Mobile Innovations in the Education Ecosystem1 Innovaciones Móviles En Ecosistemas Educativos

DOSSIER 59

Mobile Innovations in the Education Ecosystem1 Innovaciones móviles en ecosistemas educativos

Paul Kim(1) (1) 3h.D. ChieI 7echnology OIʏcer and Assistant Dean oI the *raduate School oI Education at StanIord University. phNim#stanIord.edu

Received November 13th, 2013. Modiʏed -anuary 1th, 2013. Approved January 20th, 2014.

Key words Palabras claves Education, eduprenuers, technology, Educación, edu-emprededores, tecnología, learning environment, mobile learning. ambiente de aprendizaje, educación móvil.

Abstract Resumen This paper shares macro-level perspectives drawn from bu- Este artículo comparte las perspectivas a nivel macro en siness and engineering on the widespread efforts to bring los negocios y en la ingeniería sobre los esfuerzos masi- innovation to education ecosystems. Signiʏcant shifts are vos de los ecosistemas innovadores de la educación. Son occurring in the education marketplace: from content deli- notables los cambios en el mercado de la educación, en very technologies to video capturing and processing tech- las tecnologías que generan contenido, las que graban vi- nologies. The changes involve a combination of large cor- deo, las tecnologías de proceso, así como en las grandes porations and small innovative start-ups, for example, there corporaciones, y en las pequeñas compañías incubadoras. is increased emphasis on engineering approaches to the Por ejemplo, se ha hecho más ingeniería para integrar la integration of pedagogy and learning analytics into online pedagogía y el análisis del aprendizaje en los sistemas de education systems, more marketplace-based companies are educación online. Cada vez más compañías y edu-empren- surfacing, and global edupreneurs are building an array of dedores están construyendo entrenamientos basados en las skill-based training and workforce ecosystems. In short, it habilidades y en los ecosistemas de la fuerza laboral. Es is highly predictable that the ways people acquire knowled- predecible que las formas en que la gente adquiere conoci- ge and learn new skills, evaluate competencies, and secure miento y habilidades van a cambiar drásticamente. jobs will change drastically in the future.

INTRODUCTION another former student and co-found- Years earlier, Bill Hewlett and Dave er, with Scott McMillan, of Sun Micro- Packard had graduated in electrical en- We are going to present a high level systems Stanford University Network gineering from Stanford before going overview of what is happening in the (SUN). Yahoo was started by Stanford on to found HP (previously Hewlett education space, of current and emer- students Yari Yang and David Filo. In Packard) in 1939. These are the kinds ging trends and of the players who are 1994, while ʏddling with their com- of students that have studied at Stan- active in the market space. puters in the Computer Lab, they cre- ford and moved on to start global en- Several important tech companies ated the URL (akebono.stanford.edu/ terprises. The goal, for many of these have been founded by Stanford Uni- yahoo) for their new company, Yahoo. students, filled with entrepreneurial versity students. Google was started by Reed Hastings, a major proponent of spirit, is to end up in Silicon Valley, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who re- internet television, who completed his CA (United States) (Figure 1), to set ceived a startup check for US$100,000 master´s degree in Computer Science up their own companies and to change in 1998 from Andy Bechtolsheim, at Stanford, founded Netʐix in 199. the world.

1 This article is based on the lecture of Paul Kim presented in the forum "Strengthening Engineering Education with new Information and Comunication Technologies" which was held at Universidad de los Andes on November 13th, 2013.

