How did it all start?
We met online with Fynn Mazurkiewicz after Startup conference in Tartu, Estonia. After a short conversation, we knew that Fynn is the founder of IT4Kids, a German non-profit education startup focused on enabling access to digital education for children. Fynn told us that the company offers IT courses for primary and secondary schools for developing logic and process thinking.
Besides, IT4Kids trains university students with no expertise in computer science to become course tutors for any school and provides training to hundreds of teachers on teaching the basics of computer science. With the pandemic situation and rapid digital transformation of education processes, everyone was forced to adapt to the new normal and adjust the teaching process significantly by implementing new education technologies and approaches. In the case of IT4Kids it was essential to support teachers and educate online. That's why Fynn's team set out to find an accessible remote solution to run their training for teachers and students.
Having a task to teach their customers online, guys from IT4Kids faced several challenges:
- How to reach many more teachers and students anywhere;
- How to keep a personal element of teaching;
- How to find a simple and accessible solution for them and their non-technical users.
To find the solutions that meet all the requirements, they started to look for them. After doing some market research, It4Kids decided to choose Marble among all the others and start working with it. We were extremely excited to begin this journey together, but also very interested in why Marble was the choice. So, we asked Fynn about that. Here's what we got.
Iuliia: Ok, Fynn, let's get straight to the point, why did you choose Marble?
Fynn: All right! Well, to make it short, it just met all our needs. We wanted to support our teachers everywhere, so we published remote training courses on the Marble platform and reached more teachers. We've also implemented remote kick-off meetings that leave room for questions. That's how we kept the personal element of teaching, even online. And, of course, Marble provides an intuitive learning platform that is accessible for both users and editors.
Iuliia: What do you mean by saying that Marble is an intuitive platform?
Fynn: Yeah, there are two things to mention. First, it's a very user-friendly environment. We're sure that the learners are not overloaded with the amount of information and focused on what matters indeed. For each learner, it's immediately clear where to go and what to do. And second, it's easy-to-edit, anyone can handle it. This means I can show Marble to my whole team and they are easily able to add new items or paths for their courses themselves, there's no need for expensive experts, anyone can share their knowledge.
Iuliia: What are the key features that are worth to be highlighted?
Fynn: Well, Marble is like an invisible layer that structures all our materials and makes it easy to navigate all the education paths and items we've created. I said 'invisible' because the platform is perfectly integrated and embedded in our product. With Marble, we've managed to create a customized design for our micro-academy.
Also, I wanted to add some words about content creation. Indeed, Marble relieves it as we can customize some of our existing materials from Google Forms, Slides, Youtube videos and start testing our courses. There are also some useful templates available to create content on the platform. We've got access to the developed and accessible templates on Micro-learning, Onboarding, Flipped Classroom, and other tips shared by Marble.
Iuliia: Speaking about the team, what can you say about our collaboration?
Fynn: Yes, to me, relationships are as important as the product itself. With you, we don't feel lost, we're constantly engaged in the process of development and improvement. We get emails with updates, surveys, and information on new platform features. We know that Marble founders are always open for discussion and we can schedule the meeting immediately if needed. We also appreciate that we can give some feedback on the development process. That’s really valuable.
Structured materials with easy-to-navigate educational paths and items
Customized and fully embedded into the product
Simple set-up and content management