E-learning that was once an unfamiliar word to Malaysians had changed in 2020. Classes are cancelled and parents are caught juggling between tutoring their children and working. And this is where e-learning has become a trend, where parents are caught in searching online for the best way to aid their children’s education in the face of the pandemic.
Wargabiz had the opportunity to speak to Dr Denise Lim, Managing Director and Co-Founder of VKids Trend Sdn Bhd, about the e-learning scene in Malaysia and the future of it.
VKids Trend, helping students learn effectively amid the pandemic
Upholding the passion for education, Dr Denise Lim and her partners, Dr Vivian Ker and Dr Eric Ang founded VKids Trend Sdn Bhd and crafted the VSchool Trend Learning Program to help students learn easily and effectively.
“We saw the potential of the internet and decided to make our program as an e-learning program i.e. VSchool Trend Learning Program. And we are so confident about our product, where we created it to be an entrepreneurship platform for many.”
Asked about their main product, Dr Denise describes the VSchool Trend Learning Program as a simple platform; a combination of education and IT as an online learning program designed to supplement primary and secondary school students, from Primary School Standard 1 till Secondary School Form 5, with contents crafted based on the Malaysian Syllabus. It carries many features which promote simple, interesting and at the same time effective learning to its users.
VKids Trend is not an ordinary e-learning program
Some features of the VSchool Trend Learning Program include ‘Colourful Notes’, where important points are presented in a colourful way to the students. It also features more than 10 different formats of ‘Intelligent Exercises’ aimed to provide students with interesting ways to practice what they have learned. Coupled with short videos, flashcard videos and animation exercises, the program is determined to keep the students attentive and focused during their learning process.
“We focus on sound and visualization as we believe listening and watching are the quickest and easiest way to learn. Thus, we created many features based on these aspects,” Dr Denise explains.
Other features like word dictionary and picture dictionary are also available in the program. Especially for the word dictionary, students can easily click on the words for the definitions to be displayed. VSchool Trend Learning Program works with the renowned Kamus Pro online dictionary to ensure that the word dictionary is always accurate and updated.
“The system even motivates them to keep learning! It displays motivational words and sounds to encourage students to keep going during exercise, whether they answered them correctly or incorrectly.”
A great tool for students and parents
Parents, on the other hand, can also benefit a lot from VSchool Trend Learning Program. Firstly, they can be assured that the teaching materials in the program are accordance and appropriate as VSchool Trend has a team of content advisors to check and update the contents based on the Malaysian Syllabus. Also, parents can remotely check on their children progress via the Parent Login ID feature. So, parents can go to work in peace!
“However, I must stress that this program is a complement to what students learn in school. Having this program doesn’t mean that students can skip school or tuition and parents can stop mentoring their children altogether,” Dr Denise highlights.
Thousand of VKids Trend’s distributors in less than 3 years
VKids Trend has been in the market for 3 years, not only their product, VSchool Trend Learning Program sounds interesting, what’s more compelling is the way the product is sold and distributed.
“We provide an entrepreneurial platform for those who have dreams and ambitions with an opportunity to start a business out of our product. But we do know in order to start a business, one needs to have a large amount of capital, experience or knowledge. Thus, we are using a strong distributor team model to operate the business specially designed for those who wish to start a business even if they have no knowledge or experience but willing to learn.”
VKids Trend Sdn Bhd developed a series of systematic training and system tools, as well as the leadership of a group of top leaders, to provide systematic guidance to their distributors on how to market VSchool Trend Learning Program as a business. Everything starts from sales & marketing to the management of a team is carefully taken into consideration to create a stable and strong distributorship arm. And these operation models have proven to be successful as VKids Trend expands quickly to having over a thousand distributors in less than 3 years of inception.
Growing faster in the market
Speaking about the challenges of the current pandemic, Dr Denise says that fortunately, the pandemic propelled the business even further.
“During this situation, our distributors were doing good especially in the past few months as schools were closed and parents had to ensure that their children don’t stop learning.”
Besides, their distributorship base also grew as many people main source of income were effected during this period and had to look for a replacement income.
“I am glad that our business model is able to help people that had lost income during this period.”
Overcoming challenge with a positive attitude
But she also notes that the business is nothing without challenges. In order to align with the latest Malaysian syllabus, they need to constantly update their contents and add in new exercises and features onto the program accordingly. Those enhancement may cause extra time and effort to the content advisors team.
“We have our own group of very dedicated and responsible content advisors. They are all very experienced teachers who have so much passion in education. Through their many years of experience in the education industry, they have carefully designed the contents of VSchool Trend Learning Program and constantly updated and improved them from time to time. We are so thankful to have such a great team that is willing to spent their time and effort together with the company.”
She, however, views challenges as room for growth. Going forward, VKids Trend will continue to focus on in-depth R&D and improvement in the field of online education, and continue to develop more features and values that can benefit their users. At the same time, they are also determined to help their distributors to grow and accomplish their successes quickly.
Words of wisdom
Dr Denise advises upcoming and aspiring entrepreneurs to have the courage and to be persistent in whatever they do.
“Face it bravely, deal with it positively, and solve it patiently. Your thoughts and actions determine your future. Nothing can beat you. The only thing that can beat you is yourself. Fate is always in your own hands. You have to believe in yourself and work through the hardships.”
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