#36 Revista de Ingeniería. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá D.C., Colombia. rev.ing. ISSN. 0121-4993. Enero - junio de 2012, pp. 59-66. 60 DOSSIER Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66

schools programs. These are the companies that are up and coming in the market and their stories give us an idea of the levels of investment involved. 2U7 is one of a growing number of companies that help universities develop online course and has taken on re- sponsibility for the development and roll-out of entire web-based courses. The conʏdence of venture capital in 2U is apparent from the fact that the company has received several and repeated investments, totaling some US$ 26 million. The rising learning management systems provider, Canvas, has also received several investments amounting to US$30 million. Open English provides real time online English tutor- ing and has been ʏnanced to the tune of US$65 million. Lumosity 8 is a brain training application used by thousands of people and has received investments of US$32 million. This, then, is a snap- shot of what is happening in the education space, of the kinds of companies Figure 1. KŶƚŚĞŵĂƉ͕ǁĞĐĂŶƐĞĞƚŚĂƚ^ŝůŝĐŽŶsĂůůĞǇ͕ ƐƚƌĞƚĐŚĞƐ ĚŽǁŶ ĨƌŽŵ ^ĂŶ &ƌĂŶĐŝƐĐŽ͕ Ăůů ƚŚĞ ǁĂǇ ƚŽ ^ĂŶ :ŽƐĠ ;hŶŝƚĞĚ ^ƚĂƚĞƐͿ͘ that have emerged and the investment ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͘ ;ZŽĐŬŝĞƐ sĞŶƚƵƌĞ ůƵď͕ ϮϬϭϰͿ ΀DĂƉ ŽĨ ^ŝůŝĐŽŶ sĂůůĞǇ͕ ΁͘ they have received. The buzz phrase of 2013, which many people are talking about, is Mas- EDUCATION VENTURES invested in educational ventures. Klein- er Perkins Cauʏeld Byers (KPCB) sive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs. As we know, technology has been the These include Coursera, edX, and Udac- invested US$43 million in Coursera2 major driver of economic development ity alongside a wealth of other provid- and other companies, such as Udacity3, worldwide. There is an interesting sec- ers. What contribution have MOOCs also received US$16 million from An- tor that is riding on the back of growth made to the space of education? Their dreessen Horowitz, as did Lynda.com4, in the technological sector: the edu- impact has been profound, ʏrmly es- a company started by Lynda Weinman, cation market. Globally, US$4.5 tri- tablishing online education as a legiti- llion were spent on the sector in 2012 who learned how to use PowerPoint and mate and noteworthy education option. and it is projected that this will rise to Excel before producing her own teach- Before the arrival of the MOOCs, on- US$6.3 trillion by 2017. This market is ing videos back in the 1990s, and which line education was consistently criti- growing rapidly, and involves a large is now worth more than US$500 mil- cized for providing an inferior, inau- 5 number of companies including Blac- lion. Open English is developing into thentic experience that was unlikely to kboard and Canvas (Figure 2). a major company and has recently re- consolidate itself, or was at least des- The education technology market ceived a huge cash injection to facili- tined to remain on the sidelines. But can be divided principally into three ar- tate its continued growth. K-126 is an- it has, in fact, emerged into the main- eas: learning management systems, stu- other example; it has more than 150,000 stream, and is clearly going to play a dent information systems and content students and has attracted signiʏcant central role in future educational prac- providers. In 2013, US$1 billion was investment in its 100% online high tices and scenarios.

2 https://www.coursera.org/ 3 https://www.udacity.com/ 4 http://www.lynda.com/ 5 http://www.openenglish.com/la/ 6 http://www.k12.com/ 7 http://2u.com/ 8 http://www.lumosity.com/ Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66 61

