iloubnan.info: How did you have the idea of Edulab?
Elie Chaaya: when there is a need, creation is a must. Several reasons lead us to develop the project: given the extremely high prices of the requested equipment, many schools don’t have the possibility to equip a lab. Moreover, professors don’t always have the time to conduct all scientific experiments at the school lab, and there aren’t on the market interactive CD ROMs simulating scientific experiments. Edulab is the efficient solution answering the current students’ need. Our motto is clear: take your lab home with you”.
What is the real power of your team?
The Edulab team is young, dynamic and multilingual. We are all specialists in various fields whether engineering or management, and we enjoy at least a 5-year experience in computer development or education.
Do you think your product will be credible for the teaching body?
Of course! Our offer is one of a kind which allowed us to find the necessary financing for its conception. In fact, the Berytech prize allowed us to start our enterprise by benefiting from the technical, financial and commercial support offered by Berytech. We put at the pupils’ disposal a learning tool for scientific courses. This product, available in French and English, is in conformity with the latest version of the Lebanese curriculum and is adapted to various classes. Moreover, the product has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National Center for Research and Development. A strategic 3-year marketing partnership has also been established with “Librairie Antoine”.
What kind of students do you target?
We are rather targeting public and private schools from the 8th grade (3ème) till the senior year (terminale). Three Physics CD ROMs designed for the 8th grade, tenth grade and senior year (brevet, secondes and terminale) have just been released on the market. At the moment, we are developing 4 other chemistry CD ROMs that will be available next year. We also hope to be able to market the product in Arab countries based on our market studies that showed no similar CD ROMs available in the region. Our project comes within the scheme of optimizing young Lebanese’s education by using animation and simulations in order to set up real time experiments that would be available at basically no cost. We seek to reinforce learning means of schools.
What would your success pillars be?
We committed ourselves to being constantly loyal to the country’s educational environment in order to be able to adapt to any potential orientation change regarding official programs of national education. Our expertise relies on the unity and professionalism of our offer that combines technology of information with the Lebanese teaching system.
Can you describe your project with more details?
Our product allows pupils to visualize scientific problems and thus to understand them easily. Each chapter is divided in 4 parts: the course presented in a very clear language is friendly to all students coupled with several diagrams and pictures illustrating the explanations; the lab that comprises one or more simulations allowing the pupil to conduct experiments related to the course; multiple answer questions that can let the pupil permanently test his knowledge, and extras that mix between knowledge and additional information input. We want to stress the fact that this interactive course is not conceived to replace traditional teaching. It rather aims at completing it by introducing new teaching methods and numeric simulations. Simulations will be used like any windows program: the initial values are available and their evolution is controlled by the pupil who will change parameters according to the needs of the simulation. This interactive dialogue allows the participant to pass from the status of a simple spectator to that of a main actor in the teaching process.
What is the aim of the “Extra” part?
In fact, this part is used to rely on the course in order to explain phenomena that every person would like to know. As an example, it is about answering the question “Why is the sky blue?” while taking as a base the data of the chapter in question. It is also to be noted that the CD encloses some additional sections such as the baccalaureate physics (from 2000 to 2006), the calculator function, and a periodic element table with physics constant.
