Innovation

The main innovation was created by the leadership of Ryon Braga, that was the first professional in Brazil to introduce the Stanford methodology of just-in-time education, abolishing the disciplines for a higher education course and creating a number of projects that the students have to accomplish during the undergraduation course. All students are required to accomplish a pre-defined number of projects required by the market, and, based on the real demands of the market, students create a learning plan, together with the Professors and with the help of an experienced mentor from the market. Based on the specific project, the students are helped to plan what competencies they need to develop to deliver this project, and the necessary scientific knowledge they need to deliver a good quality project to the market.

Inspiration

The main inspiration of Ryon Braga was the passion for innovative education and to create university educational systems that stimulate active methodologies of learning, instead of the classic fragmented teaching curriculum based on disciplines in the classic universities. The idea of helping low income university students that are also employees in the market that comes from social class C and D need help in the learning outcome processes in universities, and the active methodology inspired by Stanford University using just-in-time and other active methodologies, such as project-based learning was the main inspiration for Ryon to develop this project in Brazil. The other passion is to create courses inside the industries, for example a course of food engineering inside a food factory.

Overall impact

These innovations of using the just-in-time learning and active learning methodologies from Stanford University were developed and adapted to the reality of one pilot university in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, in many courses. It was developed since 2012 still today, and they developed project-based curriculum, they abolished the classic disciplines. Students were required to complete on average 32 real life projects from the market, and, based on these projects, they learned a list of competencies and scientific knowledge to deliver these projects to the market. Each student were followed by specific Professors from the university and for each project from a mentor form the market, which was an experienced professional in the project at hand. The impact of this educational innovation was huge: the learning outcomes were fantastic, in terms of academic achievement, learning outcomes and intrinsic motivation.

Business benefit

The private university he bought in Foz do Iguacu was a huge success in terms of academic success, learning outcomes and engagement from the students, as well as students's well-being.

Social and environmental benefit

The benefit for the society, because they managed to increase significantly the quality of teaching and the learning outcomes through this innovative educational system, was very distinctive.

Interview

Ryon Braga, Owner