Olive Group, an Irish-founded EdTech company headquartered in Dublin, with an office in India today announces the launch of a new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) app in Microsoft Teams as part of a joint initiative with Microsoft. Launched from within the Microsoft Teams application, the Olive app is an intuitive software platform that delivers a wide range of interactive digital content, enabling a more user-centric learning experience for up to 250 million global Microsoft Teams daily active users. The app has a market potential of €5 million for Olive Group.
Supported by Enterprise Ireland, the Olive application was designed and developed by Olive Group’s growing team of eLearning experts in collaboration with Microsoft. The application addresses the issue with online education which has been stagnant for many years – that engagement has been restricted by disconnected legacy systems with poor experience. What makes the Olive app different is that it is a purpose-built learning experience that is easily deployed and customisable with access to high-end interactive digital content.
The Olive Group app integration in Microsoft Teams takes the level of interactivity and engagement during online Teams sessions to the next level, delivering seamless student-tutor interaction, with easy-to-use interactive tools. The live virtual classrooms are enhanced with breakout rooms for group work and discussions, creating an outstanding and immersive environment for learners. The app allows the impact of learning to be demonstrated through robust assessments, delivered securely and efficiently, ensuring the learning cycle is complete.
Within the app, Olive Group has created a unique game-changer feature in content creation for e-learning and marketing sectors. Whereas the AI Content Creation Automation Tool – available as an add-on feature – is an intuitive AI-based content authoring tool, which creates video-based courses and videos in a fast, efficient fashion by utilising the power of AI technology.
Olive has traditionally concentrated on small to medium-sized enterprises. However, the new partnership with Microsoft gives Olive an opportunity to expand its reach into higher education and corporates where Microsoft have an advanced penetration in the deployment of Microsoft 365 and Teams applications.
Since its establishment in 2006, the Olive Group has trained more than two million people across the world and created digital learning content in 27 languages. Employing 600 people across 12 countries, Olive Group produces world-class digital content using the latest technological innovations to engage learners and save businesses 85% of the costs associated with the delivery of classroom-based training courses. Olive Group is an accredited Microsoft ISV (Independent Software Vendors) partner.
The development of Olive Group has been supported by Enterprise Ireland. Elaborating on the same, Conor Fahy, Regional Director, Middle East, Africa, India at Enterprise Ireland highlighted, “Innovation holds a very important place in Ireland and we at Enterprise Ireland believe in encouraging and supporting innovative ideas. Olive Group’s low-cost, high-end online training courses aim to help more people access affordable education and to help businesses onboard, train and upskill staff is one of them. I am delighted that the Government of Ireland, through Enterprise Ireland has been instrumental in supporting the company through its sustainable enterprise Ireland fund. I am certain that Olive Group and Microsoft Teams’ integration will further change the dynamic of education for the better.”
Commenting on the announcement, Brendan Kavanagh, CEO, Olive Group said, “We’re very excited to extend the reach of Olive VLE to up to 250 million Microsoft Teams users across the world. Collaborating with Microsoft has allowed us to deploy a purpose-built learning experience that will resonate with digital natives – the swipers, scrollers, and touch screen aficionados of the world. These users are accustomed to consuming content as part of a seamless user experience via platforms such as Spotify, Netflix and Tiktok. Until now, an educational counterpart has been lacking. We are targeting savvy online learners who want the collaborative energy of the classroom, in a virtual setting, as well as enhanced learning experiences that are accessible 24/7.”
Professor Kevin Marshall, Head of Education at Microsoft, mentioned, “We’re delighted to partner with Olive Group – a company that is on the cutting edge of EdTech. The team has a firm appreciation of what digital natives are looking for from a learning and engagement perspective. Catering to evolving user demands requires big picture thinking, and Olive Group has a proven track record of delivering eLearning solutions that are easily deployed, customisable and user-friendly. Olive’s app delivers high-quality digital content that is learner-centric and outcome-driven, while also facilitating more dynamic student-tutor engagement and more efficient digital assessments.”
Kailas Satheesan, Chief Operating Officer at Olive Group said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of our Olive VLE app within Microsoft teams. Strategically we are very quickly realising our vision of making education and training more accessible globally.”