Pyram

Pyram addresses the pressing issue of ineffective digital education practices, exacerbated by various factors such as cumberstone tools for designing, sharing and delivering learning experiences, low appeal of educational content, limited connectivity, low integration and openness of learning support platforms, extensive manual work, and barriers to collaboration among educators. The scale of this issue is significant both locally and globally, affecting educators, students, and professionals at various levels.

At the individual educator level, the tasks of designing, adapting, documenting, and delivering learning experiences are insufficiently supported, especially when going beyond digital resources to incorporating activities. While sharing files such as documents or videos is straightforward for basic learning resources, sharing, adapting and recreating a structured learning experience as originally intended remains a significant challenge. Despite the prevalence of common patterns of organization, document formats, and teaching practices worldwide, educators must constantly re-make evaluation materials, lesson plans, slides, rubrics, question banks and course syllabuses, painstakingly copy-pasting and adapting from their own, poorly organized repositories.

The current LMS ecosystem worsens the problem, being modeled around the educational institutions that are their main customer, bringing along several issues:
- Their focus is on sharing learning resources (files) and teacher/course management, putting them at odds with teacher autonomy and sometimes intellectual property rights over course materials.
- Their unit of operation is a single course, which teachers usually can access only during the course duration, creating the innecessary work of copying materials and lesson structure between courses, needing special teams to achieve this or worse, unloading this task on educators. As a result, valuable educational information remains trapped within closed platform boundaries.
- Despite existing standards like Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and others, activity structure information is stored in proprietary formats, cumbersome to edit and adapt for future lessons. Teachers often need to have their own copies from which to work, with the burden of keeping them organized and updated themselves.
- Being provided by an institution and outside educator control, learners that don't belong to formal and well-funded institutions lose access to learning experiences which the authors may have made available for others to learn from and improve upon.

These local problems have global impacts, creating disparities in access to quality learning experiences, lost opportunities for lesson design improvement, lack of teacher motivation due to overwork, low student engagement due to poor lesson design, difficulties to adapt lessons to different student contexts and learning approaches, low collaboration among teachers, slow adoption of best teaching practices, and increased educational inequality overall. This became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the need for efficient digital education supports became paramount. Disparities in access and engagement led to poor learning experiences, especially in less resourced areas, contributing to a historic peak in educational inequality.

As education becomes less insitution-centered, work skills become more fragmented, learning approachers more diverse, classrooms spaces become de-localized, and teacher/mentor/student roles become more fluid, this model becomes unsustainable, and that's why we need Pyram.

To solve this issues we need to streamline educator work processes by consolidating various digital education tools into a single platform, based upon open learning experience formats and standards that are time-tested, easy to create, adapt, share, and integrate to third-party apps and tools. This app must be free to access for any student, have zero or very-low-cost for teachers, and available for institutions to susbcribe in order to increase adoption and benefit from standards, ease of use and teacher onboarding, and student outcomes progress information. Moreover, resources and lesson designs published must recognize authorship and attribution while incentivizing sharing, improvement and collaboration.

Pyram is a decentralized digital platform designed to reimagine the process of teaching and learning through an experiential, exploratory and ludic approach. It allows users —educators and learners alike— to construct virtual learning communities called "pyres." Within these communities, users can upload their own educational content and craft engaging and immersive learning experiences that can be accessed in face-to-face, remote-assisted, or autonomous formats. By facilitating content sharing among users, open lesson design standards, and assisted, learning-aware automation tools to easily find, adapt, deliver, evaluate and improve learning experiences, Pyram enables a collaborative educational environment from which everyone can benefit.

To deliver its promise of educator autonomy and low access cost, the platform employs peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture to enhance accessibility and massively reduce cloud infrastructure costs. This setup not only makes the educational content shareable and downloadable for offline use but also addresses connectivity issues by enabling access for students in low-bandwidth areas.

