Colleen Cronje Brainline — Video Communication And Online Learning

David Watts on Mix 93.8 What's involved on Monday night? Busy Monday this Monday, we had the guys from Global Local Investments and yeah they're going to be back in two weeks time becoming one of the sponsors of the show looking forward to learning all about that and getting some tips on investing. But right now we're going to talk about learning and I am very happy. I was actually just saying off air, I was very excited. We wanted to do this but unfortunately the show was booked up. I was going to talk about this last year and this was the first time that we could get the guys in here. I have Colleen Crenier, she is the CEO and founder of BrainLine, am I correct? Absolutely. Wonderful. Colleen, thank you so much for coming in and having a chat to us. You're talking BrainLine focuses a lot on online learning, am I correct? That is absolutely true and specifically at school level. I think that's where we are unique in the market. If you talk about online learning one is I've become actually used to that at university level, tertiary level but it's very unfamiliar ground for school level. In other words from grade one up until grade 12. Okay now I've noticed and specifically in the adult learning area is this has exploded over the last few years, this online learning. There's a myriad of things that you can do. Why did you start BrainLine? Was it started with this vision in mind?

Actually not sir, it actually started quite a number of years ago when my letter has been decided that he's going to start and sell some computers and he discovered that for the South African learner in South Africa itself. There's nothing available that gives them something that they can go into to look at some resources for homework and based on the South African curriculum. So we started with writing material which is suited to the South African market. Now I don't know how old you are but if you remember the names if you remember the names XTs, 80s, 286s, 386s, stuffies, CDs, DVDs then you'll know exactly the road that we took to get to where we are today where none of those are applicable anymore. You can have any device that you want in your hand and as long as you have access to the internet you have access to information and if you have access to information you are able to access education. And particularly the youngsters today because they seem to be able to pick up any device. Exactly and they demand that. And know how to use it almost intuitively. I mean I battle having using a remote sometimes and have to get one of the kids to come and show me how to set the stupid thing up but but they just fly through it and and I think it's part of the culture. Have you found that they learn more and more easily when they do it online? They are very comfortable in the online environment and I think many of the parents that are that have young kids well for the past few generations actually have young children of school going age are very afraid of being a social media citizen or an internet citizen but it is a real fact and it's the reality of our times. So our position or responsibility as parents actually is not to withhold the internet but to create responsible global citizens in an internet environment. They need to know how to navigate the dangers and the good and the bad and the very evil of the internet. Okay now you started doing this and in those days I mean that was visionary. It's still pretty visionary in South Africa although I've noticed there's a groundswell it's it's definitely picking up. Have the teachers themselves been a bit resistant? Were they like oh what is this foreign thing or have they embraced the technology? Absolutely up until today. Unfortunately one has to say that that the talk and talk method of learning and teaching is still the comfortable way of learning and teachers still feel that that's the way to go. The bad news of it is that Dr Google is just as good as teacher as teachers are in the classrooms currently.

So what is the teacher there to do then? Why do they get these degrees? What do they learn? Well they actually learn the insight or the learning that they get the knowledge that they gain creates insight for them in which that they can use to identify problems in learners. Identify learners who have to have more resources so that they can progress faster. So they are actually supposed to be I think in my opinion be there to to be in the interest of the learner actively participating in progressing the learner through his or her academic knowledge environment whatever you'd like to call that. Because I don't think because I heard somebody saying the other oh yes with all of this online learning teachers are going to become redundant. I don't believe so at all. Not at all not at all. I see it every day and I see the insight with which teachers actually in the classroom handles the learners. They have got that experience and insight that you don't you do not get that overnight. You cannot get it from a book and it's something that is invaluable in the classroom. The teacher has become a facilitator as well because knowledge has become cheap. Knowledge is free. It is the way that you offer the knowledge, the way that you present the knowledge that makes the difference.

And that's the part I think is so important because if I think back to my my schooling and my school career it was as you so rightly put it just now talk and talk and it would be come in sit down shut up they drive something on the board open your textbook to page 11 and go. Yes and I didn't necessarily learn terribly well that way. I need the visual stuff and and all of that. And when the internet started to open up I was amazed. I was like here's this this is I mean in my day you know if you wanted to know a lot of stuff then if you were very lucky your parents bought the Encyclopedia Britannica and you could go and page through volumes and volumes and suddenly there was all of that plus more and I just had to type stuff into a keyboard. That's right. And it was brilliant. So is it is it going how we well I'm getting ahead of myself because I want to know where this is going but when we come back I'd like to talk a little bit about what is BrainLine then and what BrainLine actually does. So when we come back we will have a chat about that my special guest in studio tonight from BrainLine. We've got the founder and CEO Colleen Cronier. We'll be back with Colleen in just a bit. Anyway my special guest in studio can help me with all of these questions.

