latest trends in edtech byod report here

Sean Peasgood, CEO

(416) 565-2805

[email protected]

LATEST TREND IN

EDTECH – BYOD Bringing Control, Analytics, and Feedback to the

Classroom

January 14, 2014

Bring your own device (BYOD) allows educational institutions to

preserve their budgets by strategically passing most of mobile device

investment and maintenance costs to the students. In return, students

benefit from interactive student/teacher engagements, and the ability

to learn at their own pace on their preferred device by actively

participating into their learning experience. Although a multitude of

BYOD educational tools and apps exist, a problem remained until

recently - binding the devices to one platform so that teachers can

control the mobile devices within the classroom. We provide a detailed

look at the education technology “edtech” market and how it relates to

BYOD and classroom management. We also highlight how EXO U, a

Sophic Capital client, has developed a collaborative solution that

places control of all BYOD mobile device into teachers’ hands,

centralizes content for a seamless cross-platform experience and most

importantly engages students on their platform of choice.

mailto:[email protected]

Latest Trend in EdTech – BYOD

Sean Peasgood (416-565-2805, [email protected]) January 14, 2015 - 2

BYOD in Education

A trend to mobility is occurring inside and

outside of the classroom. In the olden days of

pencil and paper, too few students were

engaged in lessons. They doodled, read books,

or dipped pigtails in the inkwells. Today,

disengaged students turn to mobile devices to

chat on Facebook, check Twitter, and message

their friends. While educators know students

need to be tech savvy when they enter the

workforce, today the challenge has been the

inability to lock-down devices and keep

students engaged. This challenge is compounded by the walled gardens imposed by the large device

manufactures. Are schools to choose only one platform, one device, and force them upon the entire

student population? The enterprise market has already experienced this problem and has adopted

BYOD programs almost unanimously. We believe the education market is next, and throughout

this report we look at how the market is developing and some proposed solutions, especially by

EXO U (EXO-TSXV), a Sophic Capital client.

The next transition is occurring in digital education – mobile learning. Although computer

systems that engage students are firmly in place, the content delivery platform is evolving away

from desktops. Mobile is the trend since it allows students the flexibility to extend learning outside

the classroom, at the moment and the place they prefer. But this trend to mobility is not problem-

free. Mobility requires the Internet, and the Internet can tempt students to web-chat or surf rather

than focus on the lessons. The other issue is cost: Tablets and smartphones aren’t cheap. So to

address this capital budget issue, several school boards have adopted a new policy, one where

students supply their own mobile devices.

Bring your own device (BYOD) is a policy that allows students to use their own mobile devices

to access educational content. The theory is that by allowing students to use their preferred

devices, educational institutions can save money by not having to invest in mobile hardware.

Teachers can also leverage existing technology investments (such as smart boards) that connect to

student devices in order to create interactive lessons. From the student perspective, BYOD brings

a multitude of benefits including: increased tech savviness, the lack of learning curves required to

use school-issued devices, a sense of ownership over their learning experience, and collaboration

on projects. But perhaps the greatest benefit to students is that they can learn at their own pace by

accessing content outside of the classroom on their own devices whenever and wherever it suits

them.

The transition to mobile learning can offer teachers tools for classroom management and

real-time analytics on each student’s performance. BYOD platforms exist that put the teacher

in charge. He or she controls the classroom; pushes content to her students’ devices; can get real-

time feedback with analytics highlighting who absorbed the lesson, which can lead to

enhancements to the teaching method and offer one-on-one help to students falling behind. These

are powerful tools which teachers have longed for, although to date these full solutions have not

been offered.




School Boards Recognize the Need for Mobile Learning

A transition is occurring in the classroom. No, it’s not a shift towards computer-based learning,

but a shift to computer-based learning on mobile devices. According to the Alberta Collaborative

Online Resource Environmenti, student intellectual engagement typically declines from about 82%

in Grade 1 to about 45% by Grade 12. Applying a “blended” learning environment, one where

students learn inside and outside of the classroom, increases student engagement because they can

learn at their own pace whenever and wherever they choose. But to do this, students need mobile

devices. But who supplies and pays for the devices?

Supplying students with mobile devices is costly. Education institutions are under financial

pressure, as operating expenses often outpace budgets allocation, making it difficult to allocate

funds to technology-based projects.” Legacy computing hardware is slow, breaking down, and

clocking itself to death. Upgrading that hardware requires further investments in time,

infrastructure, and maintenance. School boards issue requests for quotes and scrutinize every

proposal under chemistry lab microscopes. Meanwhile, teachers want to know when it’s going to

happen – when will students get those new tablets? Someone has to make a decision – a decision

that parents and the school board would certainly dissect and assign responsibility if a costly

investment fails. And failure is a possibility since cases abound with unsuccessful attempts to

upgrade students’ hardware. But it doesn’t have to be that way: The world’s largest educational IT

project is progressing and could serve as a model for other nation-wide or even school district-wide

initiatives.

