Overview

The Knowledge Technologies group of Pearson creates unique technology for automated assessment of speech and text. Our technology is used in a variety of industry-leading products and service including WriteToLearn, an online tool for building writing skills and developing reading comprehension, using the Knowledge Analysis Technologies (KAT) engine, and the Versant line of automated spoken language tests built on Ordinate technology. The KAT engine automatically measures writing and content in a way that simulates a skilled human reader and encourages better subject knowledge through improved writing and comprehension. The Ordinate speech assessment technology automatically scores overall speaking proficiency, as well as sentence mastery, vocabulary, fluency, and pronunciation. Independent studies and extensive field research have shown that Versant tests are as objective and reliable, or more so, than many human-rated tests, including one-on-one oral proficiency interviews.

Knowledge Technologies also performs research and development work funded by several government agencies. Our innovative research and development spans topics as diverse as team communication analysis, collaborative learning tools, cross language information retrieval for intelligence applications, and intelligent maintenance manuals.

Knowledge Technologies maintains offices in Boulder, Colorado and Palo Alto, California and is part of Pearson (NYSE: PSO - News; LSE: PSON - News), the international media company, whose businesses also include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

Company History

Knowledge Technologies was formed through Pearson's acquisition of Knowledge Analysis Technologies in 2004 and Ordinate Corporation in 2008.

Knowledge Analysis Technologies was founded in 1998 by Thomas Landauer, Peter Foltz, and Darrell Laham and offers the only automated text analysis technology that evaluates the meaning of whole written passages. The technology has resulted in a range of commercial products that can evaluate writing and content and provide rich diagnostic feedback to improve writing and comprehension.

Ordinate Corporation was founded in 1996 by two Stanford University professors, Jared Bernstein and Brent Townsend, to develop and patent a spoken language testing system using speech processing technology and computational linguistics. This led to the Versant tests, the first to leverage a completely automated method for testing spoken language.