Veezyon

Veezyon.com is an online social learning platform; education, professional development, curiosity, hobby, you name it!  Our motivation is to optimize online learning and create an ultimate social learning platform.  Veezyon enables information sharing, workgroup formation and discussions around the content and makes it more meaningful therefore increasing the effectiveness of learning.

“Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2009)” by Department of Education shows that students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The study is a meta-analysis of the research, and it notes that caution is required in generalizing to the K-12 population since the results are derived mostly from studies with adults such as medical training and higher education.  The study notes that the benefits of online learning especially apply to undergraduate, graduate and professional learners.

The research suggests that elements such as video or online quizzes do not appear to influence the amount that students learn in online classes. Quizzes at the end of a video segment could be categorized as static learning. One key statement in the research addresses this issue: “online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection”.  This is exactly what Veezyon aims:  to transform static learning into a dynamic and interactive one by merging branded content with collaboration tools.  It is very encouraging to see that the discussions are around how and where online learning should be utilized rather than the usefulness of it.

On September 10 we launched Veezyon at the Santa Fe Complex. We could not be happier with the turnout and the feedback that we got from an engaging crowd. I started off the event with a brief presentation explaining our vision and why we started the company. Josh took over and demoed the product. Finally we took some tough questions from the crowd and listened to their feedback and ideas, which were very helpful. We thank our audience for showing up on a rainy day and supporting us! Special thanks go to our friends Shandra and Gail, who organized the event and spread the word and to the Santa Fe Complex crew Simon and Susan for making sure everything went according to the plan. And thanks also to my friend Norah for the photos from our launch event.

Today, we are launching Veezyon.com.

Few years back, I decided to start a company. I didn’t take this decision lightly, neither any entrepreneur should. Having worked with inventors, entrepreneurs and investors in my entire career, I had the privilege to observe how challenging it was to create and manage a high growth company.  I can now unquestionably say, while “observing” really helps, nothing could prepare a first time entrepreneur for actually “doing” it. It is much more challenging than I thought, but thankfully it is also much more fun and rewarding. Regardless of how the story will unfold, my biggest accomplishment was convincing my partners Lale and Josh to join me on this journey.

The idea for Veezyon had begun formulating partly because of personal frustration and partly observing the rapid growth of rich media content online. While researching online, I wanted to have quick access to credible rich media content (videos, images, documents), which were/are available but fragmented. However, it did not end there; I wanted to be able to organize and share my research on the same platform. In time, we completed our team, gained the trust of great organizations, prototypes have been built and with our content partners’ input we morphed the idea into what you are seeing today.

Veezyon is a social learning platform. We are building Veezyon based on the principles that we believe will define the future of learning:

-          Student/Learner centric

-          Participatory (social)

-          Dynamic

-          Location independent

-          Cross  institutional

Why are we doing this?  I can assure you it is a lot of work, stress, and of course a massive risk. We believe in the idea and in each other. We want to build something great and really valuable to its users. Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll find value in what we are building.