Where is the world’s largest educational IT project occurring? The answer may surprise some,

but Turkey is embarking upon the FATIH Project to place a tablet in the hands of every student

from Grade 5 through 12ii. This colossal project involves almost 11 million students across 42,000

schools and 570,000 classesiii and also calls for interactive whiteboards in every classroom and lab.

Halfway through 2014, Turkey’s Ministry of Education had distributed 731,886 tabletsiv. This on

top of the Ministry’s goal to install 101,644 whiteboards and 41,996 multifunctional printers by

year-endv.

But supplying students with school-issued hardware isn’t always successful. Exhibit 1 provides

some unsuccessful attempts that school districts have had supplying students with mobile devices.

Reasons why these projects fell short include: capital costs, vandalism, and theft. But as Exhibit 1

shows, many of the districts that scrapped initiatives to supply students with mobile devices

refocused their efforts on a growing trend – leveraging student ownership of mobile devices.

U.S. kids have flocked to mobile phones and tablets. Maybe it’s because kids are more tech

savvy than adults; maybe it’s because kids are smarter than adults; or maybe it’s because kids can’t

survive without them; but U.S. kids have high ownership of mobile devices. Exhibit 2 shows that

children aged 6 through 12 have higher tablet ownership than teens. The reverse is true concerning

mobile phones.




Exhibit 1: U.S. School Districts are Adopting BYOD over School-Issued Hardware

Source: Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Exhibit 2: U.S. Children are Tech Savvy and Mobile Ready

Source: eMarketer, Little Kids Beat Big Kids in Tablet Usage, October 7, 2014

Date Who? State What happened? Result Move to BYOD?

Oct-13Los Angeles Unified

School DistrictCalifornia

Scrapped 1 million iPad

initiative

Students used the devices for social

networking and gamesYes

Oct-13Miami-Dade County

Public SchoolsFlorida

Paused 100,000 laptops

by 2015, but restarted

Difficulties encoutered at other

school districts with similar programsOptional

Oct-13Fort Bend

Independent School Texas Scrapped 6,000 iPads

Concern about program

implementation and costsIn place 2012

Oct-13Guildford County

SchoolsNorth Carolina Scrapped 15,000 tablets

Bad hardware (10% of tablets

returned after 2 months due to

broken screens)

No

2013-

2014

Clark County School

DistrictNevada

BYOD for 311,000

students and 7,000 iPadsSpike in iPad thefts Yes, in parallel

Fall 2013 Baldwin Unified Kansas 475 iPads deployed with Problems with network access No

Fall 2010Oak Hills Local School

DistrictOhio

BYOD implemented at

one high school

Piloting a program to imlement BYOD

at all schoolsYes, expanding

2010Forsyth County

SchoolsGeorgia

BYOD pilot with 40

teachers in 7 schools

Expanding to all schools, wireless

access points installed at all schoolsYes, expanding


http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Little-Kids-Beat-Big-Kids-Tablet-Usage/1011259



Let the Students Provide Their Own Mobile Devices

Rather than investing in computing hardware, many school districts have decided to let the

students use their own devices to access learning content. And as Exhibit 1 showed, a transition

towards letting students bring their own devices sometimes followed unsuccessful attempts to

supply students with school-issued devices. The reasons for implementing BYOD are plentiful.

First, pushing the hardware and maintenance costs onto the students preserves budget capital.

Second, the students will likely engage more so on their preferred devices and operating systems.

Third, students will take care of their devices since they or their parents have invested in the gadget.

However, two significant problems exist with BYOD today.

IT Departments and Help Desks Struggle

BYOD needs a platform that can secure and unify various devices and operating systems.

Implementing BYOD means delivering content to different operating systems (Microsoft, iOS,

MAC OS X, various flavours of Android) and hundreds of different devices. These operating

systems aren’t made to work together, and each has its own faults. This means that content doesn’t

always make it to students’ devices, and when it does it may look and feel different for each student

(Exhibit 3). As a result, frustrated teachers interrupt lectures to place calls to overwhelmed IT help

desks, leaving disengaged students to idle. Also teachers are not able to easily direct students and

seamlessly push relevant digital books and webpages to all of them.

