A biologist by training, Vincent Widmer holds a master’s degree in Learning in Teaching Technologies as well as a Ph.D. in Educational Sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked and conducted scientific research in collaborative learning. As co-founder of Beekee,Vincent brings his passion for pedagogy and emerging technologies, his problem-solving skills along with his creativity, ability to adapt and to question, and his mastery in web development, graphic design, and hardware integration to all the projects. More than 300 million youth and adults don’t have access to education because of the lack of instructors, infrastructure and tuition costs. Many say that online classes is the solution, but they are often impossible to take due to weak, lacking, or too expensive internet coverage. Moreover, dropout rates are more than twice higher for online degrees. Beekee addresses these problems by not only providing access to preloaded educational resources, but also by supporting interactive learning applications that can be beamed directly onto students’ smartphones, for use in class or later – without the need for the internet. The Beekee Box is a portable device made to enable instructors to offer interactive face-to-face training sessions anywhere without relying on the Internet access. The classroom moves around with the instructor, allowing them to instantly deliver content and use richly-interactive tools. The Beekee Hub is made to support distance and blended learning in low-resource contexts. It allows setting up last-mile digital campuses without worrying about IT or internet costs. It is made to support distance and blended learning with its mobile connectivity. We aim to leverage our technology, know-how and experience to propose blended learning degrees as a high-quality, low-drop-out, and significantly cheaper alternative to in-person academic programs, thus addressing one of the most fundamental divides on the planet: access to quality higher education.

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