Virtual Religious School

The Idea

Who we are

gizra // small agency founded in Israel // globally distributed // some fancy clients

Collaboration in Jewish Education

//
JEP Logo

Other Jewish Educational Partners

Considerations

target market // online learning today // business decisions // syncronous and asyncronous

Target Markets

  • Non/Marginally-affiliated families
  • Collaborations with organizations
  • Distinct marketplaces

Target Markets

  • Non/Marginally-affiliated families
  • Collaborations with organizations
  • Distinct marketplaces

Our Competition

is not the market of Jewish experiences - it's the market of experiences.

Online Learning Today

COVID will end.

Online Learning Today

COVID will end.

Remote digital learning is here to stay.
reduced friction // increased adaptation

Business decisions

  • What to buy and what to build
  • Customized approach to learner management
  • Leverage of functionality from Jewish Educator Portal

Syncronous and Asyncronous

The availability of asyncronous learning tools can deepen experiences and expand reach by adopting project-based learning methodogies.

Syncronous and Asyncronous

These tools can be built with existing, not technically complex, web technologies.

The Plan

  • Phase 1: Discovery/Definition
  • Phase 2: Platform/marketplace for targeted audience
  • Phase 3: Community building tools
  • Phase 4: Expand the platform
  • Phase 5: Asynchronous learning tools

The gizra Team

Adam Stewart, Project Lead
15+ years in Jewish and Israel education // developed online learning for Jewish camps and Birthright Israel staff // project lead for Jewish Educator Portal
Amitai Burstein, Technical Lead
industry leader in open source software development // chief architect of Unio online learning
Mor Shahor, Design Lead
trained in industrial and fashion design // children's fashion entrepeneur // classroom art teacher and museum docent

Appendix

gizra's Experience

Unio

Birthright Israel Fellows

OpenScholar

Other projects

Workforce Practices Platform // E-Heza

What we've learned

Prioritize tools to check in on learners

What we've learned

Prioritize tools to check in on learners

What we've learned

Keep it simple

What we've learned

Keep it simple

What we've learned

Also:

  • Favor teaching functionality over learning functionality.
  • Keep the containers separate (video conferencing and teaching tools).
  • Sophisticated UI is more important than complex features.

Technology

Valid architectural questions/statements

  • What are your plans for scaling and sustaining this project?
  • What are the needs for user interaction and the storage of information?
  • For this task, I would use this framework because...

Technology

Non-valid architectural questions/statements

  • You can't do that with Drupal (or insert any framework).
  • Framework X is more expensive.*
  • You don't need a framework, you should code from scratch.

Technology

The "hard" architectural pieces:

  • Security
  • Scalability
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