Shmoop University

With more than six million monthly users, Shmoop University has established itself as a trusted partner in the education technology solutions space. Driven by a commitment to student engagement, Shmoop provides digital classroom tools that help ease the stress of the learning environment for grades 6-12.

Shmoop, whose name comes from a Yiddish term that means “to move something forward a bit,” was founded on the concept of student-centered education.

“We are a student-centric company at the core. Our content, products, and tools are designed to infuse fun in the learning process while maintaining academic rigor,” says Mike Soldan, Chief Operating Officer of Shmoop. Everything is presented in a student-friendly manner so that they enjoy and love learning instead of just memorizing and regurgitating information.

The digital tools by Shmoop are created in-house by an R&D team with years of industry experience. The company’s core products are The Shmoop Heartbeat, Test Prep, and Courses. Using learning sciences and user-centered design, Shmoop creates award-winning personal learning tools for all students, educators, and schools. Thousands of schools and districts around the globe use these tools.

“We spend significantly more on research and development than other ed tech companies because we want to drive better outcomes for students,” says Soldan.

Conducting hundreds of interviews with students, educators, and administrators, Shmoop ensures that its products meet students where they are, scale their cognitive capabilities, and foster a personalized learning experience.

Heartbeat is an interactive app focused on the social-emotional learning space. Students answer questions in Heartbeat about different elements, which include cognitive abilities, social-emotional health, life experience, and eating and sleeping habits.

The app then provides students with insights that improve their self-awareness and help them better understand the impact of these non-academic components on their academics. Their teachers also learn more about their students and can better respond to their individual needs.

Shmoop recently introduced Heartbeat to a classroom in California for an afternoon so students could try it out during their advisory period. About 350 students in the school received access to the app. They enjoyed interacting with Heartbeat so much that 40 of them returned to school over the weekend of their own volition to answer more questions. They answered 13,000 interactions in the tool that day, which made administrators realize that it’s not just a powerful tool that looks at the whole child, but also so simple and enjoyable that they do not need to force it on students.

Shmoop also prepares students for college entrance exams and state standardized tests. While Shmoop knows there is work to be done in the world of standardized testing, they try to make the experience better for students by personalizing it and meeting them where they are on their educational journey.

Shmoop has done an amazing job over time in improving ACT test scores. With Shmoop’s Test Prep solutions, school districts have seen a noticeable improvement of three to four points.

The easily digestible, personalized course content is accessible and fun for students. In addition to engagingly written materials, the company has a library of 10,000 videos designed especially for kids. Using humor, pop culture references, and storytelling, Shmoop keep kids engaged and enables them to retain what they learn.

Delivering high-quality, engaging, and cutting-edge digital education products, Shmoop has bagged many awards over the years. It was the College Prep Solution category winner in the 2020 EdTech Cool Tool Awards and also a finalist for that year’s EdTech Trendsetter Award.

With a dynamic team driven by a passion for improving student outcomes, Shmoop is moving the needle in the education space with its world-class digital solutions.