Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SMARTICK (Disruptive learning through the integration of mathematics and cognitive trainining)
Reporting period: 2018-08-01 to 2019-01-31
Smartick is an innovative company, founded in 2009, that launched a disruptive on-line (PC or tablet) math eLearning method, which is shaking up the current learning paradigm. The high number of children using the disruptive math learning platform on a daily basis (currently more than 16,000, both at home and at school) and continuous growth over the last few years (2012-2018 CAGR of 100%) fully validates Smartick’s value proposition, speeding up on math learning (average improvement of 35% in the official exams in less than 2 years and 94% of the students improve their grade). Moreover, it signposts the significant business opportunity for the company. This unequivocal social and business potential of Smartick made the company moved on to develop the new Smartick.
The new Smartick will offer an innovative and disruptive on-line training method by integrating cognitive training into the existing math platform. This will increase the scope (math + cognitive skills) looking to improve its effectiveness. It will boost student’s individual capabilities and behavior, enabling personalized learning experience, real time content adaptability and improving the logic reasoning and problem-solving skills from the early ages (4 to 14 years old –pre k-12).
Overall Objectives
The overall objectives, still valid, are:
• Offer a solution to raise over 65% the math achievement of students at mean level, and over 30% the outcomes of low achievements and children with learning difficulties, being able to raise the mean level.
• Scale up at international level in order to be used by at least 100,000 children across Europe and America (Smartick is already the market leader in Spain) before the end of 2021.
The new Smartick will offer an innovative and disruptive on-line training method by integrating cognitive training into the existing math platform. This will increase the scope (math + cognitive skills) looking to improve its effectiveness. It will boost student’s individual capabilities and behavior, enabling personalized learning experience, real time content adaptability and improving the logic reasoning and problem-solving skills from the early ages (4 to 14 years old –pre k-12).
Overall Objectives
The overall objectives, still valid, are:
• Offer a solution to raise over 65% the math achievement of students at mean level, and over 30% the outcomes of low achievements and children with learning difficulties, being able to raise the mean level.
• Scale up at international level in order to be used by at least 100,000 children across Europe and America (Smartick is already the market leader in Spain) before the end of 2021.
During this period and according to the scheduled workplan we reached the following objectives:
Technical objectives.
1. Upgrading the full-fledged cognitive training platform with adaptative games, including:
- Improvement of previous version games and development of new ones.
- All the cognitive training games are included in the same platform under the same architecture.
- Games have been improved, including levelling, new parametrizations and also comprehensive data collection features and therefore, improved data analysis capabilities.
- Cognitive training platform can already work fully independent from the Smartick Math module.
- Cognitive training module can be plugged to the Smartick Math module, so students can train with it after the math session with a very natural and convenient flow from a UX perspective.
- Visual analytic tool (training reporting) has been substantially improved and can be now easily plugged into the Smartick Math tutor’s reporting tool.
- Platform adaptation to support AB testing and flexible online trials.
- Life simulation of the will be trials at schools during the Smartick summer camps for girls, so we could prepare everything to minimize risks during trials at schools.
- Move the hosting of the platform to Google cloud, allowing for a real time rapid scalability.
2. Student model that improves Smartick’s adaptability power:
- Inclusion of new metrics related to student’s motivation.
- Improved version of the integrated adaptive system to adjust contents to every student base on her student model and performance. Final version is still pending to finish second wave trials online and at schools.
- Improved data analysis methodology and report on the results derived from the second wave validation trials.
Commercial objectives
1. Several awards won, nationally and internationally, such as the Einsenhower fellowship, awarded by the US Congress.
2. Consolidate the growth track, in Spain and abroad, towards the 2021 goal. Smartick is at the moment the market leader in the online k-12 space in Spain.
3. Study of the exploitation and commercialization options across European and American education markets.
4. Product already translated into 2 languages (Spanish and English) and 4 versions (Spain, Latam, British and American). Translation into Portuguese very advanced.
