MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

RoadMaple

One-line solution summary.

RoadMaple tells you how to learn anything through roadmaps and mentorship.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

There is an overwhelming amount of learning resources online - beginners often feel lost and give up.

To solve this, we collaborate with experts to create roadmaps. Here's an example. Each roadmap teaches a skill, by listing all the topics to learn, followed by a curated list of resources to learn each topic.

Using our roadmaps, beginners will no longer have to go through the search process of finding good resources and how to learn a skill. They can start learning immediately, and for free!

In addition, we provide 1-on-1 mentorships as a supplement to our roadmaps. We often need someone more experienced to guide us in our learning journey, no matter how good our resources are. Beginners, working on our roadmap, can optionally sign up for a mentor from our website.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

In today's online education landscape, you can learn just about anything online. But the problem is - online resources are disorganized. There is an overwhelming number of courses, tutorials, and articles to learn any skill.

This has two consequences:

1. Beginners who are self-learning a skill spend a huge amount of time searching for good resources online. And since they lack expertise, they run the risk of using low-quality or outdated resources.

2. Due to the hassle of self-learning, many beginners turn to expensive bootcamps and courses. While turning to these avenues solves the problem of disorganization, they are unaffordable for many learners, especially youths and people in developing countries.

In summary, the problem of disorganization demotivates learners and reduces access to quality online education for the disadvantaged.

As more and more turn to the internet for their education needs, solving this problem is crucial for making the internet a more friendly and hassle-free environment for learning.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our solution serves 3 main audiences.

1. Youths. People under 30 are often the most hungry to learn, but many face financial constraints—unable to afford full-fledged bootcamps and courses. Our roadmaps offer a fast and cheap way to start learning a skill they're interested in.

2. The Economically Disadvantaged. Largely through our social media outreach, we've seen many learners from developing countries, especially India and China, use our roadmaps to guide their learning. This segment consists of everyone from teenagers to older adults, who are learning purely out of interest.

3. Professionals. Working adults who are looking to upskill or transition into another career, use our roadmaps to plug in gaps in their learning, and explore skills outside their area of expertise. They are also more likely to engage in our 1-on-1 mentorship program, due to their higher budget.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

1. We've conducted extensive user research to validate our solution. Based on our survey, >85% of people found our roadmaps helpful, and 90% wanted more roadmaps.

2. Based on user feedback, we're constantly editing our website to improve its user experience.

3. We've setup Google Analytics, along with customizations, to learn more about how our users interact with our website.

4. Most recently, we partnered with a Singapore youth community to survey youths on their career and skill interests. This helps us identify what kinds of roadmaps to create going forward.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving learning opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifetimes, from early childhood on (Learning)

Our solution's stage of development:

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

Here are our engagement numbers as of Jan 2021.

>3,000 people have used our roadmap (marketed through college communities, Twitter and LinkedIn)
>15 mentor-mentee pairs (part of our pilot mentorship program in Singapore)
>12 partnering experts and organizations (e.g. National Youth Council, Reactor School, iFast)

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Singapore

Team Lead:

Michael Chen