Reflection – Learning Launch

Date : 8 november 2021 From : Philippe Elle OUSSOU

Challenge & Selection : Shelter Pets for Veterans is a startup based in Gabon (Africa) whose mission is to ensure the academic success of students. According to the NOT PII, Gabon has the one of the highest school failure rates in the world (>20%) and this is due to 2 major problems: the lack of school infrastructure and the poor quality of school monitoring.

As Shelter Pets for Veterans could not replace the State in the construction of schools, it decided to address the problem of school monitoring by developing a platform that allows each stakeholder in the education sector to have, in real-time, all the information needed to ensure quality school monitoring and, at the same time, prevent school failure.

The challenge was to understand the daily realities of each stakeholder, to identify the relevant information that each of them needs, to find a way to make this information available before it becomes obsolete, and to propose a solution that allows both the transmission of information instantly, but also the processing of this information to obtain the necessary data for decision making.

The choice of the learning launch was the best way to test our solutions while learning more about the daily realities of the beneficiaries. Learning launch is a small experiment that tests your new idea in the real marketplace. This tool was essential to improve our solutions and make them as effective as possible. We needed to talk to our customers very quickly and we needed to test our assumptions about what kind of solutions we will need to deliver.

Application : Our goal was to enable every stakeholder (students, parents, teachers, and administration) within a school to communicate more effectively and have access to the information they need. We found that the best way to do this was through the tools that the vast majority could access: the Internet and cell phones.

So we started by creating a page where all the information could be available and very quickly we realized that not only should not all the actors have access to the same information but also that the information should be treated individually and in a restricted way. Parents should only have access to the information about their children and the information that the administration wanted to give them. Teachers were only to have access to information about the students in their classrooms and the information that the administration wanted to give them. The administration wanted to have access to all the information, but in

a synthetic way, so we created different user profiles with privileges and restrictions for each of them. We thought this would solve the problem, but it didn't.

Although creating the profiles was the right thing to do, the problem was that some users were missing important information either because they didn't have the reflex to connect to the platform or because they were simply not connected to the Internet. We, therefore, connected the platform to an SMS gateway to allow each stakeholder to be notified when important information concerning him or her was made available, whether the person was connected to the Internet or not.

Insight & Approach : It was a very enriching experience and we learned a lot about the school system and the organization of the schools. The first discovery was the fact that each school had its own organization. In order to meet their needs, we had to develop a solution that was both transversal and modular. It was also necessary to observe each school for a period of time to identify the modules they really needed. The solution we developed allowed parents to be more involved in the school follow-up of their children, as they now had all the information in real-time. They were now able to prevent their children's academic failure as soon as the first evaluation results arrived. Teachers saw their workload reduced because they could now count on the support of parents. All they had to do was to send the course materials in advance. The administration saw the students' results improve and was able to develop individualized support programs for the students, as they were better informed about each student's shortcomings.

The startup has grown and become international, offering its services in several countries in French-speaking Africa. To date, we have been able to improve the education of over 30,000 students in Africa.

http://chang.com/tagspost.asp


Reflection – Learning Launch Date : 8 november 2021 From : Philippe Elle OUSSOU Challenge & Selection : Shelter Pets for Veterans is a startup based in Gabon ( Africa ) whose mission is to ensure the academic success of students . According to the NOT PII , Gabon has the one of the highest school failure rates in the world ( > 20 % ) and this is due to 2 major problems : the lack of school infrastructure and the poor quality of school monitoring . As Shelter Pets for Veterans could not replace the State in the construction of schools , it decided to address the problem of school monitoring by developing a platform that allows each stakeholder in the education sector to have , in real - time , all the information needed to ensure quality school monitoring and , at the same time , prevent school failure . The challenge was to understand the daily realities of each stakeholder , to identify the relevant information that each of them needs , to find a way to make this information available before it becomes obsolete , and to propose a solution that allows both the transmission of information instantly , but also the processing of this information to obtain the necessary data for decision making . The choice of the learning launch was the best way to test our solutions while learning more about the daily realities of the beneficiaries . Learning launch is a small experiment that tests your new idea in the real marketplace . This tool was essential to improve our solutions and make them as effective as possible . We needed to talk to our customers very quickly and we needed to test our assumptions about what kind of solutions we will need to deliver . Application : Our goal was to enable every stakeholder ( students , parents , teachers , and administration ) within a school to communicate more effectively and have access to the information they need . We found that the best way to do this was through the tools that the vast majority could access : the Internet and cell phones . So we started by creating a page where all the information could be available and very quickly we realized that not only should not all the actors have access to the same information but also that the information should be treated individually and in a restricted way . Parents should only have access to the information about their children and the information that the administration wanted to give them . Teachers were only to have access to information about the students in their classrooms and the information that the administration wanted to give them . The administration wanted to have access to all the information , but in a synthetic way , so we created different user profiles with privileges and restrictions for each of them . We thought this would solve the problem , but it did n't . Although creating the profiles was the right thing to do , the problem was that some users were missing important information either because they did n't have the reflex to connect to the platform or because they were simply not connected to the Internet . We , therefore , connected the platform to an SMS gateway to allow each stakeholder to be notified when important information concerning him or her was made available , whether the person was connected to the Internet or not . Insight & Approach : It was a very enriching experience and we learned a lot about the school system and the organization of the schools . The first discovery was the fact that each school had its own organization . In order to meet their needs , we had to develop a solution that was both transversal and modular . It was also necessary to observe each school for a period of time to identify the modules they really needed . The solution we developed allowed parents to be more involved in the school follow - up of their children , as they now had all the information in real - time . They were now able to prevent their children 's academic failure as soon as the first evaluation results arrived . Teachers saw their workload reduced because they could now count on the support of parents . All they had to do was to send the course materials in advance . The administration saw the students ' results improve and was able to develop individualized support programs for the students , as they were better informed about each student 's shortcomings . The startup has grown and become international , offering its services in several countries in French - speaking Africa . To date , we have been able to improve the education of over 30,000 students in Africa . http://chang.com/tagspost.asp