Gradely

According to UNESCO, 250 million children lack basic literacy skills, 90% of Africa’s 200 million students are learning poor and in Nigeria, only 55% of Grade 9 students are able to read at Grade 2 level (TEP Centre, 2022). According to LEARNigeria 2022, only 55% of Nigerian children in JSS3 (i.e. after nine years of schooling) are able to read at primary 2 level. Also, 92% of children aged 10 are unable to read and understand a simple text. 

These learning gaps are created when foundational learning and numeracy (FLN) concepts have not been sufficiently taught by a teacher, or when after a lesson, gaps in learning are not quickly identified via formative assessment. Even when they are identified, the existing intervention methods employed may not fully address such gaps, causing these disparities to grow. There is a lack of access to digital tools and high quality content. Students' needs aren’t recognized and the learning isn’t personalized at schools which leads to at-risk students not keeping up with the pace of the curriculum. 

The major challenge we are solving is the lack of recognition of student needs for learning. The three challenges we are addressing are-

1. Traditional learning is “one-size-fits-all”: Students  typically do not receive educational experiences that are personalized to their learning needs and specific ability

2. The feedback loop is weak: Students are not able to get timely feedback on their performance, and hence at-risk students can easily fall behind the curriculum

3. Teacher quality is often low: Due to low pay, inadequate resources, and poor teacher welfare among other factors, the quality of teaching in Nigeria can often fail to meet the quality standards necessary to implement effective learning interventions. 

Gradely provides personalized education at scale providing 1-on-1 tutoring, and video lessons adapted to each student to drive significant improvements in learning outcomes.

• Gradely is an online tools and mobile app which are used by students, parents and schools.

• Gradely first assesses the children's learning gaps and the identified gaps for students are resolved using video lessons which is the first line of intervention. 

• Through personalized learning paths, using AI, tailored to individual student needs, learning outcomes are achieved which are comparable to those achieved with one-on-one tutoring. 

• The program's adaptive technology adjusts difficulty levels, real-time and pacing to provide targeted support. Additionally, data-driven insights empower educators to identify areas of weakness and provide timely intervention. 

• Based on continuous tracking student performance, we match them to tutors for one-on-one attention. 

• By integrating these components, Gradely strives to narrow the achievement gap and elevate student performance to levels typically associated with personalized instruction.

• Product Demos

• App Demo
• School Demo
• Tutoring Ad

• Beneficiaries:

  • Primary and Secondary school students (K-12) in rural, suburban and urban areas

  • Young teachers (aged 25-35)

  • These beneficiaries are the ones who are geographically and economically disadvantaged due to lack of access to affordable and inclusive mediums of learning

• Students

  • Gradely is accessible to marginalized school children in underserved communities by leveraging partnerships with schools, governments, corporates and development partners to provide access to devices, internet or computer labs. We are working with educator franchisees to set up profitable low-cost (50 cents -a-day) learning labs especially across suburban or rural areas.

  • According to Statista, 22.7 million children were enrolled in public elementary schools and 5.4 million went to private schools. The students were struggling due to lack of internet access and unavailability of digital resources. TELCO increases accessibility to the platform by providing internet access at a zero to no cost to the students. With further partnership with telecom companies, we want to expand access to many students over Africa enabling inclusive and accessible education.

  • We have noticed that Government schools in Nigeria have a lack of access to digital learning tools and effective implementation methodologies. We have launched learning centers in schools to increase access to digital tools and seamlessly tie it with schools curriculum as a support for teachers and students. The learning centers act as after school support to students in the school as well as poor children in the community. The low cost model helps students from various economic backgrounds have access to high quality content. 

  • When learning centers were tested, we saw 80% improvement in student performance, using mastery learning pedagogy. This demonstrated improvement in learning outcomes of at-risk students.

• Teachers

  • Majority of teachers especially in rural areas earn below the minimum wage of N30,000.

  • Our online model allows for tutors located in any part of Nigeria to be matched with any student anywhere in the world, making the number of hours required to meet the minimum rate achievable.

