My intrigue in innovation has always been profound and multifaceted. Firstly, the sheer allure of the creative process fascinates me — conjuring an idea and then meticulously bringing it to fruition. Secondly, the imperative nature of innovation stems from necessity. In the looming future, we are bound to confront substantial challenges, including global warming, health crises, demographic issues, conflict, and more.
Therefore, innovation becomes an inevitable endeavor, demanding us to construct new technologies, products, and ideas. This pursuit invites a perpetual cycle of learning, experimenting, failing, and growing — a relentless, iterative process that undeniably consumes time and iterations.
While numerous paths lead to the achievement of innovation, one pivotal route is through Education. Regarded as the bedrock upon which our future is built, Education, albeit extensive and varied across global regions and fields of study, harbors fundamental elements. I categorize these fundamentals as essential study fields, imperative for humanity’s advancement, notably including Mathematics and Science.
Given the encompassing context, I am keen to devise solutions that yield value in the spheres of Education, Health, and more broadly, Science. My belief in the pivotal role of AI in this pursuit is the primary catalyst for my decision to specialize in this field.
A month ago, I embarked on a project to develop an AI-powered application named ‘Learn by Concept’, with the aim of demystifying the learning process. In subsequent sections, I will delve deeper to elucidate the problem the application seeks to solve and the mechanism through which it achieves this. Firstly, let’s explore three predominant learning approaches: push learning, pull learning, and adaptive learning.
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Push Learning: This approach entails the instructor or learning provider dictating the content and timing of the learning experience.
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Pull Learning: In contrast, pull learning allows the learner to dictate what and when they want to learn.
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Adaptive Learning: Approach to customize educational content and pace to meet the individual needs and preferences of each student, thereby facilitating a personalized learning experience.
Despite the methodologies employed, learners often encounter struggles, especially in sourcing the right learning materials. While numerous quality resources exist, identifying the appropriate ones can pose a substantial challenge.
This is the issue that ‘Learn by Concept’ aims to address with 2 approaches I am describing below. The Concept-Based Learning and the Adaptive Pull Learning.
Concept-Based Learning
Concept-based learning stands as the foundation of the application, streamlining the complexity of educational content into more digestible and manageable units to enhance understanding and retention. By focusing on essential concepts and building upon them, the application aims to simplify the learning journey.
Streamlining Complex Content
The app cleverly simplifies complex educational content into digestible, manageable “concepts” for easy user consumption and understanding. In point of view, everything can be viewed as a concept to facilitate learning.
Structured Learning Components
Within each concept, the application provides a clear Purpose, illustrating why the concept is essential and its practical application through Examples. Furthermore, Explanations and additional Resources support deeper understanding and further exploration, respectively, crafting a rich, diverse learning experience.
Tailored User Experience
The user interface is designed to accommodate each learner’s unique needs, enabling them to select their desired difficulty levels and explore different categories. The “Concept Book” feature allows users to bookmark their favorite concepts, enhancing the personalized learning environment and facilitating easy retrieval and review of saved concepts.
Adaptive Pull Learning
Adaptive Pull Learning combines the autonomy of Pull Learning with the personalized approach of Adaptive Learning to foster a uniquely tailored educational journey. This methodology allows learners to choose what and when to learn while also ensuring the content and pace are optimized to their individual needs and abilities, promoting an efficient and personalized learning experience.
The application
I’d like to note that the application has just been launched, and the features I’ve outlined may not necessarily be fully present in the app yet — but they are part of the vision. A foundation has been laid for concept-based learning, though developing high-quality content is always a complex and time-intensive task, presenting one of the most significant challenges in the product’s development.
The application currently embraces a pull learning approach, and over the medium to long term, the objective is to solidify this feature. Numerous ideas, especially utilizing AI to recommend optimal learning materials, are in consideration for future developments.
The app is presently available in English and for Android devices. The French version is anticipated in a month. The app uses cross-platform technologies, and the iOS version will also be available soon.
If you want to try it out, here’s a link to the application.
Also published here.