SnappEd

In Malaysia, there are a total of 10,000 schools with an enrolment of 5 million students. Seventy percent of the schools are in the rural areas and on average, performs rather poorly compared to their urban counterparts. This is due to low access to quality educational resources, the lack of support services for teachers pertaining the use of classroom technology, and the unlikeliness of parental involvement in the aspects of teaching and learning.

Furthermore, the adoption of education technology (EdTech) largely caters to more affluent markets with Learning Management Systems (LMS) that are expensive and unable to capture the masses. Classroom solutions are seldom in touch with users particularly from the rural areas, where connectivity and affordability remains a challenge. In addition to these barriers of entry, EdTech solutions often cause extra burden to the already under-resourced teachers, which inevitably contributes to their resistance to change.

Despite the current accelerated demand for EdTech to enhance aspects and complement the teaching and learning process, this opportunity also reveals the digital divide that persists in underserved communities. The fragmented nature of learning platforms and misalignment of content delivery providers with the current pedagogical approach further hinders access to reliable quality education opportunities for marginalised students, potentially causing poorer outcomes.

Our vision is to provide an all-encompassing and equitable education for everyone, by bridging the gap and improving technology-aided learning for the masses through a cost-effective and mobile-first approach. We want to create fairer opportunities and a level playing field for all schoolchildren to have access towards quality education.

SnappEd is an app that helps improve student outcomes by comprehensively collating, analysing, and reporting school work data. We are fundamentally a school collaboration tool  that brings order to the chaos of school work with a simple "snap and submit" function, so all you need is a smartphone. SnappEd is very affordable and pedagogy aligned, thus there is no additional burden for schools to implement. Teachers and students can utilise the app minus unnecessary disruptions to teaching and learning, focusing on the core essentials of what matters most.

Our app compiles curated performance reports derived from actual school work data that supports better decision making to benefit schools and its students. SnappEd utilises user-friendly technology with low cost factor, which allows a wider access to address constraints particularly in rural areas where lack of devices, internet connectivity, and digital skills are largely prevalent.

Our aim for SnappEd in the near future is to partner with fifty percent of the schools in Malaysia, which equates to 2 million students.

According to the Ministry of Education (MoE) Malaysia, student enrolment is expected to increase by approximately 4 percent per year. However based on statistics published by the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025, there is a notable gap of 8 percent in the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) average scores of rural schools in comparison to urban students. Prolonged school closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic will potentially widen the inequality in education, furthermore with an estimate of over 150 million children were impacted in Southeast Asia alone.

Early intervention is critical because failure is cumulative and will contribute towards a broader achievement gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged students. The vision of SnappEd is to provide equitable and comprehensive education for everyone. We hope that by 2030 in line with Sustainable Development Goal 4 addressing Quality Education, there will be parity in the outcome and performance of all students, regardless of their geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds. Sixty two percent of our total users comprise of rural schools, and SnappEd is their education technology app of choice because our platform is cost-effective and can be used on any smartphone or tablet.

Our core team is made up of three diverse individuals, but united in our passion in education. Iliyas is the key person handling business operations, backed by a successful career in technology with Accenture and in education with Kolej Yayasan Saad, a top private boarding school in Malaysia. Helmi is a multiple award-winning telecommunications entrepreneur, who supervises the technology arm of SnappEd. Both Helmi and Iliyas have vast prior experience developing and running multimillion dollar businesses in a myriad of sectors. In support of my fellow co-founders, I oversee strategy and stakeholder engagement facilitated by previous roles in education marketing communications and high impact project management under a strategic unit of the Malaysian government. 

Our collective network as industry veterans across multiple sectors with experience in navigating the local regulatory landscape grants us the role of potential changemakers, with access to engage stakeholders through both top-down and bottom-up approach.

We envision to tackle gaps in education using technology through SnappEd, which supports data driven decision making to create positive social impact that matters. Solve being the marketplace for social impact innovation, would be the apt platform to drive our growth within the ecosystem. As aspiring technology-based social entrepreneurs, we are committed towards developing innovations with sustainable transformational impact. In addition to receiving recognition from MIT and obtain funding opportunities, we are keen to gain access to strategic resources, build valuable connections, and acquire mentorship advice through Solve's global community network.

We want to create fairer opportunities and a level playing field for all schoolchildren to have access towards quality education with SnappEd. As an education technology solution, our platform complements the classroom by helping teachers perform their jobs better, rather than displace them.

