Social Impact Award's Finalist 'Nebula' Bringing Knowledge to Everyone's Screens
"A nebula is a cosmic cloud in which a star is born. This is, on the one hand, a scientific fact and, on the other hand, an expression of our philosophy that every human being has stellar potential that needs the right space to manifest. That's the kind of place Nebula is—a technological social enterprise that spreads knowledge," Giorgi Chilaia, co-founder of Nebula, tells Entrepreneur.
Nebula's mission is to make western quality knowledge available to Georgian youth. For this, they are developing a platform where online lessons, exercises, chatbots and other educational technology tools converge. Nebula is now a Social Impact Award finalist and is fighting to win the project.
Nebula aims to strengthen the field of education, a field in which there are many problems and this is proven by many studies, including the international PISA ranking, where Georgia has been in last place for years. That is why the founders of Nebula want to spread high-quality education in the country.
"We are trying to create a general educational guide and bring knowledge to any person's screen," says the team.
Giorgi Chanturia, the co-founder of Nebula, notes that the social enterprise has previously combined several online courses. The courses included video lessons and exercises, and the target audience was students. However, now Nebula's plans are bigger.
"We want our customer to be not only a student but also a teacher and everyone who wants to gain knowledge."
Nebula will soon update the courses and allow students to receive and verify their knowledge, and teachers - to conduct lessons more effectively.
"Our main product is online lessons, which are distributed in video format; the second product, which is the best way to strengthen knowledge - exercises; and the third is a diagnostic algorithm of knowledge, which examines the weak and strong points of the student, discovers the key issues that the student has difficulty with and helps to strengthen it,'' says Giorgi Chilaia and notes that the team plans to create an online course of ten subjects in one year.
It should be noted that Nebula's goal is, on the one hand, the development of massive open online courses (MOOC), and on the other hand, the improvement of digital technologies. Thus, the team member, Giorgi Chanturia, who is a doctoral student in physics, is working on digitizing the physics textbook and creating an online problem generator, while Lasha Chantladze, a history specialist, is creating a program that explains past events with the help of interactive maps and visual materials. All this, as they say in Nebula, is just the beginning.
Nebula's business plan is also interesting — they are working on several monetization methods, including considering a course subscription model (B2C) and cooperation with universities (B2B). The latter will also cover the direction of professional orientation. "Many new specialties are emerging today that fit modern challenges, although they are coming to us late, so we want young people to learn about these professions from us, as well as prepare them for local or international exams, and at the same time cooperate with universities where these young people will study in the future," he notes.