Podium Learning Platform

Our goal is simply to make online learning delivery more effective. With less that 33% of respondents seeing online learning as effective globally during the pandemic, it is clear that one size fits all does not work in education and especially so in the online learning environment. 

By testing based on a given standard, our platform is able to create a comprehensive action plan unique to that student to address the areas of need. This dynamic plan with the support of teachers and parents adjust as students interact, learn and improve while using a data driven model where the students actions, progress and application drives the model with the support of our AI. This is Podium.

By setting in place a data driven model, it is possible to quickly determine what works at a local, regional and global level and replicate it at scale. This is our vision for Podium.

The World Bank report on Simulating the Potential Impacts of the COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A set of Global Estimates, summarizes that we are in a global crisis in education and if not addressed we stand to negatively impact education, earning capacity and livelihoods for generations to come. The pandemic has effectively widened  the education gap, exacerbating the preexisting wealth gap and has placed the underdeveloped regions of the world at a cross roads.

At a local level, the COVID-19 crisis is taking an unprecedented toll on Barbadian livelihoods. The share of households earning below the minimum wage has increased from a pre-pandemic level of 12% to 42%  in April 2021. The incidence of job losses has been particularly strong for households earning below the minimum wage (48%). This negative impact is being seen across the Caribbean region, LATAM and globally.  

To this end, the problem is to determine how do we address the widening education gap locally, regionally and globally in an equitable way that allow us to address some of the underlying issues with education but that can rapidly put learning back on course to reaching desired learning targets and improved learning outcomes. 

PODIUM is an online learning platform that uses student assessments, AI and stakeholder engagement to delivers personalized and adaptive learning based on a users learning style with a focus on increasing engagement, delivering a unique user experience and improving learning outcomes. The goal of our platform is to provide differentiated learning to each student while automating routine task for teachers allowing them to use a collaborative approach to address gaps in student learning while ensuring that students are engaged. As students engage with the platform each interaction improves the accuracy of the modeling while adapting the unique path each student takes so it fits the student. 

The platform was created in 2018 using the Docebo LMS and Smart Sparrow adaptive learning engine. Smart Sparrow was acquired by Pearson on the 22nd January 2020 and access to the adaptive engine was closed on December 31st, 2020.  The GTH Team is currently in the process of building out Podium version 3.0 using a self hosted recommendation engine based on Harvard’s ALOSI open source project and OpenEdx. Plans for Podium include the build out of simulations, improved AI and Machine Learning, and learner inclusive features for those with both physical and learning difficulties.  

Podium focuses on giving the student the support they need at each step while delivering content that is personalized to the students specific need. To this end, our key constituents are: 

1. Primary School - Class 1 to 4 (Ages 6 to 11)
2. Secondary School - Form 1 to 6 (Ages 11 - 18)
3. Teachers
4. School and District Administrators
5. Ministries of Education
6. Parents

We have engaged students, tutors, learning institutions and parents through research, user surveys, interviews, prototype and now our full platform, including user feedback at each stage. Local research clearly showed that those students who could not afford lessons(paid tutorials) or did lessons less than  others showed lower scores across the board. To ensure the cost of the delivery could be distributed the move to online allows for the creation and dissemination of content to students at a low price point in a more flexible and convenient way, with the ability to scale.

For Students, the approach seeks to ensure that each student is accessed, a learning plan is agreed and content is delivered based on how the student learns best. This varies from Visual, Auditory, Read/Write and Kinesthetic based on the students learning preference and the subject matter. With a focus on subject mastery, testing is continuously done while interacting with the student and this also allows the platform to highlight gaps in student learning and using AI, teacher and parental support, action can be taken at the earliest juncture to achieve better learning outcomes. 

For Teachers this approach allows for the early identification of issues and a practical approach to solving them as early as possible. By using a data driven model, it also allows for the automation of several administrative task for teachers reducing many of the mundane task while also allowing them to focus on being more interactive and engaged so they provide help where students need help specifically.      

For Administrators and Ministries the goal of our Podium platform is to provide high level data driven analytics on students, teachers, classes, subjects, schools, districts, etc. with the ability to see real time reporting. This allows for improved accuracy in reporting, automation of task resulting in reduced workloads and actionable information for decision making. Additionally, it provides the ability to see what works at a micro and macro level and to replicate the best practices across a wider cross section of the education system.

For Parents, this allows parent to be a fully involved partner in the students education including the ability to review assessments, see reports, give inputs on action plans and get continuous feedback on student achievement.

This structure allows for the full engagement of the key stakeholders in a students education making it easier to identify issues, take practical approaches to solving them as early as possible, see real time results and improve education delivery overall. 