Is the CEO and founder of BrainLine Colleen Cronier. Colleen tell me about BrainLine now. So you found this you started off you saw that there was a gap and we started off with the old I can't believe that there's somebody else who knows about xts and at computers. I started and dos and dos remember. Stuffies and floppies and CDs. Cities were like the height of technology at one stage. Exactly now we hang them in the trees to scare the birds away. Yeah and you don't you don't I mean if you buy a computer these days that we bought one recently there is no CD or DVD drive anymore. It's gone. Even the ports are growing fewer and fewer. Yeah no it's scary stuff. Tell me what is so BrainLine does what exactly? You create? Actually we completely replace school completely in its entirety. Now we are talking from starting from your study material up until classes and assessment all inclusive. Now within that we have got different products where you can decide now if one talks about home education. I'm an old home educator. I know exactly what I'm doing. Just give me the assessment that's one product or you can decide no I don't want to go to all the trouble of finding all the study material.

Give me a paint by numbers school. I am not a teacher. I am not a principal. I just need to know what to do with my children. So give me that. So that's another product. And if you talk about prices you and I quickly had a few conversations about pricing. Now one would think that that would be expensive but it's not. Remember now because we're internet based we don't use paper. We don't print any paper. We don't send you packages. So the the cost that you would have on your site is data. The cost that we have on our side is internet and data. So we need to get the best internet access that we have. And of course we need to have excellent teachers. Teachers are dynamic who can present like you and I are sitting here we're talking to each other but we're also talking to multiple listeners out there. They need to be comfortable and be dynamic and charismatic so they can engage those learners even though those learners are not in the room with them. They need to understand their dynamic as well. So that is those those are the costs that we need to cover. So we need to pay good people. And now if you compare our prices to that of schools in South Africa you will find that if you go to our website brainline.com our prices compare to that of a public school. Now I'm talking about government schools.

Okay. And not independent or private schools. Okay so essentially I've got a child maybe the child is experiencing difficulties at school whatever the case may be. Because I think long term when and later on I want to get into that for the for the people that are in the rural areas I think this must be absolutely amazing if they've got internet access. But if my child is battling a bit at school whatever I mean these days there seem to be so many more problems at school than when we were growing up. I mean then can I literally log onto and say okay my child is now in grade four for example. And I want to I want them to study at home where I can make sure that they're doing the right thing at the right time. I pay you I've got access to all of that. What about exams? Do you do you write tests? Do the student write tests? Yes we absolutely do as a child would do at a let's call a traditional school. Let's talk about so if it's an exam we need to see to it that our exams are valid and reliable. So for assignments as you would at school you would receive the assignment at school you would go home and complete it and bring it back or complete it within the school hours whatever the case may be.

But when we get to a test or exam what we do to ensure validity and reliability. As we issue the exam so it's downloadable however you are unable to open it. On the morning which is stipulated on the timetable you receive a password and you would receive it on your online profile so it's uniquely to you. You are then able to use that password to open your file, print it out and like you would do at school. Remember now online doesn't mean we are so digital that we only type. We're still right because in the end the grade 12 student needs to sit for three hour paper in that particular subject. All right so now this grade four learner would download the paper mom or the invigilator would sit close to them they would write the paper complete it scan it back in and ensure that that paper reaches us before 12 in the morning. So we narrow the time period during which the time during which the exam is supposed to get to us. In other words we ensure or we try to ensure that as little irregularities as possible can take place. For grade 12 the final exam is not written in that way. We are registered with the IAB the independent examination board and they have to come to our center and write the exam as issued by the IAB and then they mark those papers and they are accredited by Umelusi intern. I'm sure you've heard about Umelusi.

That's the accreditation body. Those are actually the people who issue the national senior certificate. So if you get your national senior certificate it doesn't say brainline. It doesn't say what the school of work school. It doesn't say Kharat Maritz high school whatever the case may be. It says Umelusi. It carries the logo of Umelusi. So the national senior certificate is issued to all students who qualify for that particular certificate by Umelusi. I think that's brilliant but I knew these questions were going to start coming in because I was wondering about that. Somebody says hi does brainline provide special subjects? I'm very interested in visual arts. Absolutely we do and I get so excited when people ask those questions. Distance education traditionally one wouldn't think and visual arts is one of it. But we were able to submit to the IAB proof and they're happy with the moderation that they've done so far that the group can actually interact so much with each other that they can set up their visual or diaries and that the IAB moderator comes along and can actually see that they are able to participate actively in producing their visual art products which is they exhibited appropriately at the correct time under the supervision of our art teacher is Evan Antonides and he then presents this exhibit to the IAB moderators and so far they've been very happy with that and we are so excited.

I've been so eager to invite everybody to come and look at these visual art exhibits because I was so excited one cannot believe what these youngsters produce. I'm amazed that you said yes to that because I was I was going to go okay this this one Colleen's going to battle with a little bit but I'm going to ask anyway because that's what our listeners want and you do it. And let me give you more. Let me give you English drama. So that is also a subject that you would think no it's not appropriate to meet Austin's education. These youngsters are awesome. They have their own Skype groups together. They have their own WhatsApp groups together and under the supervision of our drama teacher they actually have their little play and their pieces that they do and it's also presented to the IAB and it's always so exciting because the parents get invited to see all of these things that they do so that's a wonderful subject. Another wonderful subject well you did talk about some wonderful subjects that you didn't talk about the round of the mill stuff. How about equine studies for you? In other words that's a subject for those who love they all think that they might want to do veterinary sciences. Equine studies might suit them very well.

