At Eiffel Corp, we have grown from a business “that only speaks to universities about software and licensing, to how do we partner to generate actual, meaningful, revenue streams for your institution.” This was one of the key messages delivered by Stefan du Plessis, Chief Commercial Operator at Eiffel Corp, at our Executive Roundtable Event hosted on the 10th of February 2023. 

A Great Start to the Year 

This event was a momentous way to start the Academic Year.  In 2023, there is only one thing we know for sure: The world is changing at an extraordinary speed – even more so regarding technology and education. Our shared update on Eiffel Corp, clearly illustrated our intentional shifts in change towards meeting a distinctive purpose – to enable greater access to meaningful education. 

But to understand how to respond to the education sector’s needs, we need to be aware of what we are facing. The shifts are fast and furious when it comes to technology. Myles Thies, CPO & Director of Digital Learning Services, opened the floor with a very apt talk on “Digital Education: Where to now?” 

Where to Now? 

There are shifts in all spheres of education, from social to political, environmental and especially within Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other disruptive technologies used in education. The challenges that come with these spheres are not going away – they are bolstering ahead at an increasingly faster pace. “Educators need real, practical guidance and help in dealing with and even integrating advanced new technologies that are becoming pervasive.” 

Tony Lteif, Head of Education EMEA (AWS), presented the possibility of Cloud-driven solutions for the Education Sector. Explaining what AWS has to offer, Tony highlighted the potential our partnership with AWS creates. Our partnership and latest developments are our response to the challenges and ever-changing technology landscape. 

Organisational Transformation 

Eiffel Corp has transformed as an organisation. We have done so to deliver solutions focused on helping African higher education institutions solve three main challenges: 1) how to deliver a quality digital education product 2) how to truly leverage the multiple benefits of the cloud across the entire academic project (including data-driven decision-making) and 3) how to generate revenue for institutions. 

We developed these six focus areas:  

1. World-class education technology, built here, hosted here, supported here and priced in Rand whilst leveraging the best of AWS global best practices.  
2. Continued commitment to innovation and execution of projects in delivering accredited professional development for lecturers and change management services 
3. Growing our team of instructional designers, multimedia professionals and adding to our portfolio of successfully delivered projects  
4. Building an ecosystem on AWS that powers commerce, payments and rewards on and off campus to generate 3rd stream income for education institutions  
5. Increasing our capacity and expertise in offering custom software and mobile development services specifically focused on education  
6. Establishing an AWS Cloud Centre of Excellence to power our internal innovation and support the rapid adoption of cloud across our industry  

Takeaways from our Executive Roundtable Event 

At our roundtable discussion, facilitated by Max Makgoale (Snr Account Manager at AWS), we unpacked the many gaps in digital transformation between the corporate and education sectors. We touched on our roles and the roles we could play in narrowing the gap where it makes sense. We must work together to ensure that the education sector benefits from technological advances and Cloud solutions. It is no longer a question of whether institutions must transform digitally – but rather when and how.

As Dr Carina van Rooyen (University of Johannesburg) said, “If you want to go fast, you go alone. If you want to go far, you go together.”

Let’s take the journey together – reach out for more information. 

It has been an exciting year for us at Eiffel Corp. It was an honour to work with our valued clients and partners in 2022. This was a year that saw great growth, various successful collaborations and some valuable lessons learnt.  

As a company, we must mark our partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as one of our big highlights of 2022. This partnership also saw our very own Digikamva Learning Management System (LMS) recognised as an AWS-qualified software. Another highlight was our first face-to-face event since Covid-19 hit in 2020. The event was a great success, with dynamic interactive experiences. The end of 2022 saw tremendous progress made with our in-house developed online storefront and catalogue, Maraka, as part of our Digikamva LMS roadmap.  

Of course, our ever-determined, and hardworking team, ultimately drove our achievements. We asked them to share some of their highlights in 2022, and here is what they had to say: 

Digikamva LMS Solutions and Technical Support 

“The Digikamva customer success team has really enjoyed working with all our clients in 2022 and we really look forward to another year of Digikamva LMS success and enrichment! With some great highlights below:  

• Halfway Group – Successful Implementation of U-Learn LMS and a great start to the roll-out of the LMS into Halfway Group. U-learn LMS is enhancing the training experience and management of training for the Halfway Group’s businesses.  
• Beyond Zero – Successful implementation of Eclipse LMS. Their goals with their LMS are going to make a positive impact in the health training in the communities that they serve. We are excited to roll out Eclipse with them in 2023! 
• NEMISA – Enhanced the look and feel and capability of their Digital Skills Platform by incorporating new plugins through consultation with Eiffel. It was a fantastic engagement, and it was great to work with the NEMISA LMS team. 
• Nobel International Business School – Upgraded the look and feel of their LMS. Their site looks great, and the user feedback has been positive.  

