About the Institute

The KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Centre for the Future of Places CFP was positioned at the nexus of architecture, urban planning, urban design, and urban studies. It served as an agora, a gathering place for top researchers, practitioners, and thinkers in urbanism who are pursuing solutions to the city’s major urban development challenges, with a focus on public space systems. The value of public space in the planning and upkeep of cities is crucial to the future of urbanism as we face new social, economic, political, cultural, and environmental concerns.

The CFP’s constant goal is to draw attention to the importance of public space and the public realm in urbanism and urbanisation, notably the change in focus from objects to places. We have investigated the connections between urban form, human behaviour, urban society, social life, sustainable urbanism, and housing in the wake of emerging global transformations via the multidisciplinary lens of public space as part of that goal.  Additionally, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, is the “MIT of the NORTH” and the mother institution and hub of CFP.

Since its founding in 1827, KTH Royal Institute of Technology has grown to become one of Europe’s top technological universities and a significant hub for the advancement of knowledge. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden’s largest institution for technical education and research, brings together faculty, staff, and students from around the globe. KTH Royal Institute of Technology is collaborating with industry and society to develop sustainable solutions to some of humanity’s most pressing problems, including climate change, future energy needs, urbanisation, and ageing populations’ quality of life.

Research and instruction at the KKTH Royal Institute of Technology span the fields of science, technology in all its forms, architecture, industrial economics, social planning, history, and philosophy. The university’s education produces a new generation of engineers, architects, and teachers, and the inventive environment encourages adaptable solutions.

Last but not least, their top-notch connections, affiliations, and research collaborations contributed to this success and will be further strengthened by their planned collaborations with LCAU at MIT in Boston and UCL Bartlett in London.

“We continue to develop the cooperation with UN Habitat and our other university partners such as TU Wien, LSE London, University of Chicago, University of Miami and ETH Zürich.”

One of the main things the university will be concentrating on in the upcoming years is strengthening the links between research and practise by encouraging researchers to collaborate and execute their research findings realistically. Dr. Tigran is looking forward to starting and possibly running a second research lab in his career, A City Research Lab dubbed HAL, after the work at the centre where they have built the best urbanism network in the world and the best clearing house on public spaces and urban areas research.

“Cities are an amazing place with limitless opportunities, problems, challenges and source of ideas.” 

The Centre and Dr Tigran have won more than 15 awards for management and leadership from organisations like CEO Europe Magazine, Finance Monthly CEO Awards, World’s Leaders Magazine Awards, ACQ Global Awards, CV Magazine Award, CIO Views Award, CIO Times Award, Insight Success Award, Silicone Review, and others.

“In my work in Academia over the last 25 years, I span and cover one of the largest urbanism networks in the world.”

About Dr. Tigran-

Dr. Tigran is a multi-degreed architect with advanced degrees in regional planning, environmental science, and urban planning and design. He has produced 10 books, over 100 research articles, and has taught aspiring corporate project managers at the master’s level for more than ten years. Additionally, he has created three master’s degree programmes and taught more than 35 graduate and post-graduate level courses. Dr. Tigran is the recipient of three post-doctoral fellowships from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, University of Michigan in Ann Arbour, and Berkeley, California.

Atheneum Scholars Press, Routledge, Rowman & Littlefield, Rizzoli, and Edward Elgar will all publish his upcoming books. He has also served as the previous director of the Civitas Athenaeum Laboratory (CAL) and the International Centre for the Future of Places (CFP) at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Dr. Tigran served as the center’s director from 2016 to 2021. The centre is a global network hub and clearinghouse for research on public spaces. He currently holds the positions of Guest Research Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge in the Norman B. Leventhal Centre for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) and Associate Professor of Urban Planning + Urban Design at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in the School of Architecture and the Built Environment.

Key Achievements of Dr. Tigran’s Journey-

Leadership is undoubtedly a challenging process of self-transformation undertaken by a person tasked with directing others towards the accomplishment of a certain corporate goal. Dr. Tigran’s experience running a research centre for five years and a lab for five years prior to that, as well as serving as the director of three educational programmes, has greatly aided in her understanding of some of these concepts. She has also taught project and strategic management, project leadership, and related topics for more than eight years.

Getting things done with the project and research team you have in place is just one aspect of a leader’s job; the team also needs to be put together in the best way possible. Competence, equality, and professionalism are important considerations, and it takes skill to understand where each person can contribute most.

“At the outset of my leadership role, I started to expand and build new networks and brake barriers of what is possible and impossible.”

In this case, a strong internal bond with the team and employees is essential and necessary for the long-term viability of the business. Gaining their respect, obtaining their trust, making friends with them, and receiving their honest feedback are all essential.

Finally, as advice to others, it is important to be able to learn from the past and from mistakes. Other important skills include having strong communication skills and developing lasting relationships on all levels; listening, understanding, and acting; optimism and risk-taking to a certain extent; reading people and adapting them to necessary tasks in the organisation; anticipating problems and thinking outside the box; and removing threats and psychopathic personalities.

The Future Looks Interesting 

The institute will be concentrating more on either following the path they have set thus far or steering the ship into another, slightly less (un)charted destination after the success of a five-year sequel of the centre. The vital issue of humanising cities within emerging smart and new experimental urbanisms, as well as issues of livability, comfort, health, aesthetics of cities, and open public spaces, will be in the forefront during the next two years, it is certain. 

