1st universal E-learning connector

The 1st universal E-learning connector,
PoLiL (Proof of Lifelong Learning)

PROBLEM

There is a rising need for hands-on know-how and micro-credentials for skills, especially in developing countries. This need is addressed by a proliferation of e-learning platforms and online courses. The resulting diversity of e-learning environments forces students to move from one e-learning platform to another. Without a coherent certification system that connects the previous knowledge acquired across these disparate platforms, this creates various problems including the cold-start (a generic starting point to every student), the unnecessary re-exposure to learning materials, the impossibility to migrate the learning achievements (proved knowledge) from one platform to another or to an institution, the inability to use their own learning data for other purposes such as analysis, further certifications, study progress, etc.

In Figure-1 attached example, a certification in Machine Learning requires different knowledge acquired over time through different courses from different LMS. Because the systems do not talk to each other, the Machine Learning course starts without any information about the learner's pre-existing knowledge (cold-start). This means a huge amount of material will be re-exposed to the learner or (even worse) taken for granted as existing knowledge.

GOAL

PoLiL is a new holistic approach to online learning, a non-siloed learning journey without vendor locking, which follows learners online and offline, but also tracks learning progress for life and of course, it's also anti-tamper (proof of validity).

We will achieve the reputation of curricula based on effective user learning data (using the whole history of transactions), instead of just relying on the brand/prestige of certification and/or institution as today we are used to doing. 
A typical certification becomes old, after a certain amount of time. When the user is asked to be re-certified following an updated course, the studying process restarts, often from scratch, even if the materials are mostly the same. By contrast, the learner can update old material in a granular manner making the re-certification an obsolete process.

DEMOGRAPHIC

• Learners of any age such as students, workers who need to (re)qualify. Everyone who uses online learning courses. Nobody excluded.

• People who care about the quality of the learning process

• People who cannot afford expensive certificate/institution "brand", but still care about the quality of the learning materials

• People who are not sporadic e-learner and cannot afford to waste time on re-exposition of learning materials

• People who think that "The journey not the arrival matters" (T.S. Eliot). Because the certification (as a document to show) is just an aggregate value turned into a picture taken in the past. What really is fundamental for recall and/or for expanding knowledge, are the multitude (granular) of data transacted before the arrival

MARKET

EdTech projected global market size to $181.3B by 2025
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/educational-technology-ed-tech-market-1066.html
and to $377.85 Billion by 2028
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/press-release/global-education-technology-market

List of the 15 Largest EdTech Companies in the World:
15. Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL)
14. Course Hero
13. ApplyBoard
12. Stride, Inc. (NYSE: LRN)
11. Unacademy
10. Duolingo
9. Coursera, Inc. (NYSE: COUR)
8. 2U, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWOU)
7. Udemy
6. VIPKID
5. Zuoyebang
4. BYJU'S
3. Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG)
2. Yuanfudao
1. Kahoot! AS (Oslo: KAHOT.OL)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/15-largest-edtech-companies-world-155126885.html
https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-largest-edtech-companies-in-the-world-930988
All of these companies trap the learners in their platforms.

SOLUTION & TECHNOLOGY

PoLiL is not introducing another new standard, the e-learning world is already overwhelmed by standards (for example SCORM, AICC, xAPI, cmi5, Caliper, etc.) but the most adopted (mainly because open https://github.com/adlnet/xAPI-Spec/blob/master/xAPI-Data.md)) is xAPI (eXperience API, developed by the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative).

PoLiL uses xAPI because it is designed to solve the centralisation of learning records inside monolithic e-learning courses (like SCORM does). Anyway, because xAPI was implemented as LRS (Learning Record Store) in many LMS (Learning Management System), its intent of decentralisation was not accomplished. Basically, every LMS implements its LRS and they don't talk to each other. The xAPI technology allows decentralization but the actual implementations are centralised monolithic systems.

PoLiL fully accomplishes the mission of xAPI of decentralisation, not requiring any centralised authority to run.

In Figure-2 attached example, the learners Alice, Bruno and Carol access typical LMS like Coursera, Udemy, Edx, MIT xPRO, OpenCourseWare to take specific courses.
Every LMS uses its LRS to read/store learners' activities, adopting the standard xAPI as it usually does. With PoLiL, the LMS on startup prompts the learner to grant access to their private activity records stored in the blockchain. When allowed, the LMS will also store the records of learners' current activities while taking courses.

Cardano will contain the personal and immutable learning records of every single user (on-chain and/or off-chain is still a topic to be addressed). Alice, Bruno and Carol can access their personal journey-data, anytime and everywhere, and show the certifications of their lifelong learning journey.

