One-line solution summary:
Imagine being able to learn an online course without having a laptop or even an internet connection. FastMoocs makes that possible.
Pitch your solution.
We aim at truly democratizing education by enabling people from underserved communities to have access to online education. What if you could learn any online course through short SMS messages on your phone? Is that even possible? We've set out to prove that it is! We built a platform where users could go, select a course they would like to complete and enter their phone numbers. We then have ours learning experts go through the user's selected course and summarize it into easy to learn concepts. These concepts are then sent to the user via SMS on his/her phone according to a specific schedule.
So far we have been able to help more than a dozen learners complete courses online with this technology which we are still fine-tuning. When optimized, this could be a game changer in the Education's industry as it would help train underserved people far cheaper than traditional solutions.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Despite progress over the last decade, 67 million children worldwide, of
whom approximately 53% are girls do not currently have access to basic
education. The Education Commission projects that if current trends
continue, by 2030 only 4 in 10 children of school age in low and middle
income countries will be on track to gain basic secondary level skills.
Various global indices including the Social Progress Index and the Human
Development Index, show that low educational attainment is most
widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia. Barriers to education
in those regions are legion; ranging from direct/indirect costs of
education to the lack of schools.
Solving Education for those underserved areas requires an innovative
solution and we believe online education to be just that. That said,
with more than half Africa still offline, even online education in its
current format is inaccessible for these communities as they do not have
access to a permanent or reliable internet connection.
Our goal is to bring the educational content online to not only children
or girls, but anyone in an underserved community willing to learn but
lacking the means to.
What is your solution?
How do we bring educational content from an online course to learners without a reliable internet connection?
We first summarize the entire course into easy to learn concepts which are
then classified according to the order in which they are presented in
the course. Those concepts are explained to the learner one after the
other. The learner has to demonstrate understanding of a concept to move
to the next concept.
We offer the option to receive the concepts via SMS or WhatsApp and are planning to add more channels in the future.
As an example, let's go through a use case scenario of Afi, a 16 years
old girl from an underserved community who would like to learn Linear
Algebra. She doesn't have the means to go to school or a reliable
internet connection to take a Linear Algebra course online. Afi hears
about FastMoocs and is able to subscribe for a Linear Algebra course
through our platform. Our expert learners receive a notification about
Afi's subscription and start going through the online course. Less than a
day later, Afi starts receiving the concepts from her Linear Algebra
course on her phone (which does not need to be a smartphone).
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our target customer does not have the means to go to school or a
reliable internet connection to complete an online course. This can be
anyone regardless of age or gender just as long as they have a phone
capable of receiving an SMS message which is the case for most phones
even the cheapest ones.
To better understand our customers' needs, we try and collect as much
feedback from them as possible. We collect feedback on their motivations
when they subscribe to a course on the platform, on their reasons when
they prematurely unsubscribe to a course. We also collect feedback by
asking them to rate our system when they complete a course.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Enable access to quality learning experiences in low-connectivity settings—including imaginative play, collaborative projects, and hands-on experiments.Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.
Our solution will provide low-income, remote or even refugee
communities, free access to online trainings. It will equip everyone
regardless of age, gender, education, location or level of income, with
relevant digital literacy skills to enable participation in the digital
economy.
An educated workforce is essential for stimulating long term economic
growth and reducing poverty in any underserved region. That's why we
believe our current solution to solving Education for underserved
communities, has the potential of drastically impacting and transforming
those communities' lives.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Accra, GhanaWhat is your solution’s stage of development?
Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community.Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.
We believe to be in the pilot stage because our solution has already been tested on a dozen online learners.
Our SMS channel is only available in Ghana and Togo currently for SMS costs related reasons but as for our other channels like WhatsApp or our website, they are available for every user.
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Tetevi Placide Ekon
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technologyWhat makes your solution innovative?
FastMoocs is the only existing solution that provides access to online
courses to people without a reliable access to internet/electricity. It
uses existing technologies like SMS, which is available on every phone
smart or not, to deliver educational content from any course online.