The Bay Academy – We started our customer success engagements and have gained positive momentum in reaching the Bay Academy’s goals with their LMS sites.” – Chiro Park, Customer Success Manager  

“The project we had with Beyond Zero was one of the first projects we tackled from beginning to end as a team (for Digikamva LMS), with Chiro Park as Customer Success Manager overseeing the project management (a first for her too). The Beyond Zero team were amazing and helped us complete the project within a good time frame. All in all, this was a successful project!  We enjoyed overseeing it and ultimately the client was happy with the end result, which was the outcome we wanted.” – Dhushan Ramduth, Senior Technical Consultant  

Expanding into Africa  

“My highlights for 2022, will have to be rolling out Gradescope in the rest of Africa and getting AIMS on board for Gradescope as the first outside of South Africa deal. Getting excellent feedback from the Webinar we held earlier this year, that was an amazing team effort from the Sales and Marketing teams. The support I received from the Marketing team was out of this world! My second highlight will have to be Eiffel Corp reaching its partner target with Turnitin for 2022. My 3rd highlight has to be seeing the integration with all the teams across the business. It’s always nice to see what other teams are achieving and see that we have a clear goal in mind. My 4th highlight is also the focused approach, focusing on our own IP for 2023 because that means more business for everyone in the company. There are a million other highlights I could mention both professionally and on a personal level!” – Ntombizodwa Ndzamba, Account Manager 

Academic Integrity at Online Schools 

“This year was filled with new experiences for me and thus full of high points when working with customers. The first one that comes to mind is that I helped a start-up online school get the exact tool they needed for their online tests and exams, The Invigilator, at the beginning of the year. This allowed them to move ahead with their plans for future growth easily. Another achievement was that I established contact with some universities that were difficult to get a hold of, and now we have some very good relationships with the correct people.” – Pierre De Wet, Sales Co-ordinator  

Digital Teaching and Learning Development 

“One of my highlights this year was delivering the MUT Media Development workshops. As a media enthusiast, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the lecturers light up and get excited about the tools and techniques they could incorporate into their online courses to enhance student experiences and increase engagement.” – Jenavicka Lombard, Instructional Designer & Training Facilitator  

“Developing quality education takes time and effort. It involves many different skills, knowledge, and innovative ideas. This involves a lot of people that come together with the same goal in mind. This year, a highlight for me was working with people from different higher education institutions, different countries, and different corporate environments to develop quality education for students, trainees, and employees on different levels of their educational journey. What a privilege it is to get to know other people that are as passionate about education as we are at Eiffel Corp.” – Jani Prinsloo, Senior Lead: Digital Learning Services  

International Digital Content Development  

“The Highlight of 2022 for me was the signing of two brand new international contracts for Digital Content Development! I’m always very curious to see how we measure up against our international counterparts in the Higher Educational space. My curiosity led to a big relief, and I can proudly say that our knowledge, skills, and expertise are indeed WORLD CLASS!! We can comfortably engage in complex and best-practice conversations, and our guidance and opinions are welcomed and respected by all. Can’t wait to enter 2023 with a brilliant Eiffel Services team!” – Selmarie Lotz, Snr eLearning Design and Project Manager  

Marketing Growth 

“From our Welcome to The Future event, to working on the case studies and seeing the clients’ success stories. The need for collaboration and collaborative mindset really stood out and that we are all working towards a common goal, which is to make education great again through the use of EdTech.” – Stiaan Swanepoel, Digital Marketing Strategist 

‘This year has been a year of such growth and building in our post-pandemic context, and Eiffel Corp has truly responded to the ever-heightened needs of our African EdTech sector. As a company, and as individuals, Eiffel is always innovating, and 2022 has seen this to new levels across the board. Eiffel Corp took home another MEA Markets African Excellence Award this year, winning Best Education Software Solutions Provider. Just one of the many awards recognising the pursuit of meeting our client’s needs and supporting them in their journey of empowering their students. Eiffel Corp’s newly branded Steps to Mastery programme is just one example of how we are partnering with institutions to identify and strategically equip them for digital transformation”. Joanna Reypert, Snr Graphic Designer

William H McRaven once said, “Little things make big things happen.” This year proved that consistently doing the little things well, leads to greater things. From a website re-haul to a face-to-face event and catch-up breakfasts with clients – this has been a BIG year. Our team has grown, our initiatives have grown, and our in-house offerings have excelled. And this year was just a taste of things to come. We look forward to engaging with our customers even more next year – sharing solutions that will continue to lead the way to greater access to meaningful education.” – Jolene du Plessis, Marketing Manager 

Finally, a huge thanks to our clients and partners. Thank you for entrusting us with your needs, for all the collaborations that took place and for your continuous support. Thank you for working with us, to help us achieve the impact we are constantly striving for – sustainable digital education that empowers student success. 

