IOE alumna’s startup receives US government funding to support equitable learning technologies

The collaboration is part of the $6m Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge, managed by Digital Promise and funded by the US National Science Foundation. The challenge enables US-based interdisciplinary teams to create innovative learning technologies, building upon recent research and discoveries. 

Goldstar Education will provide workshops and support for each team centred around the main characteristics of the most impactful EdTech companies. It will show teams how to maximise the educational impact of digital tools and how to communicate their findings to learners, investors and schools. 

Goldstar Education is focused on undertaking research that analyses the potential of EdTech (educational technology) and how this can support learners. The company measures the impact of digital tools and resources through EdTech diagnostics. 

Its founder, Anissa Moeini, comes from an entrepreneurial background and was awarded her doctorate in 2020 from the Department of Culture, Communication and Media at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. She started Goldstar in 2021 based on her PhD research, driven by her passion for universal education and education equity, with a focus on access to high quality education. 

She says, “Educational technologies can be powerful tools to help with education equity. I wanted to create a product that would empower entrepreneurs to build amazing products in education. Goldstar is all about encouraging that to happen, raising the standard of EdTech and rewarding companies that have built impactful products. 

The role of education in helping my family create a new life after escaping the revolution in Iran has nurtured my commitment to educational equity. Providing access to high-quality education for all is one of the greatest opportunities of well-designed educational technology. My parents’ persecution in Iran included exclusion from the educational system, and I was raised with the knowledge that my education is a privilege and that it is a human right to which everyone should have access – a passion and belief that fuel my love for education today. 

Perhaps, the most important lesson that I learned in the family business was from my dad, who always said that a successful entrepreneur is one who sees the needs in the community and rises to serve it to make people’s lives better. 

My main research goal has always been to uncover how to know if emerging technologies work and to share that knowledge with my fellow educational technology entrepreneurs, so that they can go on to create technologies that will better the world.” 

Anissa is also a post-doctoral fellow at the UCL Knowledge Lab, and her PhD revealed the six superpowers of impactful EdTech enterprises, supervised by Professors Rose Luckin and Alison Clark-Wilson. Professor Clark-Wilson says “Anissa’s research findings are ground breaking, as they not only highlight the importance of any company’s evidence for the effectiveness of their EdTech products, but they have drawn our attention to the mindsets, attitudes and practices of the people behind these products.

In education, it is not enough for a company to conduct one stellar research study on an EdTech product, and then rest back on their laurels. The rapid pace of change in technology means that products continue to evolve, as do the educational contexts around the world. Goldstar’s diagnostics enable all EdTech companies to assess their superpowers and, as a result, learn how to help their teams build more impactful educational products.”

Goldstar was supported by UCL Innovation & Enterprise, which offers UCL students and recent graduates the chance to develop vital entrepreneurial skills to develop in their chosen career. UCL helped the founder obtain a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa to continue growing the company in the UK after Anissa graduated. Goldstar is also part of the Hatchery Incubator programme at BaseKX, UCL’s dedicated space for entrepreneurship at King’s Cross, which gives eligible startups access to free, tailored support and dedicated office space. 

Related links

• Goldstar Education
• Listen: How do we make EdTech work for everyone?
• UCL Knowledge Lab
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media
• UCL Innovation & Enterprise
• Dr Anissa Moeini's UCL research profile
• Professor Alison Clark-Wilson's research profile

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Dr Anissa Moeini in front of the UCL Portico. Permission: Anissa Moeini.