Exhibit 3: The User Experience Across 400 Popular Websites Varies by Tablet

Source: Principled Technologies, Inc.

Those Nasty Apps are a Threat to Data Security

Ach! Students download third-party apps for school and for play! Since students supply their

own devices, BYOD tablets and smartphones pull double-duty as educational and personal devices.

Given this, students will download apps for personal and educational use. So IT departments have

to add another dimension to the different operating systems and hundreds of different BYOD


http://facts.pt/105t5v1



devices: the hundreds of thousands of downloadable apps. Why are apps a problem? First, because

they can distract students from the class, and second because many apps hide malware.

Be careful of those downloadable apps – they’re not as innocent as we think they are. Gartnervi

predicts that by 2015, 75% of mobile applications will fail basic security tests. Each month, new

mobile malware threats are discovered on the Android platform. Exhibit 4 shows that for the twelve

months ending in July 2014, 45 new malware families1 had the potential to invade Android devices.

And as Exhibit 5 illustrates, theft of information poses the greatest threat for mobile users.

Therefore, any BYOD deployment must have policies and management tools to minimize these

threats.

We believe that solutions that separate, encrypt, and secure educational data on BYOD

devices are imperative and data security concerns. Several solutions for securing BYOD devices

exist today. This was the focus for IT professionals for the last several years as many enterprises

moved away from Blackberry-exclusive organizations to a BYOD model. We outline several

players addressing security later in the report, but we believe cross-platform collaboration and

classroom management are the challenges that IT departments are looking to solve now.

Exhibit 4: 45 New Malware Families for Android from August 2013 Through July 2014

Source: Symantec, Symantec Intelligence Report, July 2014, pg. 15

1 A mobile malware family is a distinct malicious code along with its subsequent variants.


http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/other_resources/b-intelligence_report_07-2014.en-us.pdf



Exhibit 5: Theft of Information is the Greatest Mobile Threat

Source: Symantec, Symantec Intelligence Report, July 2014, pg. 16

Without Planning, BYOD Could Be a Budget Liability

In some cases, BYOD has increased costs. Researchvii suggests that hardware comprises about

10% of an enterprise’s annual mobility budget. Don’t forget to add on wireless network upgrades

and the hassle of managing non-uniform device platforms. These, along with carrier, help desk,

developer, and mobile management costs, can quickly consume or surpass the budget. Many

enterprises can reluctantly absorb these costs. However, non-profit organizations such as public

schools with fixed and/or shrinking budgets cannot.


http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/other_resources/b-intelligence_report_07-2014.en-us.pdf



Other Potential BYOD Problems in Educational Institutions

Some parents balk at connected classrooms. Most of the parental concerns we uncovered relate

to children playing games, watching videos, or social networking. Cyber bullying and social status

associated with certain devices are risks. Although we concede that social status is difficult to

mitigate, systems exist which give teachers complete control of what content students access within

the classroom. It’s unfortunate that teachers cannot control what some students share via their

devices outside of the classroom to mitigate wider-spread cyber bullying.

Inequity. Not all students own the latest,

cutting-edge devices. And school-issued

devices quickly become obsolete. This can

lead to some students having a poorer

BYOD experience due to lack of computing

horsepower. Worse, it can lead to bullying,

mirroring the issues that prompted many

schools to mandate school uniforms in order

to blur the students’ economic classes. This

technological inequality can lead to device

theft or damage of higher-end devices. A

choose your own device (CYOD) scheme,

where students purchase school-approved

mobile devices, would alleviate the

potential for such problems since CYOD

devices have no inequity. It is also

anticipated that hardware will continue to

become commoditized allowing schools to

provide low cost alternatives that easily

offer the horsepower required for classroom

activities.

Productivity killer. Whether or not schools

issue pen and paper or implement BYOD,

not all students will engage. These students

will keep themselves entertained one way or

another. However, as we previously

mentioned, BYOD systems exist that allow teachers to control all student mobile devices within

the classroom. Although these systems cannot guarantee that every student will engage, they can

eliminate online distractions that kill student productivity. We wonder if Mobira’s Talkman (left in

the top photo) was ever a productivity killer.

Giving Teachers Control

Good classroom management serves three purposes. It engages students, keeps the students

prepared, and boosts student and teacher confidence. I’m sure we’ve all seen what happens when

teachers lose control; chaos can ensue resulting in wasted lessons.

Source: Top photo: Nokia.com Bottom photo: ComputerWorld.com




As we mentioned previously, a sound BYOD

strategy must include managing students’

online activities. A blanket policy of restricting

web access at the network level can block the

content that students require. We believe the best

classroom management tools make a teacher the

classroom server and network administrator.

