Category: Top Hat News

Top Hat Acquires OpenClass IP and Welcomes Founder to Team

Top Hat’s engineering team is gaining a valuable new voice with the addition of Alec Kretch, whose work and experience sits at the intersection of technical innovation and learning science. As the founder of OpenClass—an AI-powered platform that helps educators design meaningful, mastery-based assignments—Kretch is a strong advocate for using assessment as a tool for learning rather than simple measurement. The acquisition of OpenClass’s intellectual property, along with Kretch’s appointment to Top Hat’s engineering team, will support Top Hat’s continued investment in discipline-specific solutions and in expanding the company’s capabilities around authentic assessment. These efforts align with a growing institutional focus on career readiness and helping students build practical skills they can carry into life after graduation

“Alec has shown how technology can help educators create richer, more effective learning experiences through relevant, real-world application,” said Maggie Leen CEO of Top Hat. “His work with OpenClass aligns closely with our focus on supporting instructors with tools that encourage deeper thinking and meaningful student engagement.”

OpenClass was originally developed to help computer science instructors create authentic assignments, where students solve in-browser coding problems and receive immediate, actionable feedback. While built with programming in mind, the underlying approach is broadly applicable across disciplines. Authentic assessment encourages students to apply what they’ve learned in practical contexts, fostering critical thinking, creativity, and lasting understanding in ways traditional assignments often fall short. This kind of learning experience is especially vital as students increasingly look to higher education to build the skills they’ll need to succeed in their future careers.

Over the past few years Top Hat has expanded innovation across many disciplines. Aktiv Chemistry, for example, which the company acquired in 2022, offers interactive tools designed to meet the unique needs of chemistry educators and learners. Offering personalized, authentic assessments that reflect the real-world scenarios students will face in their careers supports Top Hat’s mission to spark better teaching and more meaningful learning.

“Top Hat is the gold standard for evidence-based learning platforms,” said Kretch. “We share a vision for the future of higher education—one that’s equitable, personalized, and focused on helping students develop real skills. I’m excited to help bring the best of OpenClass to more instructors and learners.”

Source link

July 24, 2025
Expanded AI Makes Active, Personalized Learning More Accessible

Top Hat’s AI-powered assistant, Ace, just got even better. Two new features—example generation and personalized practice—make it easier than ever for educators to personalize learning and give students the support they need to stay on track.

Ace was designed to take the heavy lifting out of creating assessments and provide students with help when they need it. Now, it’s enabling educators to make learning more relevant by connecting course content to student interests and career goals and by offering targeted practice based on where students are struggling most.

“Each of these features reflects our belief that great teaching and learning happens when technology helps people do what they do best,” said Maggie Leen, CEO of Top Hat. “With Ace, we’re building an experience that empowers busy educators and motivates students to connect, explore, practice, and succeed.”

Since its introduction in 2023, Ace has become a trusted partner for instructors seeking to deepen engagement and boost learning outcomes. The new enhancements make it simple for educators to implement teaching practices shown to improve learning, and enhance student success through on-demand, personalized study support.

Example Generation: Make Content More Relevant and Engaging

One of the biggest challenges in teaching is helping students see why what they’re learning actually matters. With Ace’s new example generation feature, educators can highlight any part of their course material and ask Ace to create a scenario that ties the concept to something students might encounter in their future careers—or even in everyday life. For instance, an educator teaching anatomy to nursing students might ask Ace to show how muscle function affects patient mobility. When content is connected to students’ goals or lived experiences, it becomes more relevant and meaningful.

This new capability builds on Ace’s popular question generation tool used by faculty to create formative assessments from their content with just a few clicks. With example generation, educators have another fast and flexible way to personalize course material and make learning more engaging.

Personalized Practice: Turn Mistakes Into Learning Opportunities

Many students want more chances to practice but often don’t know what to review or where to start. Ace’s new personalized practice feature gives them just that. As students work through assigned readings and questions, Ace pinpoints where they’re struggling and creates targeted practice sets based on those areas. Feedback is instant, helping students stay on track and build confidence before high-stakes tests.

More than 100,000 students have used Ace for on-demand study help—from chat-based explanations to unlimited practice questions tied directly to their course content. The new personalized practice feature builds on these tools by offering even more tailored support. It’s a smarter, more continuous way to learn, to build confidence, and deepen understanding over time.

“Ace shows what’s possible when AI is used thoughtfully to empower instructors, reflect students’ interests, and elevate the learning experience,” said Hong Bui, Chief Product Officer at Top Hat. “As Ace continues to evolve, we’ll add new capabilities to help educators teach more efficiently and create more impactful, engaging experiences for their students.”

Source link

July 11, 2025
Top Hat Is Now ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Certified!
TORONTO – April 28, 2025 – Whether it be student grades, assessment responses, engagement data, or contact information, the safety of your data is our priority at Top Hat. As the leading engagement platform used by more than 750 higher education institutions, we’ve implemented several technical and operational measures to keep our promise. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that Top Hat has received a certificate of compliance for ISO/IEC 27001:2022!

Read on to learn what this means for our business and users.

A new milestone in Top Hat’s privacy and security journey

The ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is the international gold standard for information security management. This achievement highlights our dedication to safeguarding user data through a complete set of information security controls, which are routinely audited by an independent third party. CPSI Certifications Inc., a certification body with more than 30 years of experience, performed the audit and awarded the certification. Our certification reflects our continuous commitment to upholding the highest level of security standards to protect user data. This credential applies to both the Top Hat and Aktiv SaaS platforms.

“Achieving ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is a significant milestone for us. It reflects the strong security foundation we’ve built to protect our users’ data and demonstrates our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of information security,” says Que Sengmany, Director of Information Security at Top Hat. “For our users and partners, this certification provides assurance that we’re following globally-recognized best practices to manage risks and safeguard information.”