We can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store for Higher Education and EdTech in Africa!  

Two years post-covid, in the city of gold, South Africa, on the 9th of June 2022. Two companies launched a call for collaboration. People were delighted to meet and engage face-to-face for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, and the excitement was tangible! The purpose of the event? To “curate educational experiences together.” Eiffel Corp and AWS set out to engage with the higher education sector on where we are post-covid in terms of technology, digital learning and what the institution of the future should look like. It was a learning experience, with guest speakers sharing their views on where education is heading while aligning the vision of Eiffel Corp and AWS with the people, processes and technologies of our institutions.  

Highlights from the Past Two Years 

Opening the day was speaker Stefan du Plessis, our very own Chief Commercial Officer. He touched on what we have been up to for the past three years while also giving the direction of where we’re headed in the future. He shared that we at Eiffel Corp, “are proud of the impact we make in Africa and being recognised for it pushes us to work harder and strive to achieve more.”  It was also a great honour to share that we are the first and the only South African EdTech company that has earned the AWS Qualified Software recognition for our Digikamva LMS. This came after successfully completing the AWS Well-Architected Review of our LMS. Here is a little snippet of what we have been up to:  

Growth with Strategic Partners and Solutions: 

Together we help solve challenges within the education sector: 

• Turnitin – More than 80 new institutions across 15 African countries. We also received the Partner of the Year award 2021. 
• Staffroom – Supported more than 90 schools in South Africa to manage their school administration completely remotely.   
• The Invigilator – A new partnership offering support to 15 new institutions, boasting more than 350 000 users, mitigating the risk of dishonesty during assessments. 

Awards: 

We received numerous awards, recognising our work. Here are a few: 

• BEST ELEARNING CONSULTANCY FIRM IN AFRICA 2020/21 
• MOST INNOVATIVE HIGHER EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY COMPANY OF 2020 /21 
• BEST EDUCATION SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER – SOUTH AFRICA 2022 
• STEVIE AWARDS BRONZE – TECHNICAL INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2021 

Being a strategic solution partner in education, we were keen to learn about the current and future needs of the educational sector. We will strive to continue helping our clients achieve sustainability and success, and most importantly, enabling greater access to meaningful education through all we do.  

The event also launched Eiffel Corp’s partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies and governments. AWS partners with organisations within the education sector with the mission to accelerate the digital transformation of education. To achieve this, AWS collaborates with the full education community, including learners, educators, administrators, and researchers. Cloud is a crucial enabler to effectively compete and excel in an era of vast opportunities and innovation. This is a crucial component of the institution of the future, which was also a focal point during the event.

The Institution of the Future 

“Given the state of the world, the unprecedented set of challenges before us as well as the breakneck speed of change we are now so used to, the future is almost unfathomable.” Myles Thies – Director of Digital Learning Services at Eiffel Corp. Using some familiar analogies and established trends, Myles presented and discussed some of the most pressing issues of the day from social and political to environmental and technological. He further shed some light on how higher education can create adaptive means to respond to those challenges. He also discussed the opportunities that lie ahead for universities and how they can maintain their status as a centre of learning excellence, innovation, research, critical social development and most importantly, the champion of reason, inquiry and philosophical receptiveness.  

The Panel Discussion 

Our panel discussion themed, Life After Covid at Higher Education Institutions, was facilitated by Myles Thies, with Dr Gerrit Wissing from the University of the Witwatersrand, Linda Siso from Amazon Web Services and Luci Carosin from the University of the Witwatersrand weighing in on the conversation. The discussion highlighted the importance of technology in education. ‘’It takes a crisis to get a reaction.’’ In response to the pandemic, the use of technology increased, and execution had to take place immediately. The discussion continued to how their institution handled the immediate shift to remote/hybrid learning. “To prepare educators for the rapid change, we put training in place in the form of workshops per faculty.” The audience eagerly participated, with the greatest concerns raised being the digital divide and the disparity between individuals who have access to technology and stable internet, versus those who do not. The case was made, that if we had done nothing during Covid, we would also have been nowhere now. It was important to start somewhere and carry on with what was possible and find solutions for those who were left behind. This is a sensitive matter and needs more than a day to discuss.  

