Building an E-learning app
Our view on why this market is so important.
The current school system is facing a lot of obstacles. Many of these problems become the way for many startups who are trying to solve the failures of learning institutes.
These startups build a product from scratch for a specific group. They do research, make decisions without boards, governments and move quickly and iterate based on the feedback of their users.
When such companies build poor products, they will not find a proper market. They won’t exist anymore in a year or so and make place for companies who do better.
They focus on:
👍 A great product which is fun to play with
👩💻 Make sure users learn something
👨🏫 Helping the teacher: Teach
👬 Connecting people
🔎 Discover interests
👩🎓 Make sure users build confidence
Less than two years ago we started helping an E-learning platform with improving their product.
Last summer we launched the new application 🎉
Learning something new is scary.
You always feel a bit anxious while you learn something new. It’s outside your comfort zone. Besides the anxiety there is always some adrenaline, curiosity and motivation in this area.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and
I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin
Señor wooly is a platform where American students can learn Spanish. The company, led by a Spanish teacher, is trying to solve some puzzles in how we learn.
Learning should be fun from the start.
While you learn something new, you have all kinds of emotions. On the one hand it’s exciting, but in some moments it’s difficult as well. We all have our moments of procrastination.
It’s important to think about features that motivate users to keep learning and in making progress.
The start is important.
Make sure users can directly see where they stopped last time. It’s also important that they directly see what progress they made and what their most important tasks are for the moment.
Learning something new should be efficient, something without obstacles besides the knowledge it self.
Next steps
My biggest problem in university was the big difference between students and what they were actually able to do. Software can cover for this by presenting each student their personalized environment which adapts to their specific level of knowledge. The speed in which they learn is different but also the interests they have. Technology has the potential to adapt to those variables.
Hopefully in the next 5 years, schools will focus more on the psychological aspect of life; in how our brain works, empathy, self-awareness, sales and patience. More focus on macro level subjects and less on stuff which can be googled in 5 seconds.
Some friends, that went to completely different universities, now have the exact same jobs.
Hopefully technology can establish bringing people together with the same interests. Broader studies like ‘school of economics’ should be a thing of the past. Topics should be narrowed down to detailed subjects. With the best teacher adding value to the courses, worldwide.
Many problems in the education system are to big to cover, let alone come up with the solutions right away.
Dropping out of college shouldn’t be a badge of honour. But change is necessary in this fast moving world.
My experience with schools is that they’re seeking confidence in the values that were true yesterday. However, they should be focusing on how to be right tomorrow.
