Student-centered and adaptive learning approach Idea for LONESTAR

Problems with English Schools

Around the world, the English school business model and strategies do not encourage students to learn English. Instead, English schools are more profit seeking institutions. This creates an environment where teachers are overworked while students are frustrated with learning. Teachers are mere salespersons, not professionals. Students are seen for their wallets more than as learners.

Arrival of Blended Learning

To overcome this business model, an alternative approach to teaching appeared that focused on using blended learning techniques to replace the traditional "brick and mortar" models. The new blended learning business models focused on:

• Improving the quality of English teaching,
• Providing a better working environment for teachers,
• Cutting costs by employing IoT and blended learning technologies, and
• Increasing revenue and profits by replacing outdated methods with current ones.

The blended learning model is working well, but only if you can afford it. The general higher cost of tuition means students are still stuck with attending the lower priced English schools. This is where LONESTAR comes in.

Incorporate Adaptive Learning

LONESTAR plans to incorporate adaptive learning models to make English lessons more student-focused than blended learning models. We will use adaptive learning to:

• Make use of AI to create lessons "on the fly" that are student-focused (human-focused),
• Incorporate active learning by encouraging participation of all students with same language proficiencies around the world,
• Create a community of learnings that actively support each other, and
• Make a payment plan affordable for all learners.

Most language learning methods cannot get students to communicate in spoken English. Many English centers employ only “Western” teachers of a particular ethnicity more for marketing. Hence “Teachers” are hired not on their actual teaching abilities. This has a detrimental consequence for English learners.

We hope to solve these problems by integrating adaptive learning with blended learning. Learn more about adaptive learning.

Affordable for all

We feel we can provide lessons to more students than blended learning can. Cost should never be a factor in learning English. We will come up with a subscription fee that caters to where you live. We hope to implement other payment models, such as "pay forward".

Integrate Curriculums

Our long-term goal is to integrate standardized curriculums, such as the International Baccalaureate programs, into our app. This will ensure our learning app becomes a useful tool for educators and students alike.

We also hope to add other subjects outside of English learning to our app as well. If a multilanguage app can teach English with another language, why not use English to teach another language? Outside of language, we see the potential for teaching all subjects such as history or computer programming. A daunting, but now, realistic goal thanks to adaptive technologies.

MyKaiwa

Learn more about our prototype app, MyKaiwa. It is currently in development. LONESTAR hopes to have a prototype ready by the completion of the FI Startup Accelerator in 2023.