E-Volve

E-Volve combines project based learning and virtual scaffolding, educational gaming and augmented reality software in order to foster the development of 21st century life skills, stimulate engagement and motivation for course work, develop grit and improve overall student proficiency in a given subject area.

Deficiencies in labor supply is one of the major drivers of high youth unemployment globally. A close examination of the education system reveals that at the end of a 12 year academic period, the majority of school leavers do not graduate with the requisite post-basic literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills for higher education nor do they possess the technical, behavioral and entrepreneurial skills and competencies for employment and enterprise in the competitive global economy. There is a disconnect between coursework content, delivery of subject matter and the reality of the technological generation, leaving students disinterested, disenfranchised, demotivated and disadvantaged.

E-volve's design aims to foster interest, effort and grit in students, key traits which lead to achievement and life-long learning (Yeager and Dweck, 2012; Duckworth, 2015). Research has found augmented reality apps to be more effective instructional tools than traditional textbooks (Wang, 2017). Additionally, our project based learning and virtual scaffolding education model is founded on the principles for developing 21st century skills, where students practice critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and communication skills, among others, as they learn to develop their own ideas, test, share and use input from relevant stakeholders (Pettyman, 2012) to solve real life problems.

E-Volve targets students at the primary school level, initially, from low, low-middle income countries, as well as upper middle income fragile economies, such as small island developing states (SIDS). 

The expected outcomes are as follows:
1. Increased acquisition, application and transfer of 21st century life skills in interpersonal relationships and in the processing of other subjects.

2. Increased positive self concept and self-perception as an agent of change, adopting a positive vision for the future.

3. Increased engagement, motivation and grit in students, and improvement in overall proficiency in Mathematics. 

Baseline and endline questionnaires, observation and teacher reports. - Increased acquisition, application and transfer of 21st century life skills in interpersonal relationships and in the processing of other subjects.

Baseline and endline self-report surveys, focus group discussions to ascertain change in self perception and ability to see positive outcomes for the future. - Increased positive self concept and self-perception as an agent of change and positive vision for the future.

1. Track downloads/cached apps. 2. Monitoring mechanism embedded in app to determine frequency of use by student, length of time on a concentrated task, and effort exerted to ascend to another game level. 3. End of term grade. - Increased engagement, motivation and grit in students, and improvement in overall proficiency in a given subject.

E-Volve provides a three-fold approach to the development of 21st century skills, firstly piquing interest through an augmented reality series tailored to current subject syllabus, beginning with Mathematics. The concepts and skills are then reinforced through an avatar-like mobile app game, which allows students to play individually, and competitively through virtual teams. A monitoring mechanism will be embedded in the app to track frequency of use and length of time on a given task. The application of concepts will then be integrated with core 21st century skills through project based learning and virtual scaffolding to solve a real life problem. 

E-Volve's team comprises educators at the primary and secondary school level and we adopt a participatory approach to the development of each product by engaging students via focus group discussions and surveys to determine the types of games they desire to interact with, the content they would like to see integrated into the augmented reality series and mobile game, in order to inform our prototype. We will continually seek feedback from students and teachers when beta testing, piloting and through to scaling.

E-Volve will be made available free of charge initially in the piloting phase and subsequently with an annual subscription offered to the Ministry of Education in each country priced relative to country income level. Students will access mobile games via a cloud based archival mechanism, which would not require the download of several games or components, hence saving space on mobile devices and laptops. Augmented reality software and guide will be offered as a companion to the current curriculum, with engineered light-weight clip on USB projector for teacher laptop. Teacher/student laptops can be used for virtual scaffolding. 

We intend to fund this program at the research and pilot phase primarily through grant funding and our limited personal investment. Revenue will also be generated through the advertisement of educational products and services related to our core values and mission upon the development of our website and social media pages. At the growth stage of the program up to scale, building on previously mentioned funding sources, we intend to generate revenue through the sale of the compact clip on projectors, as well as the subscription fee for our gaming app and augmented reality educational series sold annually to Ministries of Education, private organizations and individuals. 

We are in need of the technical expertise for the software and hardware engineering necessary to execute the educational gaming app and augmented reality series. We also do not have the necessary funds to pay for these services in order to commence piloting.

Access to wifi in classrooms is another concern, which we have tried to buffer with the proposed cached/archival mechanism embedded in mobile game, allowing students to save the app offline for later play. We are cultivating partnerships with diaspora organizations for the donation of  hardware needed to extend wifi access in schools and increase access to cellphones.

https://www.instagram.com/e4youthempowerment/

We believe E-Volve has the potential to radically change the way students across low, low-middle and upper-middle income countries interact with course content, and shape how they develop critical skills for the 21st century.The three components of E-Volve deal with the aspects of schooling which most significantly impacts learning acquisition and mastery- that of instruction, reinforcement and knowledge/skill transfer. Nonetheless, we need the technical expertise and funding to develop the requisite software and one integral hardware component for our initial pilot and subsequent scaling. We believe the SOLVE community boasts a wealth of resources to help us do this.

E-Volve is currently cultivating partnerships with The Curriculum and Materials Development Unit (CAMDU) under the Ministry of Education in Saint Lucia. We are also cultivating relationships with Caribbean Diaspora NGOs based in the United States and Canada for the sourcing of in kind donations of cellphones, hubs, bridges and switches. 

Alive Studios, Aug That, Voki and the Technology Integration Matrix.