NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (“NetDragon” or “the Company”, Hong Kong Stock Code: 777), a global leader in building internet communities, is pleased to announce that Edmodo, a subsidiary of NetDragon, was one of the recommended distance learning applications and platforms by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in view of the disruption to education worldwide due to COVID-19. Edmodo is among the world’s largest and most active learning communities with over 100 million registered users, covering approximately 400,000 schools in more than 190 countries and regions.
According to UNESCO, 85 countries have announced or implemented suspension of educational institutions, hindering approximately 777 million students’ learning progress. UNESCO has updated a “Distance learning solutions” section on its website with a recommendation list attached to promote online learning through distance learning platforms. The recommended applications and platforms tend to have wide reach, a strong user base and evidence of impact. Most of the solutions are free and several support multiple languages.
During the suspension of various primary and secondary schools, NetDragon encourages teachers and students to engage in free online interactive learning through Edmodo for continuous learning progress. Prominent functions of Edmodo have gained popularity among teachers and students. Edmodo can be widely applied across multiple learning use cases, including lesson preparation, lesson delivery, as well as after-class studies and discussions, while providing extensive functions that include assignment distribution, quiz assessment, learning progress monitoring and teaching statistics. Embedded within a comprehensible interface similar to social media platforms, it is handy for teaching and self-learning to be combined and managed on a single platform. On top of that, Edmodo facilitates a swift interaction between teachers, students and parents. By raising or answering questions, sharing reading materials or intriguing videos and initiating discussions between teachers and students, it stimulates students to develop independent learning skills and areas of interest, and therefore, enhances mutual exchange of ideas with teachers. Apart from distance teaching, Edmodo also features remote student supervision, enabling teachers to monitor teaching data and further adjust their teaching tempo accordingly. Parents may also follow their children’s learning progress and assist in keeping up with the learning schedule during the school suspension period.
Recently, NetDragon has also partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services in setting up contingency plans and providing free cross-border cloud services to suspended educational institutions in Hong Kong, so that teachers can easily upload and store teaching videos to cloud servers where local and cross-boundary school students can easily access the learning resources. Teachers can further assign homework or learning tasks to students and thus provide at-home learning support.
The recommendation by UNESCO is a recognition of Edmodo’s endeavors to online education, as well as its capability in handling situations of different kinds. Edmodo has recorded a substantive increase in new registered users recently, with significant growth in new and active users from Italy and Spain in comparison with the same period last year. NetDragon will continue to utilize Edmodo’s powerful strength in online education to provide distance learning support to users in affected countries and regions.
About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China’s number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China’s most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.
Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management’s vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the “classroom of the future” to every school around the world. For more information, please visit www.netdragon.com.
For investor enquiries, please contact:
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8390 2825
Email: maggie@nd.com.cn
Website: ir.netdragon.com