Podium focuses on increasing the engagement of learners in all environments, including strategies and tools for parental support, peer interaction, and guided independent work as a core function. Additionally we support teachers to adapt their pedagogy, facilitate personalized instruction, and communicate with students and their families in remote and hybrid settings as a part of our current system. We offer a limited experience offline and thus support access to quality learning experiences in low-connectivity settings including the use of Kinesthetic projects. We currently do not cover ensuring the physical safety and mental health of learners as a core function.

Global Tutoring Hub through it Podium platform conducted a pilot as part of the Division of Fine Arts BFA program. The results showed all students earning ‘A’s compared to a 30% failure rate (40% or less) in the previous year and a B average when compared to the ‘traditional’ lecture format. Current pilots include the Church of God Leadership Institute and Barbados Community College (Fine Arts Division) in Barbados, Hacker Hostel from Jamaica is our first paying customer. 

GTH is also working with the IDB through IDB  Lab in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training (METVT) in Barbados to pilot Podium to 600 Class 4 Mathematics students as a supplemental teaching aid to the materials used by teachers in class starting September 2021. This forms part of a wider initiative to see personalized and adaptive learning added across all schools in Barbados and the Caribbean region.

Key to us is our approach. We start with assessments, namely VARK, the Hogan Personality Index assessments and course specific knowledge assessments and use the outcome of these assessments to guide the user experience. We provide a personalized path for each user and use continuous feedback and ongoing assessment to adapt that path as the user engages more and more with the platform. We also do summative assessments. 

As it relates to content, we provide content in Visual, Read/Write, Auditory and Kinesthetic design as users can maneuver through their learning preference in a multi-modal environment using micro learning. Through AI and machine learning we are able to use the data at the personal and anonymized level, coupled with our recommendation engine to continuously improve the user experience. With a focus on mastery we endeavour to ensure that each learner gets what he or she needs to truly learn and succeed. 

With our focus on student outcomes and our approach of full stakeholder engagement, we think we can impact learning signicantly as we seek to transform learning. We see technology as a mean to empower learnings in seeking their learning path to find the right fit for them. Those who can move forward quickly can, but those who need the help and support can get it, to correct small issue now that may become big issues later and to set a path to course mastery and long term achievement. The impact of this approach to learning will be transformative.

The current pilots and paid users cover 400 users. We are set to add 600 students, 35 teachers and  5 teaching assistants in September 2021. On the successful completion on the pilot we will also increase users as follows:

Barbados Pilot - Phase 2 

MOE and GTH to look to run 2 other tracks:

 This track should be for primary students from class 1 to 4 where the goal is to gradually buildup students.
 This track should be secondary from 1st to 6th form.
The goal of the MOETVT is to gradually build out this program out over the next 5 - 7 years to 30,000 students and 2,100 teachers, so that all students and teachers would develop as a part of the program.

Regional Pilot Phase 1

IDB and GTH regional pilot:

 OECS Pilot (The OECS is a nine member grouping comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.) - 60,000 students

Medium to Long Term

 The goal of the IDB is build out a results driven approach to personalized education delivery over the next 5 - 10 in the Caribbean and LATAM region.

 GTH through its relationship with Ryerson University and the DMZ is interested in setting up operations in Canada and the US in the next 3 to 5 years

  GTH through its relationship with Design Terminal in Hungary is interested in setting up operations in Europe in the next 5 years

We measure ourselves by the partnerships we have been able to make or are working to build and the reach these will have. We know that to impact the 2030 development goals we need partners who have the reach and scope we do not have. These partnerships bring users, support or paths to enter new markets and it allows us to expand our impact. These include the following: 

Caribbean and LATAM - Being based in Barbados we have partnered with TEN Habitat, the IDB, the Ministry of Education in Barbados, etc. to establish a model for regional expansion. This way we test in one island and then scale it to the other islands including the required stakeholders. With partners like the IDB, we see this strategic relationship as right fit for our move into LATAM using a similar partnership model to that used in the Caribbean.

North America (Americas) - We have engage the DMZ in 2021 as a part of their Black Innovative Founders bootcamp and have used this opportunity to establish that we want to enter the Canadian market and the US market in the medium term. DMZ is working with us to support our weakest areas and to build a pathway to seeing us established in North American.  

Europe - GTH through Design Terminal in Hungary are looking at the EU in the medium term. 

Other - We see a partnership approach as key to our success as we reach out to partners in Asia, Africa, etc. 

All current staff are part time due to funding but we are all eager to transition to full time. We made the decision to remain part time as founders until we could secure funding or sales to make full time engagement possible and that is still our goal.

