takes reasonable measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Your Otus account uses the same login as your Google or Google for Education account and is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You may help protect against unauthorized access to your account and personal information or your Student’s personal information by selecting and protecting the password associated with the account appropriately.
Additionally, Otus maintains internal Data Security Protocols and Procedures which includes penetration and vulnerability testing by a highly qualified and impartial third-party.
What choices regarding data and information managed on Otus are available to students and parents/guardians?
Account Information
You may update, correct or delete personal information about you at any time by editing your profile information. Changes to your Google account information must be made through Google; Otus has no ability to make modifications to your Google account information. Note that if the Google account tied to your Otus account is deactivated, or if you revoke Otus’s access rights within your Google account, you will not be able to access your Otus account or any of the content stored with Otus. We may retain cached or archived copies of personal information about you and content stored with Otus only as needed for educational purposes by an authorized user. This information is then deleted once the data is no longer needed for the student within the context of school.
Children’s Information
If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 13 and would like to request that personal information regarding your child be updated or deleted, or if you’d like to refuse further contact of your child by Otus, please contact us at support@otus.com.We will respond to a request made pursuant to this section within 30 days of our receipt of such request.
Cookies
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies.
For more information on how Otus helps your school organization comply with Illinois HB 3606, please email support@otus.com.
How a DataWise PLC Can Transform Your School Community
Join Andrea Kayne, a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an Associate Professor and the Director of Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at DePaul University, for an introductory webinar on the DataWise, a project originated at Harvard University that exists to support educators in using collaborative data inquiry to drive continuous improvement of teaching and learning for all students.
Full webinar (audio and video)
