Odemy

According to UNICEF, Only one in four children globally can access online educational resources. Curriculum-based e-learning resources remain out of reach to over 80% of K-12 students in Africa which further widens the education inequality, leading to poor learning outcomes on the continent. For example, in Nigeria (with over 30 million enrolled in primary schools), more than 50% of Primary Two students cannot perform simple addition. By empowering students and teachers in Nigeria to use, create and share e-learning resources, especially those from marginalized communities, all students can attain proficiency in Basic Maths. Research shows that access to supplemental learning resources can help improve learning outcomes not just in Maths but in all subjects - Students who have access to textbooks, learning apps or after-school programs outperforms their peers who do not have any form of supplemental learning. Unfortunately, e-learning resources are not easily accessible for students in low-and-middle income communities and most of their teachers lack the skills to create and incorporate such resources in their lessons which can help their students engage in individualized learning.

Our solution is a learning platform that provides access to quality and affordable e-learning resources for students. We provide skills training that empower teachers to create and incorporate e-learning resources in their lessons to enable personalized learning for their students. As part of our solution, we leverage low-cost devices and open source software tools to create learning contents, and utilize cloud technologies and portable electronics for distribution at scale so that e-learning can be usable in both online and offline settings.

Our solution:

• Provide access to curriculum-based e-learning resources for Basic Maths

• Train teachers through workshops and online courses on how to create learning contents with our methodology

• Empower schools to incorporate e-learning resources in their lessons to promote individualized learning and boost learning outcomes

 As a learning platform, technology is at the core of our solution. We built our solutions using cloud technologies, open source software tools and data analytics. We want to become the number one e-learning resource marketplace in Africa. As we scale, we will leverage AI to personalize the learning experience for our users. We also make e-learning contents accessible on devices other than mobile phones which is why we preload learning contents on our MP4 products.

Our solution targets students in primary school (Primary 1-6) with ages ranging from 5 to 11 years and teachers in primary schools as well, particularly those in underserved communities. Most of the parents of the students have a feature phone which the students can use for 1 - 2 hours daily. Students can access learning contents on our web app and download it to use in offline mode. Some of the students whose parents don't have a phone or internet access can utilize our MP4 product. Our users benefit from self paced learning resources that can help boost their learning outcomes and test scores in Mathematics.

 With our MP4 product, we started a series of experiments with a group of users (now 100+ users)  to understand the usability as well as how the product meets the needs of our users. These experiments help us collect feedback on affordability, maintainability, usability and how the preloaded contents are helping the students to improve their learning outcomes. This category of students participating in our experiments are underserved students who are not able to access the e-learning apps on the market due to internet connectivity, electricity, and  affordability among other things. We plan to launch the hardware product later this year in Nigeria.

 We also organize workshops to train teachers on how to create e-learning contents using the methodology we have developed at Odemy. This workshop helps collect feedback on training and to build a community of teachers who are learning content creators. As we scale our solutions, these teachers will become valuable members of our community that creates e-learning contents and monetize them on our platform.

On our web platform, we have created 300+ short video lessons (Mathematics) and quizzes, with 2000+ registered users. We have 10 teachers in our first edition of "Digital Teachers", teaching digital skills and tools for creating e-learning contents. At the end of their training, each of the teachers will be given tablets and software tools needed to start creating learning contents. They will become valuable members of our community.

I grew up in Ibadan, Oyo state  Nigeria which puts me in close proximity with the issues faced by some of the communities our solution targets. My struggle with Math as a child motivates me to tackle this problem. I was able to get help through recorded contents on video CDs at a time when the internet is not easily accessible. Also, both of my parents are teachers and they work in public schools. I leveraged their experience and connection with members of these communities to carry out initial market research. Ever since, we continue to prioritize inputs from our target customers to develop and improve our products. 

 Our content development follows a human-centered approach: starting with empathy for users by conducting customer interviews and working with teachers and students at selected schools in Ibadan Nigeria. Our team utilizes design thinking and rapid prototyping to create the technology products as well as the contents so that it is well tailored for our users. We regularly collect feedback and inputs from customers via our social media platforms, online surveys and direct interactions with parents, teachers and students. We recently started a workshop (Digital Teachers) for teachers in these communities to offer trainings and understand how our contents can provide them with the necessary technical skills they need to be able to utilize e-learning resources for their lessons.

 We have a diverse experience and skillset on our team ranging from teaching, business management, Mathematics education, software development, statistics and Data analytics. Our advisors consist of veteran teachers, technologist and business managers. We leverage their guidance as we build Odemy and scale our impacts.