<ŶŽǁůeĚge Market Size Market Size 2012Ͳ1ϳ 'rŽǁtŚ Market Size (2012) (2015) (CAGR) (2017) GůŽďaů Maket Size 'ůŽďĂů ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ ǆƉĞŶĚŝƚƵƌĞ Ψϰ͕ϰϱϬ͘ϵ Ψϱ͕ϱϬϴ͘ϳ ϳй Ψϲ͕ϯϳϮ͘ϱ <ͲϭϮ ΨϮ͕ϮϮϳ͘Ϭ ΨϮ͕ϲϮϰ͘ϲ ϲй ΨϮ͕ϵϯϬ͘ϯ WŽƐƚƐĞĐŽŶĚĂƌǇ Ψϭ͕ϰϵϱ͘Ϯ Ψϭ͕ϴϴϯ͘ϱ ϴй ΨϮ͕ϭϵϲ͘ϵ ŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ Θ 'Žǀƚ͘ >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϯϱϲ͘ϲ Ψϰϰϵ͘ϯ ϴй ΨϱϮϰ͘Ϭ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ΨϵϬ͘ϵ Ψϭϲϲ͘ϱ Ϯϯй ΨϮϱϱ͘ϱ <ͲϭϮ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϭϲ͘ϲ Ψϯϵ͘Ϭ ϯϯй Ψϲϵ͘Ϭ ,ŝŐŚĞƌ Ě Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϰϴ͘ϴ Ψϵϱ͘ϰ Ϯϱй Ψϭϰϵ͘Ϭ ŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ΨϮϱ͘ϱ ΨϯϮ͘ϭ ϴй Ψϯϳ͘ϱ &ŽƌͲWƌŽĮƚ WŽƐƚƐĞĐŽŶĚĂƌǇ Ψϵϲ͘ϭ Ψϭϰϲ͘ϭ ϭϱй Ψϭϵϯ͘Ϯ ^ŽĐŝĂů >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐͬŽŵŵƵŶŝƟĞƐ Ψϭ͘Ϭ ΨϮ͘ϵ ϰϬй Ψϱ͘ϲ ŚŝůĚ ĂƌĞ ΨϮϬϬ͘Ϭ ΨϮϲϲ͘Ϯ ϭϬй ΨϯϮϮ͘ϭ ĚƵ 'ĂŵŝŶŐ ΨϮ͘Ϭ Ψϰ͘ϰ ϯϬй Ψϳ͘ϰ

