Learning Space

Formal education, especially in developing countries, not only fails to teach necessary skills but also discourages creativity, exploration, reflection. We are creating a scalable solution that encourages students to develop important skills, while exploring themselves and the world -- by providing an online English and soft skills learning program. 

In education, learners come for the content; stay for the community. We attract students by teaching ESL (currently and perpetually high demand). We keep students engaged by helping them build close connections with a small peer group from around the world. Through learning English, students will learn essential skills -- e.g. critical thinking, self-reflection, public speaking, self confidence, writing.

As students grow, their learning community grows with them and provides both tangible and mental support. Although a global classroom, we encourage students to stay engaged with and give back to their local area where they can.

Formal education, especially in developing countries, not only fails to teach necessary skills but also discourages creativity, exploration, reflection. Disadvantaged students are disproportionally affected by these shortcomings, because they lack access to alternative forms of education (e.g. after-school classes, good role models, interesting peers). Unfortunately, changes to formal education are difficult, bureaucratic and fragmented by country lines -- and, arguably, do not address the significant gap caused by socio-economic status. 

When examining the factors that make a learning experience engaging and meaningful, having a great teacher consistently comes up. This unfortunately makes education reforms slow to scale. But beyond formal education, there are other factors known to affect personal development:

• The people around (e.g. "you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with")
• What time and energy are spent on

Our solution focuses on these two factors by building a close-knit, interesting community of learners.

There are about 200 million children in Latin America, including 72 million living in poverty (*). This disadvantaged group would benefit the most from our program; but most children, in Latin America and anywhere else, could benefit from a skills- and community-based experience that encourages life-long learning.

(*) UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/lac/media/7131/file/PDF%20Children%20in%20Latin%20America%20and%20the%20Caribbean%20-%20Overview%202019.pdf

We currently target students age 13-19, anywhere in the world. In Latin America, this is about 200 million children. Because our solution depends on a reliable internet connection, and internet penetration in Latin America is about 30% - 60%, many won't be able to participate. However, our experience has shown that when a student participates in our activities, there are many beneficial secondary effects to others in their community.

In our roles as teachers and non-profit organizers, we've had extensive experience with disadvantaged students. We ran short online classes and learned from our students what did or did not work. At the moment, we are running a 3-month pilot for this program, focused in South East Asia, before expanding it globally.

Disadvantaged students see themselves as inferior to their more privileged counterpart; therefore they often self-filter out of any program perceived as competitive or for "gifted" students. At the same time, they also lack local learning opportunities. We are creating a supportive class on a subject students know they need (ESL); and through teaching ESL, we also teach essential skills and help students build a network of like-minded peers.

We are creating a scalable program that encourages students to develop important skills, while exploring themselves and the world -- by providing an online English and soft skills learning program.

This program brings together students with diverse nationalities, personalities, and socio-economic backgrounds, to learn with and from each other. Through their similarities and differences, students learn to think critically and develop empathy for people who might be very different from themselves.

Students are grouped into groups of 5-10, and stay with their group for the entire program. Each week, students attend online classes and self-organized group work. Every class and assignment have both ESL elements and soft skills element. For the 3-month pilot we're currently conducting, the themes for all weeks are as followed:

• Week 1: Orientation, expectations, defining the community
• Week 2: Cultural sharing
• Week 3: Personal sharing, storytelling
• Week 4: Interpersonal skills, handling conflicts
• Week 5: Teamwork skills, professional etiquettes
• Week 6: Mini team project, research by observation
• Week 7: Mini team project, research and data
• Week 8: Planning
• Week 9: Planning with other people
• Week 10: Promoting ideas
• Week 11: Self expression, practicing vulnerability
• Week 12: Learning from each other

Through this program, we aim to give students the platform they need to explore and develop themselves. Disadvantaged students, especially, lack people around who can build them up, as well as role models who inspire them to invest their time and attention into meaningful activities. Our program solves the people problem: students have a close friend group focused on learning and self-development, as well supportive facilitators and TAs. It also solves the attention problem: students are taught in our classes to reflect on their background and interests, to explore other cultures with respect, and to stay connected with and giving back to their local communities.

We aim to propel our students into confident, reflective, life-long learners -- with the necessary English skills to communicate with the world.

Two factors we consider innovative: 1) Using ESL as a gateway, and 2) The focus on a small, close-knit peer group. 

ESL as a gateway

Originally, we designed a soft-skills only global program, with no ESL elements. We quickly realized that making ESL one of the two main focuses was the right thing to do, for 2 reasons:

• Students who could benefit the most from our program would likely have language barriers when communicating in English with global peers
• Parents place high value on good English education. We observed that in Asia, parents invested significantly in their children's ESL education

We see the ESL component as a gateway into our learning community -- both as a marketing advantage, and a teaching tool to help students open up and participate better.

