2023 has gone in a flash! It’s been a busy – and very exciting – year at Kortext.
We had the pleasure of meeting thousands of students at Freshers’ Fairs up and down the UK.
Kortext colleagues attended events around the world, from Bangkok to Berlin and Rwanda to Rome, culminating in the ‘Oscars of higher education’, the THE Awards in Liverpool.
We engaged in conversations with staff across the higher education sector in our popular summer and winter webinars, and we loved doing our monthly Meet the Librarian blogs.
All this gave us insight into key issues for HE in 2023: student well-being; student experience; diversity and inclusion; digital transformation and, of course, the impact of generative AI.
We’ve explored a few of this year’s highlights in more detail, below.
Kortext 10
In 2023, Kortext achieved a significant milestone – the big one-zero!
Led by CEO James Gray, Kortext was founded in 2013 with a mission to empower the next generation of difference makers.
“Our vision is to enable and enrich the higher education of tomorrow and help all students fulfil their potential through digital teaching and learning solutions.” James Gray.
By 2018, Kortext had become the UK’s leading supplier of digital textbooks and educational resources to the higher education sector through our smart study platform, Arcturus.
Today, Kortext serves over 5,000 institutions and two million students globally, while Arcturus offers a gateway to five million eBooks and digital resources from more than 4,700 publishers.
In 2022, we welcomed Solutionpath – the higher education data insights experts – into the Kortext family. Their StREAM platform gathers data from multiple university sources to offer a comprehensive view of student engagement and outcomes.
Kortext’s focus going forward is on creating a seamless learning journey to improve the student experience from day one to graduation. We can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!
Kortext Live
To mark a decade as pioneers of digital innovation, we held a free in-person event. ‘Kortext Live – digital education: the future, now!’ took place on 25th April at Imperial College London.
We were joined by attendees from across the higher education sector for a fantastic day of talks, panel discussions and breakout sessions with expert speakers at this inaugural symposium.
The sessions explored – amongst other topics – the impact of AI on teaching and learning, plus the power of student data to address well-being, retention and progression.
We were honoured to have Professor Dame Sally Mapstone sharing her vision for the future of higher education in our final talk.
One thing came across strongly from attendees’ feedback – how much they appreciated the benefits of an in-person event, providing a chance to exchange ideas with colleagues from across the sector.
Kortext Premium
2023 has been the year of generative AI, sparked by the launch of ChatGPT on 30th November 2022.
It’s evident that new generative AI tools are transforming education, but how can universities enable students to use these technologies in a safe and academically appropriate way?
Kortext, in partnership with Microsoft, has led the sector by leveraging Azure GPT4 Turbo technology to create Kortext Premium – a secure AI solution for higher education, launched in October.
Unlike open AI tools, Kortext’s AI-powered study tools operate in a ring-fenced environment, only accessing academic content within the Kortext platform.
In a significant enhancement of the Arcturus platform, Premium enables users to summarise content, create study notes and generate interactive quizzes.
In addition, users have access to 1.9 million educational videos, organisation and collaboration features, 5GB of cloud storage space, plus citation and translation tools to help support their studies.
We’re excited to see how students and academics will use Premium in 2024!
Setting the Curve
October was a busy month, as we also launched a white paper in partnership with Wonkhe.
Based on a survey of 463 higher education professionals, ‘Setting the Curve’ explores the post-Covid landscape for digitally enabled higher education, with insightful commentary from sector leaders.
It uncovers educators’ priorities for teaching and learning, plus students’ expectations of technology, including the use of generative AI tools.
The challenges raised include student engagement, inclusive learning environments, and how to support student well-being at scale.
“Deployed thoughtfully, technology has the potential to enhance student engagement and confidence as independent learners, support inclusion, and create a more flexible and efficient learning environment.” James Gray and Debbie McVitty, editor, Wonkhe.
A recurrent theme in the white paper is the importance of partnership and collaboration within higher education – between students, academic staff, librarians, and technology providers. In this context, we’re looking forward to building on existing partnerships and forging new ones in 2024.
On that note, we’re proud to have formed new international partnerships in India, Bahrain and Dubai, amongst other places, in 2023.
A final thank you
Thank you to everyone who has helped to make 2023 such a fantastic year at Kortext. We’ve got lots of exciting plans for 2024 that we can’t wait to share!
It just remains to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.
The team at Kortext.
