iCapisce
Where Learning Starts

Australia's international competitiveness is in decline in core science, mathematics, engineering and technology subjects (PISA 2022). That decline has long term economic consequences in biological sciences, medical science, pharmaceuticals, engineering, information technology, robotics, process manufacturing and even defence systems. 

The decline is a function of falling education performance at all levels of the education system.  (See Mark Latham's review of primary, secondary and tertiary education in NSW - CIS Summary).

Successive Federal and State Governments have been spending more on education and getting less in return.  Reduced teaching hours, smaller class numbers, more teacher aids, more lesson planning, larger classroom lounges and revised curriculums have not delivered positive results.  In fact, they ignore the international evidence.  

With increasing teacher shortages, increased bureaucracy and greater curriculum confusion, iCapisce may just be the catalyst for deeper pedagogical change.  While iCapisce compliments every teaching pedagogy it will produce a gradual shift to "flipped learning" - that's offsite knowledge acquisition and onsite discussion, debate and problem solving.  It's foreseeable that iCapisce could reduce school attendance time by 50% and free up school infrastructure for multiple shifts and multiple age groups. 

The ramifications include:

1.  Faster adoption of foundation knowledge 

2.  More effective teaching hours leading to greater job satisfaction.

3.  Less classroom time for students that may free up school infrastructure and personnel.

More importantly, iCapisce democratises education content.  It's a disruptive, micro-textbook platform for topic creation and exchange.  It serves a community of authors, teachers, students, curriculum leads, heads of department, tutors, parents, indigenous change-agents, seniors and even aged-care givers to deliver modern, relevant content in a short, 36 hour publishing cycle.

In the Community Change panel, below, I touch on five very important initiatives that, in themselves are large projects.  Each one delivers significant educational and cultural improvements for each population.  In Community Education I envisage a significant repository of life-skills content for teens, twenties, thirties, singles, couples, divorcees, adult education, addiction programs, pre-prison programs, post-prison programs ... all the important soft stuff that smaller agencies can't afford to compile individually.

iCapisce is a platform for students of ALL ages. It works for every subject, in any language, on any device and it supplements every teaching pedagogy.   It uses 120 years of cognitive science to teach anything, anywhere, anytime on any device as quickly as possible.

iCapisce is a single platform for learning the essential elements of every subject.

iCapisce builds strong storage memory and fast retrieval memory for the elements that make up any subject including terms, phrases, formulas, equations, compounds, shapes, patterns and even short stories and sequences.

iCapisce serves as a pre-reading tool, a class revision tool and a pre-exam revision tool.

iCapisce uses a Learn-Practice-Play-Test pedagogy with schemas, chunking and spacing to dramatically reduce homework load and increase the effectiveness of face-to-face teaching - be it in a classroom or remote learning situations.

iCapisce is also a community collaboration platform and a market place, whereby teachers, authors, curriculum leads, heads of department, tutors, parents and even study-buddies can create and share topics privately or publicly. Public topics pass through an editorial approval process before being made available in the topic exchange.

iCapisce has been proven to work for students aged 5 to 95.

iCapisce has also been proven as a cognitive stimulation therapy to address memory loss in accident victims and early-to-mild onset dementia sufferers.

Three explanatory videos were created for academic review purposes.  

Emeritus Professor John Sweller stated that iCapisce was "one of the best implementations of explicit direct instruction that he'd seen" in his career.  He confirmed that iCapisce would work with every teaching pedagogy and, if used as intended, would significantly address the problem of cognitive load.

The Professor of Education at USQ loved it and wants all teaching graduates of USQ trained in iCapisce before they graduate.

The Professor of Education at Curtin University saw the immediate potential in reducing teaching load in primary and secondary education.

The Professor of Occupational Therapy at Edith Cowan University saw the immediate application to cognitive stimulation therapy in Aged Care.

Other comments included:

"It's the best implementation of Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI)".  

"It's brilliant. I can use it for every subject." 

"It will save hours of face to face teaching." 

"It's clear what students need to know and remember."

None of those opinions can be formally documented without parallel random control trials.

Learning anything is easy when we apply 120 years of cognitive science.

iCapisce incorporates the very best of the Atkinson Shiffrin cognitive architecture model with an extraordinary body of learning research.  Much of that research is counter intuitive to what we once considered best practice.  Benedict Carey, Senior Science Writer for the New York Times, illustrates the point many times over in his 2015 book "How We Learn - The Surprising Truth About When Where and Why it Happens". 