  • Our solution focuses on aggregating high potential teachers into supportive communities, while creating a pathway for them to generate income between N30,000 - N120,000 monthly via the platform. Our tech solution automates the recruitment, upskilling and matching of teacher processes and enables scale of our project. The project will involve teacher curriculum development, Training, and 1-on-1 tutoring.

Led by founders present in the educational landscape of Nigeria, Gradely is positioned to deliver impactful solutions in Africa and globally. Our team boasts a track record of impactful achievements in education and technology. 

• Led by Boye Oshinaga, CEO, who spearheaded Nigeria's first accredited Online MBA program and previously scaled Riby to 3 million users. His personal experience of understanding the challenges in the education sector in Nigeria has helped him to start Gradely. He has observed how lack of high quality interventions in schools and traditional methodologies of teaching doesn’t help students' learning process. His multiple interactions with school leaders and teachers has led him to understand the lack of motivation and poor salary conditions at schools. Boye wanted to work with education to reduce the gap between technology and learning. To optimize system integration and to overcome impediments of utilizing technology, Gradely was established for students with AI and personalized learning, to adapt the platform to their needs. This solution empowered students and teachers as it encompassed learning through videos and tutoring. Through Learning centers at schools, students at risk had access to digital tools. 
• Femi Ibiwoye (CTO), built Pass.ng, the top test prep app in Nigeria, aiding 500,000+ students. He has learnt on how technology can be utilized to help students and aid their learning process. His experience in tech has led us to build a system which learns from students performance, making the platform adaptive. More importantly, the technology accessibility is understood in depth with his support. 
• Caleb Babatunde (Product Lead), led gamification at Quizac, used by 20,000+ students. Developed learning systems for K-12 and post-secondary markets, including the Placement Portal for NYSC, reaching 2 million. His experience in working with systems for schools and students with his extensive approach in the challenges of education sector has help develop Gradely for the students. His interaction with customers - students from various backgrounds has given Gradely a deeper understanding of how students access the product. 

90,000 students and 541 schools in Nigeria currently access our program. Initial research that we conducted has shown grade-level improvement in outcomes of Primary 4-6 pupils who use it at home for 15 hours, and 25% improvement when pupils reinforce learning with video lessons immediately after class. 

We are looking to expand this research to continuously measure effectiveness of our adaptive approach for the three modes of use: 

• after school, at home
• after school, in a learning center 
• teacher-led, during school hours. 

We are just now engaging Learning Science PhDs at Harvard and Oxford to take a look at our model and help us conduct Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) to validate that our model really works and be replicated. We want to grow to make Gradely accessible and affordable to students from various communities. We are expanding our mobile application to garner more users to use the adaptive platform and get access to high quality tutors. 

Becoming part of the MIT Solve aligns perfectly with our mission to scale our impact across Africa and beyond. The esteemed network, offering access to pioneering research, strategic partnerships, and a global platform, is pivotal for our growth. We are eager to tap into the wealth of knowledge and mentorship available, focusing on refining our value proposition and enhancing our impact. Joining MIT Solve is not just an opportunity for growth but a chance to collaborate with like-minded innovators committed to making a tangible difference in the world.

With MIT Solve, we want to create a more affordable version of Gradely making it accessible to various sectors of the community. As a part of the growth of the organization, we aim to scale, making it a social enterprise, concentrating on impact and profit. MIT Solve will empower us to make our solution sustainable. The support of making our AI and personalization of learning better, will be an added benefit from the MIT Solve community. 

Gradely is innovative because of -

• • Continuous assessment on the platform - Gradely uses proven mastery learning techniques theorized by Benjamin Bloom’s 2-sigma Theory which have been evidenced to significantly improve outcomes. This innovative method allows us to ensure the platform is adaptive, identify specific learning gaps and track mastery through adaptive assessments. Leveraging Machine learning and data analytics helps students, parents and schools learn more about the performance and continuous improvement in scores and learning. We are able to determine how many assessments were needed by a student to master a concept. Utilizing AI, Gradely is able to recognize student learning patterns to provide more adaptive video lessons and match with one-on-one tutors. Gradely learns based on the student interactions and performance improving the pedagogy of the system and understanding how students learn. This constant learning of the system improves the way students learn.