In addition to its collaborative and immersive educational spaces ("pyres"), Pyram introduces a virtual currency ("pyr") system to reward educators and authors for sharing high-quality resources and learning experiences, delivering lessons to new students, contributing storage space to the P2P network, and promoting Pyram to new learners across the world. Users spend "pyr" according to the cloud resources they require (for example content pinning, private content hosting, etc) and to enable costly intergrations such as AI tools, intitutional LMS's etc. This virtual currency enables a zero/low-cost opt-in model for teachers based on microtransactions just for the services they need and when they need them.

The aforementioned features, coupled with some other smart design decisions allow Pyram to fullfill an open-access, collaborative design promise while keeping the system accessible and scalable, thereby offering an unconventional yet practical approach to education in the digital age.

Pyram serves a diverse group of individuals primarily in the educational sector, targeting primary through university-level teachers, independent professional educators, and educational content creators. Additionally, the platform caters to students at corresponding educational levels and adults interested in educational content, focusing initially on Spanish-speaking and Latin American populations.

These target groups have faced significant challenges, especially highlighted by the inadequate performance of online education since the pandemic and during the last years. Teachers increasingly endure extended work hours with reduced pay due to the burdensome tasks of configuring and adapting institutional platforms, which often require manual uploading and customization of educational materials. This has not only decreased educators's control over their content but has also led to a deterioration in teaching performance and overall educational experience. The web is being inundated with AI-generated content with makes the task of selecting, reviewing, fact-checking and improving educational content more difficult than ever before, thus making more urgent for humans to have spaces where they can use these tools coupled with mechanisms that allow them to assess authorship, trustworthiness and overall educational value of their resources and learning experience designs.

We are strongly rooted in the educational community, with a deep understanding of the specific challenges it faces. We are educators and software developers who have been developing educational video games and software for over eight years. This extensive experience directly aligns with the needs and opportunities within the educational sector, especially in leveraging technology to enhance learning experience design with inmersiveness and engagement.

We are familiar with the restrictions and limitations of existing educational platforms, and started developing Pyram to address these specific pain points. We are motivated by firsthand experiences with the challenges of current educational technologies—such as loss of control over content and poor user experiences—which directly affect educators and students alike. This personal connection and professional background make us unusually alert to the nuances of user needs, ensuring that the solution they build is genuinely guided by community input, requirements, and feedback.

Moreover, we have close ties with local educational institutions in Chile and Spain, as demonstrated by our collaboration with Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago de Chile for piloting Pyram, and current conversations regarding piloting in the University of Salamanca, Spain, and we are committed to integrating community insights into the development process from every educator we come across.

While the base P2P content-sharing mechanism, lesson design tool and basic collaboration experiences have been implemented, we are still piloting the platform in real-life scenarios to ensure it work robustly prior to open registration to end customers. Also to that effect, the payment gateway integration still needs to be develped. Nonetheless both our pilot customers and we personally, use pyram in our day to day educational activities.

We are applying to Solve to overcome a variety of challenges that extend beyond financial barriers. While right now the platform prototype runs at a very low cost, and the technical infrastructure is fairly scalable, our intended business model and ambition for Pyram is more or less incompatible with standard VC funding, so we need a way to reach impact-focused connections and funding opportunities, as well as more varied access to people working on educational impact in other regions of the world. In this sense, we see the following key areas where Solve's network and support could significantly help our progress:

- Access to Expertise and Mentoring: Although our team has substantial experience in educational technology, additional expertise is required in scaling the technology to meet global standards and expectations, for which we could benefit extensively from Solve's mentorship network to find potential partners and mentors.

- Networking, Visibility and Credibility: As a platform aiming to impact the educational sectors globally, with the ambition of doing so without recurring to advertising, establishing connections with international educational institutions is crucial. Solve’s broad network of leaders across industries could facilitate these connections, enhancing Pyram’s reach and adoption with the credibility in the educational technology space and the visibility that comes from being a Solver team being an added benefit to attract the right kind of partners, users, and supporters, necessary for our scaling plans.

