Hey,
As a student entrepreneur, I understand the value of getting a degree in South Africa. But, at the same time, I know how important my time is and how I would rather be spending it on something more fulfilling. For me, that has been working several part-time jobs, trying to build small businesses, taking up competitive golf, and embracing university 'fun' culture. For you, it might be pursuing your passion for music, or spending time making valuable memories with friends, or even gaming—you get what I am trying to say. Wanting to fill time outside of lectures with anything but study.
A Systemic Issue
You, as a student, shuffle into a 300 person lecture hall where one lecturer stands up and tries to teach a certain module for 45 minutes, often getting rattled by irrelevant questions or student opinions. After the lecture, you probably understand what the lecturer is talking about but will not lock it into your deep understanding to the extent whereby you are ready to ace a pressurising exam on the topic.
When it comes to crunch time you struggle to know where to turn and end up cramming the most important concepts that 'will probably be asked in the exam'. The day before the exam becomes a complete panic as the weighting of the exam holds a huge weight on your shoulders.
I believe in the power of education and cannot undermine the importance thereof… but I believe the traditional system is letting us down. These exams count more than 60% of your final mark and we are under the impression that 'the success of our future depends on how we perform in the exam'. This is not conducive to effective learning.
I had the privilege of studying in France, and like the rest of the 'advanced' world, education has moved away from this traditional type of high-stakes assessment methodology that determines whether you obtain a degree. Instead, they incorporate a strict attendance register for lectures and host these in an interactive way with regular continuous assessment.
Our Solution
What we are trying to do is take student-provided content (module frameworks, textbooks, lecture slides, notes etc.) and align it with their personal academic abilities and time constraints leading up to the big final exam. Through incorporating cutting-edge AI LLMs with neat algorithms and tight relevance constraints, we can ensure that the academic material you engage with is the most effective and relevant to your big final exam.
It is inevitable that big tech and major academic institutions are going to catch up and bring this vision to the wider population in the next 10 years. I still feel, however, that we at Bag Learning can play an exciting role in shifting the needle for South African universities, by providing a more personalised and efficient method of studying for students.
So, join us, and help students study in the most effective way possible.
— Brett Geyser, Founder
