Ascendia wins Edulib contract worth over €3.5M to change digital education in Romania

The bid of the consortium formed and which the company is part of was declared the winner and the value of the contract for Ascendia S.A. exceeds €3.5 million.

Ascendia has been developing educational software for the last 14 years: online courses, interactive digital lessons and e-learning platforms, for various ages and in various languages, for corporate (B2B) and individual (B2C) customers. The company is locally recognized for its online digital educational content creation platform LIVRESQ, its e-learning platform for companies/institutions Coffee LMS (Learning Management System), its e-learning courses dedicated to adult education eJourneys and for the development of tailor-made e-learning courses according to the needs of the beneficiaries.

Cosmin Malureanu, CEO and Co-Founder of Ascendia ”We’ve been preparing for something like this for the last 14 years, since we started the company. Edulib will bring modern online learning tools to children and teachers in Romania. Through this project we will have a real chance to make a system-wide change. Ascendia has the experience of many edtech products developed for various customers and various age groups, and our contribution in Edulib will be both in the area of e-learning lesson development and the software infrastructure of the system. We know what a project like this one needs to succeed and together with the consortium partners we will work hard for its successful implementation.”

The LIVRESQ platform (www.livresq.com), an important tool for the execution of the Edulib contract, is currently used by more than 23,400 teachers in over 6,100 educational institutions in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Teachers have so far developed 13,200 interactive lessons using LIVRESQ. Of these, over 3,600 are public. The online lessons are offered free of charge to all children and interested teachers in the platform's library.

Edulib represents the promise that education in Romania will be able to evolve with the times. The main results officially foreseen through the implementation of the project are creation of a digital platform with open educational resources and integration and utilization of digital open educational resources. Furthermore, the project includes equipping 5400 secondary schools with multimedia kits and indirect training (train-the-trainers type) for 5400 teachers.

The contracting authority for the Edulib project is The Romanian Education Network (AARNIEC). Procedurally, after announcing the winner, the project is awarded and then implemented.

At the end of the implementation period, from Ascendia's perspective, key software elements of Edulib will generate real impact in education. One such element is the component for building educational content in digital format, which will enable teachers to create adaptive, modern digital educational materials. Moreover, it will be possible to build interactive lessons for any smart device, from computers to smartphones. In addition, these lessons will be able to run on the most popular browsers and operating systems.

The virtual library component will be a true content and learning management system. This component will ensure the traceability of digital educational content. The large number of lessons in digital format developed by the project will give teachers accessing the system a good starting point for using it, and children a reason to enjoy the material.

Another technology that encompasses current industry trends is the adaptive learning component, which will allow the content to be adapted according to the needs of the learner accessing it. This component will use machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Founded in 2007 in Romania, Ascendia is the first e-learning company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, where it has the trading symbol ASC. The company is based in Bucharest and is known for its e-learning products, including LIVRESQ, TIMLOGO, CoffeeLMS and eJourneys.