ConnectYard Announces New WhatsApp Messaging Support and Strategic Partnerships in the Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In partnership with Board Middle East (BME), and Global Dimension for Education and Training (GDET), ConnectYard, Inc., the leading provider of student engagement solutions, today announced that it is releasing new support for WhatsApp messaging, which will allow schools throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to engage students directly thru the world's most popular social messaging service. The new functionality is designed to make it easier and more manageable for instructors and staff to message prospective students, current students and alumni via WhatsApp as well as confirm receipt of those messages.

BME General Manager Imran Afaq emphasized that, "BME is proud to partner with ConnectYard and GDET with specific focus on the MENA region. ConnectYard is an excellent addition to our portfolio because this partnership aligns with BME's vision and supports our existing customer base. We aim to work together and provide our customers with tools that will increase participation and leverage the power of resources they already have. We are looking forward to serving the community and ensure that this relationship is based on trust and is customer-centric. With ConnectYard we believe we can assist students socially and bring them closer to their teachers and fellow students. Now the integration of ConnectYard with WhatsApp helps to further enhance student engagement, which will have a positive effect on student retention and success."

On the strategy of our partnership, Donald Doane, CEO of ConnectYard said, "We are excited to partner with BME and GDET to offer ConnectYard's cloud-based offerings to the Middle East and North Africa region. The initial focus will be to help accelerate learning by increasing student engagement, and enabling student communities in the current MENA Blackboard accounts". Mr. Doane also referenced that the recent addition of WhatsApp as a ConnectYard channel will be key to the success of ConnectYard in the MENA region!"

Abdullah Almojel, Ph.D., President and Managing Director of GDET, remarked that "The partnership between Global Dimension for Education and Training Company and ConnectYard will help modernize online course communications by delivering important and timely notifications to students via WhatsApp and other popular social media. By tracking and measuring student participation, the ConnectYard platform offers all Middle East and North Africa region institutions the ability to enhance learning."

Rise Academy, one of the Company's early adopters in the Middle East, currently leverages ConnectYard - "Rise Academy develops 21st century leaders prepared to contribute to the improvement of their communities. A key to our success is effectively informing our student's parents on their children's continued progress. We are pleased to have ConnectYard as our solution to manage the interaction with our student's parents. ConnectYard makes communications more effective by delivering important and timely notifications to student's parents on the key platforms they are likely to check including WhatsApp, SMS text messaging and Twitter."

About
ConnectYard offers a completely private and secure social engagement and analytics platform that allows both students and faculty to easily communicate with one another using today's most popular social and mobile technologies. ConnectYard helps make course communications faster and more effective by delivering important and timely notifications to students on WhatsApp, SMS text messaging, Facebook, Twitter and other places they are more likely to check than email. ConnectYard enables you to measure student participation and more easily identify at-risk students and take action before it's too late!

Global Dimension for Education and Training (GDET) is a social enterprise and empowers the future and contributes to the development of the region's socioeconomic domains through building human resource capacities. Global Dimension provides world-class technical and vocational training and education for the region's youth; raises regional training and educational standards by strategically collaborating with global partners; taps on the potential of the region's youth by inspiring personal and academic growth; implements sustainable programs to improve productivity and efficiency of industries' manpower and builds institutional capacities for educational and training organizations.

Board Middle East (BME) is fully dedicated to the education sector and we are shaping the future of education with big ideas that challenge conventional thinking. We introduce advanced models of learning and every day we inspire people to find new ways to learn, connect and drive change in the way education is delivered and experienced. Through technology and services, we bring people closer to the knowledge they seek.

By partnering with various top rated providers across the Middle East, we've built the best technologies and solutions to help advance our industry in meaningful ways. But we are not just building new learning products; we are building a new way of learning.

SOURCE ConnectYard, Inc.