AffeqtEDU

Big Data Analytics and Intelligence for K-12 Education

Every day in every school, there is a teacher doing a quiz or a test for his/her students. After grading the assessment, usually only the final scores/grades are recorded; the rest of the details are eventually discarded. The AffeqtEDU system collects every question presented by a teacher and the answers of every student to these questions from all the schools.

We store all this data into our Big Data storage and we use our patent-pending algorithms to categorize every question and the answers of every student. Then we run analytics on this data. We provide the results to all stakeholders in the educational system (from students and parents, all the way up to national economic planning departments) so that they can make informed decisions whenever they need to.

With this method we can accurately measure and benchmark the quality of education in every classroom at any point in time throughout the school year without the need for external assessments or standardized testing.

Parents, educators and governments who are concerned about the quality of education are constantly seeking data that can provide accurate and objective insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the educational system. For this data to affect positive change, it needs to be frequent, detailed, and relevant; as well as benchmarked against similar data from other educational systems.

With the complexity of education, this is a colossal amount of data to collect, process and analyze in real-time. The technology to handle this much data feasibly, and still make it practical, simply did not exist just a few years ago.

Recent advancements in the fields of cloud-computing, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence; have all made it both possible and cost effective to achieve this goal.

The future of education is all about how to analyze Big Data to drive improvements and personalize learning; and AffeqtEDU is the first company to figure out how to do this efficiently without the need for external assessments or standardized tests.

With our patent-pending algorithms and methodology and being the first to market with this approach, we intend to maintain a long lead ahead of potential competition and other players.

1. The algorithms and methodology to classify and categories every question in questions banks spanning different curricula, educational systems and even geographies.
2. We empower every teacher to fully personalize their internal assessments, yet every assessment is automatically benchmarked against the internal assessments of other teachers in real-time.
3. Teachers (especially in remote areas) can build on the experiences of all other teachers.
4. We measure and track the academic as well as cognitive performance of every student throughout their K-12 education to help in real-time decision making and provide effective career guidance.

With the complexity of education, this is a colossal amount of data to collect, process and analyze in real-time. The technology to handle this much data feasibly, and still make it practical, simply did not exist just a few years ago.

Recent advancements in the fields of cloud-computing, Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence; have all made it both possible and cost effective to achieve this goal.

Expand the Beta version to the full set of features and deploy the solution in at least 4 schools to cover all subjects, all grades and all type of questions.

Once the full version of the solution is built, then it is a matter of enrolling more schools, curricula and expand the questions banks. Within 3 years we expect to reach 40 schools. Within 5 years, we expect to reach 300 schools and possible internal penetration.

Initially, we intend to reach schools (beneficiaries) through direct marketing. We intend to reach the parents (customers and beneficiaries) through the schools.

Our solution is cloud-based. The interface is web-based. There is no need to install any software or hardware for any user. All users need is a web browser and an internet connection.

We are currently piloting the solution with 1 class serving 33 students. The teacher is using the solution to create internal assessments with precision control and significant time savings. The school leadership are able to quickly and easily monitor the performance of the teacher and students. The teacher is able to effectively monitor the what has been attained by his students and what needs to be worked on more to meet curriculum requirements and learning objective.

Once the Beta version is fully expanded and we expect to be able to service around 2000 students within the next 12 months. Parents, Students, Teachers and School leaders will be able to do comparative analysis and benchmarking in real-time. Each group of stakeholders will be able to make data-driven decisions in real-time and accurately identify true strengths and weaknesses because stakeholders will have access to the data they need and tools to analyze it.

Within 3 years, we expect to be able to service 20,000 students, along with their parents and educators. 

Extensive management experience within the IT industry

Extensive management experience with the education industry

Deep technical expertise in cloud-computing technologies

Our primary revenue stream is based on a freemium B2C business model. Schools sign up at no cost to do their internal assessments on our platform. Parents, and schools can benefit from a limited set of analytical tools at no cost. Parents have the option to access the premium feature set of tools, for a small annual subscription fee (USD$150 per annum per child for the UAE market). Schools also have a premium option but the AffeqtEDU platform can also serve as a potential revenue stream for the schools as well.Barriers to entry include:

• Patent-pending algorithms
• Complexity of those algorithms
• First mover advantage
• Ease of adoption
• No cost for adoption
• Low cost to subscribers
• Network effects
• Data supremacy
• Fast distribution
• Lock in effects

The future of education is all about how to analyze Big Data to extract intelligence to drive improvements and personalize learning. AffeqtEDU is leading in this space. We are convinced that our solution will be the turning point in education for future generations. Our solution is also global and will have impact all levels of civic society including governments. We are applying to Solve because of the shared goals with the Solve community and to be able to access the vast network at Solve for potential partnership opportunities.

Funding is the key barrier. Another key barrier is access to governments keen on improving the quality of education for their citizens. We believe that with the Solve network and the MIT backing we can forge the right partnerships with key investor(s) and governments that need our solution.