This is accomplished via a device (usually a

laptop or tablet) that acts as an extra set of

eyeballs on the classroom when the teacher is

occupied. Students likely don’t enjoy this

amount of surveillance and control because they

can’t access diversionary content; nor can they

do anything about it. But the ability to control

content, push quizzes, and monitor student

progress via learning analytics are powerful

tools for teachers to effectively manage the

lessons and create the best teaching/learning

environment in the classroom.

Proactive Intervention with

Learning Analytics

Learning analytics is the extrapolation of

information from real-time data collected

from students. In the past, teachers could only

guess if students engaged and absorbed lessons.

Quizzes and exams provided concrete evidence

but couldn’t proactively identify students who

needed help well before exam time. Some

systems can also forecast which students may

falter and then use the predictions to deliver

customized content to bring students back up to

speed so they don’t fall behind or, worse, fail.

One way for teachers to identify students at

risk of falling behind is to push questions and

quizzes onto students’ mobile devices. In this

scenario, learning analytics systems not only

identify which students answered incorrectly but

also which students did not answer. Perhaps

more important, the ability to push real-time

content to all students gives the teachers control

of the classroom. They can monitor their own

performance, judge whether or not students are

engaging, then adjust the lesson’s direction Source: Open Colleges


http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/learning-analytics-infographic/



accordingly. If too many students answered a question incorrectly, a teacher can revisit that part of

the lesson.

Another way for teachers to gauge student progress is via a learning analytics dashboard.

Teachers can monitor how much each student engages with content. Are the students logging on?

What did they download? What did they upload? Some systems even scan message boards to

evaluate student sentiments regarding a course. All of these tools give teachers the power to

intervene with struggling students.

Classroom Management Tools Available for Teachers

We begin by examining some educational sector BYOD leaders and then explore some up-

and-coming entrants. We reiterate that a major shift is occurring within classrooms, the move

from desktop to mobile learning. Many of the largest companies in the learning space began by

providing desktop and non-cloud solutions. They provided the content, the analytic systems, and

teacher control. Now that the trend has moved to extending student learning outside of the

classroom, these companies have had to confront an entirely new line of business – unification.

D2L (Desire2Learn) – A Leader in Content and Analytics

D2L created Brightspace, which the company claims 15 million people across 1,100

organizations in 25 countries are using. Brightspace allows the teacher to organize, present, and

manage content for students. Teachers can collect analytics and predict where each student needs

help. Brightspace also provides feedback for students to gauge their progress. Most important, the

platform puts the student at the center of the learning experience, allowing her to choose her own

pace and path of learning.

In August 2014, D2L closed $85 million series B financingviii

, bringing the total investment in

D2L to $165 million. D2L plans to use the funds for continued market expansion and R&D. As

shown in Exhibit 6, D2L is not shy about acquiring complementary technologies.

Exhibit 6: D2L Has a History of Acquiring Technology

Source: Company reports, Sophic Capital

Date Target Value Value Add

Mar. 4, 2014 Achievement Standards Network N/A Digital data representations of standards that can be

mapped to curriculum and measured

Sep. 9, 2013 Knowillage Systems N/A Adaptive learning engine

Mar. 1, 2013 Wiggio N/A Collaboration tool

Jan. 24, 2013 Degree Compass N/A Predictive analytics

Jun. 22, 2011 Metranome N/A Mobile media platform serves international clients in the

media, publishing, entertainment, and travel industries

Apr. 20, 2011 Captual Technologies N/A

Presentation capture and webcasting solution for rich

media presentations live or on-demand with options for

cloud-based hosting




SMART Technologies – Connecting Students and Teachers to Info

SMART Technologies (TSX: SMA, NASDAQ: SMT) designs interactive products and

solutions that enhance the learning experience. The company is famous for its SMART Board,

a whiteboard that displays content and allows teachers and students to interact with the teacher.

SMART Board comes with SMART Notebook, software that allows teachers to create, share, and

capture lessons and content. Lessons created with SMART Notebook can be shared through the

SMART Exchange platform, a library of resources that are shared with the community. SMART

Amp is a cloud education solution that allows ubiquitous learning. It enhances collaboration,

content creation, communication, sharing and assessment from anywhere, on whatever device is

being used. SMART Response is a handheld device that allows students to answer quizzes or

provide lesson feedback. SMART Slate allows users to operate the Smart Board remotely. One

significant outcome from this technology is student engagement, and when students engage, they

are motivated to learn.

