Business and product overview

Prox Studios is a South African technology company developing MyPapers, a mobile-first, AI enabled adaptive learning platform for South African high school learners.

MyPapers is currently focused on Grade 10 to 12 CAPS Mathematics. The platform helps learners practise examination style questions, identify gaps in their knowledge, receive immediate feedback and follow a personalised learning pathway. It is available through a dedicated mobile application and web platform, allowing learners to practise across devices while supporting daily recommendations, revision reminders and learning streaks.

Our main long term objective is to develop MyPapers into a complete adaptive learning platform for South African learners, teachers, parents and schools.

Problem being addressed

Mathematics is a cumulative subject, it requires and needs learners to master foundational skills before they can understand more advanced topics. A learner struggling with a Grade 12 topic may have an unresolved knowledge gap from Grade 7, 8 or 9. In a conventional classroom setting or static study application, these foundational gaps can be difficult to identify.

Learners are also expected to manage a complicated study process independently. They must:

• Determine which topics they understand and which require attention.
• Select appropriate questions from textbooks and past papers.
• Keep track of completed papers, questions and memoranda.
• Mark their answers and investigate their mistakes.
• Decide which questions to practise before a test or examination.
• Remember when previously learned topics should be revised.
• Seek assistance from a teacher or tutor when they cannot understand a solution.

Existing digital resources often provide static textbooks, PDF past papers, question banks or general-purpose AI chat functionality. Although these resources may be useful, they do not necessarily maintain a detailed and continuously updated understanding of each learner’s abilities. These are critical skills that we will help learners with and they will be able to learn and use later in their studies.

Two learners with different strengths and knowledge gaps may therefore receive the same questions and explanations. The learner remains responsible for deciding what to study, when to revise and whether the AI response is appropriate for their grade and curriculum.

Learners also frequently revise by rereading notes instead of actively answering questions. Topics may be studied once and only revisited shortly before an examination, when much of the knowledge has already been forgotten.

The MyPapers solution

MyPapers transforms this fragmented process into a guided, adaptive learning journey.

MyPapers first builds a learner profile from their grade, goals, learning preferences, subject, confidence across Mathematics topic areas and more. It then guides the learner through two short baseline quizzes, prioritising areas where they may need the most support. Each answer receives immediate feedback, and each completed session updates the learner’s estimated skill mastery. These results drive personalised practice in For You, while completed skills return later as spaced-repetition reviews in Homework.

MyPapers uses an advanced algorithm rating system to estimate the learner’s changing ability at topic and subtopic level. The system considers the learner’s previous performance and the difficulty of the questions attempted. This helps the platform determine whether the learner is ready for more challenging work, requires further practice at the current level or may be missing a prerequisite skill.

The platform maps CAPS skills across Grades 7 to 12. When a learner repeatedly struggles with a higher-level topic, MyPapers can trace the topic back to its underlying skills. It can then recommend targeted questions to strengthen the missing foundation before returning the learner to the more advanced concept.

MyPapers also applies active recall and spaced-repetition principles. Skills are recommended for revision at changing intervals based on the learner’s performance:

• A skill answered correctly and consistently is recommended less frequently and at increasing difficulty.
• A skill the learner is struggling with is recommended more frequently.
• Repeated difficulty can trigger practice of a prerequisite skill.
• Recently learned skills remain part of the learner’s revision schedule instead of being abandoned after the chapter is completed.

Through its mobile application, MyPapers can provide daily question recommendations, personalised revision reminders and streaks that encourage consistent practice. These are not only generic notifications; they are connected to the learner’s mastery profile and spaced-repetition schedule.

Innovation and differentiated use of AI

MyPapers is a product and educational-process innovation, more specifically an adaptive EdTech system designed for the South African CAPS market.

The individual technologies used by the platform including artificial intelligence, spaced repetition, active recall and skill ratings already exist. The innovation lies in integrating them into a closed-loop learning system that continuously develops alongside the learner.

The process works as follows:

1. The learner answers a CAPS-aligned question.
2. MyPapers evaluates the response and provides immediate feedback.
3. The learner’s topic-level mastery estimate is updated.
4. The system identifies the next appropriate skill and questions difficulty.
5. Spaced repetition determines when the skill should be reviewed again.
6. If the learner is struggling, the system investigates related prerequisite skills.
7. myTutor receives the relevant learning context and provides personalised assistance.
8. The learner’s subsequent performance is used to update the learning pathway again.

