Reactored Language learning platform

Reactored lets students customize their learning and makes it easy for teachers to monitor student progress.

Reactored aims to increase student motivation by giving students the flexibility to choose the degree of gamification in their learning material. In addition, providing instantaneous feedback allows students to figure out tasks right away without needing to wait for teachers to grade their responses. Lastly, teachers can

create tasks using a wide range of task types, giving students more variety in their learning. Having more variety in study material can benefit students with different learning styles, and teachers can help their students learn more effectively by accommodating individual learning styles.

A second problem we can solve is a lack of access to study materials. Reactored can be used on any device with Internet access, so students can study anywhere and any time they choose. This is especially pertinent given that distance-based learning is becoming more common. We hope to make language learning more accessible and fun, and if it was scaled to Southeast Asia then students there would immediately have access to English, Swedish, Finnish, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese learning materials. Exposure to these foreign languages might inspire these students to pursue an education or career abroad and bring back valuable skills to their home countries.

The specific problem we aim to solve is that not all students get the study material they need to learn effectively, for example material that is not suited to their learning style or current ability level. Unequal opportunities for education is a key factor contributing to this issue. Students in one school may not have access to the same quality of teaching and study materials as students in other schools.

We are negotiating with the education district of Chiang Mai to introduce Reactored to schools in the province. Chiang Mai has a population of 1.2 million, and approximately 23.9% are of schooling age and would benefit from using Reactored. In Vietnam we have currently few language centers using Reactored and we are planning to expand the usage by introducing Reactored for use in schools within Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City has a population of 3.4 million people. Approximately 29% of the population is likely to be schooling and studying a foreign language.

The main factors contributing to the problem we aim to solve are a lack of printed material for students, and limited variety for students’ learning styles and pace. Reactored can solve both issues because students would only require a device with internet access, and teachers do not have to be concerned about printing out sufficient material for all their classes. Secondly, students can choose how they want to approach the learning material, and teachers can assign students different tasks with multiple questions types

We are working with teachers in Thailand and Vietnam to provide access to the Reactored language learning platform for students in these countries. For example, lower secondary students in Vietnam commonly study English or French as a foreign language. By making use of Reactored, these students can get access to a wider range of study materials than they would normally be able to use. Reactored study materials contain useful phrases for students to learn, helping them become more fluent in the language they are learning. Developing their foreign language abilities would help these students in the future as they would be able to work overseas or with international partners.

Through our partner we have contacted stakeholders in Thailand to implement Reactored as part of their language studies. During this process, we have also found out more about how foreign languages are generally taught in Thailand, and how Reactored can be used to improve learning outcomes for students there. Furthermore, we have already brought Reactored to few language centres in Vietnam and it has been well-received. 

One issue faced by teachers in Thailand and Vietnam is that there may not be enough learning material for students to practice their language skills. Thus, the Reactored language platform would be an ideal solution as students would only require a device with internet access to start studying on Reactored. In addition, teachers can make use of the existing database of study materials instead of having to create new material from scratch.

The problem we are addressing is how to improve literacy while supporting a diverse range of learning pace and styles. The key issues of the challenge are that (1) access to quality education is limited; (2) and internet penetration is less than 60% in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

1. Reactored can provide quality education materials for teachers to use in addition to regular classes. The tasks on Reactored can increase students’ functional vocabulary in languages through learning common phrases and sentences that are used everyday. Variety of task types and customizability of learning approach supports the different learning pace and styles of all students.

2. Using Reactored requires a device with internet access, so the proportion of the population without access to the internet would not benefit from Reactored, especially if distance learning is in place but these students are unable to connect to the internet.

   1. Possible to access an offline version of Reactored is something we need to address further down the road

Kari Savolainen, CEO and Founder

Reactored is innovative because we started with a vision to create a learning platform that is flexible and adjustable. Since every student is different, we allow learners to customize the platform to suit their individual learning needs. For example, when students start learning a new study set, they can choose the difficulty of the tasks with a slider that goes from more gamified to more writing of answers. As students become more confident with the topic, they can easily choose to make the study sets more difficult to challenge themselves.

Apart from writing down answers, we have also created task types in Reactored that make use of audio and visual cues. Students can choose to speak into a microphone to answer a question, and lesson content is accompanied by appropriate pictures to guide students to the right answer. Having a wide variety of task types lets teachers help students figure out what learning best suits them.

When developing Reactored, we designed it according to educational psychological research on learning styles. Our aim was to make a language platform that could be customized by individual students and we believe it has been successful. Reactored is currently being used in schools across Finland, and the response has been positive from both students and teachers. We have received numerous testimonials and feedback's from teachers about the effectiveness of Reactored. Reactored is constantly updated based on feedback from teachers and students on features they would like to see. 

