Mobile Literacy Learning Platform

AutoCognita is committed to helping the 660,000,000 illiterate females achieve foundational reading skills through literacy lessons on mobile devices.

We’ve developed a learning platform that is scalable across languages and cultures and enables organizations to rapidly create literacy lessons for mobile devices that are:

• pedagogically sound
• in the local language
• interactive
• self-checking
• gamified
• available offline
• free to learners.

Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated. According to the World Bank, better educated women tend to be healthier, earn higher wages, and have fewer, healthier children. These factors can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.

If our solution was scaled globally, then hundreds of millions of low-literate females could learn to read, positively impacting their lives and the communities in which they live.

According to UNESCO, nearly 1,000,000,000 people around the world are illiterate and two-thirds of them are female. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are over 200,000,000 illiterate females ages 15 and above.

Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated.

Educated females have better health, earn higher wages and contribute to social stability and economic growth.

Some barriers that hinder females learning to read include poverty, distance to schools, safety concerns, cultural norms, and lack of access to quality educational materials. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem by closing schools thereby cutting off access to literacy curriculum for over 111,000,000 girls who are living in the world’s least developed countries where getting an education is already a struggle.

AutoCognita has developed a literacy learning platform that enables organizations to rapidly create interactive mobile literacy apps in local languages that can be accessed offline. Girls and young women can teach themselves foundational reading skills in their local language via lessons that are engaging, interactive, and self-checking. Lessons work offline so that users can learn anytime and anywhere. No teacher or school required.

Our six different teaching templates are designed to create a dynamic learning experience for a huge variety of educational needs and ages.

Progress tracking screens keep track of learning progress and is gamified with certificates and badges. This keeps students engaged to they continue to use the app to enhance their skills.

Our flexible platform enables easy adaption of teaching content in different languages.

Using mobile literacy apps created from our platform, users can teach themselves to read at home via lessons that are free, in their local language, and can be accessed offline.

Our solution serves low-literate girls and young women who need access to quality literacy curriculum in their local language so they can learn to read. By providing free literacy lessons on mobile devices that don’t use data or cell minutes, females have the chance to learn to read whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them.

We are currently working with an organization in Rwanda to create literacy apps using Rwanda's national primary reading curriculum in Kinyarwanda. The literacy curriculum will be housed on servers across Rwanda and be downloaded as a mobile app. Households be able to access literacy curriculum for free from these servers without using internet or cell service.

The short-term impact of learning to read not only gives females a sense of accomplishment but also opens the doors to future learning.

The long-term impact of being a literate and educated female means women and their families will be healthier, women will obtain better jobs with higher wages, and contribute to their country’s long-term economic growth.

We are working with African Digital Hub Initiative and the Rwanda Board of Education to learn more about the needs of students in Rwanda and how our platform can better serve them.

Illiterate girls and young women face many barriers to learning to read. Some barriers include poverty, distance to school, poor educational materials, and now, school closures.

Our solution helps to lower each of these barriers.

Poverty - lessons are free and accessible without cell or internet

Distance to school or closure - learners can teach themselves at home

Poor quality materials - app is created using high quality, pedagogically sound literacy curriculum in local languages

By lowering barriers to learning, our solution also increases the number of girls and young women participating in formal and informal learning and training.

We’ve developed a unique literacy learning platform that is modular, flexible, and content agnostic. Our platform enables countries to easily and rapidly create mobile literacy apps in their own language, using their own curriculum so they don’t have to rely on off-the-shelf apps to help their population learn to read.

Literacy lessons work offline and are interactive, engaging, and self-checking. With a mobile literacy app, learning does not stop even if schools are closed due to a pandemic, or if a student is denied the opportunity to even attend school.  Everyone gets the chance to learn to read.

Our technology combines the best of design thinking with computational thinking:

• Six types of general-purpose interactive teaching screens that let us design a dynamic learning experience for a wide variety of educational needs and ages
• Progress tracking screens that keep track of learning progress and gamified with certificates and badges to keep students engaged
•  Modular, scalable curriculum data architecture that can be configured to suit a wide variety of content and languages to satisfy the needs of different countries and communities
• Minimal operating requirements that work with over 99% of Android devices in an offline setting

Our technology combines two proven ingredients – mobile learning platform and national curriculum content. 

