Digital Educational Ecosystem

According to OECD, UNESCO and several UN Agencies, the National Educational Systems in Latin America present three major challenges per country: (1) equal coverage; (2) quality in the educational processes and learning levels; (3) and the formation and functioning of the educational services and authorities.

The Digital Educational Ecosystem provides an integration of several platforms in three main pillars: (I) Content Development; (II) eLearning Environment; and (III) Big Data and Data Analytics for Education Authorities, Teachers, Students and Parents.

The Digital Educational Ecosystem allows each Ministry of Education in Latin America to improve: (1) knowledge acquisition per student; (2) coverage for rural and urban areas; (3) articulate the national education system; (4) strengthen the teaching and learning environment; (5) identify and develop general and specific skills while monitoring and analyzing quantitative and qualitative indicators per student; and (6) provide a digital showcase for companies to reformulate recruitment and compensation plans.

Our solution can monitor and improve education for K12 and Higher Education students and teachers in Latin America and the Caribbean which refers to a population above 150 million people in rural and urban areas.

In 2017, the number of people living Latin America in poverty reached 184 million, of whom 62 million live in extreme poverty, the highest percentage since 2008. The level of education attained by individuals is another factor linked to poverty levels, since the poverty rate is lower among people who have progressed the furthest through the education system.  Eradication of poverty and extreme poverty, as well as the reduction of inequality in all its dimensions, continues to be a core challenge for the countries of Latin America.

The PISA 2018 results confirm that Latin America is facing a learning crisis. On average, 15-year-old students in the region are three years behind in reading, mathematics & science of a student in an OECD country.  One in two students in the region does not reach the basic reading proficiency; while mathematics and science, only 12% and 18% of these students achieved a minimum level of proficiency, respectively. They face a high risk of dropping out of school.

Our solution starts with a Content Development Platform to build tailor-suite content based on the learner’s performance through an Adaptive Learning approach as an educational method which delivers custom learning experiences according to unique student needs through real-time monitoring, personalized learning pathways and tailor-suite contents delivered in an Online/Offline Teaching and Learning Environment.

Our technology identifies specific student needs in Data Science and Big Data Analytics, according to the daily knowledge acquisition per student; it provides new insights regarding the social and educational impact in the community; while reinforcing an skill-biased approach since real-time data analytics to research and improve education for the purpose of changing the lives of millions of students.

Education 4.0 based in our Digital Educational Ecosystem provides real-time quantitative and qualitative indicators, by student, social environment, demographics, geographical area, skills acquired, inclusion and equity, gender equality, quality education, and lifelong learning opportunities while enabling relevant stakeholders to visualize the existing educational gaps towards a comprehensive approach, while providing analytical reports to facilitate policies, planning and program improvements, in order to articulate the following educational processes: (1) Plans and Programs; (2) Teacher Training; (3) Teaching and Learning Models; (4) Content and Educational Materials, and; (5) Assessments. 

Our company proposes a Digital Educational Ecosystem which is an integrated group of digital platforms to improve education based on three core components:

1. Content Development: Starts with a Digital Content Development Platform named mAuthor dedicated to build highly interactive Digital Resources and to coordinate the workflow of the Project Teams involved in its creation. The digital content refers to the production of digital educational material for students and teachers from K12 and Higher Education Levels, including interactive ebooks, learning objects, digital courses and assessments, as well as, any other multimedia resource. The content can be developed in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode, allowing the authors to develop and edit in a quick and accurate way, while delivering HTML5/XML code, without programming. Our ePublishing environment produces content which complies with SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 and xAPI (Tin Can) standards, making it compatible with the majority of standard eLearning LMS platforms.

2. Content Delivery: The content produced will be distributed using our eLearning Management System named mCourser, which is an online teaching and learning environment where students and teachers communicate, collaborate and interact. Additionally, we propose an Online/Offline APP named mLibro which is an application that synchronizes all content, activities and responses issued from mLibro to mCourser. Meaning students can work offline, since their mobile device or computer, and afterwards synchronize their responses. This Online/Offline model is very convenient, whereas 95% of the K12 schools in the region, do not have an stable internet connectivity or even an internet connection at all. Our Content Delivery Platforms agnostically work on Desktops and Laptops which use Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems as well as, Tablets and Smartphones with Android and iOS.