5. IPR protection analysis for the different markets in process.
Technical objectives.
1. Upgrading the full-fledged cognitive training platform with adaptative games, including:
- Improvement of previous version games and development of new ones.
- All the cognitive training games are included in the same platform under the same architecture.
- Games have been improved, including levelling, new parametrizations and also comprehensive data collection features and therefore, improved data analysis capabilities.
- Cognitive training platform can already work fully independent from the Smartick Math module.
- Cognitive training module can be plugged to the Smartick Math module, so students can train with it after the math session with a very natural and convenient flow from a UX perspective.
- Visual analytic tool (training reporting) has been substantially improved and can be now easily plugged into the Smartick Math tutor’s reporting tool.
- Platform adaptation to support AB testing and flexible online trials.
- Life simulation of the will be trials at schools during the Smartick summer camps for girls, so we could prepare everything to minimize risks during trials at schools.
- Move the hosting of the platform to Google cloud, allowing for a real time rapid scalability.
2. Student model that improves Smartick’s adaptability power:
- Inclusion of new metrics related to student’s motivation.
- Improved version of the integrated adaptive system to adjust contents to every student base on her student model and performance. Final version is still pending to finish second wave trials online and at schools.
- Improved data analysis methodology and report on the results derived from the second wave validation trials.
Commercial objectives
1. Several awards won, nationally and internationally, such as the Einsenhower fellowship, awarded by the US Congress.
2. Consolidate the growth track, in Spain and abroad, towards the 2021 goal. Smartick is at the moment the market leader in the online k-12 space in Spain.
3. Study of the exploitation and commercialization options across European and American education markets.
4. Product already translated into 2 languages (Spanish and English) and 4 versions (Spain, Latam, British and American). Translation into Portuguese very advanced.
5. IPR protection analysis for the different markets in process.
"European Educational systems still fail to reach the desirables learning performance levels to face the high level of productivity and economic growth required in the near future. Even more, the EU lags very far behind the most competitive countries in technology and highest economy growth rates such as Japan, Korea and China.
In this framework, the European Strategy in Education and Training for 2020 aims to reduce the share of ""low achievers"" in mathematics to below 15% in 2020. Nevertheless the results of PISA report, show clear evidence that the current educational systems will not be able to achieve the 15% challenge by 2020. Nowadays the EU as a whole is seriously lagging behind that benchmark. Smartick introduces a disruptive innovation in the learning methodology, which tackles the urgent need to raise the level in math across the EU. Smartick proposes the best on-line solution based on intelligent, data driven and personalized content and cognitive games to bring out the full potential of each child, aiming to develop the key skills required in the future labor market and participate actively in the society. Moreover, Smartick has shown through its experience, working with schools and thousands of children that is able to halve the proportion of low achievers in less than a year when using the product daily.
Smartick is important to the society because it aims to contribute to tackle a major societal and economic issue that could jeopardize Europe’s future competitiveness and fuel future pools of technically skilled graduates, very much needed in Europe."
In this framework, the European Strategy in Education and Training for 2020 aims to reduce the share of ""low achievers"" in mathematics to below 15% in 2020. Nevertheless the results of PISA report, show clear evidence that the current educational systems will not be able to achieve the 15% challenge by 2020. Nowadays the EU as a whole is seriously lagging behind that benchmark. Smartick introduces a disruptive innovation in the learning methodology, which tackles the urgent need to raise the level in math across the EU. Smartick proposes the best on-line solution based on intelligent, data driven and personalized content and cognitive games to bring out the full potential of each child, aiming to develop the key skills required in the future labor market and participate actively in the society. Moreover, Smartick has shown through its experience, working with schools and thousands of children that is able to halve the proportion of low achievers in less than a year when using the product daily.
Smartick is important to the society because it aims to contribute to tackle a major societal and economic issue that could jeopardize Europe’s future competitiveness and fuel future pools of technically skilled graduates, very much needed in Europe."