Outside of Finland, we have expanded the Reactored user base to schools in the United States of America (New York and California), Germany, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and Vietnam. In addition, we have helped a French school to implement Reactored as part of their language curriculum, and are now working with them to add more professional vocabulary content to Reactored.

The core technology that Reactored relies on is the platform designed by founder and lead developer Jaakko Vartiainen. The key feature of Reactored is the instant feedback provided to students when they attempt tasks. Reactored is a cloud based platform, and works through web browsers with no need to install applications, making it easy to use. Furthermore, the website is fully responsive, allowing Reactored to work on different devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. Another important feature is the ability for students to customize their learning approach, and this is accomplished by a slider that gives students the ability to either gamify or increase the difficulty of a lesson.

Activities - students use reactored and choose how they want to learn according to their learning styles

Output - students gain competency in the language being studied and become more confident in their language abilities

Short term outcomes - students gradually become proficient in the language

Long term outcomes - students find new opportunities related to their language proficiency and find it easier to make international connections

Activities - teachers use reactored assessment tools to keep track of student progress and develop/make use of engaging study material comprising a wide range of tasks

Output - students are engaged in learning language and motivated to study; teachers can monitor student progress via observable performance metrics

Short term outcomes - students become more confident and interested in learning languages; teachers can give specific feedback to students on areas for improvement due to detailed performance reviews from Reactored assessment tools

Long term outcomes - precise feedback helps students focus on areas of improvement and become confident in speaking the language; teachers can spend more time guiding students and less time on administrative tasks (e.g. creating material and assigning/marking homework)

One of the key measurements that we monitor is the number of users that have registered on Reactored. This number includes both students as well as teachers. The number of users is a reflection of how many people currently use Reactored, and user growth is important for two reasons. Firstly, we aim to improve the language learning experience, and by reaching out to more people we are able to bring the flexible learning options to these users. Secondly, increased numbers of users means that Reactored becomes more financially self-sustainable, and allows us to work on new features and improve the platform as a whole.

A related metric is the number of study sets and courses present in the Reactored database. Teachers are able to create their own study material, and they can also make use of the study material that was created by other teachers. An increase in the number of study sets and courses means that there is greater variety for both students and teachers to choose from, making learning more engaging.

Lastly, we aim to expand Reactored to more countries outside of Europe. The number of different countries that have adopted Reactored as part of their language curriculum will reflect how successful we are in achieving this goal.

Next year we aim to successfully introduce and implement Reactored in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam In addition, we will continue to expand our presence in Europe, North America, and Latin America. We are currently discussing how we can bring Reactored to Thailand with officials overseeing the education district of Chiang Mai. 

Based on market research that we have conducted, the potential number of students in Chiang Mai that we can impact is approximately 400,000. Expanding to the whole of Thailand would increase our impact to seven million students. By using Reactored, we aim to provide quality study material to these students, and by doing so improve their education experience. Furthermore, teachers would gain access to useful tools that make it easy for them to track student progress, as well as reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

Within the next three years we plan to expand our market presence in Southeast Asia and Europe by introducing Reactored to more countries in these regions. In order to achieve these goals we will scale up efforts to contact schools and officials in charge of education in these regions. 

In five years we have set a goal of reaching a user base of five million students in Thailand and Vietnam using Reactored. To achieve this goal we need to increase market awareness of Reactored, and discuss with education officials how we can implement Reactored in more schools. 

-Financing

The main barrier related to our impact goals is gaining market entry overseas. One key factor behind the difficulty of gaining market entry is administrative processes in foreign markets. For example, introducing Reactored in Thailand requires approval from multiple decision makers across the education district. Coupled with a reliance on postal mail and circumstantial factors (i.e., delays due to lockdowns), this has made the administrative process longer than usual. In order to overcome this, our partner in Thailand is assisting us to ensure that the administrative process goes smoothly by carrying out in-person negotiations and demonstrations of Reactored when required.

Related to this is the question of how we can properly achieve market penetration in different markets. For example, based on market research conducted in Vietnam, we have observed that the population mostly uses mobile phones. This had led us to explore the option of developing a mobile app to make adoption of Reactored easier for students in Vietnam. Apart from Vietnam, similar questions of market penetration are likely to surface in different countries with unique requirements.

Another obstacle that we face is financing. Specifically, there is a need for more resources if we are to expand marketing and outreach efforts. For example, when expanding to overseas markets, we should prepare localized versions of the Reactored platform to make it easier for users in different countries. marketing e.g., proper web page for various countries

We founded Reactored in 2015 because of our experience with the current education system. One issue was related to student motivation. Often, students only get feedback about their work days after completing it, due to teachers needing time to grade the assignments. This delay could result in students forgetting about the assignment content, thus needing additional time to figure out what was required and how the feedback given relates to the questions. Thus, we created this learning platform that provided instant feedback to allow students to correct their own mistakes by alerting them when necessary.