On the micro, meso, and macro levels (home, neighbourhood, district, city, and region), we will keep looking at this.

The major problem is that cities are becoming more complicated, and problems are increasing every day as a result of numerous convergent crises that demand solutions from new ideas, technologies, and methodologies. The Research Lab – HAL The Civitas Laboratory, which will take over for the Centre for the Future of Places CFP in the coming period, will attempt to respond to these inquiries.

Tackling New Challenges of the Pandemic-

To ensure that their teams survive the pandemic stronger, leaders must use their own emotional intelligence given the severe demand on both physical and mental health. Students study, socialise, and live close to one another on university and college campuses like those at MIT, Dr. Tigran’s second place of employment, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, which is MIT’s partner institution. Additionally, they serve as the centre for social and cultural hubs where students from different parts of the world come together and where social and human capital is created.

They had to adjust to teaching, studying, and networking online as a result of the coronavirus’s rapid spread and the unanticipated effects it has had on society. Most importantly, they had to take all reasonable precautions to protect the lives of their teachers and students. Making the most of online learning and teaching, creating systems that are both reliable and adaptable, gathering information, and using best practises have all been hallmarks of this trying time, along with excellent collegiality and camaraderie throughout.

The higher education sector has previously survived pandemics and difficult economic times, and it will do so again by preparing to be flexible, resilient, and long-lasting. Universities are better equipped than ever to give students an easily accessible online version of their courses in the network society, city of bits, and new digital age.

Innovation is the Key-

“The Centre for the Future of Places was founded to advance sustainable urban development by reorienting the urban discourse from objects to places in order to advance healthy and livable cities, within the disciplines of urban planning and urban design. Innovation is the core value, fundus, and keystone of the new Lab as it was of the Centre for the Future of Places. In order to create a more equitable, sustainable, and prosperous society, the Lab and the centre that came before it envisioned a networked community of leaders actively collaborating across industries, frontiers, and disciplines.

The Center’s mission was to define, categorise, and establish the public space as a separate academic study topic by using a comprehensive strategy. In other words, the centre organised knowledge from all fields that are concerned with public space, including urban planning, urban design, environmental psychology, urban sociology, architecture, urban economics, human geography, and others.

In order to combine the knowledge from the various disciplinary silos and link the experts within them, the emphasis on public space served as a cross-disciplinary innovation framework. This helped to create a holistic understanding of the city that serves as the foundation for practical and effective action, which will necessitate extensive international cooperation.

All of these elements have a direct impact on the business’ overall performance and promote holistic growth and development. In addition to being happy with their services, their clients also give them the credit they deserve for helping to accelerate their learning curve, improve the way they approach their work, and broaden their knowledge and skill sets.

During a conversation with Davide Conforti, the CEO of OfCourseMe. Let’s learn more about OfCourseMe, the products offered by the business, and the CEO’s career path.

Please tell us about OfCourseMe and the early difficulties the business faced.

Learning culture and behaviour are changing as a result of OfCourseMe. We collaborate with learning and development managers to alter the way their teams learn, whether it’s through upskilling, retraining, or simply adopting a fresh viewpoint. In order to help them create a culture of lifelong learning in their staff members and enable their success, we collaborate with them to provide curated learning solutions for their team.

To do this, we develop a more flexible and effective learning environment that enables all employees—regardless of their age, aptitude, or skill—to realise their full potential through individualised, on-demand, self-training courses. In a nutshell, the purpose of OfCourseMe is to develop lifelong learners.

Tell us about OfCourseMe’s interesting services, any newest ones, and how they adapt to the passing of time and fashions.

For our clients, we provide a full-service solution built around the ideas of content aggregation, search, recommendation, and curation. We want to help you with two problems: organising your digital training materials in one location, making them easily accessible, comparable, and well-organized; and, at the same time, preventing content overload for your learners by curating pertinent and contextual learning pathways to support your people in upskilling and reskilling themselves, helping to change their mindset and attitude towards personal development.

In terms of the industry, we believe OfCourseMe offers distinct skills when it comes to providing solutions that seamlessly fit into already-existing learning ecosystems; we also specialise at content scraping and tagging, content curation, marketing, and people analytics. Our value proposition is distinctive and incredibly appealing to learning managers who are struggling to deliver learning paths at scale with nimble teams and shrinking budgets because it combines content curation, people intelligence, and marketing support as a service.

Establishing a learning culture involves daily habits and routines, which are based on interactions with peers and management. Because of this, we continually make investments in the social components of learning, from exchanging comments and opinions on content to informing users of their peers’ pertinent interactions with it. We are simultaneously enhancing our search, ranking, and recommendation features to give users results that are increasingly relevant and personalised. Because learning culture is about people, we think in technology that benefits people.

As upskilling and reskilling need to be grounded in skills and continual performance appraisal/feedback loops to identify gaps, mapping contents vs. skill sets is a set of characteristics in great demand right now. Moreover, we are close to organising our first million content sources in OfCourseMe, which will enable us to offer educational materials in over 20 languages, 160 topics, innumerable formats, and – of course – talents. We do have a fairly organised 12- to 18-month product roadmap, which we iterate and update every three months utilising behavioural data analysis, R&D, and user feedback in an Agile framework.