3. Big Data Analytics: Monitoring the educational performance of each student and teacher, where we can monitor, visualize and analyze the knowledge and skills acquired per student in real-time, to deliver a Data Science Information and Research Center to improve education in Latin America and the Caribbean. The scope of this component will be a data driven evidence-based decision making process that uses accurate, reliable and relevant information generated from various sources. Our technology supports the educative authorities and teachers to have access to all the information they need, while delivering educational quantitative and qualitative key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide relevant decision-making and according to the context of each educational community.

Around 1455 AD, the first book ever was printed and distributed worldwide; since then students use textbooks in schools; more than 500 years ago, we still use the same technology.

Our Digital Educational Ecosystem is innovative because it will change the use of textbooks in each school in Latin America and around the World. This represents a Game Changer in Education, where education will not be the same, where these digital interactive ebooks together with our online/offline APP represent the perfect Data Collection. Once the digital content is developed as an Interactive Book and the content is delivered through an APP in an Online/Offline Environment, the Big Data Analytics and Education 4.0 will take its place as part of the Industry 4.0

The Digital Educational Ecosystem provides several innovations, as empowering education to articulate the different departments on each Ministry of Education (Federal and Statewide) where the educative authorities are looking at the same Data Analytics Dashboards and making decisions based on the same skills evidence per student and per context. This constitutes the needed accountability for World Bank and other agencies to provide funding for education based on real-time evidence. Also, we now understand, why are we using these “Shiny Toys” (Desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, videoprojectors, digital whiteboards, etc.) inside the classroom. Furthermore, we can identify qualitative and quantitative indicators to provide the Perfect Showcase for companies to reformulate their recruitment and compensation plans and force the education systems to provide relevant capacities and skills for the productive markets.

We consider ourselves as Game Changers, because the Implementation of the Digital Educational Ecosystem in the National Public Education Systems in the region promotes a framework for intensive educational research by helping policy makers, planners and education practititioners, to design effective, efficient and sustainable educational models according to the context of every education community in rural and urban areas, in order to reformulate, implement and monitor the plans and programs for each ministry of education in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Building a Data Science Information and Research Center is crucial to obtain data, understand it, process it, extract its value, visualize it, identify patterns, communicate it and provide new educational models which improves the skills acquisition and development for each student while personalizing education. The identification of these educational patterns are extremely useful to provide educational and skills predictions based on the insights from the data analytics.

Nevertheless, all these Data Insights to measure education, provide evidence for educative authorities and stakeholders or identifying educational patterns to improve education cannot turn into reality, if the root of the Content Development is not correctly design, understood, implemented and maintained since each community, district, state and country. In order to achieve this goal is important to create a confederation of Content Developers based on the higher education institutions that will be responsible to design, build and provide maintenance to the educational content at their geographical location, as well as, the relationship between the education and company environments, through the curricula improvement.

We are currently serving around 400,000 users. 

We will be serving 1 million users by 2021. 

We will be serving 10 million users by 2025. 

By year 2021: Provide the Digital Educational Ecosystem in 2 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean into 10,000 schools, to benefit 1,000,000 students, 25,000 teachers and initiate a content construction crusade with higher education institutions and the big data analytics with 2 national research centers.

By year 2025: Provide the Digital Educational Ecosystem in 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean into 100,000 schools, to benefit 10,000,000 students, 250,000 teachers and initiate a content construction crusade with higher education institutions and the big data analytics with 10 national research centers.

Game Changer Components:

1. The establishment of Personalized Learning with an educational approach whose main objective is the acquisition of knowledge, as well as the identification of needs, strengths, abilities and interests of each student in rural and urban areas, through the use of an Online/Offline eLearning Environment.

2. Content Factories: Construction of thousands of interactive digital content and interactive digital ebooks for students and teachers in the region.

