About
What SymbioLearn is, and how it got here.
A study tool built on your own study material. It took me four versions to get here.
What SymbioLearn is
You make a Module for a course and add your study material to it as Sources, whether that is a PDF, a Word or PowerPoint file, Markdown notes, a website or a YouTube video. SymbioLearn reads them and pulls out the Concepts they teach.
When three Sources explain the same thing, that is one Concept with all three underneath it, each pinned to the page, section or timestamp it came from. Every Concept has the same four actions: a spoken Lesson, a Quick Quiz, Flashcards, and the Sources themselves. None of them is the recommended one.
Today names the Concepts worth an hour and says plainly why each one is there. It does not start anything for you.
How it decides what you know
A language model reads your material and writes the questions, the explanations and the corrections. It does not decide what you know. That comes from what you did: the quiz you took on Friday, the answer you got wrong twice, the Concept you have not opened in three weeks.
A Concept starts as new because there is no history yet. Getting something right a week later counts for more than getting it right straight after being told.
How it got here
2023
My final-year IT project: upload a PDF, ask it questions. It worked, and it was a demo.
2024
I put the first public version up. People signed up, looked around, and did not come back.
2025
I added notes, quizzes and flashcards. More features, and still no reason to open it on a Tuesday.
2026
I rebuilt it around Modules, Sources and Concepts, with what you actually did deciding what comes back.
Thabani M. Takwena
Founder of SymbioLearn
Hey, I’m Thabani. SymbioLearn started as my university project in 2023 and has changed quite a bit since then.
Meet the founder