Xplana™

Xplana is a new social learning platform that redefines “social studies” by allowing you to do all of your studying and social networking in one spot.

Not only is it free to join, but Xplana also delivers 100,000s of free academic resources and other tools to help you earn better grades.

Not only is it free to join, but Xplana also delivers 100,000s of free academic resources and other tools to help you earn better grades.

Not only is it free to join, but Xplana also delivers 100,000s of free academic resources and other tools to help you earn better grades.

Not only is it free to join, but Xplana also delivers 100,000s of free academic resources and other tools to help you earn better grades.

Connect your student life to your social life by integrating your Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to collaborate with friends, classmates, and other students.

Connect your student life to your social life by integrating your Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to collaborate with friends, classmates, and other students.

Connect your student life to your social life by integrating your Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to collaborate with friends, classmates, and other students.

Access, create, and share your resources anytime, anywhere with Xplana’s free mobile application (coming soon).

Xplana

Free

Free

Free

Free

Social

Social

Social

Mobile

A free social learning platform.

Not only is it free to join, but Xplana also delivers 100,000s of free academic resources and other tools to help you earn better grades.

Connect your student life to your social life by integrating your Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to collaborate with friends, classmates, and other students.

Access, create, and share your resources anytime, anywhere with Xplana’s free mobile applications.

Break the class curve, not your wallet.

Wish you had more learning tools to help you earn higher grades, but don’t want to fork over wads of cash to get them? Find them for free with Xplana’s digital academic content library.

Featuring content from the Web and resources contributed by other users, faculty, and fellow students, the digital content library puts thousands of free resources at your fingertips—all of which are targeted to your specific learning needs (see screenshot below).

You’ll find learning videos, audio clips, images, documents uploaded by others—including notes from that class you skipped—web clippings, quizzes, practice activities, and much more.

Learning tools that work for you.

With Xplana, you can produce your very own study materials, flash cards, and study guides by simply uploading or creating any of the previously mentioned content types directly into the platform. You can even take your existing resources and enhance them with tools such as audio, annotations and notes, videos of recorded lectures, and pictures of classroom white boards to make the materials you’re using as valuable as possible.

Better yet, all of these resources are available on your laptop or your mobile device. What a perfect way to do some last minute cramming before that big test!

Don’t agonize. Just get organized.

You’ll never have to worry about misplacing your study materials ever again with Xplana. That’s because any content you want to use is added to your personalized Home page, which serves as the one convenient spot to access your resources.

You can also organize your content in a way that makes the most sense for your individual study habits, including tagging resources so they’re easy to locate with the embedded search function.

Your milk expires, but your content won’t.

Ever thrown out or lost a valuable resource once you’ve finished a class, only to wish you could refer to it at a later date? With Xplana, that’s no problem as the content you create or collect never expires—giving you the ability to review resources from your previous courses.

Your social circle just got bigger.

As a social learning space, Xplana offers a variety of features that enhance your communication with other students around a class, textbook, or assignment. These include the ability to create friend networks, join or form study groups, read or send messages with the Inbox tab, and instant message with the chat feature—which is accessible anywhere in the platform.

Be nice and share.

One dynamic element of Xplana’s social framework is your ability to share content with classmates and friends.

To share content, you can simply send links to classmates and friends within Xplana; push content through your other social networks like Facebook and Twitter; embed links to your assets into Web pages, blogs, or your existing learning management system; and create and participate in channels or super groups which mean the most to you.

Additionally, realizing that maintaining privacy is a huge concern with any social platform, Xplana offers a vital security measure by giving you complete control over who views your information. Simply create groups and select with whom you wish to share your content and other resources.

Who’d a thought Facebook helps you study?

Already a member of other social networking sites? We figured so, which is why Xplana integrates with your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr accounts. This enables you to seamlessly access all of your social media from one convenient spot—not to mention it gives you the ability to send content and other valuable findings to your friends outside of the Xplana community.

Why not study while waiting for your cup o’ joe?

Understanding that you’re always on the go, Xplana will offer a free application for your mobile device*. With it, you’ll have ready access to all of your laptop or desktop computer’s content and can also take pictures, record audio, and create notes—turning your mobile device into a powerful learning tool.

The mobile application will be usable offline, and newly-created content will automatically synchronizs from the mobile device to the online version the next time you log in. And, because Xplana is accessible via any Web browser, your resources will truly be available anytime, anywhere.

* Coming soon: Xplana will support mobile applications for the iPhone/iPad and Android devices, and will add support for RIM/Blackberry devices in the near future.

Xplana's Extensive Subject Index

With the library’s powerful search interface and extensive academic subject index, you’ll never have any problems finding exactly what you need.

Easy-to-Use Content Creation Tools

With Xplana's content creation tools, you can upload your own audio, video, and image content, as well as produce a number of other helpful materials like notes and flashcards.

Your Own Customizable Home Space

The Home space offers tools to personalize your experience, including a calendar, blogs, news feeds, and themed templates.

See Who's Online with the Friends Tab

Within the Friends tab, you can add friends to your network and personal groups, see who is online, and organize your existing contacts.

Discussing and Rating Shared Content

With the shared annotation function, you can comment on or review content, creating a group discussion with others to rate the value of a particular resource.

Coming Soon: Mobile App for iPhone/iPad and Android

With Xplana's free mobile app, you will be able to pull up your learning materials and study anywhere you go.

Go ahead tell your friends.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • MySpace
  • Technorati
  • Delicious
  • Buzz This!
  • Reddit
  • Digg
  • Newsvine
  • StumbleUpon

All trademarks that appear are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be affiliated with, connected to, or sponsored by MBS, MBS Direct, or Xplana.

The Xplanation

Our blog on learning, educational technology, and why we developed Xplana™.

September 2nd, 2010 in Daily Research Update, Feature Content

Apple, E-books, and Mobile Learning

Today’s research update provides an overview of the announcements from Apple yesterday. as well as neas about e-books, e-readers, and publisher experiments. We also take a look at a report on the growth of the mobile learning sector Read Article

September 2nd, 2010 in Cartoons

Lose the Pager (Cartoon)

Read Article

September 2nd, 2010 in Daily Quiz

Daily Quiz: “The peddled glass…”

This is the first line from a novel, movie, or song. Can you name the source material? - Read Article