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“Even a single misplaced dot during coding can halt a program. I have personally experienced the frustration students feel and the difficulty instructors face in managing multiple errors simultaneously while teaching. I aim to solve this issue with technology.”

This is the motivation behind the founding of Ague Edu, a software (SW) education-focused edutech company, as stated by CEO Kang Tae-hwan. While running a tech company, Kang continues to conduct offline SW lectures. He defines AI not as a replacement for teachers but as a competent assistant to enhance classroom efficiency. He plans to provide teachers using AI with improved efficiency in teaching and student management, and to offer students a learning environment where they can solve problems independently. Kang Tae-hwan, CEO of Ague Edu, was met at his office in Anam-dong, Seoul.
Ague Edu: “Creating an Environment for Easy and Effective SW Learning for Everyone”

Ague Edu's mission is to create an educational environment where anyone can learn SW easily and effectively. To achieve this, it offers services in three ways: ▲SW learning management solution ‘AKEO’ ▲offline SW education service ‘Ague Coding’ ▲educational content supply and educational activities.

AKEO is a generative AI-based coding education system that provides everything from SW classes to student evaluation and management functions. It offers an online coding practice environment for elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as universities and public institutions. Ague Coding is the name of the academy where Ague Edu provides professional coding education offline. Ague Edu also conducts educational activities by offering coding classes publicly in collaboration with youth centers and care schools.

CEO Kang Tae-hwan stated, “AKEO is a solution that efficiently assists teachers with coding classes and student evaluation and management. It operates by analyzing the causes of errors in students’ codes and delivering them to teachers. It also provides a classroom dashboard to help immediately identify students who need assistance, and allows instructors to view and correct students’ codes in real-time,” adding, “The dashboard allows a comprehensive view of students’ learning status and achievements, enabling personalized learning guidance. It also features automatic generation of problems or test cases with keywords and exemplary codes, reducing the burden on teachers to create problems. Currently, AKEO is used in SW education classes at 11 educational institutions, including Korea University and Sunjeong High School.”

He continued, “At the offline academy Ague Coding, operated in Daechi-dong, we provide specialized education on information (SW·AI) subjects for elementary, middle, and high school students. Ague Coding is directly operated by Ague Edu, aiming to improve academic achievement by combining offline academy classes with AI-based educational content and learning programs,” adding, “In public education programs linked with youth centers or care schools, we are operating the Cheonan City Youth AI Coding Camp and the Seongbuk-gu Youth AI Startup Camp.”

Ague Edu emphasized that it has built a high level of learning experience completion by developing and operating its own educational content and programs. It is not just about providing coding tools but being involved in the entire process until students learn independently and solve problems.

CEO Kang Tae-hwan stated, “Ague Edu provides learning content in a courseware format that progresses from theoretical learning to practice problems, practical problems, and assignments. We offer verified content reviewed by our content team of educational experts, current professors, and teachers. Students can reduce their learning burden and improve their achievement by simply following the well-structured path,” adding, “Common chatbots like GPT or Gemini often give students the correct code when they are stuck. Students copy and submit the code, and when it is marked correct, they mistakenly believe they fully understand the problem. The Ague Edu AI Tutor works by analyzing students’ coding levels and errors to provide decisive hints or questions instead of the correct answer. Our solution operates based on three unique patented technologies, including a patent for ‘block-level code evaluation method and system for precise measurement of learning achievement.’ This allows students to think independently, experience trial and error, and reach the correct answer.”


He continued, “All learning processes take place in a data-driven online practice environment. Students can execute and submit code directly on the web without needing to install separate programs. The learning data generated during this process is aggregated in real-time, visualizing on the ‘instructor dashboard’ what wrong answers students gave, how many attempts it took to solve the problem, and how much time was spent,” adding, “Instructors can use this data to quickly grasp each student’s progress and difficulties and provide accurate feedback based on the data. When students are stuck, the ‘AI Tutor’ offers hints to guide them, and instructors provide personalized academic achievement improvement and management based on the data, creating a learning ecosystem. Thanks to these benefits, we were able to advance to the Korean finals of the Global Edutech Startup Awards (GESA), the world’s largest edutech startup competition, and win the Excellence Award at the Edutech Korea Fair for two consecutive years.”

Realizing Ideas with Support from Hongneung Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Special Zone… Recruiting Talented Individuals to Target Overseas Markets

CEO Kang Tae-hwan states that he founded the company to solve problems he directly experienced in the SW education field as a coding education instructor.

He said, “While majoring in computer education in graduate school, I taught coding directly to students in various formats such as schools, academies, and private tutoring. During this process, I realized that SW education has very different characteristics from other subjects. While subjects like math or English have abundant educational content and it is relatively easy to find assistant instructors, SW faces the issue of difficulty in securing specialized instructors,” adding, “Coding can be halted by a trivial mistake like a misplaced dot. Students easily get frustrated by these small errors and desperately need immediate help from instructors. I witnessed daily how the learning flow and concentration of other students waiting were disrupted while the instructor handled multiple student inquiries alone. Instructors also expend all their energy on teaching and student management in offline settings, leaving no capacity to expand offline academies. I believed there was a definite need for a ‘competent assistant teacher’ to solve this chronic problem. I was convinced that the tool best suited for this role is an ‘AI Tutor specialized in SW education.’”

CEO Kang Tae-hwan continued, “The support from the Hongneung Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Special Zone played a significant role in realizing the startup idea. It helped us move beyond the initial startup phase and lay the foundation for full-fledged growth. Particularly, the education sessions on ‘fundraising methods’ and ‘exit strategies and cases’ were most impressive,” adding, “Thanks to the detailed analysis of actual corporate fundraising cases and various exit cases such as M&A and IPO, we could draw a specific roadmap on what we need to prepare for fundraising, which previously felt vague. It was an opportunity to sharpen our IR materials and business strategies from an investor’s perspective. We also gained various insights through exchanges with supported companies.”

Finally, he shared Ague Edu’s future plans.

CEO Kang Tae-hwan stated, “Thanks to the recognition of our AI Tutor and courseware technology, we successfully conducted a Proof of Concept (PoC) with the Information Creativity Research Institute at Korea University this year. We have signed a main contract related to the development of the ‘Python Achievement Program’ for all new students at Korea University next year and are currently building the system,” adding, “We also plan to actively expand into the global market. Based on the TIPS R&D project, we will advance the ‘AI Tutor’ into a ‘coding education specialized AI agent.’ We aim to build a ‘hyper-personalized learning partner’ that goes beyond merely providing hints to students to offering tailored feedback.”
He continued, “We are preparing to enter local markets by establishing partnerships with educational companies such as ACP in Singapore, as well as companies in Los Angeles, USA, and Dubai. To realize all these plans and support growth acceleration, securing top talent is essential. While we currently have excellent team members, including a full-stack developer CTO from a Silicon Valley-based company in the USA, we need more outstanding talent,” adding, “We are looking for colleagues who are genuinely committed to solving educational issues with technology. We want to work with developers who can robustly build the backend system based on a passion for education, planners who understand the needs of the educational field, and strategists who will lead government projects and business growth. Our future goal is to leap forward as a global edutech company with excellent colleagues.”

IT Donga Reporter Kim Dong-jin (kdj@itdonga.com)

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