BUSINESS AND SOCIAL IMPACT

PoLiL can disrupt the e-learning market as we currently know. Its goal is to renovate, fix and extend the online learning experience, changing the way monopolistic e-learning companies (like Coursera, Udemy, Edx, MIT xPRO, etc.) hide and lock the learners' data records into their siloed database. This data cannot be used by other companies/competitors, damaging the learner's knowledge progress. Data interoperability is precluded. The learners are the owner of their learning activities (and not the LMS company) but the value of this data is hidden because the attention is focused only on certification (as a document) and not on the learning journey (granular transacted data). Data portability is precluded. Every LMS company manages the data in its own way and even if compliant with restrictive regulations like GDPR, the learning data activities are not considered sensitive data. In reality, this data is personal and must be protected. Data privacy is precluded. PoLiL users become owners and managers of their data-asset.

For LMS (Learning Management System) companies who are not market leaders, competing against giants (like Coursera) is impossible, but because PoLiL empowers the final user as never before, it will give advantages to more little market players. For example, mass-market LMS companies are focused only on certifying the completeness of the courses (which they sell in their catalogues) where the parameters to judge the courses are mainly brand name, time estimated to complete and users feedback. These few parameters are simply not enough to invest learners' time and money. Learners will prefer to buy courses "powered" by PoLiL because the full transparency of the learning journey will automatically/organically produce high-quality learning materials. Learners who care about the quality, with PoLiL, can look into granular details of the offer (course to buy) and see how it was effective to other learners in the overall learning journey. The "brand" value proposition will be neutralised by the matching quality of learning materials coming from other minor providers, giving a fair opportunity of high-quality education to learners who cannot afford costly branded products. This brand neutralization will also give business opportunities to young/small companies who cannot fairly compete in a crowded EdTech market monopolized by giant players.

New types of economic opportunities derive from the monetisation of the "pay per view" of the learning journey of specific talented users. Imagine if Alice wanted to know what Bruno learned to become a strong data scientist.
Or, if Carol the recruiter of a company wants to hire Bruno but he wants to be sure that Bruno went through a specific learning process. Bruno in these scenarios will receive monetary compensation from Alice, Carol and anybody else, every time someone accesses (after requested and authorization) Bruno's trustworthy lifelong learning journey.

ACTION PLAN

- Milestone 1: 
Delivery of the main engine and the full Cardano/xAPI integration with a significant subset of xAPI Statements covered

- Milestone 2:
Optimisation, Tuning, Integration tests, Tutorials, APIs documentation, basic website, live demo, open-source community involvement

- Milestone 3:
Full implementation of the remaining Statements.
Is important to clarify that the registry of xAPI Statements contains 379 entries: 114 activity types, 5 attachments, 62 actions, 185 verbs, 13 profiles.
https://registry.tincanapi.com
This last milestone is quite a huge amount of work impossible to do from a single person in a short amount of time, but the community can help by delivering one Statement at a time.

ROADMAP

- Milestone 1: 
Requires at least 1 month for 1 developer

- Milestone 2:
It could be done almost in parallel by 2 developers in 2 months.
The total time required for Milestone 1 + Milestone 2 is 3 months

- Milestone 3:
It has to be considered an ongoing process, hard to predict the end in the short term, it also depends on the open-source community involvement

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

$9999 is the requested fund, but PoLiL can only be implemented partially with this amount.
This grant is considered as a partial sponsorship, where Milestone 1 and 2 are fully covered by
Developer A,  1 month of work, tot cost $2000
Developer B, 2 months of work, tot cost $4000
Developer C, 2 months of work, tot cost $3999

Everything else needed to complete Milestone 3 will be covered for free by @altimario but hopefully helped by the open-source community.

SKILL REQUIRED

Senior functional developer (of any language but better if Plutus/Haskell),
Deep understanding or experience in RESTful API,
Generic Web stack knowledge,
EdTech background,
Quality Assurance tester. 

KPI

PoLiL (as any other open-source project) has to be judged in the long term, but for the purpose of the funding, these KP are guaranteed for the first 3 months.
Activity: Commits, Pull Requests, Bug tracking (issues) auditable on Github
Size: >=5 contributors
Industry utilisation: At least a partial integration with 1 LMS

In the long term, PoLiL aims to be managed, evolved, maintained by the community and adopted by the industry. 

TEAM

• AltiMario
  https://www.linkedin.com/in/altimario/
  AI-EdTech international company CTO, Functional developer, Plutus Pioneer, Data quality expert and main Open-source contributor of https://github.com/AltiMario/DataCruncher  

• Future open-source community
  (work in progress... https://github.com/AltiMario/PoLiL)

POSSIBLE INTEGRATION WITH Atala PRISM

This proposal can be integrated with Atala PRISM to allow the user to control, share, verify granularly and to any device the learning activities. It is not the scope of this proposal to provide this integration but a new proposal for the next funding round will be done.