Using mobile apps to teach literacy has been proven to work.  The Global Learning XPRIZE winning apps were able to increase literacy by 50% in Tanzania during a 15-month pilot. The Adult Learning XPRIZE winning apps were able to increase literacy by at least one full year during a 12-month pilot.  Popular apps such as Duolingo further confirm that mobile apps are effective in teaching language skills.

We use national curriculum materials that are developed by literacy experts and are already widely used in the country.

Our unique technology makes it easy to convert a well-established curriculum into a well-proven learning media.  Our current project to convert the Rwandan national literacy curriculum into a mobile app confirms that the technology for rapid conversion works.

Product Demo

AutoCognita’s literacy learning platform helps organizations rapidly and economically create literacy apps for mobile devices in local languages that can be accessed offline. Learners can teach themselves foundational reading skills in their local language via lessons that are engaging, interactive, and self-checking. Because lessons can be accessed offline, users can learn anytime and anywhere. No teacher or school required.

Our solution can help girls and women learn to read. Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated. According to the World Bank, better educated women tend to be healthier, earn higher wages, and have fewer, healthier children. These factors can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty

Using mobile device apps to increase literacy looks promising. The Global Learning XPRIZE winning apps were able to increase literacy by 50% in Tanzania during a 15-month pilot. The Adult Learning XPRIZE winning apps were able to increase literacy by at least one full year during a 12-month pilot.

Our target market is Sub-Saharan Africa because of its high population and high rate of illiteracy among females. According to UNESCO, the region contains over 200,000,000 low-literate girls and women.

Currently serving - Our app is currently serving a small group of people who have downloaded it from Google Play

One year -  500,000 people. Test pilot localized Kinyarwanda app Rwanda.

Five years - 10,000,000 people. Localize app in Kiswahili, English, French, and Portuguese to impact the lives of at least 10 million people.

Year 1 – Partner with African Digital Hub Initiative (ADHI) in Rwanda to convert the content from the first national curriculum reading book in Kinyarwanda into an interactive literacy app for mobile devices that can be accessed offline. Pilot app and iterate as needed. Impact 500,000 people.

Year 2 – Continue to roll out Kinyarwanda literacy app while continuing to work with ADHI to convert other national curriculum into interactive mobile apps. Work with USAID and Ministry of Education in Kenya to convert Tusome Early Grade Reading curriculum in Kiswahili into interactive mobile apps. Impact 3,000,000 people.

Years 3, 4, 5 - Continue projects from previous years and work with USAID and Ministers of Education in other Sub-Saharan countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to convert national curriculum into mobile apps in localized languages. Impact 10,000,000 people.

By localizing our app in Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, English, French, and Portuguese we can scale within and across most African countries. For example, an app localized in Kiswahili can be scaled across Kenya, and then with minor language modifications, scaled across Tanzania and Uganda as well.

To complete the Rwanda pilot, we need approximately US $200,000 to convert the first Kinyarwanda reading book into an interactive app. We also need to a team in Rwanda of literacy teachers, graphic artists, and IT people who can help us. Through ADHI, we have a distribution and marketing partner.

Over the next five years, we need introductions to Ministers of Education in different Sub-Saharan countries who are interested in digitizing their literacy curriculum. We will need teams of literacy teachers, graphic artists, and IT people in each country. We will need ways to distribute our apps and let people know they are available. Another barrier that exists is that not all people have an Android Smartphone to access the lessons.

To overcome the money barrier in year 1, we are pitching our idea to members of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) on June 24. We are also applying to the MIT Solve Challenge as a way to generate funds. Since ADHI has boot on the ground in Rwanda, we will tap into their network to help us form a team of local experts who can help us. According to ADHI, the Rwandan government is subsidizing the purchase of mobile phones so their constituents can become digitally literate.