'ůŽďĂů >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞ >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϭϭϱ͘Ϭ Ψϭϵϴ͘ϳ ϮϬй ΨϮϴϲ͘Ϯ 'ůŽďĂů ŶŐůŝƐŚ >ĂŶŐƵĂŐĞ >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϲϯ͘ϯ ΨϭϮϯ͘ϲ Ϯϱй Ψϭϵϯ͘Ϯ dĞƐƚ WƌĞƉĂƌĂƟŽŶͬdƵƚŽƌŝŶŐ DĂƌŬĞƚͬŽƵŶƐĞůŝŶŐ Ψϱϰ͘Ϭ Ψϳϴ͘Ϯ ϭϯй ΨϭϬϬ͘Ϭ &ŽƌͲWƌŽĮƚ ΨϱϵϬ͘ϵ ΨϵϱϮ͘Ϯ ϭϳй Ψϭ͕ϯϭϭ͘Ϭ hŶiteĚ StateƐ Market Size h^ ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ ǆƉĞŶĚŝƚƵƌĞ Ψϭ͘ϰϯϮ͘ϭ Ψϭ͕ϰϯϮ͘ϭ ϱй Ψϭ͕ϴϬϱ͘ϱ 'ŽǀĞƌŶŵĞŶƚ ^ƉĞŶĚŝŶŐ ŽŶ ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ Ψϵϰϭ͘Ϭ Ψϵϰϭ͘Ϭ ϱй Ψϭ͕ϭϴϰ͘ϱ <ͲϭϮ Ψϲϴϳ͘ϲ Ψϲϴϳ͘ϲ ϰй Ψϴϱϯ͘ϭ WŽƐƚƐĞĐŽŶĚĂƌǇ Ψϱϯϱ͘Ϯ Ψϱϯϱ͘Ϯ ϱй Ψϲϴϴ͘ϱ /ŶƚĞƌŶĂƟŽŶĂů ^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ Ψϭϴ͘Ϯ Ψϭϴ͘Ϯ ϲй ΨϮϰ͘ϭ ǆĞĐƵƟǀĞ D Ψϭϴ͘ϵ Ψϭϴ͘ϵ Ϯй ΨϮϬ͘ϰ ŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ Θ 'Žǀƚ͘ >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϭϯϯ͘ϯ Ψϭϯϯ͘ϯ ϰй ΨϭϲϮ͘Ϯ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ΨϯϮ͘ϱ ΨϯϮ͘ϱ ϭϱй Ψϲϱ͘ϲ <ͲϭϮ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϱ͘ϰ Ψϱ͘ϰ ϮϬй Ψϭϯ͘ϰ ,ŝŐŚĞƌ Ě Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϭϳ͘ϰ Ψϭϳ͘ϰ ϭϴй Ψϯϵ͘ϴ ŽƌƉŽƌĂƚĞ Ğ>ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ Ψϵ͘ϲ Ψϵ͘ϲ ϱй ΨϭϮ͘ϯ &ŽƌͲWƌŽĮƚ WŽƐƚƐĞĐŽŶĚĂƌǇ ΨϯϬ͘ϴ ΨϯϬ͘ϴ ϭϬй Ψϰϵ͘ϱ ŚŝůĚ ĂƌĞ Ψϲϱ͘Ϭ Ψϲϱ͘Ϭ ϲй Ψϴϳ͘Ϭ dĞƐƚ WƌĞƉĂƌĂƟŽŶͬdƵƚŽƌŝŶŐ DĂƌŬĞƚͬŽƵŶƐĞůŝŶŐ Ψϭϭ͘Ϭ Ψϭϭ͘Ϭ ϲй Ψϭϰ͘ϳ /ŶƐƚƌƵĐƟŽŶĂů DĂƚĞƌŝĂůƐ DĂƌŬĞƚ ;<ͲϭϮͿ ΨϮϬ͘ϭ ΨϮϯ͘ϵ ϲй ΨϮϲ͘ϵ ,ŝŐŚĞƌ ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ /ŶƐƚƌƵĐƟŽŶ DĂƚĞƌŝĂůƐ Ψϰ͘ϴ Ψϱ͘ϳ ϲй Ψϲ͘ϯ

Figure 2. ^ƵŵŵĂƌǇ ŽĨ ĚƵĐĂƟŽŶ ƐĞĐƚŽƌƐ ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͘ ;'ůŽďĂů ^ŝůůŝĐŽŶ sĂůůĞǇ ĚǀŝƐŽƌƐ ʹ '^s ĚǀŝƐŽƌƐ͕ ϮϬϭϮͿ͘

The earliest online education ini- A number of non-traditional Uni- actual people, and it probably does not tiatives relied on the slow modems of versities have emerged; one of these need “extras” such as an athletics track the late 1980s, but they already had is North Central University, located in or baseball park. The University is a many interesting features, involving the middle of the Arizona desert. Why three story building, in the middle of discussion, assignments and individu- build a university in the middle of the the desert, which serves a student body al proʏles. The techniques have bare- desert? Because property prices are of 15,000. There is no campus, but the ly changed, but, now, things are faster, low, because the campus itself does university is growing and offers mas- look better and so forth. not need to physically contain many ters and Ph.D. programs. The only 62 DOSSIER Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66

