Australian startup Cogniss is rolling out a unique app-building platform set to transform the learning and behaviour change space. Applying insights from neurospsychology and education design, Cogniss enables businesses, educators, non-profits and experts with minimal tech know-how to create highly effective learning and behaviour change games and apps faster, easier and at lower cost.
Most app-based solutions are excessively complex and costly to build, explains Leon Young, Founder and CEO of Cogniss. “Having a development team painstakingly prototype game mechanics and architect rules for rewards-based recognition, learning algorithms or social functionality from scratch is expensive,” says Young.
“Cogniss saves clients both time and money – without compromising on app quality – by building these essential learning features directly into the platform’s core. It removes the technical hassle of developing learning or behaviour change apps, freeing clients to focus on creating great content.”
What is the story behind Cogniss?
Cogniss is a creation of 2and2, an internationally acclaimed educational games company. It is the distillation of over a decade of experience developing award-winning digital solutions, as well as a rigorous three-year research and development process.
The idea for the platform solidified in 2014, when 2and2 collaborated with academics from Shanghai’s Tongji University to create a proof of concept for learning memory-based content. The resulting social game-based platform, Koala Academy, was tested in schools throughout China, where immense pressure on students to excel in exams exists alongside a desire for more creative approaches to education. Enthusiastic reception to the platform confirmed its potential to address the untapped demands of a much broader range of audiences.
Flexible enough to address virtually any learning or behavioural challenge, Cogniss is designed around neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change in response to new experiences. The platform’s core innovative feature is the Cognission Engine, a machine learning algorithm that dynamically monitors user behaviour and perfectly levels the delivery of new information. This helps induce a state of flow and maximises long-term memory retention.
Other features include configurable rewards systems and in-game economies that help drive positive behaviours; an opt-in cross-sell network that promotes relevant apps to the right users and expands the potential audience for any single app; Cogniss Insights, the live capture of data that consumers, app owners and researchers alike can use to track educational outcomes or behaviours; and a single-identity social network where a user’s profile, avatars, badges, achievements, friends and teams follow them across all Cogniss products.
Built using the Unity game engine, Cogniss apps can be published to a range of platforms, including iOS, Android, Apple TV, PC, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox. It also offers full support for 2D, 3D, virtual reality and augmented reality games.
The future for Cogniss
Two apps have already been released on the Cogniss platform. The first was STEM Explorer, an app that minimises holiday learning loss for primary school kids and developed in partnership with fellow Australian startup apptEDUde. The second, Cogniss Brain Age, was developed in partnership with Soho Flordis International, a global premium healthcare company involved in researching and improving the efficacy of brain ageing interventions.
Cogniss Brain Age will be marketed on its own as well as for use in conjunction with a supplement, and will be used to power the largest research study ever performed on the effectiveness of a natural health supplement. Future projects in the product pipeline span subject matters as diverse as water safety, corporate sustainability, sports mentorship and more. Cogniss is supported by a growing international network of third-party developers, subject matter experts and academic consultants.
Even as Cogniss continues to evolve, the vision behind the learning platform remains the same: “Anyone who wants to build effective, life-changing learning or behaviour change solutions should be able to do so without breaking the bank,” says Young.