For example, learning the same material in three different noisy environments produces stronger neural pathways (long-term memory) than repeating the same material three times in one quiet environment.  The very best learning usually happens outside the classroom in short 10-15 minute blocks with lots of noise, distractions, physical activity, good food and deep sleep in between.

iCapisce seamlessly incorporates:

1. Short, bite size topics, each of 5-7 key terms or concepts. (George Miller)

2. Multi-modal learning - that's site, sound and touch - that uses more of the brain to develop stronger neural pathways.

3. Visual indexing to make memory recall faster.  Our visual recall rate is 60,000 times faster than our semantic memory.

4. Schemas - or predictable learning frameworks - that help remove uncertainty and increase learning confidence.  (John Sweller)

5. Repetition - iCapisce adopts both maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal to establish reliable long-term memory and then adds extra chunks of meaning to it.  The brain needs solid foundations before it can add additional pieces of understanding. (Ebbinghaus & Bjork)

6. Increasing degrees of difficulty - repeating topics with increasing degrees of problematic difficulty - builds stronger storage memory and faster retrieval  memory. (Bjork & Bjork) 

7. Games add extra elements of fun, competition, time pressure, spatial awareness and reflexes to build fast retrieval memory in an environment that is usually free of peer pressure ... AND that's important for use in class, exams and real world situations. 

8. Repetitive testing - adds a little stress to the equation and subconsciously tells the brain that this information is worth remembering.

9. Pre-testing - helps prepare the mind to accept new information.

10. Spacing - studying the same material every second day - gives the brain time to build stronger neural pathways during REM sleep.

11. Interleaving - studying similar material from different subject areas helps build connections to the real world.

12. Chunking - or adding additional bite-size bits - significantly enhances long term memory ONCE the basics are already established.

13. Changing study locations and "soundtracks" -  is much more effective than studying in a quiet bedroom.  Students learn more, retain more and get better quality sleep.
    
    

Automating all of the above will enhance knowledge "retention" by 8-10 times in any topic.  

Repeating topics periodically can keep information in long term memory for decades.

If iCapisce is used as a pre-reading tool, a class revision tool and/or a pre-exam revision tool - effectively replacing the need for personal study notes which often prove to be wrong - then students can participate in higher order learning activities with much greater confidence and build solid foundations for future learning and participation in the economy.

N.B.  Contrary to the original intention, classroom testing highlighted the adoption of iCapisce as a classroom learning tool.  Some teachers used it to replace face-to-face teaching time.  Absent teachers relied on iCapisce to ensure temp-teachers had productive lessons in their absence.  Given that 27-28% of teachers are absent on anyone school day, then that's valuable quality control.

1.  Learning efficiency

1. iCapisce significantly enhances the formation of strong storage memory and fast retrieval memory in every age-group.

2. iCapisce deploys the most advanced cognitive science in a fun, fast and engaging multi-modal platform to deliver bite-size chunks of information before, during and after class.

3. iCapisce shifts the memorisation of content out of the classroom and into personal learning time where stronger neural pathways are built because of environmental noise, chunking, spacing and interleaving.  

2.  Teaching efficiency

1. iCapisce frees up classroom time for discussion, debate and problem solving - the stuff that teachers love doing and the best use of their skills.

2. iCapisce works with every teaching pedagogy and can be used for pre-reading, class-room activity, revision and pre-exam testing.

3. On any day 27-28% of teachers are absent AND many more are not engaged due to systemic overheads and behaviour management issues.  Teaching and learning can continue at the highest possible standard in their absence.

3.  Community change

1. iCapisce invites the creation of high quality topic content from education influencers, subject matter experts, teachers and hands-on parents.  It democratises content and drives higher quality.

2. iCapisce will dramatically change our national education performance and set us up for greater international competitiveness.

3. iCapisce is geared to subject matter communities, cultural communities and raising the bar for disadvantaged and isolated students.  It's perfect for delivering high quality content in loosely supervised learning environments.

iCapisce establishes a solid baseline of knowledge in every subject for for every age.

iCapisce was designed specifically to address cognitive load.  Each topic introduces bite- sized snippets of information into working memory using a range of engaging modules that interact to build reliable long term memory.

It is the unique combination of:

1.   a content creation platform,

2.   a content sharing marketplace - freely or commercially,

3.   content cartridges (topic types) available for every subject and every data type,

4.   the best cognitive science available,

5.   pedagogical integration

6.   designed for short concentration spans - anywhere, anytime on any device,

7.   detailed content aggregated from around the internet into a single learning aid,

8.   it respects and manages copyright,

9.   it follows students from childhood to old age.
   
