'Inspired learning' transforms education

Every week, African Start-Up follows entrepreneurs in various countries across the continent to see how they are working to make their business dreams become reality.

(CNN) -- Fresh faced and full of energy, five recent graduates sit around the conference room table. They all hail from a different African country, and they all have big dreams about revamping education in their continent for a digital era.

These are the headquarters of Funda in Cape Town, an online training platform that's been partnering with universities in South Africa to provide short e-courses for users. Helped by a single private investor, the tech education portal is looking to harness a growing demand for online learning by allowing students to log into classes remotely.

"At Funda, we develop learning management systems and provide content development services to higher institutions to take their courses online so that the general public can access them at a cheaper price," says Nigerian-born Kolawole Olajide, one of Funda's founders.

 

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The flexibility that comes with e-learning is just one of the many reasons Olajide says the online education tool has found success.

"It's responsive to the students' schedules," says the 22-year-old entrepreneur. "But also managers who want to do courses but are too busy to do them can now use [Funda] and sign in when they get back from work and access the resources online."

Olajide came up with the concept for Funda -- which means "to learn" in Zulu -- at university when he found he couldn't take school home. He had hoped to start the company in his homeland of Nigeria, but the obstacles were too great.

"It was very difficult because they were not digitally ready," he recalls. "They did not understand what I was trying to do. The second problem I faced was internet penetration in the country. I thought South Africa was more stable so Funda had a higher chance of success there because many people already have the Internet."

Alongside four other young entrepreneurs -- Kennedy Kitheka (Kenya), Jason Muloongo (Zambia), Sameer Rawjee (South Africa) and Kumbirai Gundani (Zimbabwe) -- the e-learning portal took shape and each founder provided a different perspective for the startup.

None are over the age of 25, yet these innovators are simply doing what is natural to the millennial generation -- using technology to find solutions to problems they've experienced.

"We bring together the problems we've seen in different parts of Africa and we are all trying to create together solutions to the problems we have experienced in different parts of the continent," says Olajide.

He adds: "I was aware of user experience because user experience of technology in Nigeria was not very good. One of the other partners was keen on developing the mobile application because he said in his area of the world, there are more mobile users. So we are bringing together solutions made by the problems we've faced in Africa."

Olajide explains that Funda offers a free mobile app that can be downloaded to a user's smartphone. Students can access the e-learning portal via a keycode provided by the university they are registered to.

"At the moment, [mobile] is very limited. Mobile phones are good for getting your results, educators checking attendance reports and all that stuff. But the real core experience is from the desktop machine."

Since its launch in 2009, Funda has been recognized by several international bodies, including the United Nations Development Programme and the World Economic Forum. It has also received a number of accolades, including the "Best Tech Innovation and Education" award at the U.N.'s World Youth Summit in 2012 and Mazar's "Best Sustainable Business Model" prize.

Looking ahead, Olajide has big plans for the startup. "Our major goal is to be a major education technology provider in Africa," he says. "So we're just trying to strategically position ourselves, so when Africa is ready we would also be ready."

For the time being however, the company's main focus is creating sustainable growth before proceeding to roll out the platform across the continent.

As for Olajide, the passionate Nigerian says he is determined to keep on working to help increase accessibility to education in the continent.

"The future of the continent lies in how educated people are," he says." All the major problems can be solved with education -- education is the key to the future."