3. Research Centers: Design, develop and implement a Data Science Information and Research Center to provide a framework for intensive educational research.

Benefits in Latin America and the Caribbean, while implementing the Digital Educational Ecosystem:

1. Reduce Poverty

2. Improvement in knowledge and skills per student

3. Improvement in innovation and technology development/transfer

4. Increase productivity and competitiveness

5. Increase employment 

6. Regional development: politics, security and economics

7. Economic growth through innovation

The barriers are:

1. Investment to implement a Pilot Program in each country for 3-6 months.
2. Investment for the Complete Project from World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency - JICA, and other international agencies.
3. Networking with President’s Office, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Technology in each country.
4. Resistance to change (Teachers to adopt technology).
5. Technology gap per student (Lack of devices and internet).

The overcoming barriers are:

1. We have found private investors.
2. We start to have good relationship with some agencies from World Bank.
3. We are actively working through embassies, blue chip technology partners and prestigious universities.
4. We have reduced the resistance by providing teachers a tool that will help them to check and grade the daily exercises in the textbooks, whereas our technology immediately grade these exercises and provide a report to the teacher, reducing thousands of exercises to grade per teacher every week.
5. We have reduced the use of internet with our Online/Offline eLearning Environment; plus we can work in any low cost smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

• Mexico: We are starting a Project with the Mexican Federal Government to work with the first 1,000 schools, although with the COVID-19 Pandemia, now the challenge is greater, where we are starting to get the implementation of the Project within the students’ household.

• Chile: We are starting a Project with one Province Government to work with the first 50 schools, although with the COVID-19 Pandemia, now the challenge is greater, where we are starting to get the implementation of the Project within the students’ household.

• Costa Rica: We are starting a Project with Guatemala Federal Government to work with the first 120 schools, although with the COVID-19 Pandemia, now the challenge is greater, where we are starting to get the implementation of the Project within the students’ household.

In our company we have:

43 Full-Time employees

14 Part-Time employees

6 Contractors

Our team has 25-years of experience and experts in the following fields:

• Content creation: Since CBT’s (Computer Based Training), WBT’s (Web-based training), Flash/Maya Developments and now we have evolved to XML/HTML5 developments. It is very difficult to have so much knowledge at the eLearning Environment, with content developers that understand the background of the elearning content developments and even the evolution of the standards as AICC, SCORM, Tin Can (xAPI). The speed and understanding of the real needs of the customers/publisher is really crucial during the implementation of a nationwide or statewide project.

• Content delivery: Since before the Learning Management Systems (LMS) were called like this, we were already working with synchronous and asynchronous solutions. The evolution of these technologies, as well as, the arrival of open source LMS and homegrown systems have shown us the following:
  • All LMS are the same: They register the users (students and teachers), they deliver the content, and provide limited reports inside the LMS.
  • You can have the best LMS of the World, but if it only works online, your LMS is already dead in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Big Data Analytics: Eight years ago we started playing with datawarehouse and business intelligence solutions. Throughout these years, we have understood that Data Analytics deliver insights or deeper views of the data collection we receive in our Online/Offline eLearning Platform, to better understand the educational patterns of teachers and students and even start building machine learning and prediction models.

Microsoft: We are actively working with Microsoft for the Mexico’s project by migrating all our databases, cloud-computing and data analytics visualizations from other brands into Microsoft technologies like SQL, Azure and Power BI, in order to collaborate and replicate this successful story into other countries in the region. We are empowering one single solution with a wider view for teaching & learning environments, articulate the national education system, online/offline eLearning environments, content factories, synchronous & asynchronous collaboration, assessments, monitoring & reports, knowledge analytics, skills showcase, social media analytics, educational research and teacher training.

Publishers and Universities: We are building content factories since the facilities and personnel of traditional textbook's publishers, as well as, universities and higher education institutions.

Mejoredu: We are starting to build the first Data Science Information and Research Center in Latin America.

