There is something slightly ironic about the booming market for mobile learning products. Figures from market research firm Ambient Insight put their global market value at $2.3 billion by 2017.
The irony is that not so long ago it seemed everyone was worried about kids spending too much time playing computer games instead of doing their homework. However, with the emergence of digital ‘brain training’ platforms such as Lumosity DuoLingo, and Memrise, the ‘screen time versus schoolbooks’ debate seems to be tipping the other way.
Educational computer games are nothing new, at least not for PC users – who could forget MECC’s Number Munchers or Math Blaster Plus? – but as market analysts have predicted, the future of digital learning is mobile, creating an exciting arena for gaming entrepreneurs, and potentially rich pickings for investors.
In the European mobile learning startup arena UnlockYourBrain is attracting a lot of interest. Initially offering vocabulary and mathematics questions, each one takes just two to three seconds to answer, and the app’s algorithm learns from individual users’ answer patterns to ensure that questions are always matched to individual aptitudes.
Founded last year by Berlin-based entrepreneurs Felix Nienstaedt and Simon Smend, this microlearning Android app is notable because it appears to have cracked a problem many of its competitors struggle with; high user drop-off rates.
And they got around that problem by making the learning and brain training app integral to the lock screen of the smartphone. Users have to answer a question every time they unlock their screen. (Although, it can be bypassed by users in a real hurry.)
Smend, who previously worked at IPO-bound company-builder Rocket Internet, says he came up with the idea while sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.
He said: “There was a little girl sitting there with her parents, and she asked her dad if she could play on his smartphone. He replied: ‘You should do doing your homework instead’. This struck a chord with me, so my co-founder Felix and I started thinking about how we could integrate the two, which led to Felix building the prototype.
“In a time of information overload, processing content has become a pain point for many people who want to learn, but don’t know where to begin. Our app breaks down information into bite-sized pieces. It makes learning and training an implicit part of people’s days, without having to reserve a time to study. The result is faster learning speeds and proven retention rates.”
The app has already been downloaded over 500,000 times and is used an average of two million times per day. It is also enjoying high retention rates, as users keep using it, and keep retaining the information.
And there is academic evidence to show that this bite-sized brain training model confers real benefits. An independent study by the University of Potsdam found that users could double their maths aptitude in 14 days by using the app, and concluded that learning maths via ‘incidental problem solving’ can be considered an effective alternative to ‘conventional mass studying environments’.
To drive content growth, UnlockYourBrain has just launched a community-driven content marketplace allowing users to create, upload and share personalised, custom-made learning materials.
Smend said: “They can add a wide range of content, from SAT prep vocabulary to Excel shortcuts, and share it with the rest of the world. For example, if a student has a French vocabulary quiz at the end of each week, they can easily study for it by entering the vocabulary into the app and adding new words each week.”
After taking part in Microsoft MSFT +1.8% Ventures’ Berlin accelerator program in 2014, UnlockYourBrain received seed funding from a number of international business angels, including Christophe Maire, an investor in SoundCloud and EyeEm.
Currently half of the app’s users are based in Germany and Taiwan, and the other half are from all over the world.
A next logical step is to take UnlockYourBrain beyond Android and venture cross platform – although as Smend points out, a small number of users have switched from iOS to Android because of the app.
He said: “We are also focusing on developing many new microlearning opportunities. At school, memorising information is not much fun. We want to make it effortless.”
