Blended Learning Done Right for All Learning Platform

Immersio is dedicated to tackling the challenge of a lack of mother language-based education and the detrimental effects of language barriers on learning. This issue is pervasive, impacting migrant and immigrant communities worldwide, especially regions where indigenous languages are no longer spoken or endangered. In fact, with the status quo nearly half of the world's languages will be extinct within a generation.

In many international settings where English is the primary language of instruction, there is a pressing need for inclusive education that accommodates diverse linguistic backgrounds. The absence of personalized, adaptive learning content often leads to frustration and disengagement among students, hindering effective education and leaving some learners behind.

The impact of Immersio's platform is particularly significant in migrant and immigrant communities, where children frequently encounter language barriers and have limited access to mother language-based education. Additionally, the platform's adaptiveness and inclusivity cater to diverse linguistic backgrounds, making it relevant in international contexts where English is predominantly used. By addressing the scarcity of personalized learning content and promoting inclusive education, Immersio's solution has the potential to benefit a substantial number of learners globally.

Our solution is a comprehensive, end-to-end digital platform designed to empower language organizations to seamlessly transition their instruction online while ensuring a blended learning approach that benefits language organizations, instructors, and learners alike.

With Immersio, language organizations can effortlessly create and customize immersive, interactive, and conversational courses on their own branded site. Our tailor-made AI tools enable organizations to efficiently develop courses from scratch or convert existing media into engaging digital content.

Learners then gain access to our proprietary AI-powered teaching assistant, "Immy," providing on-demand support and feedback. Immy utilizes advanced algorithms to assess learner competency levels and dynamically adjust learning flows based on course content, ensuring a personalized and engaging experience that minimizes frustration and boredom.

In addition to personalized learning experiences, Immersio seamlessly integrates booking and communication functionalities, streamlines business operations, and offers flexible team roles to adapt to market needs and facilitate scalability.

By combining cutting-edge technology with user-centric design, Immersio revolutionizes language instruction, making it accessible, effective, and scalable for language organizations, instructors, and learners worldwide by getting blended learning done right.

Immersio's solution directly meets the needs of immigrant and indigenous learners in Canada and around the world. In Canada, recent and prospective immigrants often encounter language barriers when accessing essential services like healthcare and education in our increasingly globalized world. Many immigrants require the opportunity to learn new skills in their native language to better integrate into their new communities. 

Similarly, Indigenous learners worldwide, including those in Canada, often struggle to access culturally relevant educational content in their native languages. These communities currently lack adequate language-appropriate educational resources and inclusive learning opportunities. Immersio's solution aims to bridge these gaps by providing adaptive, language-specific content that caters to the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of these learners.

Our solution directly tackles the need for skills acquisition in learners' native languages, promoting more effective and inclusive learning experiences. We recognize the importance of preserving and promoting diverse cultures and languages, empowering learners to engage with educational content that aligns with their cultural identities.

What's particularly impactful in our immediate setting is that our platform serves as a means for immigrant and indigenous communities to preserve their cultural and linguistic heritage. By providing educators with resources to create learning materials in native languages, our platform facilitates language acquisition and nurtures a sense of cultural pride and identity among learners. Through adaptive and language-specific content, our platform significantly enhances the lives of immigrant and indigenous learners, addressing their underserved educational needs and empowering them to access educational resources tailored to their cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Our team is exceptionally well-equipped to deliver the proposed solution, drawing on a wealth of experience and expertise in education, technology, and business management. 

Our founders and executive team members possess a diverse skill set that uniquely qualifies them to design and deliver a solution tailored to the needs of immigrant and indigenous communities. With extensive backgrounds in education, including running language schools in Vietnam and authoring language proficiency materials, they have firsthand experience in language education and curriculum design, directly addressing the challenges faced by the target population.

The team lead and members represent the communities we aim to serve. Their deep understanding of cognitive linguistics, educational psychology, psychometrics, and business management embodies a comprehensive and inclusive approach to addressing the educational needs of immigrant and indigenous learners. By leveraging their expertise and lived experiences, they are uniquely positioned to design and implement a solution that is guided by the input, ideas, and agendas of the communities.

Our model involves direct partnerships with community advocates, ensuring that the solution is tailored to the specific needs and cultural nuances of the target population. Moreover, the team has established training setups to engage with and empower the communities, allowing for hands-on implementation and continuous learning. Additionally, the presence of advisors in business, leadership, technology, and indigenous matters underscores our commitment to ensuring that the solution is responsive to the communities' input and sustainable in the long term.

