The Maphi LMS Plugin

See here for the full pitch deck.

Problem

Motivation

The current crisis forced many students to learn from home and put the education system into an unprecedented challenge. Many schools and universities have set up learning management systems (LMS) to help students and teachers organise the lectures, exams and homework.

Of all subjects, mathematics presents a unique challenge as it is not only regarded the most difficult of all school subjects, but existing LMS methods, such as multiple-choice tests or text-based input, fail to accurately capture the essence and dynamic nature of mathematics. They are usually also very limited in their input and verification methods. Because of this, many teachers fail to properly engage their students and students become even more frustrated with mathematics as they now struggle with the content and the platform.

Solution

maphi usage gif

With Maphi we have already created a solution that turns mathematics into a fun and interactive digital solution that is already used by thousands of school children and university students to learn math. The technology behind Maphi (the Maphi Algebra System) however has many more capabilities, such as parsing user input or generating advanced step-by-step solutions for math problems. Building on this we plan to write the Maphi LMS Plugin: an easy-to-integrate plugin for existing LMS platforms, that will give the LMS an easy interface for the typesetting of mathematics and the capability of interpreting formulas and equations.

Thanks to the visual interface and its customized math keyboard, students and teachers can easily write complex formulas without any coding skill. Teachers can automatically generate tests according to their specifications, without the need to manually check every solution. Once the students have turned in their answers, the Maphi mathematical engine detects incomplete answers. A built-in feedback system then provides personalized guidance to the students, helping them to obtain a complete solution. The same feedback system can be used to create detailed reports on the overall students’ performance.

Feasibility

The Maphi Algebra Engine is already available in a first version and can be seen in a live product in the math app Maphi. Building an API and web interface is an easy task in comparison and we plan to finish the first version in a few weeks.

For making this work we need to support 1-2 developers working full-time on the project as well as time to build connections to stakeholders in the industry.

stonks

We plan to offer the plugin for free to open-source LMS systems, such as Moodle, as this can help a lot of students worldwide get a better mathematical education. Commercial LMS platforms will pay a small subscription fee per user per month. On average, these charge users around 20 Euros per month and mathematics is a major part of the available curriculum. As the Maphi LMS Plugin would greatly enhance the user experience, we believe it is fair to charge up to 10 cents per user per month. Such platforms can have more than 500.000 users, which would result in 50.000 Eur monthly average revenue per platform.

How we built it

The main math engine is written in C++ with a custom yaml parser for the math logic. Rendering for the App was done in React Native and OpenGL. The Maphi LMS Plugin will be written in TypeScript / JavaScript and run either completely on client side or with a nodejs backend.

During the Hackaton we focused on hands-on testing of the math capabilities of existing LMS systems in order to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Currently, in the Learning Management Systems derived from the market’s leading platform, there is no easy way to write formulas and equations. For the students, this means a reduced ability to ask for clarifications, while for teachers this makes it difficult to create flexible tests with an automated grading system, let alone provide adaptive feedback on the answer.

We also analyzed some potential competitors that offer solutions for the remote learning of mathematics.

See here for the full pitch deck.