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Skolera is a unified learning platform that allows teachers to deliver streamlined and integrated learning to students, and can interact with students and parents. It simplifies the management of the school, from student affairs, HR, accounting, payroll, amongst other day to day activities.
Skolera has bagged several awards from Finances Online for Rising Star and the top 20 greatest user experience, in the year 2017 and 2018. The Skolera team spoke to Techmoran about their goal for the company in the Edtech space.
Briefly tell us about yourselves, your educational background, team and how they came together to form Skolera
Skolera is a Unified Learning Platform. Our team consists of researchers, artists, geeks, marketeers (photos of key roles attached) who are all strong enthusiasts and advocates of EdTech. We are all experienced and skilled in both Education and ICT. We came together to fulfill a vision of Dr. Khadija to create a user-centered learning platform that is intuitive to use and help schools provide a better experience to all stake holders.
How would you describe your company; how does it work and make money?
Although we are a for profit company, we aim to provide top notch service and functionality at an affordable price. Our mission is to improve the quality of education as a means for improving the quality of life.
What market gap did you spot that motivated you to start the company?
Although there are several systems claiming to provide a solution, most of them fall short in engaging student, ignore the need for teacher development, and are often too complex for a user with normal computer knowledge. We also realized that virtually all systems ignore the fact that students have different and varying learning styles. School administrators had to do double work, as administrative systems did not integrate with the learning management systems in place. All in all we found that existing solutions only concentrated on one or two aspects of the teaching/learning process and failed to recognize the importance of dealing with the problem as a coherent interconnected issue.
How has uptake been like since you launched?
Since the launch of our early version, we have received very positive feedback from users and organizations with interest in EdTech. We received 2 awards on our first year in the market from Finances online, and two more awards this year from ELearning Industry, which also ranked us among the top 20 LMSs and the 4th worldwide in terms of user experience. Our customer base grew exponentially to reach over 25 schools and more than 40000 users over the past 18 months.
Who is your major competition? What do you do different to distinguish yourself from them?
There are some big names in the field that have been in the market for much longer than us, but we pride ourselves in being the first truly complete solution, and of course our Adaptive Learning engine is unique.
What are some of the biggest challenges you faced since the inception of the company?
Our biggest challenge was to enable our users to perform a multitude of complex tasks in the easiest and simplest way. The prior bad experiences of some of our customers posed a big challenge as it was not easy to change their mindset and prove to them that there really is a system than can transform education in their institutions.
What advice would you wish to share with aspiring African entrepreneurs?
My advice to entrepreneurs is to believe in their ability to make a difference, listen to their customers, research and understand their needs, and they will find a way to meet these needs.
