More and more people are choosing to study some oppositions. A pioneering initiative aided by educational technology (EdTech), which is currently gaining more importance when it comes to learning or, in this case, preparing for oppositions, is . The Valencian company offers an online study method that plans a personalized learning itinerary that evolves in a particular way with each student who uses the platform. Since its founding -just five years ago- the platform has helped more than 40,000 users prepare their oppositions.
The evolution of education and technology has been slow, but the opportunity to innovate and change is open. That was one of the main motivations that gave life to this platform and Clara Torrijos, co-founder and CEO of GoKoan explains what it consists of and how exactly it works.
What is GoKoan?
GoKoan is a Valencian opposition startup founded by three passionate about education and technology. Our passion for learning led us to seek a more efficient way of studying and we created our own study methodology through which to generate personalized study itineraries with the aim of learning more in less time.
Why have you decided to implement educational technology tools (EdTech) for the study of oppositions?
The opposition segment continues to be managed in the same way as 20 years ago and its digitization has simply resulted in sharing the agenda and the tests on a web page. While the competition focuses its interest on the materials to be shared, GoKoan offers a solution to the most important part when preparing a long-term objective: having a good study methodology through which to guide the opponent.
How does GoKoan help students? What facilities does it offer?
What we do is solve the great problem of the opponent: plan their daily study and arrive at the exam with the peace of mind of mastering the syllabus.
The student only has to worry about fulfilling the task schedule
The student selects his opposition on the platform, the time available to study and his target date, and the platform creates a plan by selecting the activities and the best available study resources in a personalized way: as a test for each topic, diagrams or videos explanatory. The student interacts with the platform and GoKoan learns from its behavior and readapts the objectives. The student only has to worry about fulfilling the task schedule.
What type of computer knowledge is required to make use of this technology? How is it used?
We have created GoKoan to be a completely intuitive and user-friendly e-learning tool. Anyone can access and start their itinerary, since you will not need any level of office knowledge. You just have to register on the platform with your email and it will offer you a small guide when you start your session, where it will show you how to configure your planning and access the different parts of the tool. You simply have to choose an opposition and configure how many hours a day (or a week) you have to study and the date you would like to have the syllabus learned and the platform will take care of creating the study plan.
What are the benefits that the student obtains when implementing GoKoan as a study method?
In the world of competitive examinations, it is not about how much time you study, but about optimizing the time you spend as much as possible. When you start studying, it is normal to feel overwhelmed with so much information: updates from the BOE, calls, the search for a quality syllabus, updated tests, planning… The goal of GoKoan is to become your guide, offering you everything you need and optimizing planning. of your opposition so that you focus on what is most important.
GoKoan works with subscription plans, being able to choose the one that best suits your pocket
How much does it cost? What are the options offered?
GoKoan is one of the most accessible platforms on the market. It works with subscription plans, being able to choose the one that best suits your pocket: a quarterly plan for €120, a semester plan for €190 or an annual plan for €240, so you can prepare your opposition for €20 per month. The economic difference compared to traditional academies is very large and, in addition, GoKoan gives you the opportunity to manage the study at your own pace, so you will not miss any class if the schedules do not adapt to your rhythm of life.
What does your method consist of?
The GoKoan Method is based on principles of the psychology of memory and learning that allow you to consolidate the study of your opposition in the long term. Our method has been scientifically tested through an agreement with the University of Valencia in 2018, where we carried out an experimental development in which 400 students participated. In it, it was shown that those who used GoKoan substantially improved their academic performance, which allowed us to publish a research article in Studies in Educational Evaluation, as well as participate in several conferences.
What is different about GoKoan’s approach compared to other similar startups?
If we focus on those that are academies, they are very traditional companies, with an absence of advanced study methodologies, especially the use of technology to scale and grow.
If we talk about specific digital tools for oppositions, they are usually test apps that are limited to covering a minimum part of everything that preparation involves; that by itself does not serve them to achieve their objective.
We are a technological company with a clear vocation for learning, we use technology but with a pedagogical purpose since we want our students to learn.
What difficulties or problems can GoKoan solve?
GoKoan provides a solution to the opponents’ main problem: planning.
With GoKoan you can continue with your pace having the peace of mind of knowing the specific hours of dedication that you must apply to your opposition
Becoming a good opponent necessarily requires a radical change in habits and the main one is organizing your time around studying, which is a real puzzle if you work or have other activities. With GoKoan you can continue with your pace having the peace of mind of knowing the specific hours of dedication that you must apply to your opposition.
What feedback do you receive from your students?
More than 6,000 opponents have passed through our platform and with time and dedication we have created a huge community from which we feed to continue improving day by day. Within the platform, this community is also very active since each user can ask questions about the platform or the agenda and answer the concerns of their colleagues. The part that they appreciate the most is the planning, since we have many interim users, who have part-time jobs or who have children to take care of, so organizing requires extra effort that often becomes a real pain. upside down We help them mitigate emotions such as loneliness, lack of planning, loss of motivation, etc.
You have recently raised 1.2 million euros in an investment round. What are your expansion plans?
We are currently working on a product with the objective that GoKoan generates personalized and fully automated learning itineraries that are capable of selecting the best learning resources for each opponent based on pace and content mastery, not only study and evaluation materials. We work to develop a product that maximizes the personalization of teaching based on the benefits of cognitive science, from psychology to artificial intelligence; whatever the content, with the long-term goal of being able to impact any training vertical.
This capital injection by Sabadell Venture Capital, Athos Capital, Draper B1 and the Valencian Institute of Finance (IFV), will allow us to work on three specific fronts: our national expansion, product improvement and application of the method to another type of formations.
GoKoan currently has 63 opposition courses, focusing its presence on State courses, the Valencian Community, Andalusia, Castilla y León and Madrid, so our main objective is to expand our presence in new autonomous communities where we believe that our method can help thousands of opponents On the other hand, we continue to improve our product with the aim of generating personalized learning paths, not just study and evaluation materials.
Finally, we work to develop a product that maximizes the personalization of teaching based on the benefits of cognitive science, from psychology to artificial intelligence; whatever the content, with the long-term goal of being able to impact any training vertical.
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