MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

AULIKA DIGITAL

One-line solution summary:

Digital services to promote high impact education

Pitch your solution.

Online education has been a stressful task for many teachers because with the pandemic alert the academic activities were moved to virtual classrooms and videoconference systems. The Covid-19 restrictions have exacerbated the inequalities in the learning scenarios of non-expert teachers or teachers with little experience in online education. Finally, Aulika Digital has an ethical vision and humanistic approach, so teachers are encouraged to think over social stereotypes and consider the needs and emotions of their students to promote more inclusive and diverse classrooms.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

The main priority of Aulika Digital is to rescue teachers that have a lack of knowledge in Edtech and a few expertise in the process of implementing effective pedagogical strategies for hybrid and virtual environments.

Statistics for America Latina shows that: 60 million teachers in 138 countries around the world were affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020 (UNESCO, 2020).

Sources of information are available in the following online resources:

Book of Fundación Carolina: «La educación superior en Iberoamérica en tiempos de pandemia. Available in:

https://www.fundacioncarolina....

This book reports the effects of the pandemic and the virtual training strategies that could be useful in the higher education sector of Ibero-American countries:

46935_Captura%20de%20Pantalla%202021-09-03%20a%20la%28s%29%2012_1440x810.png

Another source of information:

Online report: ACCESS OF THE MOST DISADVANTAGED TO HIGHER EDUCATION IS A CHALLENGE TO FACE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Avalilable in: https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/...

Online report: COVID-19: MONITORING THE STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Available in: https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/...

What is your solution?

Aulika Digital is presented as an effective management system that will help teachers to improve their skills through a disruptive scenario which supports virtual and hybrid classrooms, in order to create new learning experiences. The teachers can be part of Aulika Digital’s community, which will open them the opportunity to become mentors in the future, involving other teachers in the use of Edtech innovations, creativity and problem-solving practices for their students. The final experience of being part of Aulika Digital is to participate in a mentorship in a large scale project to improve the student’s learning and the women and girl’s inclusion.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Public or private universities that are integrating online programs to upskill their teacher’s practices to work in their virtual or hybrid classrooms.

Aulika Digital has the capacity to provide personal services to each teacher, in this way they have the opportunity to develop a new mindset in order to help their students to become real problem-solvers in the learning experiences, but also one of our programs’ priorities is to encourage teachers to think over social and gender stereotypes and consider the needs and emotions of their students (including girls) to promote more inclusive and diverse classrooms. Aulika Digital is committed to #ACTFOREQUAL

#ActuemosPorLaIgualdad – Generaciones juntas

Which dimension of the TPrize Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Support teachers and educational institutions with teaching and learning methodologies, tools, and resources that help develop future skills for students

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the TPrize Challenge.

The pandemic has dramatically boosted online education, for this reason TEACHERS need new digital support systems to substitute the non-sustainable consumption of paper, electricity and gasoline that could reduce the cost of being part of a high impact training program without using physical resources or visiting external places, also working to reduce the gender gap.

The content management system of Aulika digital can bring access to local TEACHERS that are interested in developing their digital skills to do a good job in the hybrid and disrupted virtual classrooms.The following data shows that Aulika Digital could contribute to improve the real problems in the virtual classrooms helping to teachers with low access to Wifi, EdTech resources, because it is a critical problem according to the statistics in México and Latin America:

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Source of information: https://www.fundacioncarolina....

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Guanajuato, Gto., México

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

Today, Aulika Digital is an early-stage startup that provides pedagogical content approaches to create disruptive learning environments, in hybrid or virtual mode. In this stage the main goal is to help teachers in the process of developing skills to improve their student's experiences in their digital classrooms, using: EdTech and promoting creative problem-solving lessons for college education.

Today, Aulika Digital runs on e-Learning and hybrid remote systems that can host several groups of teachers simultaneously. Aulika Digital had have interaction with real local institutions as Universidad de Celaya, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, campus León, Universidad Iberoamericana campus León, Instituto Guadalupe and Instituto Tecnológico de León, all have been involved in Aulika Digital services to training their teacher in the e-Learning new approaches.

Aulika Digital offers services to more than 800 teachers and students that were able to get the key skills related with the design and implementation of online courses for institutions that are involved in the higher education in the post-pandemic era.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Roxana Contreras Lobato

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:

https://sites.google.com/view/aulikadigital/home

If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successful

What makes your solution innovative?

Aulika Digital has the capacity to provide personal services to each teacher, in this way they have the opportunity to develop a new mindset in order to help their students to become real problem-solvers in the learning experiences, but also one of our programs’ priorities is to encourage teachers to think over social and gender stereotypes and consider the needs and emotions of their students (including girls) to promote more inclusive and diverse classrooms.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

Aulika Digital uses VR to improve the learning experience for the teachers and others EdTech tools to develop virtual scenarios that used to improve the training process. Example of used tools for VR are:

Google Arts&Culture

https://artsandculture.google....

ThingLink:

https://www.thinglink.com/

OER (Open Education Resources):

https://www.oercommons.org/

Provide evidence that this technology works. Please cite your sources.

Aulika Digital improves the teachers learning experiences based on:

a) VR, AR and 3D printing support materials for students.

a) Networked Learning Theory and Pedagogy.

c) Design Sprint by Google Ventures.

Online paper: The Theory, Practice and Pedagogy of Networked Learning. Autors:

Vailable in: https://www.researchgate.net/p...

Video example of the Networked Learning practices at Aulika Digital:

Example of Networked Learning in Aulika Digital

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Software and Mobile Applications
Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality

Does this technology introduce any risks? How are you addressing or mitigating these risks in your solution?

There is not any risk.

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

Women & Girls
Children & Adolescents
Low-Income
Middle-Income

In which countries do you currently operate?

Mexico

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Colombia
Mexico

How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?

Current number of people that Aulika Digital are serving: 200

Teachers served in one year: 500

Teachers will be served in five year: 2000

Aulika Digital could share video testimonials of real teachers about their experience before and after the master class and as members of the Aulika Digital’s online community. These real experiences will be shared in the social media to involve more universities in Latin American, in order to solve the emerging challenges and problems related to the unusual and new hybrid or semi-virtual learning environments derived by the Covid-19 emergency. Finally, interviews with students sharing their own experiences and difficulties in today's virtual classroom could be another way to know the future evolution in the education systems that they deserve.

What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and -- importantly -- how will you achieve them?

Impact goal: The content management system of Aulika digital can bring access to local teachers that are interested in developing their digital skills to do a good job in the new and disrupted virtual scenarios. If she or he is interested in looking for a new peer, then the teacher will be able to be a new mentor.

This goal will achieve with Networked Learning padagogy: At the same time the teacher, as a mentor, can be part of the online community of Aulika Digital to empower other teachers and women from different universities and regions in America Latina. Hence, the Aulika Digital's services could have more attendees.

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

Groups of teachers that participate in Aulika Digital are integrated into groups of 30 teachers, in this format the startup provides services for six months, during this period of time the institution or university invests an average of 1,500 UDS for the training and professionalization of each group of teachers. Aulika Digital works in a virtual platform that can host several groups of teachers simultaneously.

The main indicator (KPI) is the number of higher education institutions attended in a semester and the number of teachers impacted with the Aulika Digital training programs.

About Your Team

Your Business Model & Partnerships

Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities