Generative AI has made a strong entrance into the field of education. While it has been demonized in some cases due to students relying "too much" on it for their assignments and projects, the truth is that when properly utilized, it can be a very useful tool in the educational field.
Megaprofe is a project that aims to bring all these benefits of AI to teachers and schools, as well as to private tutors and small academies. It includes educational tools that give these educators "superpowers" for a more efficient and educational teaching experience.
The co-founder and CEO of the company, Vicenc Yll Escot, shares with Neosmart how the initiative was born and what it allows users to do.
How did Megaprofe come about?
Megaprofe emerged during Easter 2023, a few months after OpenAI launched its GPT model for free to the world. I had started exploring the tool and sharing updates on LinkedIn. There, a former colleague, José Antonio Tamayo, contacted me saying he was also very interested and saw a future in it. In five weeks, we had our first SaaS set up with some functionalities for teachers. The name? Megaprofe.
What exactly are the "megaprofes"? What possibilities do they offer to teachers and schools?
Megaprofe is a suite with many functionalities, but specifically, the megaprofes are chatbots that have been parameterized and trained to function as assistant teachers for different subjects. Teachers use them to delve into a topic, seek activity suggestions, understand a process more deeply, and generally as support for preparing their lessons.
How did you develop HistoriChat? What historical figures does it include? Will you add more?
HistoriChat are also chatbots, but this time they are configured as historical figures who transport you to their time through their conversations. Through them, you can discover the historical events they experienced, their main achievements, and how they were influenced by their era.
They can be used in classes to conduct interviews, hold conversations, and uncover anecdotes they were involved in. We can find a diversity of figures such as Stephen Hawking and Lola Flores, Hypatia of Alexandria and Federico García Lorca, Queen Elizabeth II, and Nelson Mandela. Currently, there are 30 characters, with more to be added in the future.
What is the AI-powered learning situation generator? How does it work?
Currently, all teachers in preschool, primary, and secondary education must prepare Learning Situations. This is a type of didactic programming that describes, based on a challenge, a series of activities to work on a set of competencies with students over one or more sessions.
It's a complex document that can take several hours for a teacher to develop, but thanks to our generator, it can be turned into a task that takes just a few minutes. Our users simply complete a step-by-step form to obtain their personalized Learning Situation generated with the help of our AI.
What are dynamic dictations? How do they benefit teachers?
Dynamic dictations are a functionality where you can create personalized dictations with just a few clicks. You can choose dictations on any topic you or your students select, keeping students more motivated and attentive. By including specific words in the dictations, students can learn and practice new vocabulary in context, facilitating memorization and reading comprehension while also practicing spelling and grammar.
Is there something Megaprofe can do that ChatGPT cannot?
ChatGPT functions as a conversational chatbot that generates content based on prompts (instructions) given by the user. If the user is not precise and clear in the request and doesn't know how to generate a prompt properly, the result may not be of good quality.
However, with Megaprofe, our users don't need to create or design prompts. They just fill out brief guided forms in which we have worked on the prompt invisibly, aiming to obtain quality results on the first try.
How have you trained your platform?
Our team is composed of programmers as well as pedagogues. We have relied heavily on these latter profiles to give each functionality inherent value for users. We know that a well-designed service will help teachers save time (a scarce resource) and focus on higher-value tasks.
How many users does Megaprofe currently have?
Currently, Megaprofe has a community of several tens of thousands of users. We haven't reached six figures yet, but we're on our way.
How do you ensure the privacy of teachers and schools?
We host our services on secure servers and use secured instances for utilizing generative AI. Services like Microsoft Azure or AWS servers are some of the technologies we use.
How are megacoins spent?
The megacoin is equivalent to a ChatGPT token. We decided to create our "Megaprofe currency" to explain to users of limited services how their resources would be consumed. Currently, each functionality has an average megacoin cost that the user knows before incurring its use.
What dangers do you see in the use of generative AI by students and teachers? What recommendations would you make to schools considering limiting its use?
As Spider-Man's uncle said, "With great power comes great responsibility." A technology like generative AI has enormous power, and it’s important for both teachers and students to know this. Therefore, we recommend acquiring digital competence in the informed, ethical, responsible, and transparent use of generative AI.
What can we expect from Megaprofe in the medium term? What new features do you plan to include?
Currently, our "engine room" is in full production. The 24/25 school year will be very interesting, where we will be a key player in the educational landscape. We are refining our value proposition to become the reference in the national market and to expand into the Latin American market, where we already have a base of several thousand users providing very positive feedback.
As a startup dedicated to education and AI, how do you expect GenAI to change the sector in a 3-year period?
Three years seems like a long time. Generative AI is going to change the landscape next school year. We dare to say that a significant percentage of Learning Situations will already be generated with the help of AI, meaning the day-to-day of students will be based on proposals in which AI participated in the design.
We will see initiatives such as improved feedback for students, greater personalization in learning, a wider variety of activities aimed at meaningful and experiential learning, and the development of soft skills like critical thinking and creativity. These are exciting times if you are passionate about education and innovation. From Megaprofe, we invite you to join us on this journey.
