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Time to disrupt one-size-fits-all education

Director at Top Dog Education, CLAUDIA SWARTZBERG, describes how it creates digital content that learners can study in their own time, and at their own pace.

We’re living in exciting times – there’s no doubt about that. Innovation and advancement are radically changing the way we live, work, and access information. So much so, in fact, that if you were to transport someone from just 50 years ago into our modern world, they’d have a hard time making sense of just about anything.

But one thing hasn’t changed in 50 years, or even 100, for that matter. Our one-size-fits-all, low-tech and pre-digital educational systems have stubbornly endured for far too long, contributing to an education crisis that is far from an exclusively South African problem. All recent research shows that learners have much to gain from digital learning and a more personalised approach to their educational development.

As a   young learner, I struggled academically in primary school myself, but was lucky enough to have a very patient father who would take it upon himself to tutor me and explain concepts in a way that made sense to me – in other words, he personalised my learning. This was a turning point that sparked my passion for academics and turned me into a top performer in my class. The only problem is that not every parent has the time or know-how to help their kids in the same way, and our teachers already have their hands full as it is.

Along with my brother, Ryan, we founded Top Dog Education with the dream of giving every South African learner easy and affordable access to the kind of learning personalisation that helped them thrive – and the internet was the natural choice to help them achieve their goal. With a team of programmers, educational psychologists and expert teachers, they set about creating engaging, affordable digital content that learners can study in their own time, and at their own pace, in order to supplement the material and concepts they are being taught in school.

But the real magic of Top Dog Education is more subtle than flashy tutorials and a slick website. The system differs from similar products in the market in its application of technology, with ingenious solutions so seamlessly built into the platform, that it’s as good as having a tutor right by your side. The underlying system for all Top Dog products is deep performance analysis of each individual. Based on this continual analysis, each student gets a personal improvement path to follow, which adapts and grows with the student over time.

Our program doesn’t just feed you material. As you work through it, it is actively tracking your unique strengths and weaknesses with deep analysis, getting to know your individual learning style, and creating an educational experience that is built just for you.

The result? An assisted learning tool that is perfectly aligned to current South African curricula, presented in such a way that students are more engaged by the materials than ever, and are motivated to reach goals and milestones they have set for themselves.

It was Albert Einstein who once famously said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Top Dog Education represents a giant leap forward in recognising that everybody requires a different approach in order to learn to their fullest potential, providing learners with the freedom and flexibility to achieve outstanding improvement in their own style, and at their own pace.

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