Please share your career history with us, including any high points you would like to mention.

I have a degree in industrial engineering from Milano, six years of consulting experience, and five years of experience as a BI director and CFO. then came the choice to start from scratch in early 2017.

• establishing a lucrative and quickly expanding business from scratch with no outside investment.
• closing 6-digit deals with some of the biggest businesses in Europe, who we are happy to call our flagship clients. 
• 20 extraordinary individuals that share the same passion, values, and aspirations make up the growing team.

How are the OfCourseMe team and work environment?

At OfCourseMe, Francesco and I set out with the idea of creating a workplace culture based on the same principles that our solution promotes: openness, responsibility, honesty, curiosity, and empathy. OfCourseMe never had a physical headquarters; instead, we started out working from home long before the pandemic drove most people inside. You can only accomplish this if both your people and others believe in you. The appropriate culture must be established, reinforced, and the appropriate procedures must be implemented.

The greatest isn’t necessarily brought out by competition, but rather by having high standards for both ourselves and our clients and always finding a way to meet or exceed them.

The Successful Journey of Dr. Crown

In addition to holding academic chairs in strategic leadership for the most of her career, Dr. Crown has maintained leadership positions in business schools for more than twenty years. Rollins College has received numerous accolades throughout her time there, including being named the top MBA programme in Florida by Forbes Magazine and the nation’s top leadership programme for four years running by HR.com. Deborah led the creation and execution of a new strategic plan for Crummer in addition to overseeing the School’s successful re-accreditation procedure through the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International—a distinction earned by less than five percent of the world’s business schools.

Dr. Crown served as dean of the College of Business at Hawaii’s largest private university before to taking the helm at Rollins College. She was also dean of San Jose State University’s Lucas Graduate School of Business and a Lucas Endowed Professor of Strategic Leadership. In the past, Dr. Crown has also held positions at Ohio University’s Voinovich School for Leadership & Public Affairs and the College of Business as faculty director of the Appalachian Regional Entrepreneurial Group and director of graduate programmes.

Prior to this, Dr. Crown worked for 13 years as the Miles-Rose Professor of Leadership and Ph.D. Coordinator for Management at the University of Alabama. Additionally, performance improvements in other industry sectors have been a result of her research on long-term performance, which was initially undertaken in football, basketball, and baseball.  Deborah’s main areas of interest in research are ethics and social responsibility, organisational work teams, professional and college athletic teams, leadership, performance challenges, with a focus on international and multicultural cultures.

Her work has been highlighted in scholarly journals and books as well as national press outlets like the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC National News, the New York Times, USA Weekend, and Entrepreneur.  She has also won numerous national prizes for her research as well as accolades from universities and colleges for her service, mentoring, and teaching.  She earned a Master of Science from the University of Colorado, Denver, a Ph.D. from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, as well as Executive Education at Harvard.

In order to ensure the long-term success of the School and fulfil its mission, Crummer’s ability to compete with contemporary offerings at other schools is absolutely crucial. Business schools around the world are rapidly evolving to meet the expectations of a new, tech-savvy, collaborative, and community-engaged student population in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“Working in partnership with other units at Rollins College, we are focused on raising funds for a new Crummer building—part of the Rollins Innovation Triangle project.”

The Crummer Graduate School of Business will be able to strengthen its connections with the business world in novel and creative ways thanks to the new Crummer Executive and Entrepreneurial Centre, which is essential to maintaining and enhancing Crummer’s reputation for innovative training. The building, which is close to an expanded Alfond Inn and a new Rollins College Fine Art Museum, will help the organisation achieve its goals by luring professionals to Winter Park from all over the world, equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the workplace of the future, and serving as a hub for not only Rollins College and Winter Park but also the larger Central Florida business community.  

About Rollins College

Rollins College, a comprehensive institution that pioneered liberal arts education in the country, was established in 1885. The College bases its goal on two separate pillars—educating students for responsible leadership and global citizenship—and adheres to the guiding principles of excellence, innovation, and community.

The precursor to the Crummer School was founded in 1957 as a result of Rollins College’s dedication to innovation and achievement. As it stands now, the Crummer Graduate School of Business was established in 1980 after the institution decided to exclusively accept master’s-level applicants for both its full-time and part-time programmes. The Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (EDBA) programme was introduced by the School in the autumn of 2013 as part of an expansion of its doctoral-level programmes.

“All Crummer’s programs are fully accredited by AACSB, the preeminent accreditation distinction awarded to only five percent of the world’s business schools.”

An Outstanding Team

“We have exceptional faculty and staff members here at Crummer who are all uniquely committed to providing a highly personal and collaborative experience for our students.”

For the faculty, this entails considering the full learner lifecycle, from outreach to potential learners to involvement with alumni.  Employees that function successfully as a team must be able to accomplish that, and the experts at Crummer consistently meet this requirement.   

Making Her Way to Be the Dean

“When I first arrived, I became aware that one thing we could do to better deliver on our mission would be to increase, enhance, and encourage greater collaboration among our professional staff.”

There were numerous units within the institute working admirably, but doing so within their own units created communication issues and wasted opportunities. They proceeded swiftly to improve employee integration, beginning with the concentration of their marketing initiatives so that the team could be confident they were totally focused on sharing their objective.  