The focus on a small, close-knit peer group

Nowadays, it's not difficult to find learning materials for any subject online. Yet, few students proactively do so. Most people who signed up for a MOOC drop out within a couple weeks.

We have studied many online learning solutions, and observed that learners come for the content, but stay for the community they've fostered. We think that's what learning is mainly about -- not an unsustained spike of interest, but fun, consistent engagement. We want our students to see each other not only as classmates but close friends, confidants, advisors. Building a community is not a byproduct of learning to us, it is the main focus, even before the learning content.

Our key user segment is students in the age of 13-19, globally. 

Activities

Students receive online, self-directed classes on their English and soft skills, alongside a diverse group of students around the world. Additionally, students also receive guidance to socialize in and lead their small peer group through well-designed activities, on a weekly basis.

Outputs

Students gain competency in English, the confidence to express themselves, a growth mindset, the ability to reflect and socialize well with others. Students also develop close friendships with other students globally, and feel a sense of belonging in a group of like-minded people.

Short-Term Outcomes

Students take ownership of their self-development and interests. They think critically about the world around them, develop a sense of curiosity and empathy for others. Students seek opportunities to contribute to their local communities.

Long-Term Outcomes

Students become productive contributor to their society. They train, mentor, and assist others with similar background in self-discovery and self-development. They possess a life-long learning mindset and promote this mindset to the people around them.

Evidence

The self-directed learning movement is backed by many research and supporters: https://www.self-directed.org/

Other aspects are less studied, but supported by our personal experience. Our team member went to at a UWC school, where students celebrated and learned from their cultural differences. She also selects students for scholarships to similar schools every year. The positive effects are evidenced and overwhelming: students become conscientious, reflective, eager to give back to their home country, and proactively seek opportunities to do so.

In May-August of 2020, we are running a pilot with a class size of 30 students.

Starting in October, we will launch the full program. We are planning to have 100 students to start, focused on the East Asia region.

Throughout the first half of 2021, we plan to scale up this program in East Asia. We plan to scale up to 500 students by May 2021.

After May 2021, we plan to expand to other regions, starting with Central and Latin America. We want to have 2,000 students by the end of 2021.

In five years, by 2025, we want to have expanded to everywhere around the world, with a student population of 50,000. 

We have 2 main goals in the next five years.

1) Expand our knowledge on how to facilitate meaningful community building, online. We will iterate on our operation, methodologies, guidelines, languages, structure, materials -- to keep engagement and retention high. From MOOCs to distanced learning, online learning has a reputation for low retention, but we believe that can be changed by creating a sense of community and belonging.

Nowadays students in remote areas have few, if any, options to develop themselves. If online becomes as engaging as offline, this barrier is removed. Disadvantaged students can gain access to resources and a supportive personal network. The more successful we are at creating online learning community, the more students we can reach and benefit.

2) Expand our reach globally and enroll 50,000 students worldwide.

We believe that diversity adds valuable experience in the classroom. The more students we enroll, the more diverse our student body will be -- not just in nationalities, but also on religious beliefs, political beliefs, socio-economic backgrounds. Having exposure to diverse viewpoints enrich both the intellectual and the mental life of students, transform them into curious learners and critical thinkers.

A large student body also benefits the growth and sustainability of our program.

1. Monitoring & Evaluation

M&E is difficult in education, especially more so because what we're measuring is not test scores or reading proficiency, but qualities such as confidence, curiosity, belonging. We've given some thoughts to metrics and the evaluation process; and while we've arrived at a few intermediate metrics, we feel the limits of our existing metrics.

2. Payment

Mobile payment is fragmented worldwide, and is not common in many developing countries. Having a good recurring payment solution in a late adopter market is difficult; now we have to solve the payment problem not only one or two, but for a large number of countries.

3. Cultural bias against online learning

Online learning is seen as less serious and lower commitment than offline learning. We want to reverse this perception, such that our online program is seen as the better education solution to local English or soft skills classrooms. Our advantage is the connectedness of the internet, which enables students to study with other students anywhere.

1. We will keep evaluating our metrics as we develop the program further, knowing that these metrics are an approximation of the qualities we're looking for. We are also supported by friends with background in education research, whose advice we often ask for.

2. We are looking into solutions on a per-country basis. In the East Asia market, where the pilot is, we plan to establish local "payment portals" so payment can be transferred directly through a local banking system, then transferred back to us. For guidance, we look to the cryptocurrency community, who have been wrestling with this problem for a while.

