Innovation

Both students and teachers can greatly benefit from Kayros Attendance’s solutions. The Kayros app helps facilitate attendance taking during class, allowing teachers to dedicate more of their time to the lecture material. In turn, students will be encouraged to attend class, during which they will be in an environment that avoids distractions. The app is easy to navigate, furthermore helping the students and teachers to use their time efficiently.

Inspiration

During his time at Case Western Reserve University, Alessandro Mason, founder of Kayros Attendance, noticed one peculiar thing during lectures on campus: when compared to the classes he attended in Europe, student attendance and engagement in CWRU’s classes were “underwhelming”, as described by Mason. This concerned him, since low attendance and poor engagement does, in fact, hurt the quality of students’ education. “I created Kayros to encourage students to attend class consistently—pulling them away from distractions like phones and entertainment.” Mason believes that regular and quality exposure to the course materials during lectures leads to higher retention of said course material, which contrasts with other studying methods, especially those like cramming before exams. Now, professors and students at CWRU use Kayros Attendance in order to improve the quality of their learning and time in the classroom.

Overall impact

Those mainly impacted by Kayros’ innovation are instructors and especially students. They are impacted through the quality of education improvements provided by increased engagement and attendance to classes and lectures, facilitated by Kayros’ innovation. In the short term, and at the micro scale this innovation’s impact is limited to University classrooms and lecture halls, though in the long term, and in the aggregate scale the innovation’s impact can spread far beyond classrooms and lecture halls, as an improved education can always improve a person’s professional and personal development.

While this long-term impact on students is evident, the actual effects occur over a short period corresponding to a university career, while professors would interact with Kayros over a much longer period of time than students. Some evidence that this impact has occurred is instructor testimonials, which express how they have incorporated Kayros into their teaching and how they are satisfied with this integration.

Business benefit

Kayros’ innovation, first and foremost, creates a new product - an integrated tool to measure attendance and engagement, in a way that is convenient and accessible to both students and professors. While not an entirely new market, Kayros’ innovation punches through in a relatively new and emerging market, helping the business find success, often hard to come by for new businesses, especially those founded and led by young entrepreneurs who are students.

Additionally, while the company is small, this innovation has allowed Kayros to employ and retain a small team of 6 members, all of whom are college students. This provides these employees not only with a job, but also with valuable professional experience, which is often hard to come by for students in and recently graduated from university. This boost can be critical for future career development, as well as helping to build the skills necessary for professional success.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovation benefits society by ensuring a better quality of education. More present and engaged students benefit from a better quality of their education, and professors benefit from using analytics like those Kayros provides on the presence and engagement of their students to further enhance the quality of their teaching. More effective professors and a better quality of education leads to more educated graduates, more educated workers and professionals, and a more educated society that is more productive and harmonious.

Interview

Alessandro Mason, Founder