In order to maximise resources and guarantee a seamless student experience, Dr. Crown and her colleagues combined all the groups that work directly with students into a single cluster.  In order to best serve all of the external clients, including executive learners, entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, and Crummer’s enormous alumni network, they lastly coordinated their externally facing centres and groups.

“Our vision has remained consistent through the years. We strive to be recognized as a world-class graduate business school.”

The excellence of Crummer Rollins College’s preparation of diverse, creative, and ethical business executives is well known. And they anticipate that they will have a favourable effect on both their communities and their organisations.  

“Since I joined Crummer close to six years ago, we have recommitted ourselves to that vision and mission to ensure we are providing the best education possible while also creating a mission-driven financial model that enables us to better focus on delivering on our vision and mission.”

What the Future Holds?

By design, Crummer is a boutique business school. You won’t find a personalised, concierge environment like Crummer’s at larger business schools for students and clients. Its cohort structure and lower class sizes result in a highly collaborative learning environment. Additionally, the business school recruits qualified, experienced professors who are first and foremost excellent teachers and who share the Crummer purpose of developing leaders in business who are inventive, responsible, and have a positive impact on their organisations and communities.

“They are also fully committed to providing students with the personalized, collaborative experience for which Crummer is known.”

The Changing Form of Entrepreneurship

The pandemic caused the workplace to undergo an unheard-of period of transformation. Everybody had to swiftly adjust to daily life in the virtual world. Many professions have now transitioned to becoming remote permanently after being required to provide remote work options for employees during the epidemic, while other jobs have changed back to being in-person positions. In addition to being aware of and adapting to this mixed-mode environment, Crummer must also ensure that their educational programmes reflect the workplace and equip graduates with the skills they need to succeed in these settings.  

“At the same time, these changes are providing enormous new opportunities for entrepreneurs.”

In Central Florida, there has been a rise in both entrepreneurial activity and interest in supporting these endeavours. The largest and most thorough yearly business plan competition in the area is the institute’s own Crummer Venture Plan Competition. They teamed up with Orange County last year to dramatically boost their reward fund.

Dr. Crown’s Message to the Budding Entrepreneurs

“As people work persistently to create their enterprises, entrepreneurs need to be experts in all areas of business, which can be overwhelming. It’s critical for business owners to take advantage of opportunities for additional education and training as well as relationships with other business owners.

The Crummer School may be a useful resource for local entrepreneurs because to our large and active alumni group, as well as our knowledge, stated Dean Crown. We offer resources and assistance to entrepreneurs through our Crummer Centre for Advanced Entrepreneurship.  Additionally, a lot of business owners decide to participate in one of our MBA programmes because we offer unrivalled educational possibilities that are specially designed for the business sector.”

Leading the Way, Joyfully-

“I am a teacher at heart and entered the classroom at 22.”

At a women’s shelter, Brittany Cufaude started teaching ESL to moms and kids. She then progressed through pretty much every level of K–12 education. Her areas of competence as a teacher are multicultural pedagogy, multilingual education, developing healthy team cultures, boosting reading outcomes in high-poverty schools, and literacy. Brittany Cufaude jokes that this is a mouthful of EDU jargon. 

Brittany Cufaude has been working in the field of education for about 20 years. CEO of Joyful Classrooms, speaker in public, consultant, and coach Brittany Cufaude.

“I develop professional development throughout the world.”

The knowledge that Brittany Cufaude is assisting and directing educators to realise their full potential is her best and most valuable accomplishment. People who are not in the field of education are unaware of what it means to perform this profession.

“We sacrifice a lot. If I can help teachers feel more confident in their practice, and help them earn more money, I count that as a win.”

Founding Joyful Classrooms-

Although Joyful Classrooms engages in a variety of activities, its ultimate goal is to transform the world via teachers and kids by providing top-notch educational resources and learning goods. They have a multi-vendor website that acts as a central location for resources for teachers. 

The unique selling point of Joyful Classrooms is that they also use an SAS model, leveraging business to develop solutions that are user-friendly, easy to teach and learn with, and align with, cutting-edge learning science and evidence-based best practises.

It is important to remember that teaching and learning are difficult, which contributes to our present educational outcomes. In order to track the effectiveness of their products and learn how they are affecting learning, equity in the classrooms, and pretty much every other aspect of making classroom learning rich, human, and places where both teachers and students thrive, belong, and find purpose, joy, and humanity, they also track user-end data.

Challenges Along the Way-  

You have to be really wild and start something you have never seen to be an entrepreneur. That entails beginning to address the inferiority complex. But that was the simple part for me because I have a strong sense of vision. 

Connecting vision to what will actually happen, what can be consumed, and what will draw people who are motivated to take on and stay inspired and involved in the education mission, the day-to-day, was the difficult part for me.

The Growth Quotient-

“I named my company Joyful Classrooms because most children are sitting in classrooms for a vast number of their waking lives.”

It is difficult to say what people outside of the education industry picture when they consider what life is really like for the majority of instructors and students within the classroom. It must change since this is awful for both teachers and students. Furthermore, contrary to what most people believe, there is a very distinct road to joy in schooling. High levels of academic success—both intellectual and emotional—occur in classes.