By joining the Solve community, we hope to leverage these resources not just to grow the platform, but to do so in a way that remains aligned with our core mission of transforming education through community-fueled, technology-enabled solutions.

To understand what we want to achieve with Pyram, you can watch this interview of Isaac Asimov about education.

Many say he was predicting the internet, but we believe he was onto something more. In many ways he was accurate, we do have access now to "vast libraries of information" through our devices, but we have fallen short in others: digital education is still far from a flexible, many-to-many network where everyone learns at their own pace and guided by their own interests, and there are very few places where students can ENJOY LEARNING.

Currenlty the best, more engaging digital learning experiences are locked away in private intranets, in free platforms but plagued by advertising, misinformation, and among non-educational content, hidden behind paywalls or needing expensive sofware or hardware to be accessed, such as VR headsets. Our goal then is to build Pyram as a LEARNING EXPERIENCE ENGINE available to as many people and for as low cost as possible. We want to enable people to provide safe learning spaces for each other, where they can collaborate effortlessly and joyfully engage in fun learning journeys.

We believe that achieving this vision is now possible, thanks to the convergence of:
- Advanced web standards: open protocols and file formats, widely supported that allow every content format (Video, 3D through WebGL and WebGPU, videogames through wasm-enabled engines), and form of communication (like Streaming, WebSockets, WebRTC).
- Peer to peer protocols: Specially IPFS, based on LibP2P for the web, WebTorrent and others are now able to mix with web technologies.
- Large Language Models and Multimodal AI models: especially now that these models are increasingly able to run in consumer-end devices, they enable to transform, adapt and generate content with extremely low effort.

That's why Pyram relies on these state-of-the-art technologies for its  innovative approach to digital education, decentralizing the tools used in the process, resolving inefficiencies caused by limited connectivity, unengaging content, and the need for multiple apps and manual input. It stands out by ensuring content ownership and authorship, enabling educators to monetize their creations while rewarding them for sharing, using peer-to-peer technologies to enable access with limited connectivity, and incorporating AI to automate repetitive tasks. These features streamline the educational and make extending access economically viable and efficient for communities. We significantly change the current educational landscape by simplifying and unifying these processes into a cohesive, user-friendly platform.

Setting communities ("pyres") as the unit of organization (opposed to the current course-inside-an-institution model), where educators and learners can create and engage in immersive learning experiences, is another aspect that sets Pyram apart. This approach not only enhances the learning experience through enjoyable, immersive methods but could also catalyze broader positive impacts by setting new standards for engagement and collaboration in the educational technology space. Through its innovative business model that uses a virtual currency obtained through community engagement, content and space sharing and microtransactions, Pyram redefines how educational content can be valued and utilized, potentially influencing broader market changes in the EdTech landscape.

Pyram's theory of change is founded on the premise that improving the quality of and access to educational technology can have transformative effects on teaching and learning. The theory is rooted in three stages: activity, output, and outcome.

- Activity: Pyram enables its intended users —teachers, students, and independent educators— to create and engage in interactive, gamified learning experiences through a decentralized platform. The platform also facilitates peer-to-peer sharing of educational content and provides the ability to monetize the content via microtransactions.

- Output: By using the Pyram platform, the immediate outputs expected include increased engagement and motivation among students due to the gamified and immersive learning environments. For teachers and content creators, increased control over content should result from using Pyram’s tools, resulting in less time spent and opening monetization opportunities.

- Outcome: The longer-term outcomes anticipated are an overall improvement in educational outcomes due to heightened student engagement and satisfaction, better teacher collaboration and faster adoption of best practices. This should collectively lead to broader adoption of innovative educational technologies, promoting a shift toward more active, student-centered learning environments across the sector.

This theory of change is supported by evidence indicating that education significantly benefits from student engagement and motivation. Furthermore, the incorporation of decentralized technology allows for operational cost reductions and enhanced access, especially beneficial in areas with poor internet infrastructure, thus broadening educational reach.

