Shark E-learning

An E-learning application making education accessible to all learners in a playful approach.

Lack of continuity of learning when schools are closed! Uganda was one of the hardest hit countries by COVID-19 in the African region. Beyond the staggering impact on human life, COVID-19 had greatly disrupted access to education in Uganda, with over 15 million learners out of school. While school systems in Uganda had made efforts to reach students at home through various means, recent estimates of the impact on learning and socio-emotional well-being suggest that the poorest children were hurt the most by the pandemic-related school closures. Indeed, school closures had compelled education systems to quickly devise and apply different modes of remote learning such as radio, TV, and various other types of online tools. But only a small fraction of learners in Uganda had access to these tools and those who had the access say that some of these modes have not worked for them.

We have built Shark – an eLearning application which provides a playful virtual reality learning environment with learning materials in form of notes, virtual labs, audios, recorded and live videos for all education levels.

The user-friendly interface of the application makes it easy for learners, teachers, and parents to create accounts and be able to access the resources. After creating an account, the user will be able to login and find his/her study level to access educational material customized for him/her. The layout of content and concept of virtual reality makes the learners enjoy while studying even what would have been difficult.

Our Solution serves learners, Parents and schools

The solution will impact their lives in the following ways;

1. The playful learning companion is likely to improve pupil and student success rates and boost their academic results. These are critical goals for most educators.
2. Enhanced pupil and student collaboration and engagement in addition to raised attainment levels, all while saving valuable teacher time. But to see measurable results as quick as possible, rather than investing in the latest technology just for the sake of it, its vital that schools choose products that support pedagogical approaches.
3. Teachers are increasingly expected to do more in less time.
4. Reduced administration burden, combining real-time assessment tools with front-of-class display allows teachers to score, review progress and analyse results quickly and easily. Increased collaboration, creativity, engagement, critical thinking, and active learning because of transforming traditional, lecture-based classrooms into environments infused with imaginative, interactive, playful experiences that captivate students` attention hence great educational outcomes.

We are students and pupils who were affected by the lock down due to COVID-19 from going to school and got concerned when seeing many learners doing nothing which could lead them into unlawful habits and spoil their future. We came up with the idea.

With the help of our mentor Teacher Solomon Bwire and assistance from our parents, our school and Makerere innovation society we are in position to deliver this solution to our customers

We carried out prototyping research in schools like Crane high school in Entebbe, MST Junior School and many others schools.

Shark eLearning application provides a unique approach of creating a playful learning environment integrated with virtual reality to give learners a real Class room experience even when they are not in Classroom sets this innovation apart from existing technologies.

In 2023, we plan to improve our system and develop the mobile app versions as we pilot it in highly affected target areas. We want to ensure that the application can be easily used by even children, parents and teachers who are facing a computing device for the first time, We target to work with 20 rural schools and 5 slum communities historically excluded from quality education in Uganda throughout 2023 to support them in enjoying easy access and reliability of quality education and its benefits.

Virtual reality and cloud computing. Virtual reality (VR) is a new technology which enables people to have a real-life experience in an online or virtual environment. It is more of a dream, just like shopping your favorite Gucci glasses and apple cake at the supermarket when actually you are home sleeping. It has been proven to be a very engaging emerging technology and enhances virtual learning platforms to be more fun and interactive. Cloud computing is where many users can share computing resources hosted on the internet and it is very crucial in virtual education systems due to it's effectiveness and reliability.

We plan to introduce Shark eLearning to 20 rural schools and 5 slum communities enabling over 10,000 children, parents to have access to quality education resources and enjoy the benefits that come with it hence improving their standard of living

We lack enough marketing skills and funds to finance activities of our next milestone.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Government of Uganda, provided us with funding to conduct research, access business and technical training, and develop our idea into a minimum viable product after winning an award in 2021

MST Junior School, Crane High School, Touch A Slum Foundation Uganda supporting our research with respondents.

Makerere Innovation Society equipping our team with computer programming and innovation skills.

Channels

• Search engines
• Advertising in school supply shops
• Visiting schools to get customers.

Revenue streams

• Adds-on
• Subscriptions
• Dividends
• Grants

Key Partners

• 1.Makerere Innovation Society
• 2.Partner schools e.g. Mst Junior School, Crane High School, Our Lady of Africa schools, Seeta High Schools, Touch the slum Foundation Uganda.

Key resources

• Office space
• Internet access
• Computers
• Staff

Value proposition

• Playful learning environment integrated with virtual reality to give learners a real classroom experience.

Customer segment Learners especially in primary and secondary school.

We will generate revenue through the following channels:

• We will have charges from promotional adverts to generate revenue for the venture.
• Termly subscription fee by parents and schools will create revenues to help sustain the activities of the innovation.
• We will continue applying for more grants and seeking government donations and sponsorship to out activates until we break-even.