A team at Scriyb work on a live-streaming platform. (Image from the Scriyb website.)Submitted by the Prince William County Department of Economic Development
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors announced Tuesday it has authorized a $100,000 performance agreement with Virginia Serious Game Institute-based, Scriyb, LLC, a technology start-up company, to pioneer a new cloud-based, live-streaming teaching platform that will revolutionize online education.
This agreement allows Scriyb, located in Manassas, Prince William County, to scale-up and deliver on its mission of enticing a future generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) trained workforce to address the high-skill shortage needs regionally and nationally.
“By reshaping access to education we are unlocking the potential to continue to deliver a highly-skilled workforce and fundamentally shift the new economic paradigm,” said Corey A. Stewart, Chairman, Prince William Board of County Supervisors. “We hope this marks just the beginning of the potential for Scriyb and the advancement in STEM training.”
“We’re thrilled to be able to deliver Scriyb, a truly important game-changing concept in online learning, to revolutionize learning and expand the horizon of new educational opportunities,” said Christopher Etesse, President & CEO, Scriyb. “It is my passion to transform Scriyb into the foremost leading enterprise in online learning, having been a ‘serial entrepreneur’ in technology for most of my career.”
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors authorized an agreement between Scriyb and the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Prince William County and assigned a $100,000 grant from the Prince William County Economic Development Opportunity Fund (EDOF). The conditions of the grant require Scriyb to receive matching funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology GAP Funds, maintain 5 full-time staff positions, and relocate to commercial space in the County along with 13 full-time hires and $25,000 in equipment by the end of December 2017.
According to Scriyb, its cloud-based online education platform bridges the gap for increased demand for specialized STEM instruction of K-12 students, allowing a single teacher to effectively instruct thousands of students in real-time, via a live streaming tool, without sacrificing quality of instruction. Scriyb’s patent-pending algorithms segments an instruction course’s body of students into smaller groups, creating ideal peer-to-peer learning and teacher-student matching, while virtually tracking, measuring, analyzing and correctly balancing the social learning environment.
“Scriyb has already been successfully used to teach cutting edge STEM courses to several thousand students,” added Etesse. “Jurisdictions across the nation could save millions in transportation costs alone, via true online learning. Similar to Uber, but for teachers and schools to scale computer gaming, cybersecurity, programming, entrepreneurship, to meet the open employment needs now.”
Transforming education by maintaining the ideal classroom ratio is just one of the benefits of Scriyb. Its unique offering has already earned the tech startup an Innovation Award by the Washington Business Journal.
Most recently, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), the largest institution of higher education in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with two campuses located in Prince William County, received a $100,000 grant from the Capital One Foundation. This grant will launch a Cybersecurity Career Pathways Project that will inform and support middle and high school students in Northern Virginia who wish to explore and hopefully pursue a career in cybersecurity.
Scriyb’s online platform will be used to deliver the project lessons to the students of two participating Prince William County public high schools - Forest Park and Potomac. The dual enrollment program will begin in Spring 2017 and benefit 200 students.
Scriyb is a revolutionary web-based, social engagement learning environment, aimed at solving the teacher and expert shortage, built by educators for educators. Scriyb provides a platform for high-quality education that augments a traditional, real-time lecture classroom with online peer-to-peer collaborative interaction, set to specific algorithms that aids in higher student achievements. The Live Classroom Experience, Anywhere, Anytime. To learn more visit: www.scriyb.com or view a demo or dial: (703) 993-7252.
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