To overcome the barriers of being introduced to--and working with other countries and their MOEs—we will utilize our connections with USAID. The USAID offices in different SSA countries can help us find local teams to work with. The MOEs will help us distribute the app and market it for us. With every passing year, mobile phones are becoming more inexpensive and ubiquitous. We are counting on this trend to help us reach our target market. In addition, we will create a way for users to log in with unique IDs so one phone can be shared among different learners.

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2 full time – Dana Rozier and Frank Ho 

8 contractors – app developers, graphic artists, voice over talent

Frank Ho has a background in technology and design. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from MIT. Dana Rozier has a background in teaching, developing curriculum, and writing. She has a Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing. Our team's shared vision and complementary skills in technology and education has led to:

• Semi-finalist Global Learning XPRIZE
• Finalist Adult Literacy XPRIZE
• Presentation at UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Meeting on Education
• One of ten companies selected to present at UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week Call for Innovations
• Partnership with XPRIZE alumni and Young Presidents' Organization

We currently partner with an organization in Africa named African Digital Hub Initiative (ADHI) to convert the Rwandan national literacy curriculum into a mobile app.  The project team is led by a local champion and consists of diverse team of local talent including literacy teachers, graphic artists, and technology specialists.  The local project team directly influences the content and cultural aspects of the localized literacy app.

In addition, we are in discussions with other NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa for potential projects, and with organizations such as UNESCO, XPRIZE, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), mEducation Alliance and USAID to explore further collaborative opportunities.  We look forward to joining the MIT SOLVE community to expand our network and help us scale.

Our business model is measured in literacy impact. We measure the number of users who have mastered the learning objectives in the curriculum.

We define our customer and beneficiaries as follows:

Beneficiary – low-literate person who uses our app to improve their reading and writing skills, thereby improving their lives through better job opportunities, improved health, and greater participation in society

Customer – stakeholder interested in improved literacy levels in the population and purchases our literacy app development project; this may be government entities (e.g. Ministry of Education), businesses with a vested interest in a literate population, or foreign aid organizations

Intermediary – on-the-ground NGO working with governments and businesses on existing literacy projects, technology infrastructure or other areas, providing us a springboard to reach the customer (e.g. field office of UNESCO, USAID, etc., or private vendors)

Benefactor – individual and corporate donors interested in supporting our mission through project sponsorship grants to help customers afford our project fees

Our business model involves initially seeking a customer interested in developing a mobile literacy app based on its national curriculum, and a benefactor to make a project sponsorship grant to support the pilot project.  We will develop a literacy app in the local language using these funds and distribute it through the intermediary to reach beneficiaries.  We will earn ongoing subscription fees from the stakeholder customer that will pay for subsequent projects as we scale to other languages and countries.

To deliver our greatest impact, we limit our project implementation fees to our actual costs.  As an example, a typical project to convert our app to a local language in Africa may cost US$200,000, providing a full year of literacy lessons based on a typical national curriculum.

 Initially, we seek project sponsorship grants from corporate and individual donors to help countries afford these project fees, to kick start our initiative through pilot country projects.

 Since we consider literacy too important a mission to let affordability stand in the way, our literacy app will always be free to learners.  To keep our mission sustainable, we ask the customer (i.e. key stakeholders within the country with an interest in higher literacy rates among the population) to pay user-based subscription fees to cover ongoing costs and fund our ongoing expansion.  We believe that once our app is available and its benefits become apparent, stakeholders will be receptive towards the concept of subscription fees.

 Using recurring subscription fee revenue, we can scale across countries by further converting the app into different languages and cultures, thereby setting in motion a virtuous growth cycle towards achieving our vision where all girls and women are literate.

Through the Solve network, we seek partnership and connections with countries and NGOs interested in creating a localized literacy app, along with sponsorship grants to help those countries afford a project.  We also treasure the ongoing mentorship from a distinguished group of business leaders in the Solve network, to advise us on our product roadmap and organizational growth plan.

