DULLES, VA--(Marketwired - November 06, 2014) - Echo360, the global leader in active and distance learning solutions, today announced the appointment of Bradley S. Fordham, Ph.D. as chief technology officer (CTO). Fordham is a highly regarded technology executive with more than two decades of experience across education, government and private sector technology firms. He will lead the company's global technology strategy, solutions development and infrastructure efforts supporting the recently launched Active Learning Platform, a groundbreaking teaching and learning solution for higher education.

Prior to joining the company, Fordham served as CTO at Amplify Education, where he led the development and operation of their assessment and intervention platform. He has also served as CTO for Online Insight, Ravello Solutions and OneSoft. He is a featured speaker, author, professor and presenter on educational technologies, advanced software architectures, agile software development and real-time analytics. Fordham has held key leadership positions at TMX Finance, Xiocom Wireless, Oracle Corporation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He has consulted with numerous organizations including NASA and Computer Sciences Corporation.

"I am delighted to have Dr. Fordham join our senior leadership team. He shares our vision and commitment to deliver superior teaching and learning experiences that build stronger learning outcomes across the globe," commented Fred Singer, chief executive officer of Echo360. "His experience, leadership, industry background and innovative track record are invaluable as we take our SaaS solutions to new levels of educational impact and learning measurement through real-time analytics."

The Echo360 Active Learning Platform is the first cloud-based academic technology platform engineered to elevate student performance and improve learning outcomes by combining advanced lecture capture and content management capabilities, robust student engagement tools, and fully integrated learning analytics. This platform provides instructors and institutions with unprecedented views of student activity both inside and outside the classroom through real-time learning dashboards that close the loop from instructional content creation to delivery to understanding.

"Echo360 is solving some of the most important challenges in education today -- how to improve the academic performance of students -- by applying technology to each of the activities of teaching and learning," said Fordham. "This approach requires a reimagining of instruction to overcome every technical and pedagogical obstacle along the way and I am thrilled to lead this incredible technology team in this exciting time." 

For more information on the Echo360 Active Learning Platform or its leadership, please visit: echo360.com

About Echo360
Over 2M students in 8,000 classrooms at 600 institutions across 30 countries rely on Echo360 active learning technology to enhance their educational experience before, during and after class. Developed for educators by educators, Echo360 increases in-class participation with digital polling, provides a rich out-of-class experience by recording and publishing course instruction and delivers deep usage analytics to help instructors respond to student needs. Students revisit lectures, collaborate with peers and participate in class on smartphones, tablets and laptops, wherever, whenever they choose. Echo360 was recognized with the Product Line Strategy of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan, is CSIA-certified for outstanding customer service and was named a Visionary Vendor in Educational Technology by IT research firm Basex.