“The Netflix equivalent for live, interactive online lessons for ages 5-18.”

The Online School – 2020

Imagine a platform where a child can logon: 

– search for a subject and topic they want to get more support on (or maybe learn  ..about for the first time!), 

– flick through an entire schedule of live lessons that are going to be happening on those topics over the next few weeks,

– choose the time that suits them 

– join when it’s time to start the class.

– have your progress as well as the recording of the lesson available in student’s dashboard

student dashboard showing how classes can be added and attended when it’s time for your lesson to start

Bespoke online classroom with built in profanity checker in chatbox to ensure no one can share external links, emails, phone numbers or say any rude words! We also have the ability to do all the other standard online classroom features like share screen, annotation and use of microphones and video.

How does this happen?

Teachers register themselves: 

– pass the standard teaching background and criminal checks,

– then they have the flexibility to choose time slots of when they would like to deliver group lessons on a specific topic of their choice as well as declare availability so if someone would like to hire them privately through the platform for a 1:1 lesson.

– develop their Video CVs and receive cash bonuses for group lessons based on their performance (interactiveness) and reliability.

– set the price you want to charge hourly for private 1:1 lesson rates and earn whilst your students learn 🙂

 A look into how teachers are able to choose date, time as well as the audience and topic for the class they would like to teach. Teachers can also use this area to select if they want to declare their availability for private 1:1 lessons.

Interactiveness is one of the main elements of a great class. So teachers have the ability to create custom polls as well as use pre-built polls to help query the understanding of their students. Teachers are able to see the individual answers of the students as well as at an overall class level. This is useful so teachers are able to adjust the pace and content of their lessons accordingly.

Teachers are able to build up their Video CV, a track record of all of their previous classes as well as see their ratings from students/parents. Teachers can use this to get more private 1:1 bookings on the platform but also use this to help them secure a new permanent role in the future!

The Result

Students from all around the world are able to gain on demand access to qualified live lessons across MATHS, ENGLISH, SCIENCES, HUMANITIES, ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CODING that are suitable for ages 5 – 18.

All of these lessons are taught by TEACHERS. People who genuinely start a career to make a positive impact on the lives of young people!

Teachers are able to develop their digital profile aka their “Video CV” which is available in their dashboard and has a portfolio of their previous online lessons as well as useful metrics like “reliability”. These are really useful for parents and students to help them choose what teacher they want to learn from. Teachers can also share this with prospective employers i.e Schools.

 The Online School fairs well against the major players within the EdTech industry. Our specific approach to online education is unique and we believe it is this approach that will help us thrive!

How The Online School opened!

It’s February 2020 and Ali is already cold whilst booking plane tickets to Regina, Canada (note: it was -30 degrees celsius.. and for a London boy… this is a bit of a shock to the system) but nonetheless, the trip was necessary as we were going to some teaching universities in Canada to find graduate teachers who wanted to relocate to the UK. 

The trip lasted a week and was very successful. We were able to get 300 great teachers who wanted to make the journey across the pond to UK! Once we got back to the UK, we couldn’t wait to get started in finding these amazing Canadian teachers great roles in UK schools. But then….

***COVID ALERT****

Schools were forced to close. Students and Parents were stuck at home and our Canadian Superstar Teachers were reconsidering the prospect of relocating away from their families. Was our trip to Canada in vain?!

***SOLUTION***

We had an army of teachers (not just from Canada) but globally from our prior work and experiences in Education. We had the technical know-how on how to quickly develop and deliver functional digital applications. And most importantly, we saw that the world was struggling to respond to COVID so we wanted to do our fair share to help too.

So we created The Online School. 

We operated for 7 months delivering hundreds of free group and private lessons every month to over 10,000 students. Not only were we able to provide lessons in the UK, USA and Europe but we were able to provide live lessons in refugee camps, low literacy areas as well as orphanages.

BBC Mini-Doc Featuring Our Work In Connecting Remote Communities in Africa with Live Lessons by Teachers in the UK

Our specific mention starts from 2 mins 4 seconds. Please note that the recordings shown were of our old platform that we were using when we first started in March 2020.

We subsidised the operational cost for the business and made it free for all at the time as our way of giving back. But now we want to make The Online School sustainable so it can be an “always-on” hub for live education that aligns to support UNSDG 4. 

So the dream now is to create a thriving commercial model that works on charging students £6/ group lesson and a teacher-set price for 1:1 lessons. We will use part of our revenues to reach out to vulnerable communities that are below the poverty line (anyone who’s household income is less than £1000/month) and sponsor them with access to free group lessons. **On our new platform there is a means tested application process for those who wish to apply for free lessons**

Our Commitment to improving global education and UNSDG 4

The Online School entered the EdTech market as a free service for everyone, everywhere. But unfortunately this isn’t sustainable. However our approach has helped us create a lightweight approach to education. We are able to provide quality group lessons at the lowest price point in the market. 

However we appreciate that for some parts of the world there is no capacity to pay anything for education. There are in fact over 300M children in the world without proper education. So we will commit to using a significant portion of our revenues towards:

• Sponsoring access to free group lessons for those below the poverty line who apply via the website.
• Working with refugee camps globally to create schooling hubs. Team Humanity/Camp Moria is our first project.
• Providing online classroom capabilities to communities and individuals through the means of laptops, projectors and data bundle sponsorships.
• Establishing a radio station to help reach more young people in rural and remote areas.

Stretch Goals

If we hit our target we will be able to help grow our team of moderation and compliance officers. This will enable us to maintain a quality of lessons as well as ensuring that teachers are being managed and registered smoothly. 

If we exceed our initial goal, we will look to establish the following stretch goals:

£100,000:

 We will expand our product to include an Augmented Reality feature that teachers can use to help illustrate concepts and ideas to students during their lessons at The Online School. Imagine as your teacher is talking about the jungle, monkeys swing across the screen!

£250,000: 

 We will be able to hire our own in house production team that can help to create recorded, interactive lessons which can be used for those who live in areas with poor internet connectivity. This way there are multiple checkpoints that a student will have to ensure remain engaged.

£500,000: 

We will create an android and iOS app which hosts our recorded lessons as well as our live lessons. This will help us reach communities that have limited access to internet.

£1,000,000: 

Establish an Education Centre that has it’s own radio station as well as a  filming studio where teachers record new content for The Online School for both our apps and website but also to deliver bespoke content to the vulnerable communities that we work with.

Live Lesson Snippets

Below are some examples of lessons that awesome teachers have delivered on our platform. 

 We also help provide meaningful live content to address issues such as racism, knife crime, bullying as well as teaching life skills. 

Meet The TEAM

 The Online School has an amazing team and without them the project wouldn’t have gotten this far. 

Rewards

Parent/Students:

Teachers: