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Quarantined? These 6 Startups Will Help You Keep Up With Your Studies From Home

With the rapid global spread of coronavirus, making the classroom feel more like a petri dish, these Israel-linked startups offer solutions for remote learning

Elham Nasser Edin and Adi Pick 16:1912.03.20

The rapid global spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) has put hundreds of thousands of people all over the world in quarantine. As the traditional classroom now feels more like a giant petri dish, many universities, colleges, and schools have begun offering remote online classes.

 

Below are six Israel-linked startups offering online learning tools that can help ease the crisis’ impact on education.

Online studying (illustration). Photo: Shutterstock Online studying (illustration). Photo: Shutterstock

 

Coursera

Founded: 2012

Founders: Andrew Ng, Daphne Koller

Based in: Mountain View, California

Funding to date: $333.2 million

 

Co-founded by Israeli entrepreneur Daphne Koller, Coursera, Inc. develops an online education website that offers users recorded video lectures, peer-graded assignments, and discussion forums, enabling students to take university courses of various disciplines for free or at a reduced fee. Diligent students can even earn full master’s degrees through the site.

Daphne Koller. Photo: Amit Sha'al Daphne Koller. Photo: Amit Sha'al

 

JoyTunes

Founded: 2011

Founders: Yuval Kaminka, Roey Izkovsky, Yigal Kaminka

Based in: Tel Aviv

Funding to date: $43 million

 

JoyTunes Ltd. develops a web and mobile app that teaches users to play musical instruments. Simply Piano, JoyTunes’ signature app, shows aspiring musicians in real-time which piano keys to press to play a song of their choice. Through sound recognition technologies, the app is able to recognize how well users are performing and give step-by-step feedback to help them improve.

JoyTunes.  Photo: Or Pazl JoyTunes. Photo: Or Pazl

 

ETeacher Group

Founded: 2000

Founders: Yariv Binnun, Boaz Binnun

Based in: Ramat Gan

Funding to date: unspecified

 

eTeacher Group Ltd. operates online virtual classes led by teachers and scholars. The company offers weekly live courses and recorded courses to students around the world.

 

MyQuest

Founded: 2013

Founders: Edan Kertis

Based in: Petah Tikva

Funding: undisclosed

 

MyQuest Ltd. develops an online-learning website and app for teachers, coaches, and trainers. The company’s online service helps educators create a personalized and contextualized learning experience that is centered on feedback and mentorship. Rather than just delivering lessons through videos or written content, students are encouraged to experiment with what they have learned through interactive activities on the site.

 

Liberated 3D

Founded: 2014

Founders: Amir Fischer, Offir Remez

Based in: Tel Aviv

Funding: undisclosed

 

Liberated 3D develops an online service that lets education publishers create interactive three-dimensional content. The company’s technology integrates into existing online textbooks and courses, offering an immersive learning experience.

 

I-Class

Founded: 2013

Founders: Michal Wolfman

Based in: Kfar Saba

Funding: undisclosed

 

I-Class - Information Technology Ltd. partners with publishers, digital-content providers, and academic institutions to offer an app that contains digital textbooks, interactive videos and games, worksheets, and quizzes. The app also includes tools enabling teachers to create classroom blog posts, grade assignments, make class schedules, and share documents.