Acquisition strengthens ACT’s capabilities to support its transition to a learning, measurement and navigation company
IOWA CITY, Iowa—ACT, the nonprofit learning, measurement and navigation organization behind the ACT® test, announced today it has acquired Knovation, Inc., a leading curator of K-12 open educational resources (OER).Knovation, which was created 19 years ago, pioneered the use of well-curated, free content in K-12 instruction. It has received industry recognition for innovation, effectiveness and ease of use.
“ACT is committed to improving learning in schools, and our acquisition of Knovation’s outstanding solutions will help us accomplish this goal,” said ACT CEO Marten Roorda. “These solutions will strengthen our personalized learning offerings, helping teachers impact student learning directly in the classroom and beyond. Knovation’s solutions and seasoned team will support and empower ACT’s transition to a learning, measurement and navigation organization.”
The Knovation assets acquired by ACT include the following:
- Knovation Content Collection—a wealth of well-curated, dynamic resources available to K-12 schools, districts, states and businesses serving these markets
- netTrekker—an application that has helped more than 90 million students over 18 years search and share resources from the Content Collection
- icurio—a digital curriculum application that leverages the online resources from the Knovation Content Collection to help teachers design and deliver curated digital lessons
- Technology and insight behind the content curation, correlation and maintenance engine
"Knovation delivers unparalleled capability to effectively curate any kind of content with unlimited metadata and alignment connections to help ACT move the market for learning,” said Randy Wilhelm, CEO for Knovation, who will be joining ACT. "The acquisition makes it possible for ACT to tap into the synergistic connection between learning content and measurement data to personalize, accelerate and affect learning in a very positive way.”
“We look forward to continuing to build on the long-standing relationships that Knovation has established in the K-12 school and business community,” said Suzana Delanghe, ACT chief commercial officer. “We will work to expand the reach of the current Knovation solutions and also to create new, innovative solutions to better serve students’ learning needs now and in the future.”
The terms of the agreement have not been released.
Knovation was founded in 1999 as Thinkronize, but quickly became well known in the market by their flagship product name, netTrekker. The company relaunched as Knovation in 2012, when it expanded its solutions and services beyond schools and districts to businesses that also serve the K-12 market to help them leverage the power of free online resources to personalize instruction.
Over the past few years, ACT has also acquired The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), OpenEd and ProExam and made strategic investments in Smart Sparrow, Open Assessment Technologies, S.A. and New Markets Venture Partners, a pioneering education-focused fund. ACT has also partnered with nonprofit The NROC Project to create ACT CollegeReady.