You might have children who've done horse riding all their lives. Now imagine that being one of your subjects that you do as part of your metric national scene certificate. What a bargain. It's actually one subject that you can tick that you can get 90% for because you just absolutely love it. I think that is phenomenal because and as we're speaking I keep casting back to the days when when I went through a distance learning college and you know you would you would then sign up and everything and then they would post you this massive pile of books which was just typing and it was horrible. I'd never ever completed one of those things. I think I single-handedly must have financed quite a few people's salaries because I bought so many of these courses never finished one just because I found it dreary and dull and boring and no support. Now you're there I mean you've got yeah so now I'm doing I'm doing whatever grade through you. There is a teacher on the other side that I can communicate with. Absolutely and you know what's interesting we just spoke about it this morning how similar these live webinars I know you've heard about webinars. Big fan. How similar these live webinars are with the learners then it would be in a classroom.

We had to unfortunately or fortunately disable the function where they could privately chat to each other because we found that it distracted them so we had to disable that function. Learners will be learners people will be people. They are always forever finding something more interesting than the class but even so they love the live webinars. They call the recordings because we do record everything and we save it for everybody because we realize the kids can't see everything all the time. They are busy with sporting activities or whatever the case may be. So if you miss the live one you get the replay. We save the recording for them so they can come back and view that multiple times it never gets taken away. Which would be great if there's something you don't understand. Exactly. Because then you can just re-watch. Even when whilst there's a live webinar you can ask the question in the chat room and the teacher can see what you're asking and maybe just work it into the class as she's progressing throughout the class. What was interesting is they they call the recordings second-hand classes which was interesting to me because they find the live webinars the enticing part the one that they want to be with be at and be in. So viewing recording to them is a second class thing but it's wonderful to have anyway.

Somebody else has just said is it possible to do something such as a bridging course for if you didn't have a subject in school such as physical sciences for example and then only do that class tests and assignments. Oh absolutely you can. We've got a product that we call the compact. Now the new national certificate says that you've got to do grade 10 pass that before you can enroll for 11 going on to 12. So it's actually a three-year course but we do understand that some adults having completed their matrix suddenly discover that they need physical science or they need mathematics then what to do. Now what we do is we combine grade 10 and 11 in one year so that gives you the freedom of access to that academic information to see to it that you are well prepared and then they enroll for the grade 12 year. So that gives them a year let's say head start instead of doing three years it might be that you just need two years the compact version and then follow that up with a grade 12 and yes you can do only the one subject if you want to. See this this for me would be and I'm going to use the term mature students like myself that would be great because if you didn't do that well at metric or whatever for whatever the reasons were but you moved on with life and now suddenly you're at a place where you need to get that in order for you to study further. This is this is an amazing way of being able to do it. Absolutely and I'd like the listeners to page back on our Facebook page and you will find one of our star learners from 2019 is a young lady she's in her 40s but she wanted to do veterinary science all her life and she came back to redo her grade 12 and I think she got about four or five distinctions in the end if memory serves me right.

So every year I stand in the exam halls and I look across these wide there's wide open space at all the faces and it's anybody and everybody from everywhere who would just like to improve their own education or advance in their careers. They could be 17 or they could be 70 it doesn't matter. I think that is fantastic when we come back we're going to chat some more I want to know where are we going what is what is you know where's brain line going what are the plans we'll talk about that my special guest is the CEO and founder of BrainLine Colleen Croneer in studio with me we'll be talking more about online learning when we come back we are having a chat to my special guest in studio at this time Colleen Croneer CEO and founder of BrainLine now BrainLine all about online learning from grade one right up until grade 12 you say absolutely somebody asked us about okay we talked about the bridging one the vocational sort of vocational subjects um and you mentioned something about if somebody wanted to get into like yes we electrical engineering so exactly indeed yes now vocational if I talk about in BrainLine about vocational I'm not talking in one in two in three like we used to talk about okay used to study for six months and then do another six months practical yes wherever you are able to go or whatever the case may be this is completely different in as much as it is a valid matrix certificate you would take your two languages you would take mathematics and physical science you would take your life orientation that like the way that you should and then you have a choice of various electrical subject power systems would be the classical electric that you and I think of okay wiring and stuff like that you get digital electronics and then you get electronics digital electronics is where you actually are able to program chips so now we get into coding now these candidates can go into engineering they can get their university degrees in engineering um way back when when I was a youngster your vocational was the avenue that kids who did not do too well at school went into gone are those days vocational courses are really academically rigorous they're academically challenging and they are the courses that actually offers the best or some of the best job opportunities I was going to say because that is one thing I believe that that we are seriously lacking in this country is skilled artisans people who've studied in because you're right and all those are oh if you can't crack it at school then just go and get your n1 and n2 and off you go and have a nice day um but those kind of people highly skilled educated people we we have a shortage of them I believe those are the people who need to fix ascom yeah those are the people who need to fix brasa and everything else um these are the youngsters who need to fix our future because that's what we need to look at yeah now with brainline is is one of the ideas it's all good and well we we're