Founder: Shawn Young
Venture Name: Class Craft
Website: https://www.classcraft.com/
Description of the venture: Classcraft is a learning management system that uses gaming principles of a role playing game (RPG) to re-imagine students’ learning experiences and empowers them to reach their full potential. Classcraft uses elements of gamification such as avatars, levels, and rewards to motivate and engage students to accomplish their learning objectives. It also includes analytics for teachers to spot early trends so they can provide feedback and supplemental exercises in a timely manner. Parents can also be involved in the student’s learning journey as they receive real-time feedback on how their child is doing every time they achieve a goal. They also receive prompts on things that the student may not do well, and can support their child accordingly. Students, can collaborate and do tasks with other students who are also exploring the map filled with course content. In turn, it does not feel like the student is learning, it feels like students are completing tasks in a game to gain experience and rewards for their avatar.
Classcraft currently have locations in Quebec and New York City. The platform has expanded to more than 150 countries and available in 11+ languages. Currently, it is expanding to be able to integrate to Canvas.
Founder Biography: Shawn Young is a former physics teacher who founded Classcraft to make school more meaningful and relevant for students. He desired for students to not only excel academically in school, but to also inspire collaboration and care for each other. Upon researching what technology is available in the market, Shawn decided to direct his focus on gamification, which he found to be very popular among his students. After receiving positive reviews from a prototype that he implemented in his own classroom, Shawn, together with his brother and father set out to put this venture idea into action. Together, they received a grant from the Canadian Media Fund and after 5 years, the company grew to amazing new heights.
Why his story resonates with me? I chose Shawn because I really appreciate his drive to integrate gaming elements into the traditional classroom to make it fun and meaningful to students. I really enjoyed gaming as a child but it was always a 2nd priority to studying because my parents never thought gaming had any place in my career decisions. However, as I grew older, I see that integrating gamification into any industry has a lot of potential, and a lot of regular people just like myself, have made a lot of revenue doing just that. Shawn motivates me to have the courage to design my own prototype and enter into the entrepreneurial world with the intent of helping students achieve their learning objectives while making friends and having fun doing it.
References
https://unreasonablegroup.com/ventures/classcraft
https://www.classcraft.com/press/classcraft-secures-financing/
Hi Mary,
I can empathize with your experience as a student (and still as an adult)! I’ve been a gamer as long as I can remember, and while I still have an attitude of “work before play”, I think computer gaming was a niche in our generation, but it has become a staple of the mobile youth today. Therefore, I think efforts by entrepreneurs such as a Frank Young to gamify learning will find fertile ground among students, and I think it behoves us as educators to consider how we can leverage these games and strategies to engage our students. Thanks for sharing!
Hello Mary,
Thank you for highlighting Classcraft because not all LMS engage the parents as it is essential for them to see the progress their child is making. Also, gamification is an excellent approach for learning. Students are motivated to learn as they engage with the game and are rewarded for reaching a new level. And the data allows the teacher to track the students’ progress and provide formative feedback in real-time. I wish you the best of luck in your entrepreneurial endeavor.