We have achieved significant milestones during the pilot stage, successfully developing and testing a working prototype of our platform. Through multiple pilot programs, we have confirmed the technology's effectiveness from end to end. This rigorous testing has enabled us to validate the functionality and reliability of our solution.

Our platform has been actively utilized by various beneficiaries, including three indigenous nations and three language teaching institutions in Vietnam. Additionally, over 20 individual instructors, both private and professional, have leveraged the platform to enhance their language instruction. While Immersio has been introduced to the market, our focus has not been on aggressive growth or high adoption rates. Instead, we have prioritized assessing product-market fit and refining our offering based on real-world usage and feedback. This approach has provided valuable insights into the platform's alignment with the needs of our target users.

With a solid foundation established through pilot programs and user feedback, we are ready to transition into proper sales activities in the coming months. This strategic move reflects our commitment to ensuring that our platform is well-positioned for successful adoption in the market.

We are excited to apply to MIT Solve, focusing on positioning our company for growth and overcoming barriers that hinder our potential impact. The successful piloting of our solution has demonstrated its efficacy, and we are eager to leverage MIT Solve's resources to further expand our reach and impact globally.

Our primary goal in applying to Solve is to address the financial and market barriers we currently face. By positioning ourselves for growth, the backing of Solve would provide us with the opportunity to connect with more communities globally. This support would be instrumental in scaling our solution and reaching a broader audience, especially in communities where our impact is most needed.

Recognizing the importance of technical support in maintaining and enhancing the scalability and effectiveness of our solution, we hope that Solve can provide us with the necessary resources to address any technical challenges that may arise, ensuring the continued success of our platform. 

Lastly, as a bootstrapped company that has not given away any equity, we seek non-monetary support from Solve to help us build a sustainable company that can drive long-term social impact. 

Re the market, we are changing B2B learning with our pioneering AI-powered teaching solution, setting us apart in an industry primarily focused on B2C solutions. While there are some solutions offered personalizing tutoring and learning marketplaces, and other solutions offering interactive, immersive courses, there is a lack of solutions empowering organizations to themselves create such courses at scale and in turn own the user data and tracking to offer both in their own teaching settings.

Re the solution itself, unique approach is transforming the way content and learning creators operate, thanks to the proprietary and patent-pending nature of our solution, which stands as a transformative tool for both creators and learners.

We empower content and learning creators by providing them with cutting-edge tools that catalyze positive change within the educational space. Our solution enhances the efficiency of content creation and delivery, ultimately revolutionizing the learning experience for end-users. This forward-thinking approach not only improves the educational process but also inspires a new wave of innovation in the industry.

By leveraging AI, our solution accelerates the learning process, fundamentally changing traditional educational methods, with languages being only the beginning. This transformative approach extends beyond our platform, inspiring others in the education sector to embrace AI for more effective and efficient learning experiences. We are setting a new standard for AI-driven educational tools, potentially influencing the adoption of similar approaches industry-wide.

Our theory of change at Immersio is grounded in the well-documented educational benefits of mother tongue usage and blended learning approaches. Research indicates that using the home language in school is crucial for bridging children's learning experiences at home and in formal educational settings. This language, known as the mother tongue or home language, plays a vital role in children's educational development, helping them learn concepts and vocabulary faster, facilitating quick reading, and enhancing understanding skills. Children with a strong foundation in their home language tend to develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language and demonstrate enhanced cognitive development. Additionally, active participation in the learning process is encouraged when children understand the language of instruction, leading to increased enthusiasm for learning and improved academic performance.

In addition, multilingualism and the maintenance of the first language have been linked to higher performance in tests of analytical reasoning, concept formation, and cognitive flexibility, indicating overall cognitive development benefits. Using mother tongues in education also preserves cultural and traditional heritage, fostering a sense of identity and pride among learners.

Considering the impact on educational inequality and inclusion, mother language-based education is essential for achieving Education for All, promoting inclusive learning environments, and bridging pre-existing educational inequalities. The lack of access to digital learning content in students' mother tongues deepens inequalities, leading to learning loss, dropouts, and exclusion. The inclusion of languages in the digital world is vital to address the digital divide and ensure equitable access to education.

On a global scale, UNESCO has been advocating for multilingual education based on the mother tongue, working with Member States to integrate multilingual education into curriculums and education systems. Successful initiatives to promote mother language-based education have been implemented in countries such as Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, and Kenya, demonstrating a growing global understanding of the importance of multilingual education, particularly in early schooling.

