EdTech entrepreneur, Michael Olagunju, joins Russell Prue to talks about how his life experience led him to where he is today as the Director of Exam Solutions, an online portal of resources to help students overcome difficulties in their studies.
Exam Solutions offers students over 4,000 videos and there are also 100 qualified STEM tutors available. As one of first adopters of ChatGPT, the solution is using AI to accurately predict students' grades and then recommend precise learning tasks to help them improve based on their budget, their learning style and their interests.
www.examsolutions.net
EdTech entrepreneur, Michael Olagunju, joins Russell Prue to talks about how his life experience led him to where he is today as the Director of Exam Solutions, an online portal of resources to help students overcome difficulties in their studies.
Exam Solutions offers students over 4,000 videos and there are also 100 qualified STEM tutors available. As one of first adopters of ChatGPT, the solution is using AI to accurately predict students' grades and then recommend precise learning tasks to help them improve based on their budget, their learning style and their interests.
www.examsolutions.net
Russell Prue: I have a Michael Olagunju – did I get that right?
Michael Olagunju: Almost.
RP: Olagunju?
MO: Olagunju.
RP: Olagunju.
MO: There we go.
RP: Thank you. You're very kind. We got it right eventually. Really good, excellent. Welcome to the studio. Good to have you with us. Is this your first Bett?
MO: First Bett.
RP: Excellent. What do you think so far?
MO: Really nice. Met some really interesting companies that are doing something similar in the space, which is very AI focused. There's some potential partners – and yeah, now I've managed to find myself here on this radio show! So yeah.
RP: You look like a man with a great face for radio.
MO: [laughs]
RP: You weren't expecting it. And I like– I love that. He's got this startled look on your face. Don't worry, it's not a problem. You're at the end of the show and I can cut you out of the podcast if it all goes wrong! No, no, no, it's fine, we're live across–
MO: Awesome, cheers! It's like a backhanded compliment.
RP: You're very welcome. Tell me all about yourself. So, what brings you here today?
MO: So, all about me. So I'm a British born Nigerian, born from a humble background. Was born and raised in West London. I did really well in school until I got to sort of my A levels where I saw a significant drop in my maths grades. That was kind of a turning point for me because, you know, my mum couldn't afford a tutor. She actually found me this channel called Exam Solutions, which had thousands of free videos. They were bite-sized and taught by an amazing teacher called Stuart Sidders (a shout out to Stuart). He is still around. And so it helped me to get A in my A levels and then go on to achieve a first class Honours degree in maths.
So as I said, for me, that was a turning point because it showed me that sometimes, all you need is the right opportunities to be able to, you know, get the right resource or the right teacher to put you on the right path in life. Because you know, I was very naughty boy in school. Could have easily ended up in a different–
RP: I can't imagine– I so can't imagine, honestly. A cheeky grin, I like that.
MO: I think you're lying.
RP: It's fine. So you're developing some stuff, and I think that's what– I love this background story –and congratulations. That's an amazing success story. A really good example to others that may also find maths incredibly challenging at some point in their life as well. But just fast forward to now. That brings you here with an interesting solution. What are you working on?
MO: So right now we're in a position where we have 4,000 videos. We've got a huge subscriber base on YouTube. I now own Exam Solutions and we also have about 100 STEM tutors and they're all qualified. And what we're doing is we use AI to predict students' grades – quite scarily accurately – and then recommend precise learning tasks to help the students level up, based on their budget, their learning style or their interests.
RP: I can see now why you are of interest to Mark Anderson. He'd have spotted that. I mean we're very, very sensitive to anything AI and those are kind of, that's the, the kind of the here and the now. That's the new Ford motor car solution that we're seeing at the moment.
MO: Indeed.
RP: It also presents lots of challenges for folks. So people are not happy handing over some of their human-based decision-making expertise to an algorithm.
Yes. I mean, what we what we say is that we work with schools, we work with teachers and students to complement what they do, as opposed to sort of take their role. You know, in terms of sort of the grade predictions, I think that it's an area that is quite blasé with schools. There isn't any real scientific metrics on how to really determine the true skill levels of students. And that's the problem. We're really, we're really interested in. And we're telling schools, 'Well look, right. We're going to help you to find exactly where your student is at based on the data. And then let's work together to provide them with either the right content or the right tutors to help them to level up'. So, yeah, I mean, AI is on a pretty scary trajectory, but, you know, we're kind of riding the wave because we think that we can use it to our advantage.
RP: I think it's a brilliant idea as well. So what are you looking for here? Obviously, don't need investors– or perhaps you do at this stage? Do you want to connect with new subscribers? Do you want to market the product to other people? Do you want to roll it? Do you need trials? What do you need?
MO: So, absolutely. We are launching this this BETA version in a couple of weeks, actually. So we'd like everyone to sign up on the platform. It's free. It's free to use for seven days, so there's a whole load of features there, you know, including unlimited access to all of our smart assessments – you know which, as I mentioned earlier, is focused at determining your true skill level. You know, the grade predictions are also there. But we're also taking advantage– we're one of the first adopters of ChatGPT for technology to enhance learning experiences, as well as the e-marking process which we know is a gap in the market. You know, we've seen that there's lots of platforms out there that struggle to be able to mark students' work accurately. You know, so we're actually able to partially mark students' work. So you're getting a good representation of your understanding by using our platform. It's really, really seamless. Really, really easy to use. I encourage everyone to jump on board to try it out.
RP: Sounds great. Hit me with some URLs. Where do we go to find you?
MO: Yes, so check us out on www.examsolutions.net. That's the main website. We're on Instagram @ExamSolutionsGuy, we're on Twitter @ExamSolutions and we're also on YouTube– popular YouTube channel there, Exam Solutions as well.
RP: I see that. And it folks want to follow you personally because I think I'm expecting great things from you. You're the next major super, uber entrepreneur, I'm expecting great things. Steven, Bartlett needs to look out because there's someone coming along for his job. Where do we find with you Michael?
MO: So, I am actually not– I don't have a personal social media but I'm on LinkedIn. So, yeah, you can check me out on LinkedIn. My name is Michael Olagunju.
RP: Well, I think you need to get yourself a Twitter account. Whether Twitter is dying on its feet or not, you need to get, we need to be able to connect with you. Michael, great to chat with you. Thank you so much for bringing so much to the show today. Really appreciate it, great talking to you.
MO: Cheers. Thanks for having me.