Learning by Teaching: A revolutionary AI co-learner
Armenia
Education
Implementing Organisation
TUMO Center for Creative Technologies
Armenia, Yerevan, Yerevan
While founded in Armenia, they now have centers in France, Germany, Portugal, Albania, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, and India.
Implementing Point of Contact
Kabir Sethi
Regional Director, Asia
Contributor of the Impact Story
Carnegie India
Year of implementation
2025
Problem statement
TUMO is empowering the next generation to lead the AI revolution by transforming the learning experience into a collaborative partnership. At the heart of this vision is the TUMO AI Co-learner, an innovative agent integrated into the TUMO Path software. Rather than acting as a traditional instructor, the Co-learner functions as a digital teammate. By occasionally requesting help or "deliberately failing" at a task, it triggers a powerful "learning by teaching" loop. This forces students to step up as managers of technology—diagnosing errors, explaining concepts, and refining outputs in fields like coding, robotics, and design. The impact is clear: the Co-learner has achieved a 95% first-attempt success rate for students on complex technical tasks while reducing manual feedback requirements by 94%. Recently awarded the 2025 WISE Prize for Education, this model is built for global scale. It is infrastructure-light, multilingual, and optimized for India’s diverse educational landscape through upcoming voice-based interfaces. By shifting from instruction-driven to agency-driven learning, TUMO ensures that students master the critical thinking and motivation required to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital economy.
Submission Overview
TUMO is a free after-school program that empowers teenagers to develop core competencies through mastery of tech and design skills. With no exams, grades, entrance requirements, or fixed curricula, TUMO puts young people in charge of their own learning. TUMO is open to all teenagers. It is free of charge and has no entrance requirements. The TUMO model is a unique combination of pedagogy and technology. “If students were free to leave, how would schools change” TUMO gives learners radical choice and agency. Teens choose from 15 skill areas (including machine learning, gen AI, drawing, game development, animation, and more) and build their skills through a combination of autonomous learning and group projects with trained coaches. Over time, learners can go deeper into particular skills or explore different areas. To advance in the program, teens build products in their chosen skill areas (there are no exams or tests). The portfolio that teens build gradually becomes a living diploma - we do not provide any certificate of completion, as each student is on their own personal journey. In addition to our human coaches, we have also developed AI classmates with spoken-voice interfaces. These AI Colearners do tasks in tandem with students, enabling learning-by-teaching and learning-through-emulation for all our learners, while also providing non-intimidating peer feedback.
AI Technology Used
Key Outcomes
Efficiency & Productivity
Access & Reach
Inclusion & Equity
Accuracy & Quality Improvement
User Experience & Satisfaction
Resource Efficiency
TUMO has built an AI co-learner system that transforms technical education by repositioning students as managers of technology rather than passive recipients of instruction. The AI co-learner operates as a digital teammate that deliberately requests help and occasionally fails at tasks, triggering a "learning by teaching" loop where students diagnose errors, explain concepts, and refine outputs across fields like coding, robotics, and design. This agency-driven approach has achieved a 95% first-attempt success rate for students completing complex technical tasks, compared to less than 60% before implementation. The system has reduced manual feedback requirements by 94%, enabling a single human coach to effectively serve 20 times as many students while maintaining learning quality. The infrastructure-light model is globally scalable and multilingual, requiring only standard devices like Chromebooks, PCs, or Macs. With centers already operating across Armenia, France, Germany, Portugal, Albania, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, and India, TUMO is democratizing access to advanced technical education for teenagers aged 12-18, building the critical thinking and self-directed learning skills essential for thriving in the AI era.
Impact Metrics
Success rate of how many students can complete tasks at their first attempt
Baseline Value
Before Tumo's Colearner was launched, the first-attempt success rate was less than 60 percent Percent
Post-Implementation
Colearner has increased the first-attempt success rate to 95 percent Percent
Manual feedback requirements of how often human coaches are needed to provide feedback to students
Baseline Value
NA Percent
Post-Implementation
Colearner has reduced human coach requirement by 94 percent, where the same human coach can now serve 20 times as many students Percent
Implementation Context
Yerevan, Armenia followed by other regions of Armenia
Students aged 12 to 18
Key Partnerships
Tumo has partnered with various technology and AI companies to receive subsidized tokens.
Replicability & Adaptation
The AI Colearner can operate on Tumo's software, which is compatible with any standard Chromebook, PC, or Mac.
Tumo plans to deploy the AI co-learner in their centers across the world (including Mumbai, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Luanda, etc.) without any resources beyond what they already have at these centers.
* The data presented is self-reported by the respective organisations. Readers should consult the original sources for further details.