We already know, the global tech revolution is greatly changing the way we work in every sector.
Education technology has made education more accessible and comprehensive across the world especially during the on-going COVID pandemic. Most recently we’ve seen schools and universities adopting remote teaching due to worldwide educational institution closure, which led to a surge in demand of online platforms and certainly gave opportunities to various new and old edtech start-ups to come up with their innovative learning methods and help learners continue their studies online without any hassle.
Herein, we have enlisted few great African edtech platforms that have come with innovative learning methods.
Wingu Academy
Recently launched, Wingu Academy is a remote-learning platform that offers educational support to schools, tutoring centres, and home-schoolers all over Africa, offering live classes and tutorials along with interactive online content. It has been developed by teachers, UP alumni, and postgraduate students who are experts in their respective fields with additional collaboration with researchers from the Wits School of Education. Not only this, it is a by-product of collaboration between two innovative startups, TutCo Tuition and EduWingu Cloud Education Solutions.
This new platform offers an international curriculum that is globally relevant by contextualised for the African continent along with continuous assessment for learners. Besides these, Wingu focuses on student-led learning, utilising gamification, implementing constructive feedback all in alignment with major international curriculum’s offering a global standard in educational learning. Catering to learners between the ages of five and 19, Wingu provides a wide variety of choices to support individual learning at home along with alternative options of a supplement programme followed by a tutoring centre or school which is extremely beneficial at this moment when the whole offline educational system is at halt.
HITCH
Nigeria based edtech start-up HITCH is a cloud platform that enables teachers to hand pick videos that are uploaded to their school’s HITCH Video Hotspot and made available to students for download. This educational video platform is created to provide underserved African schools with curated, high quality educational content.
AkooBooks Audio
The idea behind introducing AkooBooks Audio came in 2004, when Nana Dadson, a children’s book author lost her sight. At that time, the founder started African Audio Publishers, a books-on-cassette tape service for distributing African books to the blind and visually impaired. However, AkooBooks Audio became Ghana’s first publisher and digital distributor of African audio books in 2017 under the Founder Institute Accra programme. It offers a wide range of audio services: Audio book Recording & Production, Post-Production, Distribution of African Spoken Word and Original Content creation, Licensing African audiobook Deals,Selling & Digital Distribution of audio books, Producing audiobooks, Casting, Narration, Writing, Translation and Mastering. Basically, AkooBooks Audio transforms African books into engaging audiobooks that are accessible on mobile phones.
Turtlejar Tutors
Turtlejar Tutors (formerly known as gutsy tutoring) was first founded in 2015.This online platform was established to help learners connect with local tutors. Turtlejar Tutors began with only a small number of tutors in Cape Town. As of now, the platform has provided tutors in almost city over South Africa such as Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Knysna. Turtlejar also offers largest range of subjects approximately 100 including Mathematics, English, Science, Afrikaans, and French, with the most capable tutors to teach them for in-person or online lessons.
Disrupt Tutoring
The newly launched South African edtech platform, Disrupt Tutoring was found by Jedd Harris, an educator at St David’s Marist Inanda in Sandton, Johannesburg, and Wits PhD Candidate Wade Stanton-Jones. The edtech is a privately held company that provides inspirational articles to help students, learners, teachers, and tutors.
Disrupt Tutoring aims to provide an “epic education” to teachers, students, learners, parents, and tutors. It also provides educational videos for Mathematics (from grade seven to grade 12) and Algebra and Calculus for A.P Mathematics. This platform also provides videos for Life Sciences and Physical Sciences, especially for grade 10 to grade 12 students.
Extramarks
This Gauteng-based edtech, in recent past, has launched its educational app aimed at assisting learners, parents as well as teachers. The Extramarks Total Learning app has helped learners from grades six to grade 12 by giving easy access to their school curriculum in the safety of their own home. It also allows parents and teachers to keep a track on the learner’s progress.
The application has three different sections: The first part includes helping the learner understand the concept with the use of entertaining visuals, for example videos.
The second step involves the learner practicing what they have learned so far. And, in the third part their knowledge is put to the test with various quizzes. Not only this, Extramarks app also help learners improve by providing a detailed and personalized report for them.
PataTutor
Kenya-based edtech start-up, PataTutor, alike turtlejar, aims to provide a convenient way for parents to find private or online tutors for their children. Since Covid-19 pandemic began online tutors and classrooms have become especially important. These online lessons allow learners and students to learn from the safety of their own homes.
The platform allows parents to choose tutors from a range of subjects from Geography to Physics and from Mathematics to History. They can also decide if they would like their child to be part of a group lesson or a private lesson.
Examsta
Although in a testing state, Examsta, is the creation of former science and mathematics educator, Marie De Wet. It is an innovative learning app that allows learners to master all the contents for SA National and IEB exams .At present, the app is available at zero charges and provides learners with the study material needed for Life Science exams from grades 10 to 12. However, Geography, History and Business Studies will be available soon
De Wet planned to launch Examsta when she found there is a lack of study material, especially for the South African curriculum. Additionally, found that it is difficult to find interactive material for Physical Science.