SnappEd is pedagogy aligned, which is why schools and teachers readily adopt the app because it genuinely contributes to improved student learning and represent improvements over offline tools previously used in classroom management. Our platform is regarded as educationally beneficial because the app makes it easier for teachers to share school work, engage students, monitor progress, and perform administrative tasks assisted by th autogenerated assessment reporting.

SnappEd is very affordable, because we understand that cost efficiency is vital to democratise quality education. Sceptics often consider education technology as a waste of money at best, and a distraction and intrusion at worst. This is because teachers are generally untrained to use EdTech solutions effectively, hence the barrier to entry and resistance to change. SnappEd is not only low cost but also low tech, requiring minimal guidance to utilise and is user friendly even for individuals lacking in digital literacy skills.

Education is a priority in both policy and practice. However progress towards inclusive and equitable teaching and learning was too slow pre COVID-19, and the pandemic only exacerbated the inequalities in education. Classroom technologies and remote learning remains out of reach for under-resourced students, and school closures during the height of the pandemic reversed years of progress in education. Inequalities will also worsen unless the digital divide between under-connected and highly digitised areas is duly addressed.

Despite all its features, SnappEd remains to be data light and is designed to run on basic smartphones, using a simple "snap and submit" function. We pride on being a low cost, low tech, and low data EdTech solution, which is a huge enabler for our ability to capture rural schools, which makes up 62 percent of our current users.

Fragmented channels that are expensive, time consuming, and inefficient can now be replaced by a centralised tool that supports collaboration and improves student outcomes through the collation, analysis, and reporting of reliably accurate school work data, minus the burden to implement.

Besides bringing a wealth of resources to aid classroom management, monitor student engagement through school work, and prompt timely interventions with performance based reporting, SnappEd also incentivises students by supporting active and collaborative learning via real gameplay. GamifiEd utilises actual gamification elements powered by Roblox, promoting education through play and healthy competition between peers. Students earn EdCoins, the in-game currency for GamifiEd, based on the amount of effort they put into school work completion.

We wanted to push the envelope by incorporating actual gamification experience to create an immersive learning environment with GamifiEd. Digital environments provide opportunities for role playing, visualisation, exploration, problem solving, and social interaction. Non-threatening environments with elements of human connection can also address issues relating to performance anxiety and stereotype threat. In addition to facilitating skill building through participation in high quality learning within the metaverse, GamifiEd also introduces young learners to the concept of financial literacy with in-game currency transactions within a media rich narrative.

SnappEd is built as an impact-focussed EdTech platform aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve the learning outcomes of underserved students, through an affordable and accessible technology-enabled solution. Our ultimate vision is to contribute towards reducing the disparity in student outcomes by ensuring that all schools regardless of their demographics, will have a level playing field in terms of access to quality education.

In reference to the statistics published by Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025, there is a significant variation in learning outcomes or notably an eight percent performance gap based on the Malaysian Certificate of Education ("SPM") scores between urban and rural schools nationwide. Disadvantaged students achieve poorer learning outcomes as access to quality education remains limited and unevenly distributed, particularly in non-urban areas. These inequities were further aggravated by the pandemic with prolonged school closures, impacting an estimated 3.5 million students in the country. Hence there is a strong need for accessible and affordable EdTech solutions focussed on the underserved K-12 students, which utilises evidence-based educational content informed by the science of learning and pedagogically aligned with curriculum outcomes.

SnappEd is a school collaboration tool that increases equitable access to quality learning opportunities, especially for marginalised students in low connectivity environments. Our platform brings order to the chaos of school work and with a simple "snap and submit" function, all you need is a smartphone. Teachers are now able to capture accurate performance analysis of their students generated from reliable data, based on the monthly assessment reports compiled through the app. We want to facilitate schools in making better decisions and providing timely intervention with the aim of benefitting all students.

Our long term impact goal for SnappEd is that by 2030 in line with the SDG 4 addressing Quality Education, there will be parity in the learning outcome and performance of all students, regardless of their geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds. We hope to observe disadvantaged students catching up to their urban counterparts and improving at a faster rate upon obtaining the same level of access in the delivery of education, through technology-enabled solutions and evidence-based analysis.