This differs from a static past-paper application because the questions and recommendations change as the learner develops. It also differs from a general-purpose chatbot because the AI tutor is integrated into the learner’s structured curriculum journey.

myTutor and the custom AI system

myTutor is the AI tutoring component of MyPapers. It does not operate as an isolated chatbot that gives the same general response to every learner.

When assistance is requested, the platform can provide myTutor with structured context, including:

• The learner’s grade.
• The current CAPS topic and skill.
• The question being attempted.
• The learner’s submitted answer.
• The expected solution.
• Recent performance and estimated mastery.
• Identified prerequisite gaps.
• The level of explanation appropriate for the learner.

The custom AI system refers to the learner-modelling, curriculum-grounding, content-retrieval, prompting, validation and safety layers surrounding the underlying AI model. Learners are therefore not expected to learn prompt engineering, repeatedly explain their learning history or independently keep the AI focused on CAPS requirements.

The system is designed to ground responses in CAPS-aligned objectives and verified MyPapers content. This reduces the likelihood of generic or curriculum-inappropriate explanations and allows the tutor to respond according to the learner’s current ability.

MyPapers also supports structured mathematical content using LaTeX rendering, tables and SVG diagrams. This enables clearer, higher-quality questions than conventional plain-text AI responses and creates a foundation for future dynamic question and diagram generation.

Target users and market

The current primary users are South African Grade 10–12 learners studying CAPS Mathematics.

The principal user and customer groups are:

• Learners: Use the platform for targeted practice, revision, immediate feedback and personalised AI tutoring.
• Parents and guardians: May pay for subscriptions and use progress information to understand where the learner requires support.
• Teachers: Will be able to assign activities, monitor mastery and identify individual or class-wide knowledge gaps through planned educator tools.
• Schools: Represent a future institutional market for learner support, assessment practice, academic intervention and performance monitoring.

The initial commercial model is planned as an affordable learner subscription, with parents expected to be an important paying customer group. School licensing and teacher-focused services will be explored and validated through future pilot programmes.

Current stage and validation

MyPapers is currently in live beta(closed selected testing for mobile application). This means that a selected group of learners has access to a functioning version of the application before the official public launch.

The project has completed several early validation activities:

• An initial working demo was developed to demonstrate the core learning experience and establish technical feasibility.
• An early social media interest campaign invited learners to register for launch notifications.
• More than 20 learners registered from a single post.
• Mathematics and Physical Sciences were the most frequently selected subjects.
• Early product development and feedback have involved learners, teachers and parents.
• A selected group of learners is currently using the live beta application.
• Initial qualitative feedback about the application and its AI integration has been positive.
• Beta feedback is being used to correct defects, improve usability, strengthen AI accuracy and prepare the system for increased demand.

The early interest campaign and onboarding selections influenced the product roadmap. Mathematics was confirmed as the first subject, while repeated interest in Physical Sciences identified it as the priority for the next expansion phase.

The current validation is preliminary and is not yet presented as proof of improved examination results. The next stage will measure learner retention, questions completed, revision frequency, topic-level mastery changes, AI-response usefulness and improvement between initial and follow-up assessments.

Growth and expansion

The first expansion priority is Physical Sciences because it is one of the subjects most frequently selected by interested learners and because it depends heavily on mathematical foundations.

The platform will subsequently expand into Life Sciences, Accounting and additional CAPS subjects. Support will also expand into lower grades so that MyPapers can identify and address foundational gaps earlier in the learner’s academic journey.

The Grades 7–12 skill map provides the foundation for this expansion by connecting senior-grade topics to skills introduced in earlier grades. The longer-term vision is to extend appropriate learning support across the complete school journey.

Prox Studios also plans to develop a dynamic diagram engine for Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Life Sciences. Diagram-based questions are currently time-consuming to produce because many graphs, geometric constructions and scientific illustrations must be created manually.

The proposed engine will generate accurate, responsive diagrams and question variations at different difficulty and cognitive levels. It will support dynamic graphs, geometry, scientific illustrations and other visual content rendered directly in the mobile and web applications.

