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Booming Aussie start-up Mathspace takes its maths e-learning solution to millions of college students across the USA

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Mathspace, one of the world’s fastest growing e-learning businesses, has launched an exclusive partnership with the world’s leading global publisher, Pearson. The exclusive deal will see the award winning Mathspace program introduced to millions of students across mainland USA.

Mathspace is a web-based maths learning software developed in Australia. It is being rolled out for use across thousands of colleges in the United States as part of an integration with MyMathLab, Pearson’s leading online homework, tutorial and assessment product. Over the next five years, it will be used to help an estimated 9 million students by providing step by step feedback and support on teacher assigned maths problems.

“This partnership with Pearson solidifies our footprint into the United States and introduces our product to millions of new users. Our US team has more than tripled in the last few months to support the user growth,” said Mathspace CEO and co-founder, Mohamad Jebara.

Mr Jebara said the addressable market for Mathspace was enormous, particularly in the USA. “In the USA alone, there are more than 50 million students studying maths across primary and secondary schools. To put things in perspective, our partnership with Pearson will see more students using Mathspace per year in the US than the total number of students in Australia,” he said.

What else have they been up to?

Mathspace also continues to make significant in-roads in the Australian market, where there are more than 100,000 students using the software package in over 200 schools – including Scots College (NSW), St Ignatius College (NSW), Caulfield Grammar School (VIC) and Merrimac State High School (QLD).

“While there are many providers who base their teaching techniques on games and multiple choice, we are not competing with those products. Any Mathematics teacher will tell you that they’re more interested in the ‘working out’ than the final answer. No other technology has ever been able to capture the working out until Mathspace. This will take edtech to a new level,” said Mr Jebara.

Initially a tool for maths students in year 7-10, the demand for senior exam practice saw Mathspace expand to cover Grades 11 and 12 this year. And for the first time, it is being launched in primary schools across Australia – where it is replacing incumbent providers.

“Many students were entering high school with significant gaps in their understanding of primary school Mathematics. Mathspace automatically identifies those gaps with its adaptive learning engine, so it was a natural next step for us to fill in those gaps for students,” said Mr Jebara.

Welcome Screen - MathspaceWhat is the story behind Mathspace?

Co-founded in 2010 by Mohamad Jebara, Chris Velis and Alvin Savoy, the Mathspace platform is a digital maths tutor. The program coaches students through individual lines of working, and can identify when a student hasn’t mastered specific maths concepts and topics.

“Research has shown that 1:1 teaching and feedback is the most effective way for a student to learn, and our step by step adaptive learning technology replicates this experience more closely than any other software on the market,” he said.

The start-up was initially self-funded by the founders during the R&D phase. “We’ve since raised capital from private investors to accelerate product development and launch in the USA,” Mr Jebara told Anthill.

Mathspace works across all platforms, namely Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. It has more than 30,000 questions covering years 3-12 in Australia, the USA, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and International Baccalaureate. There are also more than 7,000 lessons, step-by-step hints for every line of working, and hundreds of interactive applets. All content on Mathspace has been developed by its in-house team of teachers and mathematicians.

What makes Mathspace unique is that it can tailor maths programs in real-time based on a student’s strengths and weaknesses. It is the only maths platform using step-by-step adaptive learning technology.