SnappEd is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4 addressing Quality Education, specifically targeting indicator 4.5.1 that focuses on eliminating disparities and ensuring equal access to lifelong learning opportunities. Our impact goal statement is to reach 1:1 parity by year 2030, based on scores achieved in the Malaysian Certificate of Education ("SPM") between advantaged and disadvantaged students, and targeting partnerships with fifty percent of the schools in Malaysia emphasising on the rural areas, to implement and utilise SnappEd in their teaching and learning process.

SnappEd helps to eliminate disparities between advantaged and disadvantaged students by facilitating the underserved learners in obtaining the same level of delivery in education, through technology-enabled innovation and evidence-based reporting. The data collected through the school work platform would assist schools and regulators in making better informed decisions to benefit students in terms of support required. The current input shows that the app is very applicable for disadvantaged students, evidenced by month-on-month improvements based on regular app usage. This will enable marginalised students in low resource settings to catch up against their more advantaged peers and encourage a level playing field by removing barriers and unfair distribution in education.

We understand that reaching parity in terms of access to education and equal learning outcomes is a work in progress, thus outlining the categories and key metrics is fundamental to track impact indicators, as detailed below:

• Rural versus Urban Areas
• Poor versus Rich States
• Male versus Female Students
• Poor versus Middle or High Income Households
• Public versus Private Schools
• National Type versus National Schools

In addition to our aim of being an impact focussed and SDG aligned social enterprise, SnappEd is also built as a human-centred solution that utilises inclusive technology addressing economic, cultural, and social barriers to create equitable education opportunities for all. We will be closer towards achieving our impact goal target of 1:1 as indicated by a significantly lower disparity gap between the categories listed above, which can be further measured using the key metrics as follows:

• Number of users classified by category;
• Ratio of disadvantaged students using SnappEd in comparison to the advantaged;
• Ratio of submitted school work by disadvantaged students using SnappEd in comparison to the advantaged;
• Ratio of grades scored by disadvantaged students in comparison to the advantaged.

Our theory of change is based on the core problem of a significant variation in education outcomes within the country, whereby there is a notable eight percent achievement gap in the average scores of the Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) between urban and rural schools.

Disrupted education adversely affects learning outcomes, as well as the social and behavioural development of young schoolchildren. Children and youth in disadvantaged communities are particularly higher at risk of educational exclusion. The pandemic further intensifies this crisis, widening existing educational inequalities.

Prolonged school closures nationwide may also reverse years of progress in access to education. Remote learning remains out of reach for students in under-resourced areas, due to constraints in infrastructure, devices, connectivity, and technology know-how. Despite progress in education technology in recent years, disadvantaged students rarely have the reach to more advanced educational tools in the market, largely caused by unfair distribution and cost factor. Additionally, most EdTech solutions available in the market does not come equipped with an evidence based approach, that can leverage on comparative advantages and help maximise learning outcomes through real world experiences. Thus without remedial action, these effects will only set back the learning progress of vulnerable groups and further add to their obstacles in obtaining quality education.

While classroom technologies can be a time intensive activity that requires a dedicated device per child in order to work effectively, the mobile-first approach of SnappEd utilises a simple "snap and submit" function and all you need is a smartphone. Since connectivity and affordability remains a challenge especially in rural areas, SnappEd is built on a low cost structure that is affordable even for disadvantaged schools, and is data light without the requirement for high end devices to run the app. Apart from being pedagogy aligned, the platform collates reliable school work data for analysis and reporting to support real-time insights and classroom diagnostics. Early intervention is critical because failure is cumulative, widening the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

Building SnappEd as an advanced school collaboration tool yet simple enough to be utilised even by the most digitally challenged of users, lowers the barrier to entry and allows us to penetrate into marginalised communities particularly in rural areas, promoting inclusivity and accessibility. Our evidence based data collation powers the curated monthly assessment reports, prompting midcourse corrections and timely student intervention as necessary. This accurate analysis based on reliable school work data enables us to identify students and categorise them according to key metrics to track progress towards the achievement of our impact goals.

Our grand aim is to partner with fifty percent of the schools in Malaysia focussing on the rural areas, which equates to three million students. It is our hope that by 2030, 1:1 parity is achieved in the outcomes and performance of all schoolchildren, regardless of their geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds, through the implementation of SnappEd in teaching and learning. Based on current experience, the app is very applicable to disadvantaged students, showing monthly improvements in terms of usage. We are optimistic that with continuous use, disadvantaged students will be able to catch up to their more advantaged peers, eventually creating a level playing field in education and better learning outcomes.

