Amidst the heavy COVID-19 pandemic, various research projects were carried out within the country in the tech ecosystem just to ensure that the battle against the deadly virus is won at all fronts.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in light of this called for digital solutions through its hackathon event, intended to proffer solutions to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
The digital solutions focused on 5 thematic areas which included health, community, productivity, economy and education.
At the end of the full proceedings, Cyberfleet, the parent company of Klasconnect emerged as one of the three winning startups that carted away NGN 3 Million in research grants for their promising and adaptable innovative digital solution in education.
Techbuild took time out to discuss with the Cyberfleet team and how they kick-started Klasconnect, their EduTech solution part of their company.
A background on how the journey started
According to the founders, the idea that birthed Cyberfleet Integrated Limited also led to building the learning management system known today as klasconnect.
The founders explained how a lecturer once gave a very short notice on conducting a test which later resulted in so many students missing out on it due to the information gap.
This prompted them into creating the revolutionary learning management system as a way of ending such common problems between students and lecturers at institutions of higher learning, just like that of the above-narrated case.
A breakdown of how Klasconnect works
Klasconnect employs the use of a business to business model. For instance, if an institution ( high school, University, or a Training Center) plans to use Klasconnect, this is the process that ensues:
The klasconnect team on-boards the institution by creating a domain for that institution on klasconnect’s platform e.g institution.klasconnect.com, this means having a replica of the physical institution’s presence online.
There now will be 3 major users of the created platform:
The admin
The platform allows as many admins as the institution wants. The admin performs all but not limited to the following functions:
- Instructor/lecturer’s registration
- Students registration
- Course/subject entry
- Announcements
- Students Elevation
- First level support
The Instructor
The instructor performs the following functions on klasconnect:
- Upload course videos, and lecture materials in the e-library
- Upload and grade assignment questions
- Upload tests, and examinations questions
- Make announcements
The student
The student then performs the following functions on klasconnect platform:
- Respond to assignments.
- Seek access to the e-library
- Take tests and examinations
- View results
- Student forums
On why students will choose klasconnect over other edutech solutions
According to the founders, Klasconnect was designed and developed in line with a survey conducted on existing Edutech solutions.
“The outcome of the survey shows that a vast majority of existing indigenous learning management systems have functionalities that are independently used by instructors and students.
However, we harmonized all these and included other amazing features on klasconnect.
Secondly, the outcome of the survey also shows that it takes instructors a minimum of 4 minutes to mark, collate, and record the result of a single student.
However, with klasconnect teachers or lecturers can grade hundreds of students within a minutes which saves loads of time. This saved time can then get channeled to research and other valuable efforts.”
Klasconnect current user base operation
Klasconnect is currently in use by 10 institutions in Nigeria and Zambia namely:
- Dataleum Academy & Ogunlade College (Surulere, Lagos)
- The Pillars Secondary School & Kingsland School (Ikorodu, Lagos)
- Pure Factor Learning Center (Obanikoro, Lagos)
- Little Tikky Schools, Graceville School (Ipaja, Lagos)
- Graceville School (Ajegunle, Lagos)
- Skilled Filed School (Ojota, Lagos)
- LIUTEBM University (Zambia)
- A Girl Project
Klasconnect plans to expand into other African countries like Ghana, Uganda, South Africa and many others.
Klasconnect’s centralized e-library
The idea of the e-library on klasconnect is to have a knowledge-sharing platform between the teachers and students.
“Currently, students and lecturers can upload content on the e-library.
We are also working towards getting content from publishing houses and other education stakeholders to further enrich the library.”
Techbuild also quizzed the founders about Klasconnect’s parent company, Cyberfleet.
What Cyberfleet is doing differently
There has been an array of IT and Networking companies that have been existing long before Cyberfleet came into play in Nigeria, and according to the founders, Nigeria is a fast-growing economy especially in the IT and networking space.
The market is also vast enough to allow existing IT companies carve out more than enough space for themselves.
Cyberfleet offers services in 4 areas in the sector, namely;
- Edutech Solutions (Klasconnect)
- IT Infrastructure
- Web Development, and
- Enterprise Network deployment
“Most importantly, our Edutech Solution (klasconnect) has been our major sphere of operation where the aim is to create a learning ecosystem that cuts across campuses in Nigeria and Africa at large which is in line with the United Nations sustainable development goal.”
How viable internet connectivity will revolutionize the Nigerian educational system
Innovations, unfolding events, and happenings in the 21st century has shown that the world is moving faster from simple industrialization to a much more advanced form of industrialization called digitalization.
This movement has influenced virtually almost all the economic, social, political and cultural ways of life.
“At Cyberfleet, it saddens our heart that Education that brought about this moving train has suffered a great set back to reap from its seeds most especially in developing countries like Nigeria.
“Internet connectivity has been a major challenge for the developing world, and this has limited growth and development in these countries, however, as internet penetration gets deeper, we believe it’s had a positive influence on education in Nigeria.”
According to a statistic, the adult literacy rate in Nigeria as at 2018 was at 62% up from 51.1% in 2008.
This could be due to increasing internet connectivity.
On how Cyberfleet sets to achieve its vision statement
The path has been very rough especially in an environment where indigenous products and services are viewed as inferior, but there have been painstakingly efforts geared towards achieving our vision ever since we launched our startup.
“We have added to our clients portfolio by rendering our services to clients like Jiji, Gateway Mortgage Bank, Edubridge Academy, Halawee, Dataleum, and among others.
Additionally, we have a strategic partnership with a Zambian Edutech company (BookIT), where we offer the technical part of the partnership to their clients while they handle the business and commercial part of it.”
“As part of the zeal to achieve our vision statement, we were one of the 2019 beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) entrepreneurs and one of the winners of the NCC Hackathon COVID-19 Award on digital innovations adaptable to pandemic diseases in Nigeria.
However, we strongly believe that the sky is just the beginning for us as we are determined to do more in the areas of partnership outside the shores of Nigeria, and adding to our client portfolio which will fetch us more awards and recognition to attain the intended feat”.
Cyberfleet solution finding its way around Nigeria’s poor internet connectivity
With the level of Nigeria’s broadband penetration, Cyberfleet solution believes that broadband penetration and internet quality is increasing daily.
“To further buttress, state governments are also supporting this by reducing the cost of right of way for Internet Service Providers.”
Featured Image: Bello Adesoji, Managing Partner, Cyberfleet
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