Firm partners with Akwa Ibom varsity to turn textbooks into animated videos

CoursePro Africa has partnered with Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) to convert the institution’s textbooks and lecture manuals into animated video books, in a move aimed at making complex academic subjects easier for students to understand.

The education technology start-up said it began the project with the university in October 2025 and is currently working on converting its academic materials into digital videos combining narration, illustrations, two-dimensional animation and three-dimensional visuals.

Founder of CoursePro Africa, Elijah Amah, said AKSU was the company’s only university partner, adding that limited funding and manpower had prevented it from approaching other institutions.

He said the university had more than 7,000 courses across 80 departments, requiring an estimated 4,800 hours of animation.

“We need to finish with AKSU first before approaching any other university because of funding and manpower,” Amah said.

He explained that the company’s model involved working with universities and lecturers to convert approved textbooks, lecture notes and other academic materials into video books accessible through institutional learning portals. Institutions and lecturers would retain control over academic content, while CoursePro would handle the visual development and presentation.

The company plans to share revenue with participating lecturers and institutions under agreed arrangements, although it did not disclose the proposed sharing formula.

Amah said CoursePro had earlier conducted a test run at the Institute of Distance Learning of Abia State University (ABSU) between August and December 2024 but suspended the project because of funding constraints.

According to him, ABSU’s distance learning programme had more courses and students than AKSU, with an estimated student population twice that of the latter. However, the cost of building the database and producing more than 10,000 hours of animation was estimated at over N3 billion.

The idea behind CoursePro dates to October 2018, when Amah, then a mathematics undergraduate at ABSU, struggled with abstract topics, particularly real analysis. He subsequently started a YouTube channel for mathematics tutorials before expanding the concept to other disciplines.