How Quizac App is working to eliminate problems of retention among young students

Quizac, an educational app co-founded by a young Nigerian tech guru Tade Samson, was recently launched and has received a considerable amount of attention, mostly for the learning pattern it offers students for significantly improved academic performance. In this interview with correspondent at BusinessDay, he discusses the sole purpose of the app, what led to its creation, the problems it aims to tackle, Nigeria’s educational system, among others.

Could you kindly tell us a bit about yourself and Quizac?

My name is Tade Samson, Co-Founder, QuizaApp. I have a beautiful background in tech and I am a bit of an optimist, I graduated with a bachelor degree in Computer science from Ladoke Akintola University of technology.

Quizac is a gaming approach, where students can interact, select subject topics and learn whilst playing so as to enable longer retention.

What really inspired the creation of the app?

When I was in the university, I read more like everyone, cramming loads of materials with the goal of not forgetting anything. The result? Low grades. I knew it is not because I am not smart; I needed a better approach to reviewing my materials. I began researching and studying different learning patterns which changed everything for me. Then, I realized if I could do this, I could build something that could help millions of people eliminate the same problem.

What would you consider the biggest challenge for students?

I have been opportune to speak with a lot of parents and one thing I hear often is the fact that ability to learn by remembering when required is the major challenge every student faces. One of the parents shared with me how this affects his son. He reads most times and comes back to Daddy saying; “Dad, I can’t remember it”.

How many subjects are currently available on Quizac?

Currently, Quizac has 6 subjects, 56 topics and up to 5000 questions. We’ll keep updating this and even at a time soon, open the content window for contributors and students to create value-added question sets and earn money.

Could you explain how the gaming feature of Quizac works?

Quizac is built as a real-time multiplayer learning improvement app. When a student joins Quizac, you tell us your country and class, then, from there; you can interact with subjects peculiar to your class.  When ready to review a topic, you pick a subject, select a desired topic to review, search for a friend in the same class or get a random opponent and the game begins. For each game, Quizac throws out 7 questions to each player and score them based on correctness of response and the speed of response. Player with the highest points wins a game. We let our learning algorithms analyse each gameplay to discover strengths and weaknesses of each player and then adjust frequency of how they interact with each question in the future, so as to maximize retention.

What other unique features are there on Quizac?

Question Review, and it works like this; after each game, students can access the step by step solution for each questions to better understand basic concept to group their knowledge.

 Another is; Track Performance. One of our objectives with Quizac is to help each student attain a level of confidence in every topic played. In doing this, we generate reports on how well students are doing with each topic and generally over a subject to serve as a guide towards their learning goal.  

Tangible Rewards – we encourage students to get better by getting questions right with each game play. With each correct response, points are awarded. Points can get Gems and Gems can be used to purchase tangible rewards in our Store as an encouragement for good performance on Quizac. Currently, we offer airtime-based rewards and we’re working with partners to bring other form of incentives on board. 

 What are your thoughts on the current state of learning among Nigerian students?

Well, I think we need our government to start questioning the status quo of learning and start thinking towards a better approach that would willingly make a student want to learn rather than being forced to learn as it is currently.

Is Quizac basically for students alone?

Though, the problem of learning is a general problem and not peculiar to just students. Everyone wants to learn something faster and remember them for longer. I for example would like to use Quizac to learn new vocabularies for longer retention. But, with our early launch, we realized society would benefit more if we concentrate on helping students discover a pattern of learning that would eventually boost their academic performance and help raise education standard.

How can the average Nigerian benefit from Quizac?

As a student, Quizac is built to help you master effortlessly, a learning behavioural pattern that has been proven for years to aid faster learning and longer retention in a fun and engaging way, anywhere, anytime. We’re doing this with the focus of each student’s curriculum to ensure their progress on Quizac can easily be replicated in their day to day classroom performance. For the education system, Quizac is built with features that helps redefine the concept of collaboration among students like never before. Schools and teachers can take advantage of Quizac’s Team to lighten up their extra curriculum activities. It works like this: teachers can create different teams and assign students. A team plays against another team. Each team member collaborates to pick the best answer en-route to victory. 

Where can the app be downloaded?

Quizac is available for Android currently. Android users can go to Google play store, search for Quizac, download and start learning

Since developing the app, what have been your biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced and still facing is how best to keep adjusting Quizac’s learning model to fulfil its intended purpose of helping students do well not just on the app, but also in their respective classrooms. We know with a brilliant working model, and of course good marketing, other desires will fall in place without much stress. 

Is Quizac restricted to Nigerians alone?

Not at all, Quizac is locally built with international focus. Any student from anywhere in the world can benefit from Quizac. They can choose to learn contents restricted to just their curriculum or challenge other students from other parts of the world with a different curriculum.

Does the app require one signing up?

Yes! With just email and password, you can get started on Quizac.

 What message do you have for Nigerian students looking to improve their academic performance?

My advice is simple, you have to re-invent the way you review your learned materials. Thanks to the advancement in technology, there are apps out there with different approaches that would assist you. Quizac is one, with an approach that focuses on what’s around your curriculum and prevents you from learning out of scope. You can try us out.