Business Objectives (2020-2025):

1. Cash Flow is King

2. Teacher training: Provide training for 250,000 teachers in the use of the Digital Educational Ecosystem.

3. Content Development Factories: Implement the Digital Content Development Platform in 100 Universities.

4. Content Delivery: Install the Online/Offline eLearning Platform (LMS/APP) in 100,000 schools with a population of 10 million students and teachers.

5. Big Data Analytics: Build 10 Data Science Information and Research Center, to monitor the knowledge and skills acquisition.

6. Interactive eBooks: Deliver interactive ebooks to 10 million students and teachers.

7. Interactive Learning Objects: Deliver digital learning objects to 10 million students and teachers.

8. Develop a transversal strategy to impact the ministries of education, labor, social development and public function in 5 countries in the region.

9. Partner with leading technology companies: Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

10. Fundraising from World Bank and international agencies to provide budget for Federal and State governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

I. PRODUCTS: Establish a Commercial Licensing Model with the Federal Government and Federal Entities

1. Repository for Digital Content

2. Digital Content Development Platform

3. Learning Management System (LMS)

4. APP - Platform for Synchronizing Online / Offline Content

5. eBooks - Interactive Digital eBooks

6. ILO - Interactive Learning Objects

7. Knowledge Analytics Platform

8. Social Media Analytics Platform

9. Digital Skills Showcase Platform

II. SERVICES: Provide Professional Services for the implementation of the products

1. Teacher and Students training

2. Content Development Factories

3. Data Science Information and Research Center

We have a combination between Profitability and Access to Capital:

• Profitability: We are a company profitable company since several years ago. We are actively is selling its products and services in the Latin American Education Market (Private and Public Schools) and overseas with a gross margin between 20% and 40% depending on the product, service and specific business situations.

• Raising Investment Capital: We also have private investors for specific projects we launch from time to time with capabilities to raise up to $2.5 million usd per year with low interest rate.

We have a medium and long-term financial healthy business, where we constantly make financial reports and planning on a quarterly basis to anticipate growth, business development and daily sales and expenses. Our company works on revenue forecasts which are constantly revised by our management and sales departments; and budgetary and business planning constantly revised by our management and finance departments.

The economical resource from TPrize can be useful for the Project we are actively working with the Mexican Federal Government for the first 1,000 schools or 40,000 students from 5th grade, primary level; due to the National Emergency of COVID-19 Pandemia, where the Minister of Education in Mexico (MoE) launched a Distance Education Strategy as part of the Seventh Point "Establish the Distance Education System" of the 8 Preventive Measures to Confront the Coronavirus Pandemic in Mexico.

Background in Mexico Education Marketplace:

• Since 1994, Mexico has invested more than: $ 3 Billion USD in educational technology.

• There are 225,757 schools in K9 Level (Kinder, Primary and Middle School Levels).

• There are 26 million students in K9 Level.

Due to Coronavirus:

1. The Mexican Ministry of Education declared that during 30 days there will be no classes (Students should stay at home).
2. The Mexican Ministry of Education proposed a new Distance Education System to start on March 20th, 2020.

https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/coronavirus-en-mexico-estas-son-las-medidas-que-propone-la-sep 

BENEFITS:

(1) Coverage and attention of students and teachers at home, with and without internet access.

(2) Use an eLearning Online/Offline Platform with the MoE Digital Interactive eBooks.

(3) Monitor the knowledge acquired per the student.

(4) Promote educational and social research.

(5) Reduce the workload for teachers (Automated book qualification).

(6) Prepare the World Bank raising of international funds of the World Bank and other agencies, since the real-time knowledge acquisition accountability per student.

(7) Link the Embassies of China, Poland and other countries interested in improving education.

And to strengthen the relationship with Tec de Monterrey and other universities in Mexico and the U.S. due to Big Data Analytics Projects.

1. Microsoft (Multinational Technology Company)

2. Google (Multinational Technology Company)

3. Amazon (Multinational Technology Company)

4. Tec de Monterrey (University Leader in Latin America and the Caribbean)

5. Los Andes (University Leader in Latin America and the Caribbean)

6. MIT (University Leader in the U.S. and Worldwide)