Start-up Nation: ExamTime keeping students on top of their work

When Dualta Moore came up with the idea for online learning platform ExamTime.com, he had already been involved with other education-focused projects for some time.

His business, Software Asset Management Ireland, has built up a steady customer base around Ireland, working as a reseller of technology for companies such as Adobe and Microsoft in the education and voluntary sector in Ireland and Britain.

So when ExamTime came into being, Moore was able to use the experience he had built up to make sure it would be the best option for educators.

Explore creativity
"From our experience, the older traditional virtual learning environments would be quite rigid and they're very institution focused," he says.

“So how they sell is they see the customer as the institution. Our starting point was that in education, the customer is the teacher and the student, because they consume the goods, the products are for them.”

From that starting point, ExamTime was born, aimed at second and third level students.

But although his previous venture helped bring ExamTime to life, the company has a very different focus. It is designed to help students improve their understanding of classroom topics by doing their work more efficiently and effectively.

It has a number of ways of doing this, with web applications to help students be more creative. That includes a “mind map” app to explore creativity, flashcards to help with memory, and the ability to add video through the notes application.

“Traditional mainstream software companies are not really producing products built for teachers and students. They’re corporate products, built for a working environment; they’re not built for a learning environment,” he says.

“We built online web applications to engage students in learning and to be more creative, like mind maps and flashcards.”

There are plans to continue adding to the tool available on ExamTime to make it a more comprehensive platform.

There are other online learning platforms out there, but as Moore explains, ExamTime is taking a slightly different tack.

“It’s looking at lifelong learning, how classrooms are evolving,” says Moore. “They’re evolving slowly; they are moving from teaching by rote, where a teacher stands at the top of the room and dictates information to learning collaboratively, learning in groups.

“Rather than creating a virtual learning environment, we wanted to create a personal learning environment.”

And while Software Asset Management Ireland is aimed at the Irish and British markets, ExamTime is focusing on a more global audience. The Spanish language version of the site is already up and running, as is the Portuguese site.

"We are an Irish company, but we don't see this as being an Irish product. The tools we have created for Examtime. com are applicable to students in all countries," says Moore.

Revenue opportunities
"The Spanish site is attracting users not only from Spain, but from Mexico, Argentina and across Latin America. It is estimated that there are 407 million native Spanish speakers in the world. "

The company has already started to grab attention; it was a finalist in Europe’s prestigious tech awards, the Europas, nominated in the best education start up category.

Moore currently has a team of developers based in Belfast, with an office in Dublin too . However, the team could increase as the site continues to expand.

Currently in beta, the platform is on track for full launch in September to coincide with the new school year. It is intended as a free-to-use tool, although there may be opportunities to monetise the platform as it develops.

“There’s a number of different revenue opportunities. Our focus is about getting a good free product right first. Once we understand better how users are using the product we have a good base then and we’ll put together a revenue model around that. We have a number of ideas,” says Moore.

“There’s no catch. Everything that is free now we expect to be free in the future.”