Stuart Corner (Computerworld New Zealand)
15 November, 2016 11:30
Auckland startup Modlettes has officially launched its eLearning platform of the same name, saying it aims to make peer-to-peer online learning easy for businesses and save them tens of thousands of dollars in staff training costs.
The company says the system “Lets users create bite-sized training modules — ‘Modlettes’ — which can contain of video, audio, graphics, text and quizzes. It says the platform has been four years in the making and release to the general market follows extensive testing and refining with trial clients.
Modlettes describes the system as “a unique eLearning platform in that any member of a user organisation can be given permission to create and upload Modlettes to their organisation’s channel, all with just a few touches on their smartphone.”
Modlettes’ Managing Director, Colin Dawson said:“We’ve decentralised training from being something that is traditionally passed on from one or few people to many, and have now made it easy for everyone to share their knowledge with everyone else,”
“That means the best qualified people within an organisation – as opposed to only the most senior – can create Modlettes to teach their colleagues about their field of expertise.”
Dawson claims that Modlettes can translate to tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars of savings for the businesses. “Staff training and knowledge sharing has until now been a costly and logistically difficult exercise, but not any more,” he said.
The company says it is eyeing a global market worth billions of dollars. “The eLearning industry is estimated to be worth more than $70b dollars globally and is growing by almost eight percent every year, according to a 2014 report [from Decebo]. Asia is the world’s fastest growing region at 17 percent per annum.”
Modlettes’ Sales Director, Robyn Viljoen, said: “Big companies typically spend upwards of $60,000 on eLearning software. SMEs don’t have that kind of money, and they don’t need to with Modlettes because our plans start at less than three dollars per user, and our peer-to-peer system is far easier to use than the clunkier learning management systems out there.”
Modlettes said NZ Laser Training managing director Ruth Nicholson had been quoted $20,000 to build an eLearning platform similar to Modlettes. “She now pays just $900 per year to use the system and says it’s saved her thousands of dollars and hours.”
Nicholson said: “Modlettes has helped reduce the stress of business administration by sending clients to the portal to read and process pre-reading materials prior to attending our face to face courses. They then sit written tests online instead of on paper, and these are marked automatically by the system.
“The system has also allowed us to expand our business and offer our classes to people who can’t make the face-to-face classes, which has been great for business.”
Modlettes was founded by Auckland-based Dawson and Viljoen – who both have backgrounds in human resources and learning and development, and by Josh Wong, described as “the technical guru behind the platform.”