• Kortext and Vodacom Business reached a new agreement to provide digital learning material to higher education institutions in South Africa.
• The learning material will include textbooks and video that will be accessible to students both on- and off-campus.
• There is no mention of which institutions will get access at the time of wiring, however.

Vodacom Business has announced that it has reached a new agreement with digital learning and student engagement software developer Kortext on an project that is aimed specifically at tertiary institutions in South Africa.

The agreement will see the pair work to provide digital learning material, which includes textbooks and videos, to higher education institutions in SA.

“Working with Kortext, the agreement was conceptualised and led by Vodafone Business Ventures, the social enterprise of Vodafone Business, which combines a focus on social purpose with technological expertise. Starting in South Africa, the parties will work together to deliver the best digital learning experience for students, whether on- or off-campus, in groups or working independently,” the pair explain in a release sent to Hypertext.

For those unfamiliar with Kortext, it features a collection of five million eTextbooks and educational videos sourced from several leading global publishers. The platform has already been deployed at more than 6 000 universities worldwide, and also features generative AI (GenAI) study tools within the Premium tier of its product offerings.

The platform also boats a predictive learner analytics product called StREAM, which offers insights into student engagement to academic tutors and student support teams. 

At the time of writing, it remains to be seen which institutions the pair will rollout the offering to, with no timeframe shared for now as to when the deployments would commence.

“We are truly excited to be leading the higher education sector as it transitions to digital first education. In partnership with Vodacom, we can deliver an unrivalled student experience combining content, study tools, device, data and connectivity,” noted James Gray, CEO and founder of Kortext.

“Vodacom wants to create a Connected Digital Society that transforms lives and connects everyone for a better future. This agreement with Kortext will help us to build on the successes of our ConnectED programme, to bring education via mobile devices and networks to universities, students and gig economy workers looking to progress their careers,” commented Poppy Tshabalala (pictured above), managing executive of Public Enterprise Sales in South Africa for Vodacom Business.

“This will also help to close the attainment gap between students of all backgrounds, a key agenda item for Vodacom, which aims to bridge the digital divide,” she concluded.

[Image – Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu on Unsplash]