We believe MIT solve as a platform offers valuable resources and that can help us grow our venture. We would like to join a network of impact-minded and industry leaders to tap into their expertise to refine our products. As a  growth stage company, we are working on Product-Market fit, as well as identifying a sustainable business model that will increase and sustain our impacts. We believe MIT solve will help us achieve our goals in these areas. Access to mentorship and advisory resources at MIT Solve will help us refine and achieve our business objectives and scale our impacts. 

The MIT Solve is a great platform for tech-enabled solutions which we believe will give us access to technology resources that are essential to build our technology infrastructure. As part of our funding sources, we have received prize money by participating in incubation and fellowship programs, therefore access to funding and prize from MIT Solve will be helpful to support our work.

We leverage the power of cloud technology to provide access to quality e-learning resources. We identified the limitations of existing e-learning products on the market, and provide a solution that makes e-learning usable in underserved communities. As we scale, we would leverage the expertise of teachers who has the teaching skills and years of experience but lack the technical skills required to create contents that directly serve the needs of students. In our first cohort, starting with 10 teachers, we are providing skills training that will enable them to create and incorporate e-learning resources in their lessons. As we grow our community and scale our impact, we aim to become the number one e-learning resource platform in Africa, providing the opportunity for teachers to monetize their content. We want e-learning contents to be available at scale, affordable and accessible. We are using innovative distribution models to make e-learning usable in both online and offline settings

Our impact goal is to increase the number of children that have access to quality and affordable e-learning resources on our platforms. In the next 12 months, we target to reach over 50,000 users particularly in low income communities through partnership with schools, NGOs, governments and corporate organizations whose mandate or responsibility is to increase access to basic education for children in underserved communities.

In the next 5 years, our impact goal is to reach over 2 million Nigerian students and reach 2000 teachers in our community

We measure progress by monitoring our daily and monthly active users, this gives us insight into the number of students that have access to our learning resources and subsequent improvements in learning outcomes for our users. 

Apart from usage metrics, our platform also measures learning progress of the users as they interact with learning contents on our platform. This helps us gain insights into how the products meet the needs of our users.

We use survey as a tool for collecting feedbacks, gain inputs from customers, and understand how we can improve our offerings. We also leverage social media to engage our users and to gauge interest on new offerings. 

Our theory of change is that, as students learn from our platforms, they build critical skills in Maths and sciences. In the short term, they gain proficiency in their learning. In the medium term, the children build the necessary skills to pursue secondary and higher education to become trained professionals. The long term impact is that they gain necessary skills that qualifies them to access the job market, get employed and improve the quality of life they live, their family and a decent society. We hope to transform the lives of teachers through technology skills training that enable them to adapt to the realities of post-covid world

Our solutions leverage cloud technologies, low-cost tablets, stylus, multimedia recording tools and open source software. As part of our distribution model, we leverage portable MP4 devices to preload learning contents that can be utilized in offline settings. 

Diversity: We appreciate the diversity of ideas. Our team comprises young professionals, veteran teachers as well as a variety of skills that helps us grow our business

Equity: At the core of our business is providing access and opportunities for students to thrive. We believe members of our team should have equal opportunity to contribute and grow

Inclusion: We want to become a community that empowers our target customers, and continue to evolve and grow as a team while making impact with our business

Our business model includes freemium, direct sales and partnership with schools, NGOs and Governments. We currently offer free access to learning contents on our web app. Our premium offering will attract a yearly fee of $5 to provide personalized experience for our users. Our hardware product is currently being experimented in terms of usability and affordability for our customers. We will offer a one-time fee for the product and provide additional services for customers to update the contents on the MP4 since the device does not require internet connectivity.

As we grow our business to become a marketplace, we will offer teachers opportunity to monetize their contents and charge platform fees

We are pre-revenue startup, operating mainly on owners funds, donations and grants. We are constantly looking for ways to sustain our operations and grow our business. In order to be financially sustainable, we will offer paid products and services and generate revenue. We are also looking forward to leverage resources at MIT solve to develop a sustainable business model for growth.

Since we started Odemy, we have been able to sustain donations from friends and family. We hold a "Giving Circle" of friends which is a quarterly meeting where we provide updates to our friends, and stakeholders in our community. This has really help us to provide updates on our work and to sustain their support for our work. We also participated in Startup pitch contents and incubation programs that offers training and grants to growth stage startup. 

Through participation in Startup contests, donations and our quarterly "Giving Circle", we have raised over $20,000 to sustain the work that we do. This is in addition to personal funds of the owners.