With headquarters in Santa Rosa, California (USA), Democrasoft (formerly known as Burst.com) was founded by Richard Lang (current CEO) in 1990 and produces the Collaborize Classroom Education Platform.
It provides social collaboration and voting tools. It is easy-to-use, designed to foster creativity, and rewards user experiences. In mid 2012, over 1.75 million lessons had been delivered by using this platform.
The company has 30+ employees and it has more than 10 partners, including California Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (CASCD), Courses4Teachers, Foundation “Kids in need”, SchoolTube, Simple K12, Symbaloo Edu, Scholastic, TechKNOW Associates and TregoEd.
The company offers five cloud-based solutions, including Collaborize Classroom (its free online learning platform), Collaborize Workplace (an online decision-making platform) and Collaborize NPO (an online collaboration platform for non-profit organizations. The platform also includes Democrasoft Townhall Online (to ask questions or express opinions) and WeJIT (structured, self-contained, online collaboration). These educational technologies allow structured discussions in a private online community.
The Collaborize Classroom solution is free. It is accessible by any Internet browser or from any iPad or iPhone. Some of the features that can be found in the platform:
- Assignments
- Attaching pictures or documents
- Create Topics and Lessons
- Detailed Reports
- Discussions
- Embed Microsoft Office Documents and PDF
- Multimedia including images, videos and files
- Organize conversations
- Practice tests
- Reduce grading
- Topic Library (free, educators can share and download lesson resources) find by Grade level, Subject, User Tags or Topic Type.
- Voting
Its discussion feature is different from competitors because it allows users to create various question types and display them in a range of formats. For example, there is a “Vote or Suggest” type question. Students have the option of voting for the answers they think are the most relevant. Once a discussion is completed, results can be published in an easy to read graphic with concluding remarks.
The company was previously public, but in the first quarter of 2013, it became a private holding. Some of the awards the company has received are:
- 2012 SIIA Codie Finalist in the category “Best Education Community Solution
- 2012 AASL (American Association of School Librarians) Best Website for Teaching & Learning
- 2011 District Administration Readers’ Top 100 Products
CONTACT INFORMATION
Democrasoft Inc
50 Old Courthouse Square Suite 300
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
U.S.A
Tel: +1 888 993 8683