Based on the outputs in our theory of change, the closer to reaching the target of 1:1 ratio on key metrics, the lower the gap on disparity. Our impact outcome for the long term is to see an overall improvement in the achievement and performance of school grades, and ultimately observe a reduction in disparity between advantaged and disadvantaged students, with faster improvement rates captured by the latter.

SnappEd is designed based on technology that supports both web and mobile applications. Our system and application programming interface (API) peruses Laravel Framework for its scripting language supported by an open source database management with MySQL. The mobile app is built using Flutter, a software development kit and is natively compiled. We are also leveraging on Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) for secure cloud solutions.

The structure of SnappEd is agile for future development needs, which permits easy reassessment and adaptation of upcoming planned modules. The main platform enables the onboarding of schools with its teachers and students assigned accordingly, and further expanded to aid expansion features, such as gamification.

The main components of SnappEd include assignment, submission, ranking, and reporting modules. All the featured functions are accessible via the mobile app on both iOS and Android, except for system administration which can be retrieved on the web platform.

The assignment module is specifically developed for teachers to create questions in-app as school work for students. The published school work will be sent out to students and can be viewed on the assignment calendar, with all the related information compiled for ease of reference. 

The submission module allow students to submit completed answers in-app to be graded by teachers. Students prepare their school work on paper and by utilising the camera embedded within the app, snaps and submits the assignment virtually. Answers can also be uploaded by selecting from the photo archives in their device.

Once the marks are tabulated, the ranking module will then position students based on scores achieved as categorised locally within their own school, and also listed peer-to-peer in comparison with other schools. We deem this feature to be vital for future upgrades, in particular conversion of marks to gamification credits, and to support integrations with external systems.

The core module of SnappEd is fundamentally the reporting feature, which is a considerable gamechanger that enable teachers, schools, and parents to track the progress of students based on actual school work data. At present, the reports function is internally developed however is open to work with other data analytics engines for the evaluation of user behavioural statistics. This feature will ultimately facilitate SnappEd to provide recommendations for education stakeholders in particular, on best practices as well as advise on early intervention and better decision making based on reliably accurate outputs derived from the app.

As a team, we strive to embody diversity, equity, and inclusion through our solution. We believe these core values are the backbone towards achieving our mission of solving challenges in education. We want SnappEd to not just embrace equality but also empower everyone to learn and excel by cultivating a community focussed on shared values of belonging, openness, integrity, and mutual respect.

Everyone should have a seat at the problem solving table, but in Southeast Asia where the startup scene is maturing, there is a stark gender imbalance among the founders of its rising companies. At SnappEd, we design our practices and resources with the goal of providing our people a genuine opportunity to thrive. One of our founding team members identifies as a woman, which is vital for bringing a different perspective to the workplace, not to mention adding a diversity of opinion and representation. By supporting gender equality in leadership positions acknowledges our pledge to inclusion and commitment of building a team that represents variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe that the more diverse our team is, in which every member feels valued and respected, the better we can achieve our mission of solving world challenges.

Classroom technologies present an opportunity to complement the work of schools and its teachers in driving improvements to learning outcomes. We see this as both a significant challenge and a greater potential to improve access towards quality education for underserved groups. While education technology has remained largely the preserve of more affluent consumers, SnappEd managed to penetrate into low resource communities with majority of its users in particular, sixty two percent are from rural schools.

SnappEd is also committed to providing an environment that is accessible to individuals with disabilities, of which one percent from our total number of current users are students with special needs. We understand that when a technology is designed to be human-centred and inclusive with the most underserved populations in mind, they can and will benefit everyone.

Our overall sentiment is that as the ecosystem that addresses and upholds the principles of diversity and inclusion flourishes, parity and equality will become more attainable and subsequently encourages like-minded individuals to join the space with the goal of creating innovations with high potential for impact.

SnappEd is a school collaboration tool that helps improve student outcomes by comprehensively collating, analysing, and reporting school work data. Since our mobile app launch in May 2021, over 130,000 assignments have been submitted through our platform.

Our core service is provided for free, built to assist teachers with hassle-free classroom and school work management minus the additional burden, with supporting features such as assignment calendar, in-app grading capability, student ranking, Google Classroom integration, and live support.