In addition, traditional education systems are a “one size fits all” approach. However, students often have different preferences with regard to learning style. We created multiple different task types to account for these learning differences among students. Furthermore, students are given the ability to choose how difficult they want the lessons to be. Attempting study material at an easier difficulty can give them confidence to attempt spelling words by themselves once they are familiar with the material, and boost their language abilities as a result.

A total of ten people are currently working on Reactored. We have five programmers, one language teacher, one marketing specialist, one localization specialist, and one CEO.

Our language teacher uses Reactored as part of her teaching, and this is invaluable as this gives us a first-hand account of how the system works. New features to help teachers and students are suggested and bugs in the platform are quickly reported which allow us to keep Reactored running smoothly. She has over 20 years of experience in language teaching, and also teaches other educators on how to make the most of Reactored.

Reactored was developed by our Lead Developer, and this means that our team of programmers do not need to rely on external parties for technical support. Having developed Reactored from the ground up, we are able to make updates and implement new features quickly and seamlessly without interruptions to our users.

For example we changed the whole sign in process from email & password to more efficient way by enabling school teachers to create the students user accounts automatically. 

Before the students needed to register and they logged in with their individual emails and passwords and the credientals were always lost. 

Now the teacher creates a studygroup and they can create unique entrycodes for the students that allows them to join into the shared learning materials that are share with group.

We are currently partnering with the following organizations: Arfmann, Sanako, Edita, Hämeenlinna City, Helsinki City, Oxford International Education Group, and Keuda. All of these organizations are our clients, and are currently using Reactored as part of the businesses or daily activities. For example, Arfmann is an organization that focuses on immigrant teaching and training, and we developed professional vocabulary suitable for their clients. Sanako helps us to bring Reactored to international markets such as North America and Europe. Edita is a publisher that has implemented Reactored into a new language learning material that it recently released. Hämeenlinna City is a long-time client of Reactored, and their feedback has helped to develop Reactored to what it is today. Helsinki City is another client of Reactored, and Oxford International Education Group is our partner distributing our solution in Latin America. Keuda is a vocational school for whom we have been developing different categories of professional courses.

Arfmann - immigrant teaching and training

Sanako - international markets

Edita - publisher

Hämeenlinna city - long time customer, feedback has helped developed Reactored

Helsinki city - client 

Oxford International Education Group - selling solution in Latin America

Keuda - vocational school

(all using Reactored currently)

We believe that a comprehensive needs assessment would add the most value for Reactored. Reactored has been undergoing development since 2015, and we believe it is ready to be introduced to more schools around the globe. A needs assessment would help us identify areas that require further work, and the type of resources and support that can spur the international adoption of Reactored.

In addition, access to the Octava and MIT Solve network of resource partners, mentors, and coaches would be a big boost to our efforts to expand overseas. As we highlighted, market entry is an important barrier to our goals. Being able to tap on a wide network of overseas contacts would decrease the difficulty of Reactored’s entry to foreign markets.

Getting support for monitoring and evaluation to measure how much of an impact Reactored makes would give us greater insight into how we can further develop Reactored. For example, seeing how much students’ language skills improve after using Reactored, or being able to evaluate the effectiveness of different task types in Reactored would benefit us in further development of Reactored.

• How well do students perform after using Reactored

• Everyone gets equal opportunities for learning

Lastly, receiving an invitation to participate in Solve’s annual flagship Solve at MIT event would be a great opportunity for us to showcase Reactored and the many innovative features that we have come up with. Networking with like-minded organizations there would help us make new contacts that could lead to mutually beneficial partnerships.

As market entry into new markets is difficult, we believe that having more network connections can help us introduce Reactored to foreign markets. For example, being able to directly contact relevant authorities might make it easier to establish a presence in new markets. 

Having support and advice with regard to public relations would also be a great help, as we seek to increase market awareness of Reactored. At present we have found several effective avenues to reach our target audiences in Finland, however it has been difficult to market Reactored outside of our current markets. Getting support for marketing via social and global media could help us reach more potential customers and increase adoption of Reactored as a language learning platform. 

Having experts who are knowledgeable about the different regulations of various countries would be essential to getting Reactored up and running in new markets. 

Lastly, having more monitoring and evaluation tools would give us a deeper insight into how Reactored is being used, and areas of improvement that we can work on. Being able to measure the impact that Reactored has could spur more schools to consider implementing Reactored as part of their language studies.