infrastructure required is internet ac- companies will emerge to help people of another initiative, The Gooru Learn- cess, and this they had. Is there any ʏnd the best content and the most coming Company11, was formerly a senior need for a large lecture hall contain- petitively priced courses. There will be Algorithm Design Engineer at Google. ing a lone professor talking to the more solutions designed to encourage This man knew how to design algo- wall? Content is recorded and distrib- self-empowered edupreneurship: peo- rithms for Google, yet he quit the com- uted around the world, so students are ple who have learnt how to learn will pany because he was fascinated by the no longer required to be in a lecture be able to take things at their own pace educational space and wanted to make hall at the same time. Therefore, new without the need for a professor to pro- his own contribution to education. Goo- forms of online education models such vide face to face lectures. In gener- ru Learning is basically a search engine as MOOCs, and other cyber learning al, self-regulation, self-discovery, and for learning; currently it focuses on programs, will continue to evolve; we self-learning are more effective than K-12 (primary and high school) educa- will probably see MOOC 2.0, MOOC passive engagement. Many people with tion. Basically, the system works like 3.0 and so on, their content will change these high level competencies prefer to Google advertisements. When we vis- and new solutions will emerge. learn by themselves, and they will be it the Google search page, and before In terms of technology, the MOOCs able to do so thanks to a broad range we even type anything, ads tailored to are responsible for some of the interest- of solutions that will be available on- our interests appear on the right hand ing solutions that are emerging in the line. In the future, the network will be side of the screen. This is possible be- education market, such as video cap- the educator; the more networked you cause Google already knows what we ture and processing, content mash-ups, are, the better you will be able to learn, are likely to be looking for and which activity analysis algorithms and cloud alongside the other people in your net- companies might be interesting to us. service replications. However, there work, which, in turn, will also help you Gooru Learning reversed the design so still seem to be many missing com- fulʏll your academic and career poten- that users did not have to work hard to ponents, or considerations that those tial. For example, LinkedIn is one of ʏnd the solutions they are interested who are offering online programs need these social networks whose potential in paying for. Providers create proʏles to take into account, especially if they should not be taken lightly. Again, the that display the kinds of learning activi- are offering them for free. Merely put- more genuinely networked you are, the ties, objectives and content that are rel- ting something online does not mean more successful you will be. evant to the interests and background that people around the world have ac- We have probably all seen the videos of prospective students. cess to it. For example, if a server is in produced by providers like the Khan NovoED12, another MOOC platform the United States, there is no guaran- Academy9, which are rich in content which originated at Stanford Univer- tee that people in Africa or India will and subject matter. The Khan Acade- sity, was founded under the name The have easy access to it. If it is difʏcult my started to develop a learning analyt- Venture Lab. This platform is quite dif- for people in the developing world to ics feature that tracks student progress ferent from the rest. It focuses on team- access Coursera then they are likely to and how much they have achieved or building, team projects and team eval- give up. Therefore, service replication left to complete. But there is so much uation. Individuals interested in taking is becoming increasingly important. more that can be done to create a much a course provided through the system Social networking activities are go- more versatile and supportive learning have to know how to be team players ing to be central to research into new environment. and to be successful, they must earn re- areas of development and to the engi- Many other companies are active- spect from other team members: there neering of student engagement. Merely ly providing solutions. Zaption10 is one is no free ride. Even if a student ʏnish- displaying or delivering content doesn’t of a number of companies that can help es the other assignments in the course, ensure that students will learn. A pivot- clients add a range of assessment fea- he or she will not be able to complete it al challenge, in the years to come, will tures, from questions and activities to if they have not earned enough respect be how to offer the best possible learn- video lectures they have uploaded to from the other members of the team. ing options to engage students to the YouTube. More and more solutions of This, then, is a very interesting system fullest extent. You probably already this kind are coming to the market of- that is likely to inʐuence future online use Expedia and Kayak to ʏnd the best fering creative ways to ensure student course design focused on global team- ʐight deals. In the educational sphere, engagement. Interestingly, the founder based activities.

9 https://www.khanacademy.org/ 10 https://www.zaption.com/ 11 http://www.goorulearning.org/ 12 https://novoed.com/ Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66 63