Pyram's solution potentially catalyzes broader positive impacts by setting a precedent for integration of technology in teaching that prioritises educators’ and learners' needs, fostering a more innovative, inclusive, and engaging educational environment.

Pyram's impact goals are articulated around enhancing the effectiveness and accessibility of digital education through our innovative technological solution. Our main objectives include:

- Improving Educator Efficiency and Autonomy: By providing automated tools for routine tasks and a more integrated platform, Pyram aims to significantly reduce the manual workload for educators and give them greater control over their content and teaching methods.

- Enhancing Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes: By implementing gamified elements and interactive, community-based learning environments, Pyram seeks to increase student engagement, which is expected to correspond positively with improved learning outcomes.

- Expanding Access to Quality Education: Leveraging peer-to-peer technology allows Pyram to reach areas with limited internet connectivity, thus expanding the reach of quality digital education tools to underserved regions.

To measure the progress towards achieving these impact goals, we will employ several specific indicators:

- User Engagement Metrics: Tracking active daily and monthly users, time spent on the platform, and the frequency and depth of interactions within the community gamified environments.
- Educational Content Usage and Virtual currency circulation: Measuring the volume, diversity, and virtual transactions associated with educational content generated and shared on the platform.
- Academic Performance Indicators: Collaborating with educational institutions to assess changes in academic performance among students using Pyram. This could involve standardized test scores, graduation rates, or other academic success metrics.
- Access Expansion Statistics: Monitoring the adoption rates in low-connectivity areas to gauge success in bridging the digital divide in education.

These will help us continually assess and refine our approach, ensuring the solution remains aligned with the team's core objectives and values while addressing the needs of our target users.

Pyram relies on several modern techniques and technological frameworks primarily based on:

- Decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) architectures: This fundamental technology enables Pyram to reduce cloud infrastructure costs significantly, facilitate offline access to educational content, and provides a robust platform for user interaction without central dependency. The decentralization is crucial for maintaining data integrity and unrestricted access to educational resources, which is particularly beneficial in areas with limited internet connectivity. We specifically rely on IPFS, LibP2P, OrbitDB and WebTorrent.
- Web Standards: A set of open protocols and file formats, widely supported that allow every content format, and form of communication in almost every consumer electronic device available.
- Large Language Models and Multimodal AI models: especially now that these models are increasingly able to run in consumer-end devices, they enable to transform, adapt and generate content with extremely low effort.
- Custom structured text-file format: To enable maximum efficiency in the application of large language models, and diff-based storage mechanisms, we developed a file format as an extension of AsciiDoc, a powerful, versatile, open-source, extensible and human-readable file format to serve as the basis to store learning resources, learning experience designs, and more.

Furthermore, Pyram employs a virtual currency model, which allows for microtransactions within the platform. This economic model enables users to monetize their contributions, whether they are teaching materials or other educational resources, fostering not just a learning environment but also an economic community that rewards creation and participation. Right now this currency is centralized (transactions executed in our central server), but we are evaluating the possiblity to re-implement it over a blockchain, if substantial value can be found in doing so.

In addition to these technologies, Pyram incorporates knowledge on gamification and immersive learning experience design, within virtual environments where learners navigate through communities in a 3D world map, and visualize their learning outcomes depicted as a "skill-tree" in the shape of constellations. This not only makes learning more engaging but also helps in maintaining high retention rates among students. Each community within Pyram serves as a gamified ecosystem known as "pyre," where users can create, share, and engage with content dynamically.

This combination of decentralized architecture, web standards, large language models, open document formats, ludic motivational design, and an integrated economic model places Pyram in a unique position to revolutionize the educational technology landscape, melding pedagogical strategies with the latest in technology to create a comprehensive, scalable, and sustainable educational platform.

Currently, we operate as a startup with 2 full-time founders and 1 part-time founders.

During the initial development of Pyram, our startup employed one full-time programmer and 2 interns.