Michael Husbands - CEO 

Sean Ifill - Head of Smart Content

Silvana Joseph-Husbands - Administrative Coordinator

Dario Thornhill - CTO

Mr. Michael Husbands, has over 20 years in technology and 6 years building start-ups. Mr. Sean Ifill is an award winning graphics artist/teacher. These two gentlemen would have worked together building start-ups including Blue Apple in the Caribbean and On Demand Experts in North Carolina. Mrs. Silvana Husbands would have previously worked with both Mr. Husbands and Mr. Ifill at Blue Apple. Mr. Dario Thornhill is the resident tech guru, with a wealth of knowledge in building scalable platforms.

When you put a group of people together with a common vision, that makes a real team. Our common goal is our focus on transforming learning. It’s personal to us. To do this, we have pulled together a team that’s passionate about making transformational learning a reality for all. With expertise in education, business, content creation, design, administration and platform delivery –  this makes quite a team. 

Our advisors include Dr. Gladstone Best, the former principal of the Barbados Community College who holds a doctorate in education with over 40 years in education leadership. The other advisors include Ms. SparkleAnn James an experienced corporate lawyer. We now also supported by Zoltan Feher of Hogan Assessments and Andras Koherek a specialist in learning platforms as a result of recently completing the Design Terminal Social Impact Accelerator. 

We continue to seek out the talent and support to make our team better.

We all have a passion to do good but we also want to make money while doing it. We are made up of three males and one female as equal co-founders. We identify as three Christians and one Muslim. We are all of Afro Caribbean decent with three persons being resident in Barbados with our CTO resident in Jordan by way of Hungary. We do not believe in discrimination based on sex, age, gender, nationality, religious beliefs and have sought to make that a part of the GTH ethos. We believe that given an opportunity, people thrive and education is our way to provide that opportunity. We believe fully in inclusion and see a good quality education as a right for all persons. 

As a team, we have worked through failures in previous startups, bootstrapping for over 4 years with many persons saying that the problem was too big  for a startup from the Caribbean and tiny Barbados. We have remained undaunted. We have sought out the best support we can find in Latin America via Mexico, Hungary via Europe, North America via Canada and continue to seek help and support where ever it can be found. We know why its important to us, as we know the impact this will have for us personally, our country, our region and the world. Simply, if you are a good fit and have a passion to see better learning outcomes, join with us as we seek to transform learning across the world.

Funding and network connections continues to be a major challenge for startups in the Caribbean and LATAM. We see this as an opportunity to align ourselves with like minded persons, with a passion and a drive for transforming learning in our hemisphere and the world, and the scope to take improved learning outcomes to a global stage.  This is why we applied to MIT Solve.

For GTH, MIT Solve provides an opportunity receive access to funding in grants and investments, join a class of impressive peers that act as trusted support group, offering inspiration and guidance, join a powerful network of impact-minded leaders across industries and key to us, access mentorship, coaching, and strategic advice from experts, as well as the Solve and MIT networks. 

We are experienced enough to know that joining a program like Solve will not work unless we are willing to put the work in but we also know that with the right support it is possible to speed up our progress and fast track our growth. We have taken the time to review other Solvers, listened to their stories and seen the impact they are having in the world, and we want that to be us. This is what we see as the opportunity to work with the MIT Solve community, the ability to impact the world.

GTH is seeking the following support:

Business model - Support to help us find product-market fit including finding the right price points for us at scale and new and innovative models for funding those in the underserve areas so they can get access to the platform and use it as well.

Financial  - We welcome any support on pitching to investors and warm introductions are always welcomed

Product / Service Distribution - We want to increase our client base and see the strategic role Solve has played in opening opportunities to scale for other Solvers. We are interested in seeing how that would work for us.

Technology - We are always looking to improve our technology, and note Solve has access to many person who are driving forward some of the newest technologies. We are willing to share what we know and learn from other as well. 

To achieve the goals mentioned above, GTH is seeking partnerships to:

• Find the right partners and investors for us transition to full time, build our client base and scale in the Caribbean, LATAM, North America and Europe in the medium term.
• Partnerships to help develop our technology and strategy. 

We open to partnering with any potential partners including MIT faculty or initiatives, or Solve Members who see a benefit in working with us to improve our technology, scale our solution and improve and grow our impact. 

This prize is a great fit for us as our platform is purpose built to achieve the goals outlined above. We know that the need for personalized education is key need and especially for primary and secondary students where early corrective action can have a big impact long term. We know that at this stage, children need personalized support. We are able to offer that in education support, with a unique tailor made experience for each user. We can also do an assessment, determine the gaps and put an action plan in place while also delivering it based on how the person learns. 

