According to one well-known anecdote, the innovative education platform ClassX.tech took shape during a seemingly ordinary Uber ride in Cairo. While reflecting on how best to scale her in-person courses—efforts that had already earned her the French President’s Innovation Award—the company’s founder Wala Kasmi struck up a conversation with her driver, who casually explained how the Uber app seamlessly connects drivers to cars to scale rides. In that spontaneous “aha” moment, she realized the same principle could transform education; by linking vetted instructors to accessible venues, she could revolutionize in-person learning and scale classes.
Friends and colleagues still reminisce about how she stepped out of that ride with a spark in her eye. Within weeks, Wala was busy sketching out the earliest concept for what would become ClassX.tech—a platform offering curated, market-focused courses. Today, ClassX.tech provides classes in subjects such as technology, e-commerce, interpersonal relationships, and entrepreneurship. These classes are taught by credentialed instructors, both as interactive learning opportunities.
Wala explained that the impetus for the platform’s in-person learning was the unfortunate trend of expensive, but uncompleted online workshops, masterclasses, and lectures, which was indicative of online learning limitations. “There are many valuable courses and certifications created by the best industry leaders, but they are often offered exclusively online, where the average completion rate hovers around 7%,” Wala observed. “I thought, ‘What if I could take these high-quality courses and offer them as in-person experiences?’”
The more hands-on learning style of in-person education may be more suitable for students seeking in-depth feedback, personal motivation, and community-based learning rooted in human interaction. By combining these benefits of in-person learning with the convenience of booking classes online, ClassX.tech aims to address the online learning limitations that keep online students from getting the most out of their classes.
Wala tested and refined this model for scalable learning solutions with high course completion rates, collaborating with UN agencies, governments, and international organizations to continually improve on the model during the development stage. She realized the model’s untapped potential after she was able to get 3,700 people to pass their Google certification courses within two months. She has since brought ClassX.tech’s unique brand of hands-on education to the United States with the help of her partner Sami Klaï.
ClassX.tech is not Wala Kasmi’s first foray into the field of education technology, as she is most known for founding the coding education platform WeCode Land, which provides coding classes and certifications for people in her native country of Tunisia. Her efforts at spreading real-world skills training in Tunisia led to partnerships with organizations such as Google, CompTIA, and Amazon Web Services. Furthermore, UN agencies and the neighboring country of Libya have worked with her to spread coding education internationally. Notable graduates of WeCode’s Libya program include entrepreneur Entisar Alfassy, founder of international preschool ABC Kids.
Wala has been recognized for her efforts to democratize human-centric education by organizations and local governments. For her work with WeCode, she received the French President Award for Innovation in 2015, honors from the Tunisian Youth Ministry and Parliament in 2016, and the Ashoka Fellowship and the Digital Woman of the Year Award in 2017.
Through her companies WeCode Land and ClassX.tech, Wala Kasmi is contributing to the growing international effort to revolutionize the future of education. Her future vision for ClassX.tech includes the development and release of a ClassX mobile app that she describes as a “college in your phone.” As the ClassX brand continues to develop and spread internationally, it will continue to fulfill its mission of making in-person education more accessible and readily available to everyone seeking to learn a new skill outside of formal education settings.