Our World Cafe Collaborative Experience 

After the insightful panel discussion, and a lovely lunch break, we moved on to the World Cafe section of the day. The World Cafe consisted of participants rotating between three tables with relevant topics. Here participants were encouraged to be creative, with playdough, lightbulb stress balls, khokis, stickers and big sheets of paper to stimulate the process. The buzz around the tables was contagious, everyone grabbed the opportunity to give input and feedback. After each rotation, the next group at the table could build on what the previous group had discussed. After the final round, a member of the group at each table shared a summary of what had been discussed at the tables. We will be sharing the outcomes of these discussions shortly. The themes were: Enabling access to meaningful education; curating meaningful education experiences together and establishing your institution for future learning & success. What was clear is that there is a need for technology to enable success and that all group discussions pointed to student success as a top priority and driving force at their institutions.

Lessons learnt from the event 

We are in exciting, but challenging times. There is a great stride towards the future of education and technology in Africa. But in moving forward, we also have to be very aware of those who we are leaving behind. And we will have to find ways to address the digital divide, without slowing progress down. A tightrope balance that is yet to be figured out. But within the gaps, we only see opportunities for innovation. Having such an informative event made people more hopeful for the future of education. Having come together to interact with one another, and sharing ideas and opinions were great highlights that need to be built on. And so we are getting ready for our next event, happening in the Western Cape on 22 September 2022. Reach out if you are interested in attending! 

It goes without saying that this write-up does not do the whole experience justice, you had to be there!

Reach out to us to find out about our next event
Marketing@eiffelcorp.co.za
Save your seat HERE!

There is a constant growth of online learning in Africa and the world at large, especially in the past two years. This, therefore, poses a need to meet the constant growth to enable easy access to eLearning.  

As a developing continent, Africa still faces major issues as far as online learning is concerned. These issues include: 

• Poor internet connection 
• Lack of ICT skills 
• Lack of training for facilitators 
• Digital illiteracy  
• Technological infrastructure, etc.  

The importance of eLearning becomes even greater when we look at the economical issues faced and the advantages that come with online learning. Let’s take a look at the advantages of eLearning and how they can encourage solving the challenges faced. 

Advantages of e-learning: 

• Flexibility – online learning allows for flexibility such that, one is able to find part-time employment while studying. 
• Self-governance – trained and disciplined students are more likely to do well in the workplace. 
• Cost-effective – online learning produces fairly adequate results without costing a lot of money. (Traveling costs to campus, hardcopy books, student residence, etc) 
• Improved technical skills – these are critical skills to possess, especially in the workplace.  
• Many institutions have been trying to solve the challenge of access to online learning since the beginning of Covid-19. They do this by providing free data for students and helping those in need with laptops. Systems have also been set up in the space where learning takes place. However, since this mode of learning is still new for some, a lot of changes and adaptations have to happen.  

These changes may typically mean finding new ways of presenting lectures effectively. An example of an effective lecture could be keeping a lesson short. It’s commonly known that too much screen time could decrease the attention span, so keeping lectures short allows for students to remain focused. Lecturers are also encouraged to record lessons. While the focus is on keeping classes short, recorded lectures allow for students to revisit lessons whenever there is a need for revision. 

The home for many lectures that take place online is the Learning Management System or  LMS software. Among other functions, the LMS’s focus is to deliver learning online, by providing a platform where learner enrolment, administration, documentation, tracking, etc could take place. It basically serves as a portal where students can access important information in relation to their course. Instructors are also able to track and monitor the students’ performance to ensure that each one of them meets their learning objectives.  

So how then do we deal with the challenges associated with the LMS and accessing online learning in general? “Capitalise on Digital Tools!” This means finding the right LMS for your institution, providing training that will enable better use of the LMS and as already mentioned, institutions have partnered with some of the best network providers to give their students free data and laptops. For the digital illiteracy challenge, computer modules are taught in the first year of varsity.  

While Covid-19 has caused us to move forward, it also exposed many gaps in our education system and highlighted the digital divide. Rather than focusing on the gaps, perhaps we should focus on what can we do in the future to improve on what happened during Covid-19. Blended learning is most likely the way of the future. The focus should thus be on what we need to improve on online learning in the future, to cater to all students to ensure access to electricity, a conducive learning environment and the internet. Perhaps the solution lies in on-campus support for online learning. With the blended learning approach, this is possible – not cutting out face-to-face teaching, but applying both face-to-face and online learning appropriately to ensure optimal outcomes.  

How we can help?

As recognised AWS Education partners in EdTech, Digikamva LMS is hosted on the leading cloud platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Reach out to learn how we can support access to online learning with the support of Digikamva LMS and Amazon Web Services. Visit: www.eiffelcorp.co.za/digikamva-lms for more information.

References: 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system 

• https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/blog/article/overcome-challenges-distance-learning/ 
• https://www.edutopia.org/article/8-evidence-based-tips-make-your-lectures-more-engaging-and-memorable?fbclid=IwAR1vSaTuSEgkVfYF2qcCXudiD4xECjPZ5yg0nedbYisA3Oi72PU5joFLYz4