EduMaps: e-learning is fun!

With education moving online, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for an engaging and skills-focused learning environment, is one of the most discussed topics. EduMaps is a unique e-learning platform, that applies gamification principles and allows students to create their personalized learning journey, supported by teachers, who act as guides in this exciting virtual kingdom of knowledge and skills.

This solution is easily adaptable to any educational curriculum and can offer unique tools globally for educators to support children in their studies, possibilities for parents to monitor their children's progress, as well as for learners to develop their skills based on their preferences and interests. The interface of EduMaps makes learning fun, adaptable, and engaging. Students may create their own avatars, meet peers in a virtual environment, and request support from the teachers when necessary.

Surveys in different countries show, that remote learning experienced over the past year due to COVID 19 pandemic while schools being closed around the world, in general, is a poor substitute for in-class learning. Students and teachers experience serious challenges in remote learning, due to the connectivity issues, lack of experience learning and teaching online, as well as lacking standards in students engaging in virtual classrooms. Most educators are using online broadcasting tools while applying the same pedagogical teacher’s centered approach. 

There is a general frustration among parents too, who struggle with the economic and psychological impact during the pandemic, as well as a burden of shared responsibility to keep students engaged in their online learning, while teachers are required to adapt and invent methods to deliver necessary teaching and cover the required materials.  

With technological solutions available, it is not enough to keep delivering education in the traditional way with in-class learning while using technology, it is necessary to innovate in the way education works online and have a different strategy to teaching and engaging students, allowing them more freedom, more choice, more creativity and more engaging. 

To ensure students fully benefit from online learning, we focus our efforts on creating an innovative educational experience, and not just replicating a physical class with online video conference software. EduMaps is a unique edtech platform, that brings an inclusive, personalized and intelligent solution that engages students in a virtual kingdom of knowledge, where learning is fun, applying diverse tools and possibilities for students, teachers and parents.

A student is registered on an online platform EduMaps, which interface reminds a computer game with a virtual kingdom. While choosing subjects and creating a personalized learning journey, when passing quizzes and covering materials offered, a learner collects rewards, which later can be used for upgrading their own avatar and unlocking new levels. Students can also interact virtually with other learners, connect with teachers for consultations or take extra courses in the areas they want to focus on. Parents get access to a dashboard to be able to track their child's performance, as well as receive notifications from the teachers on students’ success. EduMaps is an inclusive and fun learning environment, that above general educational program, fosters creativity, personal responsibility, and decision-making skills.

Ministry of Education of Ukraine researches showed that 60% of parents in Ukraine did not support online learning in December 2020, however it indicated an improvement from August 2020, when 80% did not support online learning. Most of the schools are using Microsoft Teams and Zoom to deliver online lessons while staying connected with students on Viber to share files and assignments. Such an approach of adapting technological tools while working as a temporary solution is not sustainable in a long run. EduMaps, offering an immersive online environment, is a solution for any educational institution, willing to deliver an efficient, engaging and personalized learning experience for students from 6 to 18 y.o.

EduMaps was developed by IT Academy STEP team of professional educators, taking into account the latest tendencies in flipped classrooms methodology, cognitive science and applying AI principles, while developing the EdTech platform. In the R&D phase, we have collected our students’ feedback to identify motivation and struggles and incorporated those findings in the development of the solution.

EduMaps is a unique e-learning environment that is engaging, fun, connecting with peers, and offering consultations with teachers on demand. It also offers a solution for parents, enabling them to track their children's progress, as well as for teachers, who now become guiding mentors for students, instead of full-time instructors.

EduMaps is a unique technology-based solution that supports teachers to adapt their pedagogical methodology with a students’ centered approach and offers a new learning environment, that facilitates personalized educational experience for the students, as well as communication tools for students and their families in remote settings. EduMaps increases the engagement of the learners, offering gamified environment, as well as tools for parental support, peer interaction and guided independent work, with students creating own personalized learning path

EduMaps was first launched for the users in September 2020 and currently, we have 105 students learning with EduMaps. We have been on the market for a year now and have used this time to introduce new functionalities, improve users' experience and our operational approach. EduMaps has also received a license with the Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine, as the content follows a standard curriculum for grades 5 to 10, but creating an engaging and personalized experience. During the pilot, we have also tested our business model and collected valuable feedback from the engaged stakeholders.

EduMaps is an innovative solution, combining principles of gamification in the interface and the educational process delivery, as well as AI technology for creating the most appropriate individualized learning path for each student. EduMaps allows educators to develop an immersive and student’s centered approach using different technological tools for creating content – quizzes, video lectures, games, essays and more in one platform. EduMaps has possibilities for online socializing for the students, as well as offers parents a possibility to track their child's performance.

EduMaps can serve as a great example when the e-learning experience is fostering creativity and offers a personalized approach both for students and teachers, thus meeting different demands and levels of the learners.

EduMaps is innovative as it shows that education can be fun, can be engaging, and adaptable, where the teacher’s role is to support and guide students, rather than instruct. This approach is fully corresponding to the 21st century requirements for a novel educational system. We believe, that a possibility to bring EduMaps to different countries, partner with organizations to implement our educational platform for different needs, can really bring a positive impact for educators by giving them efficient tools, showing opportunities to integrate technology in the educational process and support innovations in the educational space

Since the establishment of EduMaps in September 2020, we have 105 students currently learning with us from 5th to 10th grades.

