Pokémon to Prodigy: How Game-Based Learning Captivated 20 Million Students with Rohan Mahimker

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Rohan Mahimker is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Prodigy Education, a global leader in digital game-based learning.

Rohan launched Prodigy alongside his fellow Co-Founder and Co-CEO Alex Peters in 2011. Today, Prodigy’s flagship math game is used by more than 20 million 1st-8th Grade students and is one of the most popular supplemental classroom tools in the United States.

💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:

1. How a university project evolved into one of the world’s most popular math games
2. The secret behind Prodigy’s “motivation first” approach to learning
3. Why Prodigy’s freemium model reshaped EdTech’s business playbook
4. How the Prodigy State Challenge became the world’s largest math competition
5. Where AI and personalization fit into the future of game-based learning

✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:02:24] Rohan on turning childhood gaming inspiration into Prodigy’s origin story
[00:07:29] How “motivation first” drives deeper math engagement
[00:13:09] The adaptive algorithm that personalizes every student’s learning path
[00:17:27] Innovating the freemium model to keep learning free for teachers and schools
[00:27:53] Inside the Prodigy State Challenge: 4.2M students and 70,000 schools
[00:31:04] Using AI for smarter content creation and future tutoring potential
[00:43:30] What’s next: expanding beyond math to English and global game-based learning

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This season of Edtech Insiders is brought to you by Cooley LLP. Cooley is the go-to law firm for education and edtech innovators, offering industry-informed counsel across the 'pre-K to gray' spectrum. With a multidisciplinary approach and a powerful edtech ecosystem, Cooley helps shape the future of education.

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Fejezetek

1. Pokémon to Prodigy: How Game-Based Learning Captivated 20 Million Students with Rohan Mahimker (00:00:00)

2. Rohan on turning childhood gaming inspiration into Prodigy’s origin story (00:02:45)

3. How “motivation first” drives deeper math engagement (00:07:50)

4. The adaptive algorithm that personalizes every student’s learning path (00:14:49)

5. Innovating the freemium model to keep learning free for teachers and schools (00:19:07)

6. Inside the Prodigy State Challenge: 4.2M students and 70,000 schools (00:29:33)

7. Using AI for smarter content creation and future tutoring potential (00:32:44)

8. What’s next: expanding beyond math to English and global game-based learning (00:45:10)