Stoneware – Offering a Unified Workspace

Stoneware, a Lenovo Company, offers education solutions that facilitates BYOD initiatives

and management of the devices in the classroom. The company provides LanSchool, a classroom

management solution. The software allows teacher to monitor, enable collaboration, remove

distraction and assess student understanding. LanSchool is a cross-platform solution, but offers

limited functionalities. WebNetwork delivers a unified cloud platform that allows teachers to

securely deliver files, applications and reports to any devices.

Source: SMARTTech.com




Digedu – Delivering Personalized, Interactive, and Measurable

Learning Experience

Digedu is an emerging digital education company providing a Learning Engine that allows

teachers to create and deliver interactive lessons. Teachers can choose and customize one of the

3,500+ available lessons. The engine also allows teachers to gain insight on student performance

with data analytics on performance, real-time assessments, and classroom management features.

The Learning Engine also enables collaborative learning in the classroom. Digedu also offers a

Classroom Cloud network that allows better management of schools’ bandwidth and local backups

of data, enabling a better connected experience.

EXO U – Real-Time, Operating System-Neutral Collaboration

EXO U (TSXV: EXO), a Sophic Capital client, enables educational institutions and

enterprises to securely manage information and empower people to communicate their best

ideas. This innovative company has focused on simplifying the management of application

lifecycles, allowing cross-platform, in-house app development which also minimizes malware

threats. While letting developers focus on creating apps, EXO U’s agnostic framework takes care

of app functionality across different mobile operating systems. It doesn’t matter if student devices

run the gamut of operating systems; EXO U’s solution will handle them all. One solution for all

operating systems and devices. No need for app developers to develop code for each operating

system.

EXO U gives teachers control. No need for Internet connectivity either; teachers can push content

from their own device (acting as a server) onto student devices via a classroom router. This means

that the solution can be implemented in countries where Interenet connectivity is spotty, and it also

means that in periods when the Internet goes down the classroom carries on. The company has also

built in full classroom management, allowing teachers to know when students are not in the

classroom environment and giving tearchers real-time analystics like the results of a pop quiz.

Source: EXO U

Although EXO U excels in unification and security, we believe the company has a larger

strength – collaboration. One amazing feature of EXO U’s solution is the ability to collaborate

between devices. We’re not talking about emailing videos or sharing files on the cloud. What EXO

U and no one else (that we have found) does is real-time collaboration. A teacher or a student can

select nearby devices (regardless of those device’s operating systems) and push his content or an




app onto those devices. The user interface is the same across all devices, allowing a group to

collaborate in real time. Seeing is believing, so we recommend that you take a look at this video to

see what we’re talking about.

EXO U’s solution allows teachers to leverage existing capital investments such as smart

whiteboards and projection systems. Being platform agnostic, EXO U’s solution can integrate

existing equipment used in the classroom. Moreover, the open APIs allow school systems to

personalize the solution to their specific needs by developing new, cross-platform applications.

These features also free institutions from walled garden technology, making sure that current

decisions will not inhibit their ability to adopt future technologies.

EXO U’s solution was tested with more than 250 students in real classrooms. Pilot projects

have successfully been completed in order to test the classroom management features. Teachers

and students were impressed with the functionalities, the responsiveness and ease of use of the

solution.

EXO U has a major, nation-wide customer. In June 2013, Panama’s National Secretariat for

Science, Technology and Innovation signed a deal to deliver EXO U’s BYOD solution to 100,000

students.

Source:EXO U installation at the University of Panama, Source: IT World Canada

BYOD Isn’t Limited to Education – Enterprises Want It Too

Many of the reasons for enterprises to implement BYOD mirror those of the educational

sector. Enterprises benefit from shifting hardware purchase and maintenance costs to employees.

By letting employees work on their preferred mobile gadgets (Exhibit 7) shows that 42% of U.S.

adults have a tablet and 90% own a cell phone,) workers can quickly ramp into their roles rather

than face a learning curve with a company-issued device. This leads to productivity enhancements,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvAhFo1KXsc

http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/panama-deploys-montreal-firms-byod-solution/47718



worker accessibility, and potential recruiting advantages (83%ix of Millennials own a smartphone,

and they typically embrace their preferred platforms for work and for play.)

Tech Pro Researchx estimates that 74% of organizations use or plan to use

BYOD. Two years ago, 62% of organizations used or planned to use BYOD.

BYOD within the enterprise suffers the same risks as educational institutions, paramount of

which is data protection. Data accumulation is costly. Think of the time it takes to collect,

organize, and secure data. Then think about the number of people in your organization who do

likewise. You’ll probably find that the human capital, network, storage, compliance, and time costs

balloon.

