CLASSROOMS ARE DEAD

E-learning Platforms are taking over

But yeah I said, classrooms are dead!

Yeah, I said it! Classrooms are dead. Come and beat me I am in my house.

I wrote a post on Facebook when I had completed my course and received my certificate on the "Fundamentals in starting and Running a Business"  to appreciate the opportunity given to me by the YALI Network.  I feel the need to discuss more on it in this post, and perhaps, use it as an opportunity to pitch an idea to Entrepreneurs in the Educational Tech Space in Nigeria.

So for over time now, I have consistently been meeting and getting to learn from successful startup Entrepreneurs like Kola Aina, CEO Emerging Platforms and most recently, Iyi (Samuel) Aboyeji, MD of FlutterWave. So proud to say that Samuel and I are both alumni of Loyola Jesuit College and yes I am 'famzing' him for obvious reasons. Be successful and I would 'famz' you, everyone would, its a fact of life.

Moving on....

One vital piece of advice that I have received from most Entrepreneurs revolves around "skills set" and the importance of building a team of individuals that can compliment you with other vital skills that are important to build a good business.

As an Entrepreneur, it is easy for us to look and try and assess what others can do to be part of your idea but most times we forget to ask ourselves what we bring to the table. That is the difficult bit for us to do. Most times, if not all the time, investors want to know what each and every member brings to the table.

In the Snapchat story we can obviously see that Reggie Brown (the ideator) was easily booted out of the company, because he asked for a lot of equity and his team members had realized that he did not have much to offer Pictaboo (now Snapchat).

As the leader of the team, your idea is not enough to show that you are in charge, you need to continuously show that you are capable and knowledgeable enough to lead your team in the right direction and at the right time. It is called capacity development. It is important in any role you take either as the CEO of a company, member of the board or a staff in the company or a consultant. Different roles require different skills set.


That brings me to the main discussion at hand. Remember I said "classrooms were dead".

Still Angry? Carry your anger and fry egg with it. Lol.
Before you do that let me explain why.

Classroom Education is increasingly becoming obsolete with the internet. This makes it much easier to access information and learn skills for free that you would otherwise have paid for with the absence of the internet. Even international universities are taking advantage of it to run online programs to break into the market of students trying to run masters programs without having the time to be at the university either on a full time or part time basis. This particular approach would appeal to already working class individuals that want to develop themselves despite having a tight schedule at work and would love to get a degree from a remote location of their choice, definitely without being at the university campus.

Even more so, there are educational learning platforms like Coursera, Alison and EdX (this is especially my favourite).

EdX gives you the opportunity to learn from lecturers in prestigious universities all around the world. Personally,I am currently taking a self-paced EdXcourse from Harvard University called "Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies" and here is the stunner.

THE INFORMATION IS ALL FREE OF CHARGE!

All I would be required to pay $75 (that is around the ball park of N30,000), if I choose to, would be for the certificate from the university as evidence to show that I did take the course. Imagine what multiple courses from multiple prestigious universities from the comfort of your home or office would do for you in terms of employability. We all know that the major concern for most Youth that are graduates is employment. They all want to leave the job market.

I am particularly concerned about this issue because I am currently taking part in the NYSC program in Nigeria. We are constantly barraged by phoney training centres offering training for different courses under the sun, for a 'discounted price' of N10,000. I am unsure of the quality of the lectures that they give. The question I usually ask is this , what is the value I would be getting for spending N10,000 ?

 Compared to Nigerian training cerntres, the information provided for learning on these e-learning platforms can be accessed on a regular basis. So you can attend a lecture as many times as you would require to understand what the lecturer is on about. But compared to live classroom lectures, if you miss one bit out, you are out. Online courses are a definite 'no brainer'.

It is also much more convenient for Entrepreneurs to make use of such opportunities to develop ourselves while working on our projects. You might have an idea now but not have skills set required to make that idea a success, but you can learn about it and achieve great things from the comfort of your home or office at a fraction of the cost and time you would spend if you attended a training program in a school.

I think I have exhausted all I have to say. 

Still want more...... 

Here comes the headburster.....

YouTube has trained a lot of people, especially our new Beauty (Make-Up) Entrepreneurs. I am guessing all they needed to pay for, was the kit to practice. The information was absolutely free. I bet you didn't consider YouTube as a learning platform but I do.

Thanks for reading. 

PS: I have a e-learning platform pitch. If you want to get in touch with me and hear me out I would appreciate if you leave a comment and I would get in touch. Have a good week!.

I really enjoyed writing this and I am 100% sure you loved reading it as well.

Best regards,

Muna

(HubbonNG)