At the ISTELive 24 conference, LeiLani Cauthen, CEO of the Learning Counsel, had the opportunity to interview Todd Brekhus, Chief Product Officer at Renaissance. The highlight of their discussion was the demonstration of Renaissance's latest innovation, Renaissance Next. This new platform promises to revolutionize how educators interact with the suite of products under the Renaissance umbrella.

Todd Brekhus began by outlining the strategy behind Renaissance Next. "Renaissance has been building a strategy around a collection of best-of products from the industry. myON, Freckle, Accelerated Reader, Star, Nearpod, Flocabulary, and all kinds of great products that we've acquired in the last six years," he explained. These products, each with their own unique login and strategy, have now been woven together into a unified experience.

"We're calling it Renaissance Next," Todd announced, highlighting that the platform integrates these individual products while still allowing them to function independently. "You can still individually buy, market, and partner and work on those apps. But when those apps are working together, we've created an experience layer."

The experience layer is a pivotal aspect of Renaissance Next. It provides a seamless interface where teachers can access and integrate data from various Renaissance products. Todd demonstrated this feature, showcasing how it simplifies the teaching process.

"Let's say you're in fourth or third grade here," Todd began. "You can find students that need a helping hand. You can instantly see your students. You can see all these different products have fed data to the front page of the system." This integration allows for a holistic view of student performance and needs, facilitating more effective and targeted teaching strategies.

One of the standout features of Renaissance Next is its ability to provide personalized recommendations for students. Todd illustrated this by showing how the platform helps teachers address specific student needs.

"My favorite part, and why we call it Renaissance Next, is basically because it's providing recommendations here," Todd said. "For example, we can see Aisha's test was completed in a few minutes. We recommended maybe take a retest, here's some practice skills that she might want to work on, and here's some lessons right in Nearpod."

This recommendation system leverages data from various Renaissance tools to suggest targeted interventions and resources. Todd demonstrated how teachers can instantly pull up relevant Nearpod lessons based on a student's performance and needs. "This topic, identifying nouns in context and their function, we could easily pull up instantly a Nearpod lesson right on that topic, right from her standards and skills. And there's that lesson that she can understand how to use nouns in context from this lesson in Nearpod."

The integration and recommendation capabilities of Renaissance Next are designed to enhance both teacher efficiency and student outcomes. By consolidating data and resources into a single platform, Renaissance Next aims to streamline the teaching process, allowing educators to spend more time focusing on student engagement and less on administrative tasks.

"We're thrilled to launch Renaissance Next here at ISTE," Todd concluded. "It's about bringing together the best tools in education into a cohesive, intuitive experience that empowers teachers and helps students succeed."

The unveiling of Renaissance Next at ISTELive 24 marks a significant step forward in educational technology. By unifying a suite of powerful tools and providing actionable insights through an integrated experience layer, Renaissance Next promises to transform how educators approach teaching and learning. This innovative platform underscores Renaissance's commitment to supporting educators and improving student outcomes through thoughtful, data-driven solutions.

Tune in below for the full demonstration.