Students Circle Network
| |
Private company | |
Industry |
Education Social network Student networking |
Founded | Kyrenia, North Cyprus (2010) |
Key people |
Gossy Ukanwoke, (Founder) Samora Reid, (CEO) Chika Uwazie, (VP of Channels) Amby Uche, Products Development |
Website | www.studentscircle.net |
Students Circle Network is an international, educational social network for college and high school students, providing free course resources, peer to peer learning, study groups and support services. It was started in the Kyrenia-area of Northern Cyprus in 2010.
It is an OpenCourseWare consortium member [1] and lists over 10,400 academic courses from over 200 OpenCourseWare member universities around the world, free to students in business, computing, engineering, sciences and humanities.[2]
History
The network was started as a personal project of Gospel Ukanwoke, in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus, in 2010, as a collaboration tool for students at Girne American University.[3] Gossy Ukanwoke has been referred to as the Mark Zuckerberg of Nigeria by Forbes[4] and as "Africa's top technology entrepreneur".[5]
The network became popular in other campuses in Northern Cyprus and, after it was featured on Venture Capital for Africa and African Innovators, was opened for students in West Africa.[6][7] Subsequently it attracted participation by Brazilians after it was featured in Hoje Em Dia of Brazil and other European news sites. The network opened to all students across the globe on December 1, 2010.
In April 2012, Gossy Ukanwoke the Founder of Students Circle Network stepped down from the active management and operation of the network to focus on the creation of a new online university [8][9] - Beni American University [10][11][12] with a goal of creating affordable education for African youths.
Students Circle Network appointed Samora Reid [13] to take over the operations of the social network. The network has since then focused more on making free non video resources available for students and less on the social interactions.
Membership
Students Circle Network has members from over 120 countries and 200 universities. Membership is open to students, researchers and teachers. The network recently launched introductory courses for high school students
Features
Social network: As a social network, Students Circle allows its members to create personal profiles, private message, chat, share multimedia content, create networks and check into academic contents.
Academic resources: Students Circle presents aggregated courses from all OpenCourseWare consortium members and creates social interaction and learning collaboration around that content. Academic resources are divided into graduate courses, undergraduate courses, language studies, and introductory courses.
Study groups: There are over 15 study groups in different academic disciplines that allow students to schedule live online study sessions with each other. This live chat is powered by Tiny Chat and provides creative space for peer-to-peer learning.
Social games : Social games are an integral part of the network allowing students to interact over games.
Awards
- 2013: Students Circle Network won the Best Non-Video Free Courses: Education-Portal.com's People's Choice Award in March 2013.[14]
- 2012: Students Circle Network was a finalist at the Future Africa Awards in the Innovation in Education Category [15]
Partnerships
In addition to the OpenCourseWare member universities,[16] Students Circle Network also partners with non-OCW member universities, including
References
- ↑ The OpenCourseWare Consortium Course Details
- ↑ "Academic Resources".
- 1 2 Global Eğitim Merkezi Student Circle Genişliyor
- ↑ Meet Nigeria's Budding Mark Zuckerberg
- ↑ Q&A Who is Africa's Top Tech Entrepreneur
- ↑ VC4Africa Venture Profile - Students Circle Network
- ↑ Students Circle Network: A Social Network for Students by a Nigerian Innovator
- ↑ Stepping Down to Step Up
- ↑ Students Circle Network CEO Steps Down to Focus on New Online University for African Students
- ↑ Nigerian launches online varsity for African students
- ↑ Hi-tech solution to Nigeria's education chaos
- ↑ Nigeria’s Entrepreneur Introduces First Online University - Channels TV
- ↑ Part Of The Students Circle Network Team
- ↑ Best Non-Video Free Courses: Education-Portal.com's People's Choice Award Winner
- ↑ The Future Awards 2012: Meet the Finalists
- ↑ OpenCourseWare Master Member List
- ↑ NoSQL Database: Students Circle using InfiniteGraph for Social Learning
- ↑ Objectivity - Students Circle Network Selects InfiniteGraph to Enhance Educational Offering
- ↑ Objectivity - Partners
- ↑ Girne Amerikan Üniversitesi ‘Student circle’ ile dünyayı kucaklayacak
- ↑ Encipher Limited new partnerships
External links
- Students Circle Network: Students Circle Network
- YNaija: Students Circle Network takes Global Education by the horns.