Additionally, as we use the VARK model for content delivery it allows for learners to find out how they learn and interact with learning content how they learn best, from the Visual learning who needs to see it to get it, to the Kinesthetic learning who has to touch it, interact with it and learn from doing it, STEM learning becomes fun. We see this as a win, win.

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform and improve our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

We are not sure if our solution fits the requirements but still opted to apply for this prize. 

We know that the need for personalized education is key need and especially for refugees who are new to area, in an unfamiliar environment, they need personalized support. We are able to offer that in education support, with a unique tailor made experience for each user. We can also do an assessment, determine the gaps and put an action plan in place while also delivering it based on how the person learns.

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform and improve our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

Similar to prize above, we are not sure if our solution fits the requirements but still opted to apply for this prize. 

We know that the need for personalized education is key need and especially for refugees who are new to area, in an unfamiliar environment, they need personalized support. We are able to offer that in education support, with a unique tailor made experience for each user. We can also do an assessment, determine the gaps and put an action plan in place while also delivering it based on how the person learns.

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform and improve our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

Opportunity. This one word encapsulates why we think this prize is a great fit for us, as our platform is purpose built to achieve the goals outlined above. We know that the need for personalized education for girls and women is a key need for the development of our society. Research shows that when given the opportunity girls learn better than boys comparatively at the primary and secondary levels and often out perform them. It also shows that due to a lack of opportunity girls and women are not provided the same access to education and when they are provided access it may sometimes be at distinct disadvantage as they need remedial help and tutoring support.  

For girls and women, we are able to offer the support needed in education support, with a unique tailor made experience for each user, so they get the help needed. We can also do an assessment, determine the gaps and put an action plan in place while also delivering learning based on how the person learns. This allows for the help needed for those who may be new to education or who may need foundational help but also allows them to speed up as they go and to move ahead as they master each subject. This is a great opportunity.  

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform and improve our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

This prize is a great fit for us as our platform is purpose built to achieve the goals outlined above. We use AI and machine learning in our platform to make learning delivery better. From the inputs from our assessments, we are to take that data and feed it into our adaptive engine  driven by AI to get the best recommendations for what's next. By combining this with user responses, test scores and desired learning outcomes we are able to build data models that show at risk students, what is needed to be successful as a learner and what work at both the micro and macro level in education delivery. 

AI is also used in many other ways on our platform. We are able to automate some of the mundane task for teachers and offer them the ability to spend more time working with students directly. This is the application of AI as a support, where the learner, teacher, administrator and parent are support by AI on the journey to achieving the desire learning outcomes. We are looking into how we use AI in a support role across the education delivery spectrum as we seek to transform learning, with technology namely AI playing a leading role in that transformation. 

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform, improve our data modeling and our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

This prize is a great fit for us as our platform is purpose built to achieve the goals outlined above. We use AI and machine learning in our platform to make learning delivery better. From the inputs from our assessments, we are to take that data and feed it into our adaptive engine  driven by AI to get the best recommendations for what's next. By combining this with user responses, test scores and desired learning outcomes we are able to build data models that show at risk students, what is needed to be successful as a learner and what work at both the micro and macro level in education delivery. 

AI is also used in many other ways on our platform. We are able to automate some of the mundane task for teachers and offer them the ability to spend more time working with students directly. This is the application of AI as a support, where the learner, teacher, administrator and parent are support by AI on the journey to achieving the desire learning outcomes. We are looking into how we use AI in a support role across the education delivery spectrum as we seek to transform learning, with technology namely AI playing a leading role in that transformation. 

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform, improve our data modeling and our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.

While we do not use Block Chain, we use AI and machine learning in our platform to make learning delivery better. From the inputs from our assessments, we are to take that data and feed it into our adaptive engine  driven by AI to get the best recommendations for what's next. By combining this with user responses, test scores and desired learning outcomes we are able to build data models that show at risk students, what is needed to be successful as a learner and what work at both the micro and macro level in education delivery. 

AI is also used in many other ways on our platform. We are able to automate some of the mundane task for teachers and offer them the ability to spend more time working with students directly. This is the application of AI as a support, where the learner, teacher, administrator and parent are support by AI on the journey to achieving the desire learning outcomes. We are looking into how we use AI in a support role across the education delivery spectrum as we seek to transform learning, with technology namely AI playing a leading role in that transformation. 

This funding will be used to build out the capacity of our platform, improve our data modeling and our ability to scale. We are open to a discussion if the prize funder is interested in our solution.