3. With the ongoing pandemic moving most of education online, we are seeing reduced stigma to online classes. We are hopeful that by the end of this year, online learning will become the norm. If not, however, our plan to tackle this stigma is by being an example of effective online learning ourselves.

We are expanding and recruiting students from everywhere in the world. We started with East Asia because that's the area we're most experienced in, with one team member (Cat) having led an education non-profit there for several years, and another team member (Melisa) teaching locally.

After East Asia, we are recruiting students in Central and Latin America. There are two reasons for this:

• Through her time going to high school in Costa Rica, Cat maintains good connection with her alma matter, as well as her friends from Central America. These connections have roots in education and provide a good starting point for the region.
• Our remaining team member, Geovanna, grew up in Venezuela and has sent 3 children through the Venezuelan education system.

Formal education is broken in Latin America, the Caribbean, as well as other countries in the world. We believe that there are both an impact gap and a market gap for something different. Our solution offers actual English proficiency, confidence, curiosity and belonging -- something few others are tackling on a large scale.

There is one person working full-time.

There are two paid contractors (a facilitator and a TA), and an additional voluntary TA.

Our full-time team member, Cat, has been the chairman of an education non-profit for several years. The non-profit selects students from Vietnam for scholarships at international high schools. These partner high schools (UWCs) gather young high schoolers from around the world to live together and learn from each other's diverse viewpoints. Cat is an alumna of the program herself, having gone to UWC Costa Rica. This experience gives us a wealth of knowledge and intuition on motivated but disadvantaged students, and on facilitating collaboration between people of different backgrounds.

Our teacher, Melisa, grew up as an underprivileged child in the US. Melisa had worked in public health before getting a CELTA and becoming an English teacher, due to her love of teaching. 

Our TA, Geovanna, lives in Venezuela and has worked in many classrooms, both as the teacher and the teaching assistant. She has raised three kids through K-12 and university in Venezuela, therefore having first-hand experience with the Latin America education system.

Key Customer Segment

Students age 13-19, with basic level of English and a reliable internet connection. Can be located in anywhere in the world.

Product/Service

• Regular classes in English and soft skills
• Assistance outside of classes through office hours and personal connections with TAs
• Guidance on doing group work, building connections within the students' peer groups

Outreach Channels

•  Direct outreach to high schools (through our personal connections)
• Online ads (Facebook and Google)

Value Provided to Key Customers

• Regular opportunities to improve English and soft skills
• A close, interesting peer community where students can feel a sense of belonging
• Positive influence for self improvement and lifelong learning

Costs

• Salary for teachers and TAs
• Payment for tech platform
• There's some fixed cost for program development, and then ongoing costs for program improvement

Revenue model

•  Monthly tuition (similar to subscription): pay monthly to access classes and the community that month. The current monthly tuition is $50, with financial aid provided to students with difficult backgrounds

Operational risks

• Payment: processing small, regular payment from many countries poses a logistical challenge

We plan to be profitable in the first few months, if not the first month.

Our revenue model is monthly tuition fees, similar to a subscription-based model. We provide financial aid for students who need more support.

Scalability has been our concern since day 1. Currently, the known leading factors in making an education great also make it unscalable. We want to design a program that's both effective and scalable, by relying on close peer groups to create a sense of belonging and ownership. Teachers can facilitate arbitrarily large classrooms; students are given the guidance to lead their own group. TAs would be the only resource that needs to scale up linearly with growth.

• We are looking for support in evaluating the program and designing effective, actionable metrics. The sweet spot for these metrics, in terms of cost and benefits trade-off, lies somewhere between total academic rigor and a scrappy "go forth and break things" approach.
• We are looking for connection to schools, learning centers, teachers, and any other entities who can serve as our entry point into the market of as many countries as possible.
• Even though we can be profitable since the beginning, we are looking for funding to do outreach more aggressively, and grow our student base as fast as possible. The expenses we listed in an earlier question are our bootstrapped expense without funding. With more funding, we plan to hire 1-2 regional managers to recruit students.

We would like to be connected to schools, student-organized groups, and dedicated teachers.

In our experience working with disadvantaged students, the best channel to reach more students are dedicated teachers. These are educators in remote areas, with not many resources available to them, but still care deeply about the education of their students. Beside helping with outreach, many of them will also become great teachers and TAs.

The second best channel to reach students are through student-organized groups: school clubs, online communities, communities around events such as summer camps. These students already show and interest in developing themselves, and share that interest with each other.

Schools are double-edged swords. They are a good way to reach many students, if we have the right type of connection with the right people within a school. Otherwise, schools could see us as adversary. We want to be connected to schools whose principal has a history of being open to outside initiatives, and has shown credible concerns for their students' development.