Picture an innovative, student-centered institution. What could it be like? A college with robots as teaching assistants? Or a vast university with campuses scattered across the state, with modern technology raising the next generation of citizens?
While some are drawing futuristic pictures, others may be thinking of real-life examples. One of them is the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM).
ITESM’s history goes back to 1943 when Don Eugenio Garza Sada and a group of entrepreneurs set up Tecnológico de Monterrey as a private, non-profit institution, separate from politics and religion. It’s no exaggeration that since then, ITESM has become one of the most innovative academic institutions, serving the needs of Mexico and receiving acknowledgment from the Latin America region and beyond.
Locals keep saying that it has gotten ahead of the state by rapidly adopting advanced academic programs and technologies. Obviously, this is the result of 77 years of hard work.
ITESM currently enrolls about 90,000 students in more than 26 campuses across 25 cities in Mexico, making it a great privilege for Unicheck to be the institution’s first strategic tech partner.
Distinctive Competencies, Programs, and Global Recognition
The secret behind the growth comes from a strong commitment to nurturing leaders who would transform Mexico and make education available to a much wider population, including impoverished children.
As for academic programs, ITESM grants bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees in Medicine, Engineering and Science, Management, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts. Each one passes through national and international accreditations (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools of the US, the Association of MBAs of the UK, and more), giving students global employment opportunities.
In their publicly available 2030 Strategic Plan, ITESM outlined a few fundamental pillars: continuous innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership, which is confirmed by practice.
Around 41% of the ITESM alumni started at least one company and created 2.8 million jobs globally (following a study by the QS Intelligence Unit). Given the numbers below, the overall alumni impact is tremendous:
ITESM is also known for these subdivisions:
- TecSalud, which educates healthcare specialists based on a research-focused academic program
- EGADE Business School, which grants degrees in Business Administration and Finance, as well as a myriad of “dual degrees” created jointly with other renowned academic institutions
- Tecmilenio University, which has its educational program grounded on the unique ecosystem of wellbeing and happiness—the university provides competency-based learning, teaching the students skills required by modern businesses and organizations.
Searching for Reliable EdTech Providers
Throughout the years, ITESM has implemented technologies that have fostered the culture of innovators and facilitated the educational process for on-campus and distant learners.
With over 90,000 students, finding tech providers that would meet all the privacy and load requirements was a challenging task.
“Our institution has a strong commitment to academic integrity. Hence, the goal was to give our faculty and students a tool to continue promoting academic integrity in class. Unicheck helps us teach our students to take responsibility for their own learning, and have them perceive assessments as an important part of their formative process. It also helps us to prevent and reduce plagiarism and cheating.”
Pablo Ayala, Chief Ethics Officer
ITESM then researched the market, came across Unicheck, and joined a piloting program in 2017, which continued for two more consecutive years.
During the testing period, Unicheck developed an on-demand feature specifically for ITESM: a side-by-side comparison mode. It’s now available to all the Unicheck users inside the Similarity Report. The mode gives many conveniences since educators can view a checked paper next to each matching source without juggling multiple tabs.
“Our mission, as an educational technologies department, is to ensure all products, integrations, and solutions comply with our educational model and its requirements. When evaluating a technological solution, one of the key aspects we look into is the user experience for the teacher. In the specific case of plagiarism tools, we looked for seamless integration with Canvas, a key part of our technological ecosystem. This feature differentiates Unicheck among all the products evaluated and makes it the solution that best aligns with our academic integrity strategy.”
Bertha Saldívar, Director of Educational Technology
Official cooperation began in 2019 when ITESM, Tecmilenio University, and Prepanet signed an agreement with Unicheck, naming it the first strategic tech partner upon migration to Canvas.
Unicheck also provided free access through a pro bono license to Prepanet, a project initiated by ITESM to enable students from underprivileged families to pursue online degrees.
How Unicheck Comes in Handy
Big institutions always require high uptime and accessibility. Those were ITESM’s top priorities, too. Thanks to the AWS hosting, Unicheck meets their expectations by auto-scaling its capacities once the number of papers increases.
Now, Unicheck’s uptime has reached the highest industry standard at 99.95%. All maintenance is carefully scheduled, so neither the ITESM faculty nor students experience any delays in checking.
With Unicheck, ITESM receives ongoing support and unlimited training, which are part of the license agreement. All the suggestions received from instructors and administrators are then considered by the Unicheck Product Team to make Unicheck an all-in-one originality solution for every participant of the learning process.
To learn how Unicheck can fit in the learning processes of your school, college, or university, ask our team to schedule a demo or provide a pilot license.
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