The key to success is giving teachers the tools that will have the biggest impact on student learning while still being feasible and simple to use.

“People love that about our work.”

Their Products and Services- 

Joyful Classrooms shine a spotlight on talented educators and industry leaders. There is an abundance of teaching aids and instructional resources on the market and online. You have no idea what you are getting or whether it is best for learning, which is the problem.

“We exist to change that.”

Additionally, the company helps its content producers. They offer them the Side-Hustle Course, which instructs teachers and aspiring content creators on how to start a business, develop a brand, and attract customers.  The business is committed to developing its employees, inspiring a sense of purpose, and transforming the world through maximising learning. They differ due to this.

The Upcoming Big Thing 

Getting specific and measurable results has always been the main priority for Brittany Cufaude and her group. They understand that growth can only be based on customer requirements if it is sustainable. As a result, they continually check their feedback to see what new services, benefits, or training they might be interested in. They take action to make sure they can meet demands as soon as they are identified.

“This philosophy has allowed us to maintain a steady rate of growth.”

A range of services are provided by Joyful Classrooms to teachers, parents, and children. Their consulting services offer highly regarded and thoroughly investigated instructional approaches to other educators.  For teachers, parents, and kids, the market delivers high-impact, screened, and research-based teacher-created resources.  

The courses offered to educators include ones on branding, marketing, and business management.

“Our mission is to provide one source of trusted materials and eliminate the dumping ground of “educational” resources on the internet.”

The structure is based on the idea that students should only use the best materials for learning and practising because instructional time is limited and precious. They aim to joyfully support the success of both instructors and students in everything they do.

Brittany Cufaude’s Take on the Competition-

“Competition exists, but it’s also a myth. I view competition as a chance to learn more about how people behave, but I don’t let my ego get in the way of this and I don’t promote this mentality within my company. This, in my opinion, is never good for business. 

And we are seeing firm after company lose its good standing because, in the end, I believe they lost their humanity somewhere along the road. In the end, we are all one. Therefore, if a customer chooses another vendor instead of what I offer, I would love to learn about it in order to determine how I might be able to better what I have to offer.

But I also have no problem accepting the notion that sometimes others in life perform tasks better than we do. I therefore relieve my company and myself of the pressure of competing for sport’s sake. We are very good at what we do. We carry it out sincerely. We carry it out thoughtfully and sustainably. We carry it out with compassion. And with that, I sleep quite well at night.

A new set of difficulties were created by the rapid change, including encouraging the use of recently implemented technologies, monitoring faculty and student usage of online learning tools, online communication, and user support when face-to-face interaction opportunities are scarce or nonexistent. Although there are obstacles in the way of attaining the perfect teaching and learning environment, they are surmountable. Many businesses provide a range of services to address these institutional pain points, but very few do it in the same way that EesySoft does, by delivering a comprehensive answer to all of the problems.

The EdTech Adoption Platform EesySoft enables institutions to get the most out of their financial investments in educational technology. Customers may get in-depth insights into how their learning management systems (LMS) and other third-party tools are used on their software as a service (SaaS) platform, and they can effectively offer 24/7 assistance to their users. Institutions can use in-application communications to connect directly with teachers and students with this flexible solution. Over 3 million students and instructors throughout the world benefit from EesySoft’s data-driven strategy for maximising LMS and third-party tool use.

The EesySoft team is an international collection of accomplished experts that have been active in the edtech industry for more than ten years. It is not surprising that EesySoft constantly ranks among the top providers of EdTech solutions in the industry given its remarkable track record of happy and devoted customers.

The EesySoft team is composed of technologists, educators, and even former EesySoft customers!

The Company and its Journey:

EesySoft was established in 2010 with the goal of assisting clients in enhancing the adoption of business applications including CRM and ERP systems. When the founders, Michel Visser and Jan Henrik Ejme, met Willem van Valkenburg from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, the company shifted its attention into the education sector. By assisting universities in supporting their LMSs, Willem assisted the EesySoft founders in realising the importance of their software in closing a significant gap in the education market. This assisted them in creating a special service for online schooling. The company has expanded greatly since that time, both in terms of size and the range of products it offers.

The team at EesySoft has years of combined experience working in the educational and online learning industries. With EesySoft, organisations may track in real-time how instructors and students are using their LMS and outside technologies. EesySoft is the only company that uses this data-driven strategy, which has produced hundreds of customer success tales and improved EdTech adoption.

Technologists, educators, and even former EesySoft clients make up the EesySoft team! This has made it possible for them to integrate their knowledge of technology and education with experiences from real clients. Due to their diverse experiences, they are better able to relate to and comprehend the demands of LMS administrators, CIOs, support staff, and instructional designers.

The majority of the online learning ecosystem’s leading LMS and third-party tool suppliers are closely partnered with EesySoft. Additionally, EesySoft is continuously developing new releases to guarantee that its EdTech Adoption Platform is adding value for institutions all around the world.

Listening to Customers and Looking Towards the Future:

Through interfaces with prominent LMS providers including Blackboard, Instructure/Canvas, D2L, and Moodle, the company supports over 3 million users globally and is the market leader in providing technology adoption solutions for the education sector. Numerous educational institutions have been assisted by EesySoft in modernising their instructional approaches to reflect the interests of today’s students and teachers.