  • High quality immersive learning - Content delivery using videos which are recorded using a trainer who conceptualizes topics. By effective combination of visual and audio, knowledge retention is improved. This is more impactful that traditional learning methods. Students are able to take ownership of their learning and create memorable connections with the content. Our students were shown 7 minutes of video content from Gradely and we compared their performance to a 45 minute class. The students who saw the video showed 25% improvement. 

  • Tutoring - Recommends animated videos as the first line of intervention in specific areas of struggle. When there isn’t a sufficient lift in performance, the platform matches students 1-on-1 with a live tutor to address the gap. Tutors are highly qualified and have been selected based on our 3-tier process: Assessment, Interview and Performance data from trial sessions.

  • Our solution significantly increases teachers’ capacity to intervene in and remedy learning gaps of their students.

• Activities: Assessment, recommendations and tutoring - Students

  • Activity 1.1: Using AI on Gradely to understand the current learning level of students.  

  • Activity 1.2: Recommendations - Based on the skills of students, videos are recommended. Using this pedagogy, students are motivated to learn and master topics on the platform at a faster pace. 

  • Activity 1.3: Tutoring: Based on the students progress, students are mapped to tutors for personalized attention. This helps students ask their questions and understand topics in a more structured way. 

• Activities Output - Students

  • Average students tutored one-on-one using mastery learning techniques achieve the same level as the top 15% of students in a classroom not using mastery learning. When our video lessons were used to reinforce learning after a physical class, we observed a 25%  increase in learning and 33% increase in mastery. When students use the platform effectively for 2 months, we notice an average 40% improvement in performance. 

  • With this evidence, our solution’s impact is to significantly  improve proficiency in Math, Reading and Sciences, thus equipping them for the future of work.

• Activities: Recruitment, Upskilling & Matching - Teachers

  • Activity 1.1: Teacher Training – Young persons are invited to apply to be participants of the project, after which screening based on assessments is conducted. Teachers will be trained on learner centered methodologies, leadership, communication, and digital skills that prepares them for online delivery. The training will be delivered virtually in addition to hands-on in person training.

  • Activity 1.2: Match to 1-1 Tutoring opportunities - Trained Teachers will pass through a rigorous selection process that involves tests in subject areas, interviews and performance measurement on student’s learning outcomes. Our platform diagnoses student’s learning gaps and creates a demand for tutor hours and content. Qualified tutors that fit the specific demand identified are matched to the student to help the student in areas of need. Teachers are compensated based on the number of tutoring sessions delivered per month.

  • Activity 1.3: Vibrant Teacher Communities: Our online teachers’ community will create a platform for peer learning, support and exchange of opportunities to earn more income via our platform or other global online tutoring platforms. Teachers who are currently earning on the platform will become advocates and trainers to cascade the knowledge and skills to others.

• Activities Output - Teachers

  • Output 1.1: 5000 teachers gain competency in learner centred methodologies and other skills that supports today’s learners

  • Output 1.2 (a): 1,722 selected tutors are matched with students with a monthly target of 12 sessions, Output 1.2 (c): 18,000 students matched with qualified tutors of which 30% are diasporan students

  • Output 1.3: Increased knowledge sharing between teachers from different communities on best teaching techniques

Outcomes:

• Improved student learning outcome gained from our 1-to-1 tutoring
• More accessible and affordable technology solution to students from various communities
• Teachers trained gain more opportunities to teach locally and internationally
• Teachers make sustainable monthly income in the range of N30,000 – N120,000

We are building a cost-effective way to accelerate learning for K-12 children worldwide, beginning with Africa and Africans in diaspora -  200M African & 1B globally students that struggle to meet minimum proficiency in FLN.  Achieving  SDG 4 target of promoting  equitable education for all and achieving high quality education through integration with Government schools. 