Planned teacher and school tools will allow educators to view learner progress, identify common knowledge gaps, assign practice and monitor topic-level mastery. School pilots will be used to validate these tools and measure their effect on learner participation, practice consistency and assessment performance.

The platform is being developed for Android, including compatibility testing on Huawei devices, as well as iOS and web browsers. Its cloud-based architecture is intended to support expansion across subjects, grades, schools and geographic areas.

Expansion will take place in phases:

• Grades 10–12: Complete and validate Mathematics before expanding into Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Accounting and additional subjects.
• Grades 7–9: Extend the mastery system into the Senior Phase to identify and address foundational gaps before learners enter the Further Education and Training Phase.
• Grades 4–6: Introduce age-appropriate practice covering core numeracy, language and problem-solving skills.
• Grades R–3: Provide interactive, visual and developmentally appropriate learning activities that help learners establish strong foundational skills from the beginning of their education.

The experience will be adapted for each age group. Younger learners will not receive the same examination-focused interface used by high school learners. Their activities will use simpler language, visual questions, guided interaction, shorter practice sessions and age-appropriate rewards.

The planned dynamic diagram engine will be particularly important for younger grades because early learning relies heavily on visual representations, shapes, number relationships, patterns and interactive illustrations.

By connecting skills across Grade R–12, MyPapers aims to create a continuous learner-development pathway. As the platform expands, it will be able to identify where a knowledge gap originated and recommend the appropriate foundational activity, even when that skill was introduced several grades earlier.

Funding requirements

Prox Studios is seeking government funding, grants and seed funding to move MyPapers from live beta to a reliable, scalable public product.

Funding will be used for:

Product development and equipment

Development hardware and physical testing devices are required to build and test the application across Android, Huawei, iOS and web environments, different screen sizes and lower-performance devices.

AI and cloud infrastructure

Funding will support AI-model usage, cloud hosting, databases, storage, monitoring and security. This will help Prox Studios use suitable AI models while keeping the planned learner subscription as affordable as possible.

Dynamic diagram-engine development

Technical development, research, testing and cloud resources are required to complete the diagram-engine prototype and integrate dynamic visual questions into the platform.

CAPS content and quality assurance

Funding will support the creation and verification of questions, solutions, diagrams, prerequisite maps and AI explanations. Teachers and subject specialists will be involved in reviewing curriculum alignment, mathematical accuracy and cognitive level.

School pilots and market validation

Resources will be used to establish school partnerships, recruit representative beta participants and conduct structured pilots with learners and teachers. These pilots will measure retention, mastery improvement, educator productivity and willingness to adopt or pay for the platform.

Marketing and user acquisition

Prox Studios will conduct targeted campaigns through schools, learner communities and the online platforms used by learners and parents. Marketing will support public-launch awareness and recruitment for validation programmes.

Team expansion

The project currently operates with very limited resources. Funding will support full-time, part-time and freelance contributors in mobile and web development, backend engineering, AI development, user-experience design, curriculum content, quality assurance and school partnerships.

Office and operational expenses

A portion of the funding will support the reasonable day-to-day operational expenses required to develop and operate the platform effectively. These expenses include:

• Suitable office or shared working space.
• Reliable internet connectivity and mobile data.
• Electricity and backup-power solutions.
• Software licences and development subscriptions.
• Communication and collaboration services.
• Accounting, legal, compliance and administrative services.
• Transport and travel for school visits, pilot programmes and partnership meetings.
• Office equipment, maintenance and essential supplies.
• Customer and learner-support operations.

These resources will provide a stable working environment, maintain development continuity and allow the team to respond efficiently to learners, teachers, schools and technical issues.

This will allow MyPapers to support learners throughout their school journey instead of intervening only during the final years of high school.

Security and privacy

Funding will also support platform security, monitoring, safeguarding of learner information and continued compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act.

The objective is to complete the Mathematics launch, begin the Physical Sciences expansion, validate the platform through structured pilots and prepare teacher and school functionality by June 2027.

Prox Studios’ broader vision is to make personalised, curriculum-aligned learning support more accessible to South African learners, including those who may not have continuous access to an individual tutor.