They provide in-depth reports on technology use at many levels, including institutions, departments, courses, and even individual users, through their EdTech Adoption Platform. Institutions are given the tools (including third-party solutions) that are integrated in their LMS environment by EesySoft to manage and acquire valuable insights from.

EesySoft aims to boost its customer-centric operations by developing features based on customer feedback from their community.

Institutions can use the data that EesySoft collects to take action, such as sending personalised in-app messaging to highly specific user groups. Such a message may be sent to encourage a certain activity or to serve as a reminder to complete a task. Due to their user-friendly “in-line editor,” a variety of message styles and formats can be produced and modified. Additionally, the business provides 24/7 help through the EesySoft help Centre, which can be accessed by any school to streamline online support procedures for professors and students.

Users receive the most pertinent resources just when they need them thanks to EesySoft’s context- and role-sensitive support solutions, which significantly shortens the time it takes to respond to help queries.

By creating products based on community member feedback, the company also hopes to improve its customer-centric operations. Their new administrative dashboard, which offers a cleaner and more user-centric interface, is one of the most important developments this year.

In order to diversify its offerings in the educational industry, EesySoft intends to grow its partner and reseller network and create deeper integrations with top LMS providers. From a feature perspective, the business is now creating AI components that will allow its platform to identify common problems and proactively contact users, thereby increasing user satisfaction.

The EesySoft Culture

The organisation is incredibly proud of its talented staff. Employees are all passionate about learning, and this enthusiasm is contagious. The team is made up of a varied assortment of people, each of whom contributes their particular point of view. As the company believes it is the best way to stay inventive and, thus, the best way to serve their consumers, EesySoft always welcomes people from all backgrounds, countries, skills, and ideas.

They are accustomed to working periodically strange hours to serve their customers all over the world because they have main offices in two major international cities, Amsterdam and Oslo. Even though they appreciate hard labour, they also enjoy a vibrant social culture—especially in lean times. The company ensures that everyone has fun both inside and outside of the office by organising trips, outings, meals, and other events. This promotes a family-like environment within the business, resulting in increased staff cooperation, higher levels of job satisfaction, and ultimately smiles for every EesySoft client.

Ingle’s frustration with the status quo was born out of years of experience in academia. He saw countless bright and motivated students who were not being given the opportunities they deserved, simply because they did not fit into the traditional mold of higher education. This was the inspiration behind his unique leadership style once he became president of Southeastern University.

Redefining Higher Education

Under Ingle’s leadership, Southeastern University has become a beacon of innovation and creativity, offering programs in over 100 areas, including fields that many traditional colleges overlook. By embracing the principles of partnership and collaboration, Ingle has been able to build bridges between Southeastern and other institutions, creating new opportunities for students and faculty alike.

What sets Ingle apart from his peers is his unwavering commitment to his principles. He believes that the best ideas are already within an organization and that by breaking with tradition, colleges can truly train tomorrow’s leaders. In just a few short years, Southeastern University has experienced a 240% growth rate, creating its longest and largest boon in history.

One of the unique characteristics that makes Dr. Kent Ingle special is his commitment to excellence in all areas of his work. He is dedicated to ensuring that Southeastern University provides an outstanding education to its students, and he has implemented several initiatives to achieve this goal. Under his leadership, Southeastern University has experienced tremendous growth, with an increase in enrolment and the addition of new academic programs.

Spiritual and Educational Excellence

Dr. Kent Ingle is also deeply committed to the spiritual growth and development of Southeastern University students. He has created numerous opportunities for students to deepen their faith and become more involved in their communities. As part of his journey, Dr. Ingle has created partnerships between Southeastern University and local churches, allowing students to gain practical, real-life experience while earning their degrees.

It is this passion for innovation and creativity that makes SEU under Dr. Ingle so unique. He has championed the use of new technologies to create a more dynamic and engaging learning environment for students. He has also encouraged faculty and staff to think innovatively and explore new ways to enhance the student experience.

The strong emphasis that Dr. Ingle places on collaboration and teamwork has created a culture of open communication and transparency, which has helped to foster a strong sense of community at Southeastern University. He is known for his approachability, and he regularly interacts with students, faculty, and staff, making himself available to listen to their concerns and ideas.

As he continues to build bridges across borders and reach out to new partners, the future of SEU seems bright. Dr. Kent Ingle believes that leadership is about serving others, and he leads by example, modeling the values of humility, integrity, and compassion. He is deeply committed to the success of Southeastern University and works tirelessly to ensure that the institution remains a leading Christian university.

About Dr. Kent Ingle

Dr. Kent Ingle is the president of Southeastern University, a public speaker and recognized thought leader. Ingle is passionate about transforming higher education and helping leaders create lasting change in their organizations. He is the author of The Modern Guide to College and Framework Leadership, and host of the popular Framework Leadership podcast. For more information about Dr. Kent Ingle, please visit www.kentingle.com

The GSE founders made the decision to found their multinational company after receiving numerous inquiries from practically every country in the world, both individually and as a dynamic team. GSE became a true overnight success thanks to its unmatched ability to launch additional schools and offer administration and assistance. From the beginning, there was a huge demand, and it still exists now.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” Nelson Mandela once said. The founders of GSE are aware of this because they have firsthand experience with such significant shifts on five different continents.