The first ideas for what became Pyram came to us during the pandemic, late 2020, start 2021, at that time we envisioned is a teacher-centric LMS, and we starting documenting the product concept during that year. Then we paused development until we got a seed fund in late 2022, which allowed us to build a first version that we have been piloting since mid-2023 to date.

We have been working for the last 4 years on the development of the project.

As a small startup with three members—a telecommunications engineer, a civil engineer, and an art philosopher—we recognize the immense value that diversity brings to our team dynamics and problem-solving capabilities. Despite our diverse backgrounds, we are united by our shared passion for education and learning.
Our team reflects a range of perspectives, experiences, and expertise. Each member brings insights shaped by their professional backgrounds and personal journeys, coming from different cities, economic backgrounds and careers.  
We are also committed to furthering our efforts in this area, taking special measures to ensure a more diverse team as we add more members, be it in gender identity, ethnicity, country of origin and educational experiences.

To achieve these goals, we have these strategies in mind:

1. Recruitment and Hiring Practices: Seek candidates from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups.

2. Training and Development: Invest in training programs focused on inclusion and diverse leadership. Equip our team members with the skills to recognize and address systemic barriers, to cultivate an environment where everyone feels heard and respected.

3. Community Engagement: Engage with diverse external communities and organizations when promoting, testing, piloting and deploying our solutions. The more diverse our userbase, more impact we achieve and more we can learn.

Pyram's business model is designed to be low cost for independent teachers, and intentionally flexible.
It is designed in two layers: B2C and B2B.

Our B2C model revolves around a virtual currency (called "pyr") that facilitates transactions within the platform. This model is directed towards both teachers and creators of educational content.

Users earn "pyr" by:
- Promoting the platform and/or their communities and content on social networks.
- Sharing local storage space on the peer-to-peer network.
- Having high engagement on synchronous/asynchronous learning activities.
- Having their content being used by other users in their own synchronous/asynchronous learning activities and events.

Users spend "pyr" for:
- "Pinning" content to be available offline (in central servers) when they are not connected (to operate for instance as a video content channel).
- Obtaining "locks" to render a content private (non-discoverable by other communities) in the network.
- Activating integrations (such as exporting to intitutional LMS's, linking to OpenAI accounts, etc)
- Emmitting certifications for student outcomes in their community.

Our revenue streams are:
- Only if they don't have enough "pyr", users can acquire more through microtransactions according to the amount they need.
- If a specific resource or lesson design have high peer review score, we enable the user to monetize their content or merchandising further, taking a cut from the transactions, or converting just a portion of the earned "pyr" into real money.
- If many resources and lessons on a community get high peer review scores, we enable the user to charge tickets for attendance to synchronous activities in real money, taking a cut of the transaction.

The B2B model works very similar in terms of features, but is based upon a subscription model with a price dependent on the total storage used by the institution, level of reporting features and integrations used. This model is intended to partly subsidize the use of the plaform by the B2C segment.

- Companies can upload their brand assets and make them appear in the materials they share or the pyres they own.
It is important to mention that educational materials uploaded to institutional pyres always respect the authorship of the person who uploads the content, unless the uploader cedes authorship to the institution.

Institutions and individuals can also pay with real money to sponsor a community or creator, from where we take a cut of the transaction.

We plan to achieve financial sustainability by implementing our business model in stages. First we plan to finish the core platform features only with institutional customers via the traditional subscription model in a self-sufficient way, while slowly rolling out to B2C users with an invitation system. These users will only be provided with the free and decentralized features (to not incur in costs) until we gather enough data to balance the virtual currency economy and calculate our cost per B2C user. At that moment we will start to roll out the microtransaction based model to provide individuals with features that required cloud infrastructure in a way that the system remains financially viable.

The subscription model has been initially validated by the traction Pyram has gained in its early stages and the strategic partnerships it has formed, suggesting a robust pathway to achieving and maintaining financial sustainability as the platform scales.