Orbit-Ed

Pain for Bangladeshi Students:

• Teachers feel that their students are not engaged.
• Students do not have good understanding of the science concepts.
• Student’s curiosity is not aroused.
• Student’s performance in grades in science is not good.

What is Orbit?

Orbit is an inquiry-based classroom learning tool that uses the power of augmented reality and interactive 3D games to engage students better in a classroom

How will it help Bangladeshi Students and Teachers?

• Augmented reality-based 3D models of science topics that keep the student attention focused on the subject matter.
• Inquiry based science education methodology engages the students through questions and inquiry.
• Interactive features bring students to put their curiosity into action by varying the attributes of 3D models.
• Visualization of topics taught in the class leads to enhanced involvement with the teacher thus reduced cognitive load and improved understanding.

Children, these days, consider studies to be a burden, they are not excited about learning new concepts. It feels like their curiosity is dying with the passage of time. The prevailing educational methods are insufficient to fulfill their knowledge needs. Learners and teachers are impacted in the following ways 

• Students are unable to completely understand the concepts. This results in non-engagement of students in classroom.
• Teachers lack the necessary tools to address the why and how of students which leads to the frustration of teachers and they end up discouraging the probing nature of learners.
• The whole pedagogical approach is linear. An inquiry based learning approach that can nurture the curious brains of students is missing.

Around 30% of Bangladesh’s population consists of children between ages 1-16, these children are exposed to an education system which kills their creativity. They are unable to comprehend and relate the concepts taught in school to the world around them. This gap in understanding leaves them confused, unaware of their hidden talents, not knowing where their passion lies. This issue needs to be addressed urgently in order to mitigate the human resource crisis faced today by the world in general and Bangladesh in particular.

Orbit is a platform independent and cost effective technology solution which works with the already available IT infrastructure of schools.

Due to minimum technical requirements and ease of use, it can easily be rolled out in public sector. We are already working with the public schools in Pakistan and aim to replicate this approach in Bangladesh.

Orbit is an inquiry-based classroom learning tool that uses the power of augmented reality and interactive 3D games to engage students better in a classroom. Orbit comes in two versions:

1. Augmented reality version that works with smart devices i.e. tablets and smart phones. Below is a demonstration link of how students see and interaction with the respiratory system in humans: https://www.orbit-ed.com/whati...

1. Desktop/PC version that works with PCs, and laptops. This is how students can interact with inquiry based activities of concepts like human respiration, solar and lunar eclipses: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1h2w8yKCvCZo8YeEEclTKn8cZToeraAiT

In addition to the technology platform, our amazing team is designing content and creating engaging activities that comply with major curricula across the globe. Each topic is researched, activities are designed, content is mapped to multiple curricula, interactive and animated 3D visualizations are created and made available in our software applications to be used by teachers and students in a school.

Orbit also provides teachers with supporting material to further enhance their experience of Orbit. This material includes lesson plan and study guides that enriches the user experience.

Orbit is a unique learning solution as it blends the effective inquiry based learning approach with the leading technology of augmented reality to create exciting learning experience of today’s students.

AR/3D learning solutions available in the market lack inquiry based activities and hence do not serve as effective engaging tools.

Also, Orbit brings this AR/3D technology at affordable prices to schools. It works on the IT infrastructure already in place in schools hence removing the hurdle of device dependence which is seen as a market entering barrier for most of the AR/3D learning solutions

Pre-launch surveys we conducted in Pakistan and the US suggested acceptance of AR/3D learning tool by school administrators/teachers/parents/students which showed market readiness.

Post Launch data points and third party research has validated effectiveness of using Orbit in enhancing student engagement with in the classroom. Following stats depict the results:

1. 86% of students showed Improvement in grades.

2. 78% of students were found more engaged.

3. 98% of students are curious to know more.

4. 98% of students understood complex topics better.

Our end users are teachers and students. We are currently serving 1500 users. In one year from now, we aim to be serving 100,000 users and within five users, we are targeting to serve two million users across three countries.

Our main goal is to improve the public education system of the developing world. We are currently operating in both Pakistan and the US which gives us a first hand experience of a implementing a high tech solution in a developing country by applying best practices learnt from launching the product in a developed country.

We believe engaging students in a classroom and sparking curiosity in them by making learning a fun activity can spark creativity in them. Creativity is going to be the core skill that will help resolve problems that are currently unforeseen. We believe, preserving the natural curiosity in a kid and sparking his/her creativity can have multidimensional impact in a community.

Our goal is to learn best practices from developed countries like the United States and apply those to improve the educational system in the developed world starting from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Educational impact is only possible when you hit the public sector. Currently we are facing the following limitations with public schools:

1. Non availability of internet

2. Non availability of 1-1 devices within these schools

We have found temporary solutions to the above mentioned problems and are working on permanent solutions.

1. Internet availability: We are currently providing internet devices in our package to these schools to overcome this hurdle. As a permanent solution, our technical team is working on offline version of our application which will be available in beta version in Q2 2020.

2. Lack of 1-1 devices: If a school lacks 1-1 devices, they can purchase low cost clickers from team Orbit. These clickers cost as low as PKR 10 and can provide an amazing learning experience.

We are planning to use a strategy similar to Pakistan for our launch in Bangladesh which works as follows:

1. Targeting the high end private schools in the first step

2. Using the revenue generated by these high end private schools to enter in the public sector is a second step.

Market size in Bangladesh is approximately of 121 million USD.

We are a team of two cofounders. We currently have 14 full time resources, 2 part time resources and one paid consultant in our team

Additionally, we have 2 advisors from the US and 1 from Pakistan in our team

Between my cofounder and I, we have skills from both the software and the education world. We both have sales experience since this is our second startup and we have already generated a revenue of more than half a million dollars from our first company.

Our sales, instructional design, 3D, creative and software teams add their magic to the product and help us roll it out in both public and the private sector in two countries.

We are closely working with the following three organizations:

Ignite, National Technology Fund, Pakistan: Ignite is supporting product development and sales in Pakistan

Learn Launch: This leading global edtech accelerator is supporting our sales process in the US.

Primary Customers: Public, Private and Special Schools

Key Beneficiaries: Students, Teachers and School Administrators

Business Model: B2B SaaS. We charge $5 per user per year. Prices vary for public and private sector. There is also geographical variation of prices.

Product Delivery: Software Application is delivered in online and offline mode with STEM content available in it

We are currently funded through three sources:

1. A grant of approx. USD 200,000 from the Pakistani government through it's national technology fund

2. Two accelerators namely Learn Launch and Startupbootcamp, Amsterdam

We are seeking additional funding to support our expansion activities. Revenue in addition to these investments, and grants will support us in the coming 5 years.

We are looking to partner up with Target Challenge to support our expansion in Bangladesh. We are expecting support in following areas in Bangladesh:

1. Funding sales and marketing

2. Providing networking opportunities

3. Funding product support activities

We would appreciate partnership opportunities with the following:

1. Ministry of Education, Bangladesh

2. Center for Mass Education in Science

3. Campaign for Popular Education

4. Ministry of ICT, Bangladesh

5. Dhaka International Schools Association

6. Bangladesh Private School & College Association