The founders of Global Services in Education, Greg and Shanna Parry, take us on a fascinating tour of the business in this interview with The Future Education Magazine.  

Tell us a little bit about the history and founding of Global Services In Education.

In 2011, Global Services in Education was initially established in response to requests from investors and developers for assistance in establishing and running schools. The absence of strong educational management and specialised education skills presented difficulties for investors entering the sector. We started our initial project in India’s Mumbai before relocating to China. We have now completed projects for schools across more than 12 nations, working with all significant curricula.

What accounts for the company’s enduring success?

Many people refer to Global Services in Education (GSE) as the link between business and education. GSE is a pioneer in managing international education. They have an understanding of how schools, curricula, teaching, and learning work. GSE excels in cross-border trade as well. Each project is supported by a thorough financial and business strategy, as well as by strategic planning that informs schools’ long-term business decisions. The ability of GSE leadership to lead initiatives in diverse cultural situations makes it exceptional. Asia and the Middle East, from Australia to the USA. The GSE global education team has covered every significant area.

What makes Global Services In Education the best option? What sets it apart?

A full-service provider of school management, Global Services in school. All main curricula as well as all organisational and managerial aspects of schools. Schools can only be successful if its management team is strong and has a solid understanding of both finance and education.

Tell us about the services that Global Services In Education offers to its clients. 

Establishing the school (including all aspects of business strategy, curriculum design, marketing, and human resources)

Technology vision that ranges from full-service virtual school design and administration to consulting services for classroom technology.

Management of educational institutions for all types, including online, K–12, vocational, and higher education programmes.

How do you make the decision to advance Global Services In Education in the area of educational technology? 

Investors looking to launch full-service virtual schools are contacting Global Services in Education in greater numbers. We see this as a developing trend that accelerated as a result of the pandemic’s effects on schools and families.

Schools also seek to build hybrid capabilities that let them share material across many delivery channels.

How is education technology required in the contemporary global environment? 

Ed-Tech can accommodate a larger range of students’ demands. The fundamental meaning of classrooms, schools, and education has changed as the world has grown smaller. For students, technology opens up new and expanded opportunities for learning and engagement.

What obligations do you believe online knowledge suppliers have?

Student results require a lot of attention. This encompasses both accomplishment and engagement. Commercial operators who are solely focused on making money frequently fail because they do not satisfy their customers. “Animations, bells, and whistles all swiftly break down, as do flashing lights. Technology does not belong in school if it does not help pupils learn better.

Could you please tell us a little bit about your professional background in ed-tech?

As an education management firm that picks techniques for results, GSE is a market leader in Ed-Tech. In the 1990s, the founders of GSE were among the first to use video conferencing to give instruction and training. GSE has continued to innovate while maintaining a healthy dose of scepticism as times have altered. They are aware that despite having quickly changing trends, technology does not always produce the desired results for students.

How has the traditional method of education been altered by digitization? 

Both learning and memory retention have accelerated with digitization. All of this has led to higher levels of operational efficiency as well as efficiency in traditional and virtual classrooms.

Tell us a little bit about your team. 

GSE is happy to have a sizable team with a diverse set of abilities. All educational backgrounds, business executives, and people with technical backgrounds. They are a full-service organisation that has pioneered new ideas while also transforming established institutions in all of the world’s major geographic areas.

Which quote do you find the most inspiring for students? 

“Technology should not be the ‘shiny object’ that makes a school attractive just for marketing purposes.  Education technology must accelerate outcomes for students and improve the quality of education experiences for all stakeholders.”

Everyone has a fundamental right to education, and the pandemic not only posed a serious threat to that right but also to all those who are eager to learn but are unable to access schools or other learning resources, so halting their educational process. This problem was solved by the online teaching method, which gives learners access to classes all over the world from the comfort of their homes. Basic education, or grades K through 12, was ignored in all this ecstatic innovation and technological intervention, especially for students who need extra support with things like testing, tutoring, etc.

Through their specialised, user-friendly platform, eTutorWorld stepped in to offer these services over the internet with information and tutors who are no less than authorities in their own fields. With a lengthy list of extremely delighted clients, devoted customers, and recognition in the industry as one of the leading providers of online education services, the company has been operating in this field for well over ten years.

When looking for an online tutor or test provider for grades K–12, eTutorWorld and their unmatched services rank among the best. Their methodologies and methods of delivery are constantly evolving to keep up with the most recent trends, and a team of committed and knowledgeable professionals work tirelessly to provide the best online education experience.

During a conversation with Mukul Agrawal, the president and CEO of eTutorWorld. Learn more about the business, its suite of educational services, and the CEO’s career path.

Please inform us about eTutorWorld and the difficulties it initially encountered.

For kids in grades K–12, eTutorWorld provides top-notch one-on-one online tutoring and exam preparation services. Our mission is to assist parents and provide kids with the tools they need to succeed as individuals in a warm and encouraging environment.

Our company was established in 2008 in Bangalore, India, and Glen Arbour, Michigan, after we realised tutoring could be made much more convenient and economical without sacrificing the standard of instruction given to students. Our staff has more than 100 years of combined experience in education and technology. Each tutor at eTutorWorld is thoroughly vetted and has years of expertise. We only choose the very finest!

