The Mission

The name comes from et al., “and others”, a reminder that learning has always depended on the people around us. Our mission is to give students one place where that network becomes visible and usable: the peers they study with, the students who have walked the same path before them, and the materials and guidance they need along the way. etal starts from how students actually learn. Study groups form not only around a shared course, but around a shared need for company, structure and support. We build these groups through a matchmaking process that takes into account each student’s study approach, interests and needs. Around them, we organise the course-specific layer: programme and course communities, course materials, notes and summaries from students who have taken the course, and tutors chosen because they have mastered the material themselves. Students who prefer to work alone have a personal study space with the same resources at hand. Underneath this sits a broader view of education. AI is changing how students learn, and blocking it is neither realistic nor desirable. But tools that simply supply answers allow students to skip the effort that learning depends on. We believe technology should do the opposite: adapt to how each student learns, whether visually, through audio or through practice, and act as a coach that prompts reflection instead of replacing it. In etal, AI works in the background, in service of the student; it is never the product itself. We begin at Maastricht University, where problem-based learning already makes studying collaborative, and we are building etal to grow beyond it. Find your people, master your courses.

The Challenge

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The solution

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