Scottish EdTech company 448 Studio has been backed by £100,000 of Scottish Enterprise investment in the form of a Smart:Scotland grant.

The company aims to conduct a feasibility study of a hybrid learning and teaching platform for the higher education sector in the UK. Its platform aims to create a virtual campus for students and their teachers, offering live video streaming and recording.

Through this, 448 Studio will develop a robust platform that is simple to use for lecturers, easy to access and engage with for students, and integrates fully with a variety of learning management systems already in use.

448 Studio’s Founder and CEO, Dan Marrable, said: “We aim to commercialise the platform we’re developing within six months of completing the feasibility project. Thereafter we hope to target up to eight UK academic institutions initially for sign-up at a discounted price to enable the development of early adopter programmes.

“We are hugely grateful to Scottish Enterprise for their faith in us. 448 Studio’s marketing strategy will be fully integrated with the project giving updates on progress across social media and newsletters to existing clients of our event platform.

“Longer term, we aspire to engage with the angel investor market to secure investment to enable the product launch and growth of our technical development team and our own commercial team of marketing, sales and customer support specialists.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced universities across the world to adapt their teaching programmes while faced with the restrictions imposed by health authorities.

Since the onset of the Covid 19 outbreak, the 448 team has seen a massive shift to online adaptations of traditional, offline courses. As ‘normality’ begins to return slowly, the methods for learning and teaching disciplines have metamorphosed as students expect to have a variety of options that fit their learning needs and meet the expectations of their lecturers.

The project has already had endorsement from two major players: the University of Glasgow and its School of Education and from Glasgow Caledonian University.

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Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, the Principal of the University of Glasgow, said: “The way we teach and interact with students is evolving rapidly. Traditional methods of teaching are being challenged, and the implementation of emerging technologies to underpin learning on a global level are incredibly important.

“Studies such as the one planned by 448 Studio are crucial in the improvement of the student learning experience and in providing lecturers with adaptable and intuitive teaching tools.”

The Renfrewshire-based company was formed four years ago after receiving backing from the Scottish Government.

Earlier this year, 448 Studio received significant support from the Scottish Government to help the Scottish EdTech company further develop the ground-breaking Forumm product which is a fully automated virtual events platform. This lets 448 facilitate multiple, simultaneous events not only in the UK but internationally.

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