Our impact goals at Immersio are closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly focusing on Goal 10.2 to empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of background.

Our first goal is to improve access to mother language-based education for a significant number of individuals. By June 2025, we aim to reach 80 active organizations registered and operating, measuring our progress by tracking the number of individuals using our platform in their mother language and the percentage increase in proficiency levels. This goal not only enhances educational opportunities but also promotes cultural preservation and identity, in line with Goal 11.4 to preserve and protect cultural heritage.

Our second goal is to reduce language barriers in education for communities we serve. We aim to reach 20 by June 2025; we measure our progress by tracking the number of minority languages and the number of minority language instructors. This goal directly supports Goal 10.2 by promoting social inclusion and enhancing educational opportunities for marginalized groups.

Our third goal is to promote cultural preservation and identity for the indigenous languages we support. With 20 indigenous language organizations registered on the platform and by June 2025, we measure our progress by tracking the number of indigenous languages and learners who progressed through at least intermediate 1 courses. This goal aligns with Goal 11.4 by contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage.

We also conduct regular surveys and interviews with users to gather qualitative insights into the impact of our platform on their lives. These indicators guide our strategies and interventions, ensuring that we are on track to achieve our impact goals and contribute to the broader objective of enhancing the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, as outlined in Goal 17.16.

Immersio integrates the following core components:

    - A course creator that can provide highly customized content catering to the specific interests and needs of individual students.

    - An adaptive learning system that gathers student activity data, assesses student comfort levels and adjusts content delivery to ensure steady comfortable learning progress.

    - A business management system that supports both individual educators and also all key roles of a mid-sized educational institution that administers students, develops lesson and course content and teaches students

    - A scheduling system that enables students and tutors to meet in person either online or in person.

Course content development allows content developers to create language learning courses through AI or through personally created content or any combination of the two. Course content includes a range of learning activities involving speech production through drills, listening to contextualized dialog and word recognition. Immersio’s AI server functions as a supporting micro-service that eases the workload of course developers while still allowing them full control over the final course content.

Course delivery involves an adaptive learning system. This system constantly monitors learner activity to detect the comfort level of the learner with the learning material. It is then possible to adjust the rate of content delivery, increase review of less familiar course elements and thus ensure steady and perceived learning progress. Course delivery includes a chatbot that adjusts the complexity and speed of its language based on the learners language level.  This is achieved through a small group of AI and customized ML microservices that collect granular activity data on the students learning and utilize this data to identify not only a contextualized characterization of competency level, but also specific aspects of learning content that require additional practice. 

Business management and scheduling lessons involve well established protocols for authorization, authentication,  data privacy management, role management and financial transactions. In this area, the key focus is not innovation but rather reliability and usability for small and medium sized language learning institutions.

The true power in Immersio’s learning framework is in its unique ability to support the countless established “brick and mortar” language institutions around the globe as they seek to support their customers in new ways and also seek new customers that were previously beyond their reach. From the learners point of view, Immersio allows students to learn in a low stress, steady progress environment that offers realistic learning contexts, genuine opportunity for language practice and genuine person to person interaction and guidance.

As a relatively new technology in the field of language learning, Immersio has undergone rigorous testing and validation to ensure its efficacy and effectiveness in delivering personalized and engaging learning experiences. While we do not yet have a published peer-reviewed study specifically addressing Immersio's technology, we can provide evidence of its functionality and performance through a combination of user feedback, pilot studies, and internal testing.

User Feedback: Immersio has been in development and testing stages for several years, during which time we have collected extensive feedback from users, instructors, and language organizations. This feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with users praising Immersio's focus on practice, conversation, personalized learning features, and effectiveness in improving language proficiency. Testimonials from users and instructors attest to the tangible benefits and impact of Immersio on their language learning journey.

Pilot Studies: Immersio has conducted pilot studies and beta testing with select user groups to evaluate its effectiveness in real-world learning environment. These studies involved diverse populations of learners, including individuals with varying language proficiency levels and learning preferences. The results of these pilot studies have been promising, demonstrating significant improvements in language acquisition, engagement, and retention among participants.

Internal Testing: Prior to the public release of Immersio’s newest build for public use, our development team is conducting extensive internal testing to assess the platform's functionality, stability, and performance. This testing involved rigorous quality assurance processes, including user acceptance testing, functionality testing, and stress testing under various usage scenarios. The results of these tests confirmed Immersio's reliability, scalability, and ability to deliver consistent learning experiences across different devices and platforms.

