Mavensdotlive: Life-long learning in the virtual age

learn Korean, design your own stickers, jumpstart your hustle from your room or build your online presence, all this is possible with Maven's recently launched its very own live learning platform, Mavensdotlive.

Learn Korean, design your own stickers, jumpstart your hustle from your room or build your online presence, all this is possible with Maven’s recently launched its very own live learning platform, Mavensdotlive.

Established earlier this month, the platform offers both online and offline courses that focus on skills demanded by the job market and experiential learning.

In a fast-paced world of the internet and technology, the founder of Mavensdotlive observed that online learning platforms have shown significant growth and have become the preferred and alternative method for many young professionals looking to upskill themselves.

“Think of websites such as Amazon, but selling live classes instead,” explained Founder and Chief Learning Officer Goh Chai Li, better known as CL.

Mavensdotlive is Goh Chai Li’s second venture. Her first startup, Mavens’ Hive, offers shared training and co-working space.

CL has always been passionate about transforming lives through education, having taught entrepreneurship at Politeknik Brunei before embarking on her own entrepreneurial journey.

Spanning her time as a lecturer and being a student herself, CL saw a variety of teaching styles and experienced the difference between traditional learning and experiential learning. She favored the latter.

“Learning is best through the student’s personal experience,” she added.

“It was actually during my teaching years at Politeknik Brunei that I developed the idea for continuity and specialisation in education,” the former lecturer shared.

The edupreneur believes each individual is unique with their own way of thinking, learning and experiences, and she hopes from there to create a platform to encourage customised learning and personalization of education.

Her mission was to create a flexible co-learning system where people are rewarded for the skills they have while gathering new ones along the way.

“The internet has shaped education in many ways,” she said.

“A majority of shifts in education can be credited to the internet where information is more accessible than ever,” she said, adding that the younger generation are now more accustomed to learning through alternative methods and are more knowledgeable creating a demand for customized learning.

After six years of teaching, CL left her job to open a co-working and learning space to create an environment in which anyone can teach and anyone can learn. Education should be accessible to everyone, that’s when she started Mavens’ Hive.

“The word “Maven” means “expert”, she said adding: “We wanted to create a space for Mavens of different fields to come together to be productive and creative and to create a safe environment that facilitates social learning activities”.

Since opening in 2019, the co-working space has hosted training workshops for more than 1,000 young professionals and corporations.

Mavens’ Hive offers a comfortable and inviting environment for hosting events, workshops and talks. Amenities include Wifi, a projector, pantry, TV, printer and more

The platform has also been awarded the Brunei Rice Bowl Startup for “Best Co-working Space” in 2019 and was also first place for the Livewire Brunei Business Award for the Start-up category.

Originally located at Jubilee Hotel, the coworking facility moved to its new location at Higher Point Complex in Kiulap, just above Ochado. The new location offers ample parking space and easy accessibility for its customers.

The COVID-19 outbreak last year had been a blessing in disguise and an eye-opener for the business owner.

While the pandemic was unpredictable, she observed that the public started seeing online learning as an equally viable form of education.

This shift prompted CL to create an online learning platform herself, which also gave home to earlier ideas of flexibility and accessibility. This thought process and ideation led to Mavensdotlive.

Mavensdotlive

Whether it’s through Zoom or dedicated learning space, according to CL, Mavensdotlive operates as a marketplace, which allows instructors with various skills to teach subjects they are passionate about and students can sign up for courses they would like to learn.

The website is easy to use. Mavensdotlive does not only place an emphasis on user experience and functionality, it also provides a fun and colourful design, featuring its cute brand mascot, Spark.

Since its debut, Mavensdotlive has gained a growing number of registered users since its launch.

Currently, Mavensdotlive features 11 instructors and offers up to 22 courses which include social media marketing and communications, art and designs, mental health, language and more.

Their most popular course, “Digital Record keeping for