THE SELF-EMPOWERED EDUPRENEUR MOVEMENT Earlier we mentioned the self-empowered edupreneurship movement. Miche- lle Phan was good with cosmetics so she started to post videos online about improving make up techniques. Soon she had 1,000 people around the world following her and learning from her videos. These people started to ask her questions and her followers grew to 1.5 million, all because she had posted a few videos on make up. Cosmetics companies started to take interest in her work and her videos and began investing in her, after which set up her own cosmetic company, called em Michelle, of which she is the CEO. Michelle Phan’s is an WĂƵů <ŝŵ͘ ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͗ WĂƌƟĐƵůĂƌ ƌĐŚŝǀĞ͕ hŶŝǀĞƌƐŝĚĂĚ ĚĞ ůŽƐ ŶĚĞƐ example of edupreneurship. In this business model, edupreneurs start with their own content and some knowledge Now, the reason that performance, baseball ʏelds and extensive athletic or skills to share with the world; if they team and project based-learning are facilities. The team recommended the are good at it, people around the world very important is that they are associat- university to a group of investors say- recognize their talent and companies ed with retention. Retention is the most ing that it had great potential and sug- and investors express interest in helping important element of the online educa- gested that investors could expect a re- scale up their activities. tion space today. Drop-out rates for on- turn on investment within four years. Companies like Udemy13 provide a line courses are much higher than for Initially, they were not convinced. Even platform for any professor, instructor traditional face-to-face learning envi- though it only had several hundred stu- or teacher who is interested in sharing ronments. NovoED, though small to- dents remaining and few distinctive or their content with the world. It provides day, is one company that is seeking to unique features or programs to ensure a platform where edupreneurs can post design activities and features to ensure its survival, it was accredited, which their courses and set their price lev- students continue their studies. The re- was the most important thing. In the els. You can offer your course for free tention business in online education end, the investors reluctantly invest- if you want, but if you want to charge sector is bound to grow. ed in the university and made it prof- money, Udemy is the kind of company Grand Canyon University, locat- itable. A substantial on-line program that provides the platform for you to do ed in Phoenix Arizona, is a rising star was started in early 2000. In November so. This is a very young company, but for several reasons. It was founded 60 2008, it held its Initial Public Offering it already has 1.5 million students and years ago as a Christian College but, by on the NASDAQ (National Association 6,000 instructors who between them 2000, it had lost so many students that of Securities Dealers Automated Quo- have published 10,000 courses. Uni- it was no longer feasible to operate the tations), raising US$126 million in one versities are now aware of Udemy and University. However, the board made afternoon. The university now has over are offering courses on the platform. the single most important decision in 60,000 students and is worth US$2 bil- This model involves universities hon- its history when it opted to revive it. lion. Retention is key. A one percent in- oring credits awarded by Udemy, so The original due-diligence team went crease in retention rates, translates into if—for example—a student tries an in- to the University, met with the facul- US$1.2 million in revenue. This is the troductory engineering course on Ude- ty and visited the campus, which had kind of online university that is very in- my and likes it, he or she can continue a traditional look and feel. There was terested in learning about how to retain their studies by enrolling in the associ- a swimming pool, basketball courts, more students. ated university. This is the kind of deal

13 https://www.udemy.com/ 64 DOSSIER Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66