SnappEd Reports is a repository of performance analysis offered on subscription basis with the goal to support early intervention and better decision making by schools, parents, and regulators. For as low as MYR2 (USD0.50) per student per year, monthly reports can be autogenerated through the app compiled from the analysis of school work data and categorised based on assignment, classroom, and school performance. For schools that require a more frequent analysis may opt to customise the service to their needs by signing up to a weekly or on-demand reporting for MYR7 (USD2) and MYR15 (USD4) per student per year.

The soft launch of GamifiEd in April 2022 is the latest feature of SnappEd built to incentivise students through real gameplay on a submit-to-earn mechanic that enable users to earn in-game currency or EdCoins, based on the amount of effort they put into completing their school work. GamifiEd promotes fun learning and healthy competition between peers by utilising actual gamification elements and is developed to seamlessly integrate on the globally well-known online gaming platform Roblox. Every mark scored for school work successfully graded in SnappEd entitle users to 1 EdCoin. Gameplay tokens can also be purchased in-app at MYR1 (USD0.25) for 10 EdCoins, or exchanged with Roblox's in-game currency for 10 EdCoins per 25 Robux. EdCoins entitle users to shop in-game for avatar customisation, purchase boosters, collect limited edition drops, among others. Apart from encouraging our users to participate in high quality learning experience within the metaverse, we are also keen on introducing young schoolchildren to the concept of digital literacy and application of financial knowledge using a hands-on approach through in-game transactions.

The features of SnappEd is fundamentally built to ease administrative burden on teachers and support their professional development through the adoption of digital literacy, by implementing new approaches in re-engaging learners whilst navigating continued disruptions. Our core revenue streams include the subscription of performance analysis reports through SnappEd and purchase of in-game currency within GamifiEd.

Within a year, we have developed partnerships with 30 schools and onboarded 13,000 students and teachers. In addition to receiving the official permit from three State Education Departments granting access to enter an additional 2,500 schools under the states' purview, we were also given the opportunity to implement SnappEd in schools nationwide with the approval from the Ministry of Education (MoE) Malaysia.

There are a total of 10,000 schools in Malaysia with an enrolment of five million students. Our goal is to partner with fifty percent of the schools in the near future, which equates to two million students. We target to enter as many schools as possible to capture a wider market and encourage sustainability with our gamechanging in-app features, with the objective of converting users into paying customers through the promise of delivering better learning outcomes from consistent app utilisation.

The low cost and low technology approach of SnappEd is designed to address constraints in low resource settings, particularly benefitting underserved education stakeholders. Sixty two percent of our users are schools in rural areas, where connectivity and affordability remains a challenge. We connect directly with the respective State Education Departments to onboard schools onto our platform, and work with their Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to sign up its students for the subscription of performance reporting at a very affordable rate of MYR2 (USD0.50) per individual, per year. This model is proven accessible with 100 percent of our users from the previous year fully onboarded to continue their subscription in the upcoming school term.

As an aspiring social enterprise with integrated business model focusing on low income communities to facilitate the holistic educational needs of the underserved through technology-enabled innovations, we intend to explore the subsidisation of our core services through sponsorship channels, such as collaboration with interested corporates and partnerships with like-minded organisations. We want to leverage on cooperative tie ups with the goal of solving complex challenges in education, to help with navigating the re-engagement of learners through shifting academic and social landscapes.

All thirty schools that has been utilising SnappEd Reports on trials the previous year are fully onboard to continue using the service in the upcoming term, beginning March 2022. According to feedback from our current users, the autogenerated performance analysis supports timely and manageable school-based assessments that help teachers better plan, monitor, and evaluate learning outcomes. Evidence-based reporting tabulated on regular basis also enable the teachers to aid in providing personalised learning and improve on individualised instruction for students who have experienced disruptions in schooling and missed certain foundational milestones.

Furthermore, all the said schools have also agreed to participate in GamifiEd, our newly launched gamification feature powered by Roblox. GamifiEd leverages on actual roleplaying game elements that incentivises the students to actively engage in timely school work submission on SnappEd, in order to permit their in-game participation. Based on the stickiness of this concept, we expect to generate more income through the purchase of EdCoins by new and existing players, as well as from ticket sales with the upcoming launch of the semi-annual, inter-school virtual tournaments. Additionally, incorporating gaming elements into an educational environment not only optimises engagement between teachers and students, but also facilitates social-emotional learning among young schoolchildren.