登錄並了解：該技術愛好者努力將非洲的教育
從馬克Hoeferlin和勞倫說，豪斯，為美國有線電視新聞網
2014年9月15日 - 更新1400 GMT（2200 HKT）
觀看此視頻
“啟發學習”轉變教育
新聞提要
科拉沃萊Olajide成立豐達，電子學習工具，與其他四位年輕畢業生
為學生提供短期課程的靈活性，通過南非學校的遠程訪問
Olajide說成功是由於強烈的創業團隊，發揮特長
希望能成為一個主要的教育技術提供商在非洲
每個星期，非洲開始行動遵循歐洲大陸各國的企業家，看看他們是如何努力使自己的商業夢想變成了現實。
（CNN） -面對新鮮，充滿活力，近五年畢業生圍坐在會議室的桌子上。他們都冰雹從不同的非洲國家，他們都對自己在大陸的數字時代的教育改造的大夢想。
這些都是豐達的開普敦，在線培訓平台，一直在合作的大學在南非為用戶提供短期電子課程的總部。由單一私人投資者的幫助下，在科技教育門戶網站正在通過讓學生登錄到遠程類以利用在線學習的需求不斷增長。
“在豐達，我們開發學習管理系統和高等院校提供內容開發服務，採取網上他們的課程，讓廣大市民能以更便宜的價格訪問它們，”尼日利亞出生科拉沃萊Olajide，豐達的創始人之一說。
凡電子垃圾變成藝術品 “尼日利亞的Mark Zuckerburg”建立自己的學校
自帶的電子學習的靈活性只是其中的原因很多Olajide說，在線教育工具，找到成功的一個。
“這是順應學生的時間表，”這位22歲的企業家。“但是，誰也想要做的課程，但太忙了，做他們現在可以使用[豐達]，並登入時，他們得到下班回來和在線訪問的資源。經理人”
Olajide想出了一個概念豐達 - 這意味著“學習”祖魯 - 在大學時，他發現他不能拿學校回家。他希望，開始了公司在他尼日利亞的家鄉，但障礙是太大了。
“這是非常困難的，因為他們沒有數字準備好了，”他回憶說。“他們不明白我要做的，我遇到的第二個問題是在該國的互聯網普及率。我以為南非是越穩定，豐達有成功的機會較高，因為有很多人已經在網上。”
與其他四位年輕的企業家 - 肯尼迪Kitheka（肯尼亞），賈森Muloongo（贊比亞），薩米爾Rawjee（南非）和Kumbirai Gundani（津巴布韋） - 電子學習門戶網站初具規模，每個創始人提供了一個不同的角度為啟動。
沒有一個是25歲以上，但這些創新都只是在做什麼是很自然的千禧一代 - 利用技術，尋求解決他們所遇到的問題。
“大陸的未來在於如何教育人們，所有的重大問題，可以用教育解決。教育是未來的關鍵。
科拉沃萊Olajide，豐達公司的創始人之一，電子學習平台

“我們召集我們已經看到了在非洲不同地區的問題，我們都在努力創造共同的解決方案，我們已經經歷了大陸不同地區的問題，”Olajide說。
他補充說：“我意識到了用戶體驗，因為技術在尼日利亞的用戶體驗不是很好的一個的其他合作夥伴熱衷於開發移動應用程序，因為他在世界上的區域說，有更多的移動用戶。因此，我們通過我們在面對非洲問題的解決方案匯集。“
Olajide解釋說，豐達提供免費的移動應用程序可以下載到用戶的智能手機。學生可以通過他們所註冊的大學提供了一個鍵碼訪問電子學習門戶網站。
“目前，[移動]是非常有限的。手機是很好的讓你的​​結果，教育考勤報表和所有的東西，但真正的核心體驗是台式機。”
自2009年推出以來，豐達已得到一些國際機構，包括聯合國發展計劃署和世界經濟論壇。它也獲得了多項榮譽，包括“最佳科技創新和教育獎”在聯合國世界青年高峰會議2012年和馬扎裡的“最佳可持續的商業模式”獎。
展望未來，Olajide具有啟動大計劃。“我們的主要目標是成為一個主要的教育技術提供商在非洲，”他說。“因此，我們只是試圖在戰略定位自己，所以當非洲已經準備好，我們也將做好準備。”
暫時不過，該公司的重點是繼續推出整個非洲大陸的平台之前，創造可持續的增長。
至於Olajide，熱情的尼日利亞人說，他決心繼續努力，以幫助提高非洲大陸無障礙的教育。
“大陸的未來如何受過教育的人都是騙人的，”他說，“所有主要的問題是可以解決教育 - 教育是未來的關鍵。”