that some universities are making with important in the educational space, so- be downloaded in Africa, India and companies such as Udemy - a new con- mething that is going to get students other places. cept, which is becoming a new trend. to complete, something that helps stu- On the other hand, our research into dents to continue to engage in class ac- mobile learning spaces, started with a EDUCATION MARKETPLACES tivities. It is passion that gets students case study in Baja California, Mexico. to stay in class and ʏnish their stu- The following topics were discussed in The Marketplace Education Center is dies, and this is something that has to our MOOC: Setting the stage. In Came- one of a growing number of compa- be looked at very carefully. Last year, lu, Baja California, indigenous migrant nies that provide free online courses. we offered a MOOC at Stanford called children work in farms alongside their The business model involves attrac- “Designing a New Learning Environ- parents. They pick tomatoes every day, ting as many people as possible to the ment” (Kim, October 21, 2012). Inter- there is no school, and they will never programs and then ʏguring out how to estingly, we found that many students own a book to read in their lives. When make money further down the line. around the world translated the video we visited the area, we were outraged. 14 Education Portal is another com- contents of the course. It has now been We felt that we had to help in some way, pany in this sector, which offers many translated into many languages—in- so that they wouldn’t spend the rest of 15 free courses. DreamDegree is anoth- cluding Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and their 43-year life expectancy picking er, and operates almost like Expedia or Hindi—by students who took the cour- tomatoes. We began to think about mo- Kayak. Users can input their interests se and who volunteered to translate the bile learning and about how to ensure and budget and the platform ʏnds the videos. Why would they do this? Why their access to education. We tried out course that suits their needs at a price would someone volunteer to transla- a few ideas, uploading Spanish songs they can afford. Universities compete. te someone else´s course content and and storybooks onto small devices and Students win: that is the model within offer it back in the online space? Some experimenting with learning strategies. this very competitive sector. students, in particular a student in Ger- We later expanded this mobile learning 16 Glubal , the Global University Net- many, downloaded every single video research to other countries, in a process work, is a German company, which— on the course and created low-band- we have talked about in our MOOC. as its name suggests—has global reach. width versions. Because many of the The project was taken to more than Users can search for the programs that videos are quite high deʏnition, a high 20 countries around the world includ- best respond to their needs and they can bandwidth connection was needed. But ing Jordan, Kenya, and Tanzania, and it design personalized programs with an this particular student, in Germany, raised the question of what to do about individual in mind. For example, a stu- realized that many more students nee- places that have no electricity or Inter- dent can take the introductory course ded a low bandwidth version that could net (Figure 4). while living in Bogota, Colombia and then move on to do the next course in Madrid Spain before ʏnishing the degree in Paris, France. Individuals can design their own degrees any way they want. So this is a new company model which is very innovatory and decid- edly disruptive too. The fate of these interesting companies will be very interesting to watch in upcoming months and years.

PASSION TO FUEL INNOVATION IN EDUCATION We have been studying online education since the 1990s, particularly retention and drop-out rates and all the is- sues surrounding them. Through this, Figure 4. DŽďŝůĞ >ĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ /ŶŝƟĂƟǀĞƐ ĨŽƌ ŵŝŐƌĂŶƚ ŝŶĚŝŐĞŶŽƵƐ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ǁŚŽ ŚĂǀĞ ŶĞǀĞƌ ŽǁŶĞĚ Ă ďŽŽŬ we have found something that is very ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͘ ƵƚŚŽƌ

14 http://education-portal.com/ 15 http://www.dreamdegree.org/ 16 https://www.glubal.com/en Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66 65