Data breaches are costly. Costs vary by country, due to the types of attacks and data protection

laws. To determine the average cost to an enterprise when data breaches occur, Ponemon Institute

conducted a study across 277 organizations in 16 countries. As Exhibit 8 shows, the costs are

significant, therefore, we believe enterprises can benefit by issuing corporate approved apps that

are either developed in-house or licensed from approved third-parties. Furthermore, we recommend

that enterprises implement platforms that contain, encrypt, and secure corporate data and apps on

employee devices.

Exhibit 7: 42% of American Adults Owned a Tablet in 2014

Source: Pew Research Center


http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/mobile/device-ownership/



Exhibit 8: Average Cost of a Data Breach for Organizations in Various Countries

Source: Ponemon Institute, 2013 Cost of Data Breach Study: Global Analysis, May 2013, pg. 6

Don’t neglect employees’ perceived lack of privacy. At one time, employees could expect

privacy on all their devices. In its infancy, BYOD policies were more of an implied code of

behavior. Then, enterprise legal departments took over and, in many cases, drafted strict, detailed

policies which gave enterprises the right to monitor, search, and wipe employee-owned devices.

From the employee’s perspective, enterprises became Big Brother, but, in reality, enterprises

implemented these policies to safeguard data. This resulted in clashes between employees and

employers which destroyed trust and the claimed productivity benefits that BYOD was supposed

to provide.

Market Forecasts

The global BYOD market could reach about $266 billion by 2019 according to

MarketsandMarketsxi. This growth comes from a 2013 base of about $72 billion and includes

BYOD in both educational institutions and enterprises. Grand View Research predicts the BYOD

market to grow from about $65 billion in 2012 to approximately $238 billion by 2018xii. Juniper

Researchxiii forecasts that over one billion of the smartphones and tablets used in the enterprise will

be employee-owned. This represents 35% of the total installed base of consumer-owned

smartphones and tablets.

According to TechNavio, the BYOD security market CAGR could be about 32% from 2013

through 2018xiv

. The total mobile security market (personal and enterprise) is forecastedxv to be

worth $4.5 billion in 2014. Compounding the 2014 $4.5 billion forecast by 32% per annum suggests

that the mobile security market could be worth $13.7 billion by 2018.


https://www4.symantec.com/mktginfo/whitepaper/053013_GL_NA_WP_Ponemon-2013-Cost-of-a-Data-Breach-Report_daiNA_cta72382.pdf



M&A Activity is Strong

Major technology companies have snapped up BYOD firms. Exhibit 9 demonstrates that M&A

activity is robust, with blue-chip companies making acquisitions to tap into this burgeoning market.

Exhibit 9: The Biggest Tech Companies are Snapping Up BYOD Companies

Source: Sophic Capital, company reports

Notable BYOD Players

A broad range of companies exist in the BYOD

sector. They range from microcap start-ups to the

largest technology blue-chips. We provide a brief

summary of some of them.

Absolute Software (TSE: ABT) has an extensive

portfolio of enterprise solutions that includes

BYOD data security, remote device management,

and content management. The company holds a

patent on its “Absolute persistence” technology, a

firmware based solution that allows enterprises to

Date Aquirer Target Value

Dec. 1, 2014 Microsoft Acompli US$200 million

Oct. 21, 2014 Good Technology Macheen N/A

Oct. 2, 2014 Pulse Secure MobileSpaces N/A

Sept. 11, 2014 BlackBerry Movirtu N/A

Jun. 10, 2014 DropBox MobileSpan N/A

Jun. 3, 2014 Good Technology Fixmo (security business) N/A

May. 19, 2014 Google Divide N/A

Apr. 1, 2014 Good Technology BoxTone N/A

Feb. 12, 2014 VMWare AirWatch US$1.5 billion

Dec. 17, 2013 Cisco Systems Collaborate.com N/A

Nov. 15, 2013 Oracle Bitzer Mobile N/A

Nov. 14, 2013 IBM Fiberlink N/A

Oct. 3, 2013 GLOBO Notify Technologies US$5 million

Dec. 18, 2012 Dell Credent N/A

Dec. 5, 2012 Citrix Zenprise N/A

Oct. 2, 2012 Good Technology AppCentral N/A

May. 25, 2012 Dell Wyse Technology US$1.0 billion (est.)

May. 9, 2012 Dell SonicWALL US$1.2 billion (est.)