Our target is to increase the number of students to 500 students in one year and reach 10 000 students in 5 years. To serve the growing number of learners, we would also need to invest and attract talented teachers, who would receive special training from IT Academy STEP to be able to act as mentors for the students through our innovative online learning platform and be able to provide the necessary support to the students in the languages of those countries. So we would also contribute to building tech capacities for the teachers while introducing them to the learners’ cantered pedagogical approaches

The progress towards the goals is measured by the number of students joining EduMaps and completing their educational programs. In the 2020/2021 Academic Year, when EduMaps was launched in Ukraine, 105 students have registered and completed their educational program with EduMaps. Currently, we have already received registrations from 350 students for 2021/2022 Academic Year. Our team also actively works on launching this platform in Russia and getting the necessary licenses from the authorities to deliver the standard educational program, approved in Russia.

EduMaps is a fully functioning platform, that can be easily adapted to the needs and curriculum of different countries by creating relevant content.

To evaluate the efficiency of the program, we also have a team of educators that monitors students’ performance and progress and ensures support when necessary. According to the data from the last academic year, 68% of the students have improved their academic performance compared to the previous year when they were learning in a conventional learning environment.

EduMaps directly contributes to 2 SDG goals: Quality Education and Reduced Inequalities. The content and the approach of EduMaps is created by teachers-innovators who focus on relevant skills development in a gamified online environment. Students have access to diverse quality content, that enables them to create a personalized learning path. Since EduMaps is taking place online, with content created with different audio-visual means, there are better opportunities for students with physical disabilities or personality disorders to get appropriate content accordingly to their needs.

EduMaps team currently consists of:

• 70 teachers
• 5 methodology experts
• 5 developers
• 2 designers
• 3 curators,
• 3 managers
• 1 director

We also use part-time services from IT Academy STEP from the financial and IT departments.

Before launching EduMaps officially, our R&D team was investigating and learning principles of personalized learning approach, as well as cognitive science researches to understand how learning patterns are changing with the technology introduction. Our team spent time on surveys with parents too, to identify their worries and concerns regarding the educational process. Before launching our program we had a testing phase for instruments and content, engaging students and collecting their feedback, as well as observing their learning patterns. Now, after the EduMaps is officially launched, we continue surveys with students and parents to understand if we are on the right track and if any improvements should be made. EduMaps is a unique recent development, that proved its efficiency, but we acknowledge that it is still in the development stage and taking into consideration the input of our users, we can continue improvements both in content and in the process. The application of AI technology also helps to track user data and optimize solutions.

IT Academy STEP culture is based on diversity and inclusivity principles across every educational product we deliver. As to the EduMaps solution, 80% of our team are female. We strongly believe that quality education is a key to sustainability and positive development. At the same time, education requires innovations, that would correspond to the learning patterns of modern children, as well as ensure possibilities for personalized development. That is extremely important to ensure inclusivity and equality of possibilities. We already can see the benefits of EduMaps for children with disabilities. 10% of our current students have certain medical conditions that made them difficult to attend regular schools and with EduMaps, those issues are being successfully addressed and children access a variety of resources and learning possibilities with equal quality content. The educational content includes videos, text files, audio files and children can choose those that are the most appropriate for them. Besides, to eliminate any discrimination or bullying possibilities, students create virtual profiles for themselves and thus communicate with each other using avatars. Finally, individual students’ progress is visible only to students, their guardians and teachers. So there is no issue of comparison in a group, which may create psychological pressure.

We apply for SOLVE MIT challenge as we believe that joining an international community, as well as connecting to the experts in the field of education can really help us to improve the solution and bring it to more countries. SOLVE has a diverse, knowledgeable, and supportive network and as our solution is innovative and yet new to the market, having a possibility for consulting and justifying our assumptions would be very beneficial. The educational system in Ukraine is traditional and rooted in Soviet Union heritage, which we want to challenge and demonstrate why innovation in the field of education can make a long-term positive impact in the world.

By having access to media resources of SOLVE MIT, we would like to show to the world that Ukraine offers real solutions to bring to the international community and we have talents we can be proud of.

We would be interested to connect with educators and AI professionals together to work on possible improvements of the EduMaps technology and logic. We also are interested to explore possibilities for more inclusive content development, taking into consideration different cognitive models.

Working on possible new markets, we would be grateful to receive legal advice and recommendations about PR and marketing strategies.

Since EduMaps is an innovative EdTech solution, having a possibility to explore new business models , would be very important for our team.

We would like to partner with MIT Digital Learning Lab, as well as MIT Education faculty members and students, who wish to support EdTech solution development. We believe that such cooperation can help to improve the current version of EduMaps, as well as bring new tools and ideas for improvement. We currently have a need for AI specialists to improve this segment in the solution we work on to bring more efficient personalized learning recommendations for the learners.

We would like to be considered for GM Prize, as our solution is dedicated to making STEM education more accessible and equitable by offering to learn an engaging, fun and gamified learning experience while learning STEM subjects, based on skills and projects, rather than just memorizing formulas and numbers. We believe that thanks for GM Prize we would be able to improve EduMaps experience, as well as be able to introduce it to more students in other countries by adapting content to local languages and needs.

Currently, we apply AI technology for suggesting students a personalized learning path in EduMaps. With the AI for Humanity prize we would be able to develop more complex and more diverse solutions to amplify the impact and increase the efficiency of the AI tools. With AI help we can make sure that the educational experience is meeting personalized needs of the learners, motivates for advancing skills and helps teachers to offer better support to the students when needed.

We will invest the prize in the development and improvements of the solution, especially focusing on creating learning resources for students with disabilities to ensure an engaging and enabling learning environment.