All of our tutors are experienced, educated, and patient, but they are also mentors who provide your child the support they need to succeed. We’re not simply here to educate them; we’re also here to give them the confidence and independence they need.

Acceptance was one of the first and, in my opinion, the toughest difficulties we encountered. When we first began in 2008, there was no such thing as online education. At the time, the majority of people still had not used the internet, and college campuses were the only places where online learning was reasonably common. So it was difficult to persuade people that their children could learn online.

Tell us about the driving forces behind eTutorWorld’s success.

After we made the strategic decision to invest in Search Engine Optimisation, digital marketing, and online advertising, eTutorWorld experienced amazing development. When we extended our sales crew, we also experienced a significant uptick. The acceptability of online education has fueled our development over the years.

When we first started, we were certain that we would always put an emphasis on building a solid core staff. When you have the appropriate people working for you, success is just a matter of time, I can say that with absolute certainty. We have worked with experts in their fields who enjoy defying conventions from the very beginning. Even the interns and newcomers were subject to this rule, top to bottom. We now have a team that is familiar with our principles and has, in a sense, developed the brand that we are today.

eTutorWorld saw tremendous growth after we took a conscious decision to invest in Search Engine Optimization, digital marketing, and online advertising.

After the core staff, we focused on selecting qualified tutors. A market is not what we are. We don’t merely put parents in touch with tutors and call it a day. After thorough consideration (several rounds of testing and interviews), we hand-pick our tutors. Following the screening process, we train the tutors to teach in online classrooms and to understand the advantages and disadvantages of dealing with young children with technology. After around two weeks of training, we let them enrol in classes and join the successful team at eTutorWorld. Sales for the company increased by 100% during the fiscal year 2020–21 compared to the prior fiscal year.

Tell us about eTutorWorld’s unmatched educational services, any newest features, and the things that make them stand out from the competitors. 

Our business focuses on providing K–12 students in the US with individualised online tutoring and test preparation. “Structured and Personalised long-term tutoring” is our main focus at eTutorWorld. On the other hand, the majority of the industry’s bigger firms offer “On-demand instant homework help”. Since we are fundamentally unique, we plan to forge our own course even moving ahead.

As I’ve already stated, eTutorWorld is not a market; rather, we have committed and qualified tutors (graduates and above) providing higher-quality coaching at reasonable prices.

Yes, this year features a number of new products. One of the options for small groups (of two to six people) is Virtual Learning Pods (VLPs). Every kid in the group receives personalised tutoring from it. Students have recently suffered from serious learning loss, and we think that this kind of accessible, small-group coaching can greatly benefit them. Additionally, we are developing a number of cutting-edge products, including a new worksheet tool with adaptive testing and diagnostic reporting. You will also soon learn about our AI/ML-based and gamification-based products.

We have been paying close attention to the economy and how the education sector is adjusting to the new normal.

We are actively enhancing our capacity to serve a larger audience in order to adapt to the overall increase in the acceptance of online learning. Our mission is to make online tutoring accessible to all societal groups that previously couldn’t afford it. To achieve personalisation at scale, we have been working on numerous product and process advancements.

Inform us about your professional background and the key points of your career.

I currently hold the position of CEO of eTutorWorld. I collaborated with the country manager and managing director of Unisys India before to creating eTutorWorld. I’ve travelled the world working and living, gaining valuable managerial and commercial expertise. I also got the opportunity to collaborate with the companies Tata Consulting, CitiBank, and Deutsche Bank.

In my entrepreneurial journey, my greatest success and fulfilment have been helping thousands of students in the USA with their studies, especially during the covid period, having a high customer satisfaction rating without any customer complaints, providing work or supplemental income for more than 50 people in India, always being able to pay them on time and never missing a payment, maintaining a spotless business reputation, and paying taxes to support society.

Tell us about the eTutorWorld staff and work environment.

One word—’responsibility’—can sum up the workplace atmosphere of eTutorWorld. In order to produce people who are tenacious, self-reliant, and dedicated to the expansion of the business, we’ve combined it with the word “freedom.” Every employee at eTutorWorld works with a sense of responsibility and has the freedom to make decisions that will improve operations.

I have always prioritised employing capable and prepared personnel for this reason. People who are prepared to jump into their occupations headfirst and provide results right away. People can be taught best practises, but they can never be made to learn new things or to imagine ideas that go beyond definitions and authority.

Your perspective on market rivalry and how it affects you.

We think that operating in a competitive market is important since it keeps us alert and encourages ongoing innovation. Most of our rivals follow a market-based business model and concentrate on giving students who need homework assistance on-demand, ad hoc assistance. We aim to give our kids the tools they need to do their homework independently using what they have learned and what they already know. We prepare children for a future in which they may be on their own by providing long-term learning through the help of our knowledgeable teachers.

We are able to provide high-quality teaching at some of the most competitive prices on the market at the moment since all of our teachers are situated in India. As a result, I believe that our rivals should be considering how to keep up with us since we are already one step ahead.

Naturally, one of the best motivating aspects is competition. It prompts you to ask yourself, “What can you do better than your rival?” It encourages you to produce more superior goods and services that are distinctively your own. Our rivals have so far forced us to offer everything we’ve got, and I’m hopeful things only get better from here.