EPAM helps Sphero enrich its educational platform for teachers and students
Transforming a STEM Learning Experience
At a glance
CLIENT
Sphero, Inc
SERVICES
- Platform & Product Development
- Quality Engineering
INDUSTRY
- Education
As a leading STEM learning company offering interactive robotics and STEM education kits, Sphero teaches young students to code at home and in virtual classrooms. EPAM was engaged to both troubleshoot and enhance Sphero’s education platform: SpheroEdu. EPAM’s EdTech expertise allowed us to quickly dive in and update the platform with new functionality and a vastly user experience.
CHALLENGE
Reimagining the Sphero
Edu Platform
In the Sphero Edu app, kids learn how to code by creating programs for their Sphero programmable robot. The platform is used by teachers to give assignments, monitor progress and structure the learning experience. Students engaged in homeschooling can also sign up for individual accounts.
Sphero did not have an internal team to maintain its large-scale platform, so EPAM was brought in to not only support the platform but also to add new features that end users wanted. The codebase was massive and complex, but EPAM engineers quickly moved to support the system in production, while attracting new educators and learners with more user-friendly features.
HEAR FROM THE CUSTOMER
“Without an internal team to maintain a large and complicated code base, I was worried that we would not be able to maintain Sphero Edu. EPAM quickly demonstrated they could not only support Sphero Edu, but also enhance it.”
Brian Kellner
VP, Software, Sphero
SOLUTION
EPAM launched the project with a discovery phase, where the team conducted analysis, scoping and a solution design.
As a result of a series of workshops and close collaboration with numerous stakeholders, EPAM and Sphero constructed a shared vision for the current and future state of the platform.
EPAM’s engineering team used those insights to provide a proposal for the implementation phase, which included solution architecture, work break-down structure (WBS), estimates and a roadmap. Then the team employed an agile development approach to complete the project following the SCRUM process.
The goal was to tailor the platform to Sphero’s vision and make it truly easy to use both in class and at home.
Solution Highlights
Class Management Features
Progress Report Tool for Teachers
Notification Feature
Performance and Stability
HEAR FROM THE CUSTOMER
“When we released the new functionality, teachers and students were thrilled with the improvement.”
Michelle Acaley
Sr. Director, Product and Content, Sphero
PLATFORM SERVICES
Improving the Learning Experience
EPAM carefully selected a hybrid team that possessed unmatched skill sets and deep EdTech knowledge to modify this complex platform. Sphero was provided with analysts, developers, DevOps specialists, quality engineers and a delivery manager to complete the project. As a result, we quickly and successfully stabilized and optimized the Sphero Edu platform and enriched it with new functionality.
Usage increase within just three months suggests that users are finding value more easily with the new, enriched functionality:
39%
increase in creating classes with multiple students
21%
increase in adding assignments to classes
TECH STACK
HEAR FROM THE CUSTOMER
“The team truly has been great. Changes that we expected to take months were done in weeks or sometimes days.”
Micah Daby
Product Manager, Sphero
PARTNER WITH US
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