We started to design a small server— with a number of other mobile devic- to such tasks, as they have to read more with the help of a substantial number es there, and students have used them carefully and pay more attention to the of people in Silicon Valley—known to create their own learning content. videos. Thus, our idea of the future as SMILE (Stanford Mobile Inquiry- There are a lot of content providers. If of learning is precisely to make stu- based Learning Environment). SMILE we create content in the US, is it imme- dents come up with their own inquiries, is a cloud-based minicomputer, in the diately useable in rural areas abroad? which, in turn, is the best way to engage shape of a small battery powered box The answer is no, because content has them to learn. that contains an entire learning man- to be contextualized, localized, and that The Dean of our Business School agement system. We know how much is something that a lot of people forget. said: “The millennium students, those teachers hate technology, so we de- We are not content distributors; instead, who are earning higher education designed it to have only one button. A we like to work with local communities grees in the 21st Century, are walk- frowning face appears when the but- to develop local content that makes the ing through our doors not just to make ton is ʏrst clicked on to indicate that most sense for them. For example, with money but to make a difference in the the box is getting ready and is thinking. mobile phones, seventy Tanzanian vil- world”. This is why they are coming to When the face ʏnally smiles it means lage school students were able to create the University and it is what we mean that it is ready (Figure 5). their own learning content in 20 min- when we talk about igniting passion, it is not about designing some fancy technology to dazzle your students. A nov- elty act does not keep people engaged for long; we have to ʏgure out how to engage students better. This is what is known as engagement engineering and it is going to be a most important topic in engineering in the future: How you engage people more in desired activities such as learning. In traditional engineering courses at the US Air Force Academy—teaching Calculus 101, 201, 302, etc.—usually Figure 5. ĚŚŽĐ ůŽĐĂů ĂƌĞĂ ŵŽďŝůĞ ůĞĂƌŶŝŶŐ ŶĞƚǁŽƌŬ ʹ ĐŽŶƚĞŶƚ Θ ĂƉƉůŝĐĂƟŽŶ involved professors physically coming ƐĞƌǀĞƌнƌŽƵƚĞƌнǁŝĮнƐƚŽƌĂŐĞ KŶĞ ďƵƩŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƌƵŶƐ ŽŶ Ă ďĂƩĞƌǇ͘ in and teaching students calculations ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͘ ƵƚŚŽƌ͘ that they would seldom remember; a rather inappropriate method. Profes- The box contains the whole of Wiki- utes, basically, by taking pictures of ob- sor Thomas Reeves—now retired—is pedia, free courses, the Kahn Academy jects around them and asking what the Professor Emeritus at the University of videos, etc. In fact, the device can be objects were called in English! Georgia, and has carried out much re- used to access any materials or cours- We have also taken the box to Zim- search in design-based education. Pro- es the user wishes to access. We are in- babwe Medical University which is us- fessor Reeves shares my views on the terested in making the device available ing it to provide students with access to importance of igniting passion among anywhere where electricity or Internet medical education videos and to car- students and when he became aware is not available. Given that a small bat- ry out their own inquiries based upon of how the Airforce Academy cours- tery can be easily carried around, the them. Students create their own con- es were run, he decided that passions box could be used to access universi- tent including questions and feedback had to be ignited in their classrooms. ty, elementary school or high school from their classes that they then share The course he designed for them set a sites and to access pre-loaded con- with us at Stanford University. So both practical problem: let´s go to the moon. tent. SMILE also comes pre-installed at the Medical University in Zimbabwe How do we get to the moon? How with PHP Python language so users and at Stanford University we are able might we design an aircraft that could can learn programming. So, it is a kind to look at the questions that students travel to the moon? of university and school in a box that come up with and use these questions as This is how the course started and got we are introducing around the world to our data. The quality of the questions, many students very excited about their provide access to education. tell us whether the students are learn- new task of starting with a real prob- SMILE has been taken to places such ing or not. They are asked to devise lem in which they had to consider is- as Tanzania where students want to learn high quality multiple choice questions sues such as aerodynamics, power, lift, English but do not have any English and provide good answers. This is not weight and all kinds of other dynamics. text books. We took the device, together an easy task, and students are not used The university liked and implemented 66 DOSSIER Paul Kim / Revista de Ingeniería, #39, 2013, pp. 59-66

the course; the professors were able to order to innovate and change the world. Kim, P. (October 21, 2012). Designing ignite their students’ passions, which, Let’s ignite passion. a New Learning Environment in turn, led to exponential growth in (DNLE) [Video] Retrieved from student interest and motivation, as well https://www.youtube.com/watch? REFERENCES increased success in achieving learning v=nxfsO1BZtKo#t=12 outcomes. It takes a little longer to de- Global Sillicon Valley Advisors (GSV Rockies Venture Club. (2014) [Map of sign courses using this type of meth- Advisors). (2012). )actERRN . Silicon Valley, CA]. Retrieved from od. But it does pay off. The return on Retrieved from http://gsvadvisors. http://www.rockiesventureclub. investment is much greater than we com/wordpress/wp-content/ org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ might imagine. Such approaches can be uploads/2012/04/GSV-EDU-Fact- Map-of-the-Silicon-Valley-based- applied to any subject, to any class, in book-Apr-13-2012.pdf on-Google-Maps.jpg