Apr. 16, 2012 Symantec Nukona N/A

Mar. 2, 2012 Symantec Odyssey N/A

Feb. 27, 2012 IBM Worklight N/A

Absolute Software's Patented Absolute Persistence Source: Absolute.com




maintain a connection with all devices even if the Absolute Manage and Computrace software

agents are removed from the device.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) offers a fully integrated BYOD solution. In 2013, Alcatel-Lucent

provided integration of its core operating system with ClearPass, a network control solution from

Aruba Networks, Alcatel’s long-time partner. ClearPass Policy Management Solution allows users

to register their devices, separate personal and enterprise usage, and download approved apps,

while letting ClearPass provide updates and security controls.

Centrify provides unifying identity management solutions for cloud, mobile, and data IT

environments. It offers centrally controlled security and compliance solutions that secure and audit

mobile devices and applications.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) offers a comprehensive BYOD solution architecture,

combining elements across the network for a unified approach to secure device access,

visibility, and policy control.

Good Technology has made several acquisitions in the BYOD space over the past two years.

Last year, it acquired Fixmo’s security business to strengthen its solutions’ security and scalability.

The BoxTone acquisition brought a mobile management platform into Good’s end-to-end secure

mobility solution. AppCentral, acquired in 2012, added the ability to secure and manage mobile

apps.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) formed a partnership with Apple in July 2014 to bring Apple devices to

the enterprise. We view this as a validation of this space, given that IBMxvi once disallowed iCloud

and Siri, Apple’s intelligent assistant. Enterprise workers are bringing iOS products to the

workplace, and IBM plans to build a portfolio of enterprise-specific apps and provide a range of

cloud and security services.

MobileIron (NASDAQ: MOBL) is staking its future on the belief that mobile IT will become

the primary means by which enterprises deploy applications and workers access corporate

information. The company has achieved success with over 6,000 customers since 2009, and in the

first 9 months of 2014 has almost matched the $100 million in revenue it generated in 2013.

Samsung’s (KRX: 00593) latest BYOD offering is the KNOX 2.0 platform. The data app and

security platform uses a security-enhanced version of Android, which creates containers to separate

personal from enterprise data. KNOK also comes with Marketplace, an app store geared towards

IT administrators seeking cloud-based work solutions.

VMWare (NYSE: VMW) is a virtualization software company that allows IT to deliver

services from any device at any time. The company’s Workspace Portal solution allows IT to

provide app stores to enterprises, compliance reporting, and lifecycle management.

Notable Learning Management and Analytics Players

Moodle is a free learning management system that allows educators to create their own

private website that allows students to learn any time and from anywhere. Teachers can upload

content, conduct quizzes, and facilitate collaboration amongst students. Moodle claims that over




70,000 schools, universities, and corporations across 200 countries and 100 languages use the

platform for their online learning requirements.

Edmodo has connected teachers to students in 88 of the 100 largest schools districts in the

U.S. Its learning management systems, whose features were driven by teacher feedback, provide

teachers with seamless communication with students, teacher-generated content, educational apps,

and accessibility from any device. Edmodo has over 45 millionxvii members using the platform.

Blackboard provides educators with a suite of platforms to enhance and manage the

teaching/learning experience. Its Blackboard Analytics suite allows users to data mine, extract

information, and organize it into dashboards for easy access. Although geared towards higher

education, we believe the learning analytics feature is applicable to any school or enterprise e-

Learning program. The Blackboard Learn platform enables teachers and students to collaborate,

communicate, organize study sessions, and book appointments for one-on-one help

Schoology’s learning management system has 7.5 million users across 200 countriesxviii

. Free

for teachers to use, Schoology provides organizing and monitoring tools similar to competitors’

platforms. But Schoology also connects educators across the globe to share best practices, similar

to what Edmodo provides to its global network of certified teachers.

McGraw-Hill is an education content provider that has moved into the classroom analytics

space. In March 2014, the company introduced Connect Insight, a data analytics tool for higher

education. This mobile tool allows teachers the ability to make real-time, data driven decisions

regarding their instruction techniques, effectiveness of assignments, and whether students are

struggling. The tool analyses real-time big data, freeing teachers from having to sift through

mounds of data in order to extrapolate information.

Conclusions

Educational institutions have deployed BYOD, sometimes nation-wide, and we believe BYOD

will get bigger. Legacy computers need upgrading, and school districts are turning to mobile

devices. Some attempts to issue mobile devices have failed, so school boards are looking to

leverage the mobile devices that students are bringing to school. There are numerous advantageous

to deploying BYOD (decreased capital costs for schools, teacher control of the classroom, and

increased student engagement.) There are also several risks (data security, malware from third-

party apps, and unification of devices and platforms) which we believe current BYOD platforms

can mitigate.

