In his role as the company’s CEO, Karim Khayat has helped poise Seeds Education as an industry leader, providing a full spectrum of publishing and research services to clients all over the world. Managing a team of more than 600 personnel spread across eight locations in four different countries, Karim Tahseen Khayat has developed ambitious business strategies and long-term objectives for Seeds Education and its subsidiaries. This article will explore the research and efficacy studies arms of the business and the vital functions they serve.
What Are Research Efficacy Studies?
A doctor would be extremely unlikely to prescribe a medicine that had not been through clinical trials establishing that it was an effective treatment for a disease. Similarly, most people would be unlikely to purchase a car that had not passed safety tests. In countless industries, products must undergo careful research, testing and scrutiny to ensure they live up to expectations. The measure of their effectiveness is known as ‘efficacy’, pertaining to the product’s ability to produce the desired results.
Ultimately, research and efficacy studies help schools, colleges and educators to make smarter learning choices. In terms of proving that learning technology works, randomised controlled trials were traditionally considered the gold standard. Nevertheless, this form of research can be time consuming, costly and challenging to scale, as well as raising ethical issues. Today, companies are increasingly seeking to democratise efficacy in education through the adoption of big data and machine learning.
Just as efficacy research is vital in healthcare, it is also incredibly important in education, helping decisionmakers and educators at schools and colleges to see how particular products and tools could enhance student success. With a plethora of new technologies flooding the education market in recent years, all of which claim to improve learning outcomes, it is crucial for schools and colleges to closely examine and compare efficacy claims when choosing new learning products.
Traditionally, the randomised controlled trial was the tried-and-tested method of deciphering whether a particular educational product was effective or not. Today, data scientists design research studies to help provide a greater understanding of how learning tools help students to achieve learning gains. Learning analytics and new technologies have made it possible to design accurate and illuminating studies while simultaneously lowering costs.
What Research and Efficacy Services Does Seeds Education Offer?
Seeds Education is proud to deliver a comprehensive range of award-winning educational and academic products. Providing digital publishing and bespoke printing services, Seeds Education also offers client-customised professional development and teacher training programmes. Utilising the skills and expertise of a group of interrelated companies, Seeds Education draws on its staff’s considerable experience in a wide range of overlapping areas, providing customers with an optimised and seamless service provision.
In the realms of research and efficacy studies, Seeds Education offers bespoke consultation, research and syllabus design, providing comprehensive, in-depth services to establish needs, assess specific requirements, and collaborate in strategic planning throughout the field of education. The company works closely with government ministries and departments, conducting research in conjunction with the requirements of specific institutions.
Research assessments and studies can incorporate any or all of the following:
- Market visits to schools or other educational institutions
- Meetings with teachers, tutors, heads of department and professors
- Lesson observations
- Meetings with ministries of education
- Desk-based research to identify and analyse current market trends
- Market analysis to identify potential market gaps, establishing suitability or otherwise of materials
- Ongoing consultation, collaborating with clients in the education sector for as long as required
Established in 1968, Seeds Education operates with the ethos that effective education is underpinned by a commitment to help all students achieve the success they are capable of. The company and its subsidiaries’ products and services are tailored to the individual needs of every client, supporting educators as the facilitators of lifelong learning.
In addition to Seeds Education research and efficacy studies, the company also provides high-quality custom printing, utilising its own printing press, one of the largest and most prestigious in the whole of the Middle East.