While we acknowledge the importance of academic research and peer-reviewed publications in validating the effectiveness of new technologies, Immersio is committed to ongoing evaluation and improvement through continued user feedback, data analysis, and collaboration with academic researchers and institutions.

In summary, while we do not have a published academic paper at this time, the evidence of Immersio's effectiveness is supported by user feedback, pilot studies, and internal testing. We remain dedicated to further research and validation efforts to continue enhancing Immersio's technology and maximizing its impact on language learning outcomes.

7 full time

3 part-time

2 contractors

Our organization has been working on our solution since January 2020.

At Immersio, we are deeply committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all team members. Our team is inherently diverse, with a variety of genders, ages, and geographical locations represented. We have team members in Vietnam and Canada, spanning continents and bringing unique perspectives to our work.

Our leadership team reflects our commitment to diversity, with all three founders being newcomers to Canada. This diversity in leadership is not only a reflection of our values but also ensures that our team understands the challenges and opportunities faced by immigrant and indigenous communities firsthand.

In addition to gender, age, and geographic diversity, we also prioritize language diversity. Our team members speak multiple languages, reflecting our commitment to providing education in learners' mother tongues. To further promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, we actively seek out mentors, community advocates, and external team members who are female. We believe that diverse perspectives enrich our work and help us better serve our diverse communities.

Our overarching goal is to ensure that our team is representative of the communities we serve, particularly indigenous communities. We understand the importance of indigenous representation and actively work towards this goal in all aspects of our organization.

Our business model at Immersio is centered around providing value to both our key customers and beneficiaries by offering innovative language learning solutions that are accessible, scalable, and cost-effective. 

Our primary customers include language organizations, educational institutions, corporate training programs, and individual learners seeking to improve their language skills. Our beneficiaries are the learners themselves, who benefit from personalized, immersive language instruction that enhances their proficiency and confidence.

We offer a subscription-based pricing model that aligns with our customers' needs and growth objectives. Our pay-as-you-grow model charges a competitive rate of $5 per student per month, providing affordable access to our platform while allowing organizations to scale their usage based on demand. This flexible pricing structure ensures that organizations only pay for the resources they use, making Immersio an attractive option for both small-scale language programs and large enterprise deployments.

In addition to our subscription fees, we also offer customizable setup fees for enterprise sales. This allows us to tailor our services to the specific needs and requirements of larger organizations, such as custom branding, integration with existing systems, and specialized support services. By offering a range of customization options, we can accommodate the diverse needs of our enterprise customers while ensuring a seamless implementation process.

Furthermore, Immersio leverages strategic partnerships with preferred vendors to enhance our value proposition and expand our reach within the market. These channel partners play a crucial role in promoting Immersio's platform to their existing customer base and driving new business opportunities. In return, we offer discounts and incentives to our channel partners, incentivizing them to promote Immersio's solutions and strengthen our market presence.

Overall, our business model at Immersio is designed to provide maximum value to our customers and beneficiaries while ensuring sustainable growth and profitability for our company. By offering flexible pricing options, customizable solutions, and strategic partnerships, we aim to democratize access to high-quality language learning experiences and empower learners worldwide to achieve their language proficiency goals.

At Immersio, our plan for financial sustainability revolves around a combination of revenue streams that align with our mission and values. To date, we have primarily relied on bootstrapping and grants to fund our operations. While this has allowed us to develop and pilot our platform, we recognize the need to secure additional funding to ensure long-term sustainability.

Our revenue model is based on a pay-as-you-go platform, where schools pay $5 per student per month to access our educational content in their mother language. This model not only ensures a steady stream of revenue but also aligns with our goal of providing affordable and accessible education to all learners.

In addition to revenue from schools, we are exploring other avenues to generate income. This includes seeking grants and donations from organizations that align with our mission of promoting mother language-based education. We are also looking into partnerships with governments and educational institutions to provide our platform as a service, generating revenue through service contracts.

One of our key strategies for financial sustainability is to continuously expand our user base. By targeting schools and educational institutions globally, we aim to increase our revenue while maximizing our impact on learners. We are also exploring the possibility of offering premium features or additional services to schools that require them, further diversifying our revenue streams.

While we have made significant progress in securing grants and conducting paid pilots, we understand the importance of achieving financial sustainability. We have a runway that lasts until the end of the year assuming $0 in funding, highlighting the need to secure additional funding to sustain our operations beyond that point.