Startup Gogy Inc. to develop CU-Boulder interactive education platform

Startup company Gogy Inc. and the University of Colorado have executed an exclusive licensing agreement that will enable the company to commercialize the Pedago.gy interactive teaching platform developed at CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

Pedago.gy is a Web application that creates a space for educators and students to engage in additional interaction and dialogue beyond the classroom. It provides a means whereby students and instructors can approach a topic in a collaborative fashion, rather than the typical expert-learner model found in most classrooms.

The Pedago.gy platform was conceived and designed by Bret Fund, an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business. Fund, also an experienced software entrepreneur, is a co-founder and the company’s CEO.

“I designed Pedago.gy according to a teaching philosophy called participative pedagogy, which is the idea that students learn best when they take an active -- not the usual passive -- role in the learning process,” said Fund. “Pedago.gy makes it easy for educators to enable and encourage this active learning, by making class presentations and lectures social and interactive in a collaborative environment.”

Pedago.gy was initially developed and tested under an Innovative Teaching and Learning Grant from the Leeds School, a competitive program that funds new ideas with tangible payoffs in future learning excellence, scholarly impact and development of new collaborations.

“Technology-based learning has tremendous potential to make education richer, deeper and more valuable,” said David L. Ikenberry, dean of the Leeds School of Business. “A technology like this, which extends the classroom experience and creates new ways for students to collaborate, is a breakthrough idea. I’m thrilled to be part of a faculty that has this kind of world-class imagination and dedication.”

Pedago.gy has already seen classroom use in select courses at the Leeds School and is set to be used in additional classrooms across the campus this fall, as well as in a handful of local secondary schools. Gogy Inc. will release a commercial beta version of its platform in July and it will be available for purchase at that time; currently, the company is offering a private alpha version of the service by request.

The Pedago.gy platform is the latest of many innovative, technology-enabled teaching and learning platforms developed by CU-Boulder researchers and educators, from the PhET project (free, interactive research-based simulations for K-12 science education) to startups Mentor InterActive (gaming-based children’s literacy education), AgentSheets (tools teaching programming skills through game and simulation design) and Knowledge Analysis Technologies (automated essay scoring and unique technologies for assessing reading comprehension).

Gogy Inc. is an innovator in educational technology. Its online platform transforms ordinary lectures and presentations into interactive discussions, creating a more collaborative learning environment that lasts far beyond the physical classroom experience. For more information about Gogy and its offerings, visit http://www.trygogy.com.