Gradely is a digital education startup that supports schools and parents in personalising learning resources to help students improve academically. The company was founded as a result of the discovery of huge learning gaps in school and the dense curriculum students have to go through which doesn’t encourage them to learn in class. This problem has led to a high rate of exam failures and school dropouts in the world. Students move from class to class without the opportunity to remedy the learning gaps that have accumulated over the years.
The cause of this is that existing systems for report cards are insufficient because the data presented are lagging rather than being indicators. Continuous assessment methods employed in schools today are manual and slow, and teaching, tutoring or other remedial activities by schools and parents today are not personalised or targeted enough to produce accurate results.
The solution Gradely provides is an adaptive learning app that recommends video lessons, practice, and on-demand tutors to help students master challenging subject areas. The app focus on creating personalised learning paths for each student using data from prior assessment performance. Students can easily take an initial diagnostic test to begin their learning journey in standalone mode. And when students connect to their schools, the app is able to use data from homework and class quizzes to make recommended results more relevant.
Schools use the app primarily to create an assessment and recommend/share existing resources to students, but can also use it to create resources, run live classes, and manage their schools digitally. Gradely also assists teachers with pre-set questions that are marked by difficulty level and according to West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) curriculum topics. Teachers set up homework in 2-5 minutes and set deadlines for students. Students take homework at home or any location of choice, and the app shows progress reports to teachers, parents, and schools. To really capture how well they are learning over time, the system keeps on stringing former topic questions of increasing difficulty that have not been mastered with new topic questions, all on auto-mode.
Gradely, one of the eight startups selected in the Ninja Accelerator organised by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with Ventures Platform Foundation, have honed their knowledge about growth-hacking, and this knowledge has factored into their future plans.
According to Femi Ibiwoye, the chief technology officer and co-founder: “In five years time, Gradely will be known in the whole of West Africa for helping students learn with personalised learning. We will have enough data to compare kids internationally, predict class and national exam scores, measure teacher or tutor impact on learning, help schools make better decisions about teacher training materials and hiring, and finally, help parents make better decisions on tutors or schools that match their child(ren)’s learning process.”
