Minnesota company developing improved online learning model competes for $50K

Gone are the days of traditional learning with physical textbooks and lecture halls. That’s the case now during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that may be the case moving forward, depending on how successful educators can be.

One Minnesota company has been preparing for this time for 10 years and didn’t know the perfect, yet unfortunate, timing would come. Now it’s got an opportunity to win $50,000 to get their one-of-a-kind learning into more classrooms — or living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms with distance learning.

Pivot Interactives has already won $30,000 in the MN Cup, a startup competition that gives innovative Minnesota companies an opportunity to make their case about why their product should win a $50,000 grand prize and also connect with business leaders within the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Business.

Co-creator of Pivot Interactives Peter Bohacek will make their final presentation at the MN Cup on Tuesday about why their interactive, science-focused and ideal learning style during a pandemic should win the grand prize. The money and guidance from industries experts would help the company get their product into more curricula.

“It’s not lectures, or someone demonstrating or explaining … it’s a video of the phenomenon, or the event itself,” Bohacek said.

“Then we have interactive tools that the students can use so they can learn from the phenomenon itself,” he added.

The company is a website with online learning materials for high school and college students. While business has picked up during the pandemic, Bohacek mentioned he wished the boost would have happened under different circumstances.

“We feel like at Pivot Interactives, we feel grateful we’re in a position to help,” Bohacek said.

“As these teachers and students are scrambling to figure out how to learn online, we have this solution 10 years in the making [that is] well researched, [and] ready to go.”

Despite the ideal timing for their product, this does not make it a shoo-in for the MN Cup grand prize — there are other innovative companies that have gotten as far as Pivot Interactives also fighting for their shot at the extra cash.

To follow along to the free event and see if Bohacek’s team can pull it off, watch virtually here.