Project sponsorship grant – we seek US$200,000 of project sponsorship grant to support our first literacy project in Rwanda, with an initial impact of 1,000,000 low-literate people

Partnership with countries and NGOs – we seek partnership opportunities with other countries and NGOs to work on additional projects to convert their national literacy curriculum into a mobile literacy learning app

We would like to partner with organizations or individuals who could provide project grant funding. Potential partners include:

• Corporate benefactors (through corporate social responsibility funding)
• Individual benefactors
• Foreign aid organizations (e.g. USAID, UKAID, etc.)
• UNESCO (especially country offices in Africa)
• Other stakeholders in global literacy

We would also like to partner with countries and organizations who are interested in creating mobile literacy apps from existing curriculum. Potential partners include:

• Ministry of Education in a target country
• Implementing organizations in a target country (i.e. on-the-ground NGOs)

Our literacy learning platform can help refugees learn to read either in their native language or the language of the host country via literacy lessons on mobile phones that can be accessed offline.

Lessons are interactive, engaging, and self-checking thereby allowing refugees to teach themselves to read wherever and whenever it's convenient for them. No teacher or school required.

Literate people are better able to be economically, financially, and politically included than their less literate peers.

We will use the prize money to help us create literacy apps in languages that will help refugees thrive in their communities.

Our literacy learning platform can help women learn to read in their local language via literacy lessons on mobile phones that can be accessed offline. Lessons are interactive, engaging, and self-checking thereby allowing women to teach themselves to read at home. No teacher or school required.

Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated. Educated females tend to be healthier, earn higher wages, and have fewer, healthier children. These factors can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty thereby greatly improving the lives of women and the societies in which they live.

We will use the prize money to help us create literacy apps in other languages that empower girls and women to teach themselves to read and write so they may contribute their thoughts and voices to the world.

Our literacy learning platform can help vulnerable girls and women learn to read in their local language via literacy lessons on mobile devices that can be accessed offline. Lessons are interactive, engaging, and self-checking thereby allowing females to teach themselves to read at home. No teacher or school required. Lessons are free and can be accessed offline without using data plans or cell minutes.

Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated. Learning to read opens the doors to all future learning opportunities including those in STEM.

We will use the prize money to help us create literacy apps in other languages that empower vulnerable girls and women to teach themselves to read and write so they may then be able to access all learning opportunities that come their way. 

AutoCognita was a finalist in the Adult Literacy XPRIZE competition. We are passionate about literacy education and are highly qualified to create literacy apps that meet the needs of adult learners.

Using our literacy learning platform, we can rapidly and economically create literacy apps in local languages for mobile devices that can be accessed offline. The lessons are interactive, engaging, and self-checking.

We are very interested in using our platform to create a localized literacy app which can be piloted in Portugal and would be grateful for help in finding partners to support local pilots.

We would use the prize money to create a literacy app focused on the needs of adult learners in Portugal.

According to UNESCO, nearly 1,000,000,000 people around the world are illiterate and two-thirds of them are female. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are over 200,000,000 illiterate females ages 15 and above.

Learning to read is an essential first step in becoming educated.

According to the World Bank, better educated women tend to be healthier, earn higher wages, and have fewer, healthier children. These factors can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.

Some barriers that hinder females learning to read include poverty, distance to schools, safety concerns, cultural norms, and lack of access to quality educational materials. The pandemic has only exacerbated this problem by closing schools thereby cutting off access to literacy curriculum for over 111,000,000 girls who are living in the world’s least developed countries where getting an education is already a struggle.

AutoCognita is committed to helping the 660,000,000 illiterate females achieve foundational reading skills through literacy lessons on mobile devices.

We’ve developed a learning platform that is scalable across languages and cultures and enables organizations to rapidly create literacy lessons for mobile devices that are:

• pedagogically sound
• in the local language
• interactive
• self-checking
• gamified
• available offline
• free to learners.

If our solution was scaled globally, then hundreds of millions of low-literate females could learn to read, positively impacting their lives and the communities in which they live.

We would use the prize money to create a literacy app in Kiswahili, a language widely spoken in Africa.