Our security philosophy

At Top Hat, we’ve used the following pillars to guide our security philosophy.
1. Confidentiality: Ensuring that information is accessible only to authorized individuals
2. Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and completeness of information and processing methods
3. Availability: Guaranteeing that only authorized users have access to information when needed
These principles continue to be our North Star as we continue to safeguard sensitive company and user data. Curious to know more about our technical security measures? Visit our Security page today.

About Top Hat

As the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, Top Hat enables educators to employ proven student-centered teaching practices through interactive content and tools enhanced by AI, and activities in in-person, online and hybrid classroom environments. To accelerate student impact and return on investment, the company provides a range of change management services, including faculty training and instructional design support, integration and data management services, and digital content customization. Thousands of faculty at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to create meaningful, engaging and accessible learning experiences for students before, during, and after class.

Contact [email protected] for media inquiries.
Source link
April 28, 2025
Top Hat Is Now ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Certified!
TORONTO – April 28, 2025 – Whether it be student grades, assessment responses, engagement data, or contact information, the safety of your data is our priority at Top Hat. As the leading engagement platform used by more than 750 higher education institutions, we’ve implemented several technical and operational measures to keep our promise. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce that Top Hat has received a certificate of compliance for ISO/IEC 27001:2022!

Read on to learn what this means for our business and users.

A new milestone in Top Hat’s privacy and security journey

The ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is the international gold standard for information security management. This achievement highlights our dedication to safeguarding user data through a complete set of information security controls, which are routinely audited by an independent third party. CPSI Certifications Inc., a certification body with more than 30 years of experience, performed the audit and awarded the certification. Our certification reflects our continuous commitment to upholding the highest level of security standards to protect user data. This credential applies to both the Top Hat and Aktiv SaaS platforms.

“Achieving ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is a significant milestone for us. It reflects the strong security foundation we’ve built to protect our users’ data and demonstrates our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of information security,” says Que Sengmany, Director of Information Security at Top Hat. “For our users and partners, this certification provides assurance that we’re following globally-recognized best practices to manage risks and safeguard information.”

Our security philosophy

At Top Hat, we’ve used the following pillars to guide our security philosophy.
1. Confidentiality: Ensuring that information is accessible only to authorized individuals
2. Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and completeness of information and processing methods
3. Availability: Guaranteeing that only authorized users have access to information when needed
These principles continue to be our North Star as we continue to safeguard sensitive company and user data. Curious to know more about our technical security measures? Visit our Security page today.

About Top Hat

As the leader in student engagement solutions for higher education, Top Hat enables educators to employ proven student-centered teaching practices through interactive content and tools enhanced by AI, and activities in in-person, online and hybrid classroom environments. To accelerate student impact and return on investment, the company provides a range of change management services, including faculty training and instructional design support, integration and data management services, and digital content customization. Thousands of faculty at 750 leading North American colleges and universities use Top Hat to create meaningful, engaging and accessible learning experiences for students before, during, and after class.

Contact [email protected] for media inquiries.
Source link
April 28, 2025
Acing Your Year: How You Used Top Hat in 2024

As the year draws to a close, we are once again excited to celebrate your commitment to equitable, personalized and AI-rich learning. We’re thrilled to unveil this year’s Top Hat Graded: our annual report that looks at how you and your students used our engagement platform and Ace, our AI-powered teaching and learning assistant, to your advantage. Let’s dive in.

Giving new meaning to student engagement

Click on target. Multiple choice. Fill-in-the-blank. It’s clear you wanted to shake up the standardized quiz this year. We’re honored to be along for the ride! You created more than 9.6 million multiple choice questions and 1.7 million long answer questions this year. But that’s not all. You also designed more than 985,000 fill-in-the-blank questions using our interactive platform. Our engaging formative assessment questions helped students stay focused before, during and after class when tackling their homework. Simply put, more questions posed meant more reason for students to complete their readings and attend class.

We also recognize that a good debate or small group discussion can help students shape their understanding of a new topic. While Gen Z might call it a vibe check, we’re filing this under your commitment to giving every student an equal voice. You created more than 509,000 discussions this year—interspersed within your lectures, readings and assignments. In turn, more than 147,000 discussions were used by students to assess their comprehension along the way.

Harnessing AI for good in the higher ed classroom

Artificial intelligence has, once again, been a hot topic in higher education. This past year, you viewed Ace under a refreshing light. More than 50,100 students relied on Ace for course-specific study assistance and AI-powered practice quizzes. In turn, learners also received immediate feedback rooted in the context of their course to guide their future studying efforts.

Now, let’s turn to you. More than 1,500 of your fellow faculty members used Ace this past year. Educators especially valued being able to add AI-generated questions into their slides using our Lecture Enhancer feature. Not only do our AI-powered features for educators save time during the question creation stage, Ace generates hints and explanations that allow students to identify their own misconceptions. Even better, we’ve charted a 182 percent increase in Ace usage among professors since our 2023 summary—speaking to the benefit of incorporating AI into the classroom.

Using Ace to spark active learning and higher-order thinking

Once again, you found a way to assess student comprehension without the extra time commitment. You created more than 30,400 questions using Ace’s Lecture Enhancer. Whether you wanted to drill into students’ understanding of mitosis in your biology course or Victorian architecture in your art history class, Ace offered tailored questions in response to the context of your material. Faculty also designed more than 9,200 questions using Top Hat Pages. That meant students were given yet another opportunity to assess their learning during textbook readings and homework.

We thank you for your investment in AI-powered, active learning for every student. We wish you a successful start to the new semester!

Source link

December 9, 2024