Our solution is targeting the below key parameters as indicators of success - 

• The percentage of equal access achieved to all levels of education for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

• Proportion of population in schools achieving a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills

• Proportion of schools having digital access to resources

• Proportion of teachers empowered using digital technologies

• KPI’s for measuring the goals

  • Percentage of schools having Learning centers and students having access to digital tools

  • Number of users on Gradely platform using lower-tier pricing model

  • Percentage of students sponsored from partners to increase affordability and access

  • Improvement in the learning outcomes of students

• Goals:

  • Support 120,000 students to reach minimum proficiency in Maths, Languages and Sciences for their grade level

  • Employ 1,722 teachers (target: 60:40 female to male ratio) that earn minimum wage or higher, with 60% from peri-urban or rural communities.

• We have 18 full time staff who are working with us. 
• More than 42 tutors part time

• 3 contractors - graphic design, legal and accounting staff

We started working in 2020. We launched our LMS in 2021 and since 2022 end, we have been working on our Mobile app. We have also launched our mobile app in early 2023.

• Our diverse team represents various regions and backgrounds, ensuring that our solutions are inclusive and relevant to all segments of the population.

• We believe that with the diverse group we can achieve a higher impact. 

• We have members from Africa, UK and India. 

• Our CTO is located in the UK and is of African origin. He has built Pass.ng, aiding over 500,000 students. 

• Our Chief of Staff is from India, and she is well-experienced in cutting edge technology and AI. 

• Our non-discrimination policy is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on account of race, age, color, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, or religion or otherwise as may be prohibited by federal and state law.

• Open and transparent recruitment process : open and honest, and providing a fair and accurate portrayal of the job and company to prospective employees.

• DEI policy: promoting a welcoming, harassment-free and diverse working environment. 

• Customer Segments - 

  • K-12 students in rural, semi-urban and urban areas

  • Parents

  • Young teachers (aged 25-35)

  • Schools as Learning centers

• Customer Relationships

  • Students sign up on the platform with the expectation that they have access to content and personalized learning

  • In schools, we increase access to digital tools and help teachers with high quality intervention methods

  • Help tutors from various area have an increased income

• Channels

  • Students are reached through parents - who want to support the learning of their children and increase the learning outcomes

  • Schools are reached through NGO partnerships

  • Tutors through recruiting on multiple platforms

• Key Resources

  • Proven mastery skill training resources

  • Highly trained tutors

  • Skilled tech team to build AI platform

  • Experts from Harvard and Oxford for methods to improve learning outcomes of students through RCT experiments

• Key Activities

  • Recruiting and training tutors

  • Controlled experiments on how students learn and how learning outcomes increase

  • Implementation of Learning centers in schools to increase access to tools

• Key Partners

  • Non-profit organizations

  • Telecom companies to help grow access to internet - our existing partnership with TELCO

  • Partners sponsoring students learning through Gradely and device support. 

• Revenue Streams and Cost Structure

  • Pricing is structured according to different tiers

  • Content - N40,000/$40 annually

  • Tutoring - N5000/$5 per session (average 4 sessions in a month)

  • Telcos - 5 cents Lower pricing for families through TELCO partnership

  • Learning center - 50 cents a day

  • Sponsorship - through companies for sponsoring digital devices to students in schools and for families.

The company is currently profitable with income exceeding monthly costs. We source capital to invest in the business from a mix of equity investments, grants, and revenue generated from sales. Having a  revenue generating model based on tutoring and content subscription ensures that the business is not overly dependent on external sources of funds but is able to sustain its operations.

We are in the process of partnering with Lagos State Government through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and a national education body, to overcome inequality in education and improve levels of FLN. This will lead to more students having exposure to personalized learning and access to high quality content. We have a Learning center established in an elite school for girls in Yaba. 

End User Demand – Gradely currently has 90,000 students signed up on the platform, 4,000 teachers using our platform for learning delivery and 540 schools onboarded. We project to have more than 800 paid tutoring students and more than 20,000 students for content signed up on our platform, helping us reach $400k revenue by the end of 2024.