Enterprises also seek to leverage employee mobile devices but struggle to balance data

security with employee rights to privacy. Reduced costs, 24/7 employee access, and enhanced

employee productivity motivate enterprise BYOD investments. However, employee downloads of

third-party apps leaves corporate data susceptible to malware attacks. Solutions exist to contain

corporate data, and policies mandating approved work-related apps can secure enterprise data.

Aggressive enterprise BYOD policies can alienate a workforce thereby reducing trust and

productivity enhancements. Enterprises must draft and communicate BYOD policies that do not

alienate employees due to breaches of privacy.




M&A activity is robust. Companies offering BYOD solutions range from microcaps and start-ups

to blue-chip technology giants. M&A has been healthy, and we believe will continue to grow along

with this evolving marketplace.

We recommend that investors seeking a pure-play BYOD company consider EXO U (TSXV:

EXO), a Sophic Capital client. EXO U serves both the educational and corporate sectors. Its

platform seamlessly unifies devices and allows teachers to control classrooms. However, we

believe that the ability of EXO U’s platform to allow true collaboration between devices is a strong

differentiator that introduces a new level of learning in the classroom.

Acronyms Used in this Report

API application programming interface

BYOD bring your own device

CYOD choose your own device

IT information technology

References

i Alberta CORE, An Introduction to Blended Learning with D2L ii The Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Investment and Support Agency, Countdown begins for Turkey’s

high-tech Fatih Project, May 20, 2013 iii T.C. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, FATIH PROJECT, 2012 iv Daily Sabah, FATIH PROJECT DISTRIBUTES 732,000 TABLETS, July 2, 2014 v Ibid. vi Garter, Gartner Says More than 75 Percent of Mobile Applications will Fail Basic Security Tests Through 2015, September 14, 2014 vii Nucleus Research, Inc., Understanding the Hard ROI of BYOD, April 2013, pg. 1 viii D2L, D2L Raises $85 Million in Strategic Financing, August 14, 2014 ix Pew Research Center, Device Ownership Over Time, 2014 x Teena Hammond, Research: BYOD booming with 74% using or planning to use, Tech Pro Research,

January 4, 2015 xi MarketsandMarkets, http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/byod.asp xii Grand View Research, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Market Analysis And Segment Forecasts To 2020,

April 2013 xiii Juniper Research, BYOD Trend Drives Number of Consumer Owned Mobile Devices Used at Work to

Exceed 1bn by 2018, November 19, 2013 xiv TechNavio, Global BYOD Security Market 2014-2018, December 13, 2013 xv visiongain, ‘Mobile Security Market to be worth $4.5bn in 2014' says Visiongain report, March 25, 2014 xvi Brian Bergstein, IBM Faces the Perils of “Bring Your Own Device”, MIT Technology Review, May 21,

2012 xvii Edmodo xviii Mary Jo Madda, How Does an LMS Go Viral Worldwide? Schoology Shares Secrets to Growth, edSurge,

November 19, 2014


https://www.albertacore.ca/items/9bb17eaf-bf2c-43e1-8cbb-102de655a271/1/viewcontent?_sl.t=true

http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/infocenter/news/Pages/200513-turkey-fatih-project-tender-process-start.aspx

http://www.invest.gov.tr/en-US/infocenter/news/Pages/200513-turkey-fatih-project-tender-process-start.aspx

http://fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr/tr/english.php

http://www.dailysabah.com/education/2014/07/02/fatih-project-distributes-732000-tablets

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2846017

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2846017

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http://www.juniperresearch.com/viewpressrelease.php?pr=413

http://www.juniperresearch.com/viewpressrelease.php?pr=413

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http://www.technologyreview.com/news/427790/ibm-faces-the-perils-of-bring-your-own-device/

https://www.edmodo.com/about

https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-11-19-how-does-an-lms-go-viral-worldwide-schoology-shares-secrets-to-growth



Disclaimers

The particulars contained herein were obtained from sources that we believe to be reliable, but are

not guaranteed by us and may be incomplete or inaccurate. The opinions expressed are based upon

our analysis and interpretation of these particulars and are not to be construed as a solicitation of

offer to buy or sell the securities mentioned herein. Sophic Capital Inc. (“Sophic Capital”) may act

as financial advisor, fiscal agent or underwriter for certain of the companies mentioned herein, and

may receive remuneration for its services. Sophic Capital and/or its principals, officers, directors,

representatives, and associates may have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may

make purchases and/or sales of these securities from time to time in the open market or otherwise.


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