We believe many online courses hold the same educational value as
courses from brick and mortar educational institutions. By providing
access to those courses to people that cannot otherwise access any form
of scientific education, we provide a credible solution to the problem
of education.
We do not believe the traditional solution to education which is that of
building more schools, to be enough to solve education for everyone,
giving the demand or the number of people that need to have access to
education. The traditional solution is just not scalable enough, it is
too costly both for the people that will fund the school's construction
and in terms of school tuition. In addition to that, the land surface
that will be required to build enough classrooms to sustain the demand
in Africa alone is too large to be feasible.
Finding a model of learning that is more sustainable for students from
low and middle income families is probably the best way to solve
education for everyone and this is what we have built. Our model of
learning is based on a technology that is available to most people (SMS)
and the value of the educational content we are sending through it gets
better each passing day.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
We are currently serving 10 people who are taking computer science and literature courses online through our platform.
In one year, we expect that number to grow to 5000 through targeted marketing.
In five years, we expect to be a fully matured platform helping at least one million of people learn online.
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
To measure our progress toward our impact goals we use two metrics each tracking one impact goal:
- We track the ratio of the number of courses completed to the number of courses' subscriptions
- We track the number of courses completed through our SMS channel
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
How many people work on your solution team?
5 full time staff
How long have you been working on your solution?
6 months
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
We have a very diverse group of experts in computer science. Most importantly, we have completed numerous online courses ourselves and know for that fact, our learning model to be efficient.
We believe we have the "unfair advantage" of being among the only ones working on such type of solution to truly democratize education.
What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team?
Our team is very diverse in the fact that it is comprised of 3 women and
two men. We intent to keep our staff very diverse in the future too.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)Why are you applying to Solve?
We are applying to Solve so we can get access to mentorship on how to better expand our band and services to our customer population. We are also applying because we need funding to expand our operations and take our solution to the next level.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Please explain in more detail here.
We will need to increase our marketing budget and improve on our marketing strategies in order to expand our client base.
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
- Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
- MIT Bootcamps
- We are open to meet with interested Solve Members that you might recommend.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The ASA Prize for Equitable Education? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The ASA Prize for Equitable Education to advance your solution?
Receiving educational materials through SMS can be a good way to complete a course for people that lack the motivation. This solution is a effective means of students' career exploration in order to help them know themselves, know their options, and make informed decisions to achieve their education and career goals
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion to advance your solution?
By providing a way for refugees to learn online, we provide them means of getting access to a level of training that will enable their economic and financial advancement as well as their political integration.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The GM Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The GM Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion to advance your solution?
A lot of the courses that we support on our platform as STEM courses. With this prize we will be able to support more STEM courses and also offer scholarships for STEM courses.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for the Innovation for Women Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use the Innovation for Women Prize to advance your solution?
Women constitute more than half of the population of people that do not have access to education. Our solution offers them access to education in order to help them lift themselves out of poverty.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The AI for Humanity Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
We plan on using AI to detect user activity in order to send out our educational contents to users when they are most receptive to it .i.e. they are in public transportation, they are browsing their phones, ect.
Funds from this prize will be used towards that program, to support more AI related courses on our platform and to offer scholarships for users who do not have a smartphone.
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The AI for Humanity Prize to advance your solution?
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The AI for Humanity Prize to advance your solution?
We plan on using AI to detect user activity in order to send out our educational contents to users when they are most receptive to it .i.e. they are in public transportation, they are browsing their phones, ect.
Funds from this prize will be used towards that program, to support more AI related courses on our platform and to offer scholarships for users who do not have a smartphone.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The GSR Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
Yes, I wish to apply for this prize
Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The GSR Prize Prize to advance your solution?
Education is one of the most pressing issues in low and middle income issues and our solution makes it accessible to everyone from those communities.
Funds from this prize will be used towards scholarships
Solution Team
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Solution Name:
FastMoocs