   

iCapisce democratises education content and enhances every teaching pedagogy.

Plus ...  

• iCapisce specifically targets levels 1 & 2 of Bloom's Taxonomy.  It is a foundational knowledge and comprehension platform that supplements every teaching pedagogy.

• iCapisce develops semantic, episodic and procedural memory for students of all ages.

• iCapisce uses visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities simultaneously to engage more of the brain in the learning process and encode more referential links.

• content cartridges are available for almost all data types - text, image, sound, maths, equations, carbon chemistry, languages, phonics, stories, music, etc.  (It currently does not support spatial data.)

• it employs schemas to build compound knowledge rapidly … eg. phonics, words, phrases and stories.

• maintenance rehearsal (repetition and reuse) strengthens neural pathways.

• elaborative rehearsal introduces additional attributes to expand understanding at the teacher's or student's discretion.

• modules become increasingly difficult as each topic progresses to build faster retrieval memory.

• games introduce time pressure, multiple variables and reflexive decision making.

• testing and pre-testing help prepare the brain to focus on important content.

The go-to-market strategy focuses on high-volume, low-hanging fruit in Catholic and Independent Schools to generate early cash flow.  Breaking into public schools may require RCTs or lots of positive chatter from the private schools sector.  The platform infrastructure would need to be very scalable to go after all three school systems simultaneously.

 
Commercial markets

Primary education - Catholic, Government and Independent Schools

Secondary education  - Catholic, Government and Independent Schools

Tertiary education - Universities, TAFE Colleges, Trades and Apprenticeships

Adult education (RTOs)

Public sector staff training and change management

Private sector staff training and change management 

Smart Aging

Special Needs

Important marginal market segments

South Pacific Education Hub

Community Education Initiatives 

Important non-profitable market segments

Indigenous Culture Preservation and Education

Revenue  =

 Monthly membership  x  every student, teacher, tutor, active parent and even grandparent.
  +   $2/month/full-use membership
  +   25% margin on topics sold
  +   sub-domain sponsorship in tertiary institutions
  +   SEO (CPM, CPE, CPA) advertising revenue for Avid Learners
  +   implementation and integration consulting
  +   custom reports
  +   training

Revenue models (Page 5) assume a high-volume, low-value market play. 

• Freemium pricing.

• Avid Learners free with limited functionality and PPE/PPC revenue.

• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Students, Teachers, Tutors, Parents etc.

• First countries = Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, USA

Additional market segments

• Special Needs - 18% of education market

• Indigenous language groups

• Adult (RTO) education

• Smart Agers (55-95)

• Corporate 

• Government  eg. Skippers Tickets etc

12% market penetration yields Au$1b in membership revenue on a 30% cost base. 

 +   if 12% of members bought 10 topics, then revenue would exceed Au$3bn. 

Market penetration in every market segment can be modeled with price and topic sales assumptions.

The Directors and advisors to iCapisce are all evangelical Christians.   We take the word of God seriously.

Most are 'continuists', some are cerebral theologians, some work tirelessly on indigenous missions.  All of us have gifts of the Spirit and use them for God's glory.

Doug Robertson and Harvey Rough have served on the staff and board of Wesley Mission and several NFPs for decades.

Church Elders have directed us to keep iCapisce for The Kingdom .  It is our belief that Craig Winkler may be the enabler for commercialisation.

Doug Robertson

Doug, aged 73, was the initial catalyst for the "Term-Image-Definition" model that stemmed from Bill Mangini's main-frame patent in the late 1960s. Doug and Bill were community change agents through the work of Wesley Mission in Perth.  Bill's patent expired in the late 70s leaving the concept open to a modern cloud-based make-over.

Doug is passionate about Indigenous education and Indigenous culture preservation.

Harvey Rough

Harvey, aged 62, has forty-one years of experience in large-scale information systems projects. Projects have included large scale eCommerce, ERP/EAM implementations, plant and process systems implementations, business process change and two successful start-ups. 

Harvey's earlier career included lead roles in audit/compliance, management accounting, merchant banking, sales and marketing.  He is a multi-disciplined individual with core competencies in business analytics, project management, change management, governance and team leadership. He is driven by doing things smarter and more efficiently.

A more detailed curriculum vitae can be found at:

www.HarveyRough.com