Smartphones for Learning during COVID-19
We are presenting a solution to education disruption and the resultant learning losses during COVID. However, it also solves the massive global illiteracy problem, which is our organization’s macro goal, to improve access, quality and accountability of education.
We are leveraging the massive installed base of smartphones to deliver learning solutions, which use gamified self-learning applications for enhancing K-5 literacy and numeracy
The impact is two-fold. The immediate impact is that it creates a response for education disruption due to COVID or any future pandemics or other circumstances, by allowing mitigation of students’ learning losses. The long-term impact would be educating the 2 billion functionally illiterate people across the globe, if successful. It solves the problem of access by using a readily available device to educate the massive population of out-of-school children. It would also enhance the quality of education for in-school students.
The developing world has an education crisis of access, quality and accountability. Nearly 1.5 billion people are functionally illiterate, or barely literate. Approximately 300 million children are currently out of school (UNESCO, 2019). There are acute teacher shortages and poor learning outcomes. Pakistan’s education crisis is approaching catastrophic levels, with 22 million+ children out-of-school (UNICEF, 2019). 30-40 million could be out-of-school by 2030. Approximately 40% of 5th graders fail to perform at the 2nd grade level (ASER, 2019). Similarly, Bangladesh houses over 1 million refugees (World Bank, 2021), whose access to education is limited.
COVID exacerbated problems further with 32 million K-5 students affected by school closures in Pakistan (UNESCO, 2020). Per the World Bank, closures of 7 months would lead to learning losses equivalent to 0.7 Learning Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS). Given that Pakistan already stood at 4.8 LAYS, these numbers are worrisome (World Bank, 2020).
Traditional means won’t solve this problem in an acceptable timeframe. In Pakistan, providing access to 22 million out-of-school children would take 87,000+ schools and 700,000+ teachers (ASER, 2019). If we are to do this in the next 20 years, it would take roughly 12 schools a day.
Smartphones for Learning during COVID-19 is a simple and scalable K - 5 “functional literacy” eLearning play, deployable on a smartphone. It delivers K - 5 learning in English, Math and a local language using award-winning gamified applications on smartphones, without reliance on a trained teacher.
We use smartphones with Android software, and the gamified applications installed provide content with high engagement value, which promotes self-learning for the student. As this is self-directed learning, there is no teacher or instructor, and students are able to complete these independently at their own pace. They are supported by a remote facilitator, who also provides parental support and technical assistance.
The analytics data generated by the application is used for monitoring and evaluation. There is minimum infrastructure investment as students use devices that they already have access to. These features make this solution highly adaptable and scalable, even for low connectivity settings.
Key focus:
a) Out-of-school children with no access to schools;
b) In-school children needing quality enhancement
Our at-home model was driven by school closures in the aftermath of COVID-19. With ~50M children having lost access and tablets being cost prohibitive, our flagship program, ELAN which was on tablets, needed alternatives. Despite some drawbacks, smartphones provided an answer with their massive existing installed base (90M+ in Pakistan).
We launched using our existing portfolio of educational games, for both in-school and out-of-school variations through existing implementation partners.
The program is managed by facilitators working with children through parents. We found parents — who are often illiterate themselves-- taking great interest in their child’s learning and using gamified learning apps. Thus, an unexpected but powerful ancillary benefit has emerged here. We are turning this program into a potential family literacy program.
Currently we are piloting it with ~1400 children in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Early results have been strong. Focus groups with parents show that the program has been very successful at engaging/motivating children to study despite school closures. Results from weekly quizzes confirm this.
This model has proven to be our fastest growing, with massive potential to scale. By 2025, smartphone penetration in the developing world is expected to reach 70%. (World Economic Forum, 2019).
At scale, it is also our lowest cost model with cost per student under $50 per year. With family literacy added, it could be our highest ROI play.
- Increase the engagement of learners in remote, hybrid, and physical environments, including strategies and tools for parental support, peer interaction, and guided independent work.
Our model is focused on self-learning through gamified applications, where the physical location or internet connectivity is not an impediment to a child’s education. This model allows self-learning at home, developing digital literacy skills, as well as independent learning.
The program has built-in mechanisms for parental involvement and support. There are dedicated facilitators who guide students and parents, and offer parental support through frequent remote check-ins. Student motivation mechanisms in the form of weekly awards are also built into the program to give students a sense of peer interaction in offline settings.
- Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community.
Our primary model, ELAN, has been tested in multiple settings and geographies, with tablets as the main medium of delivery. We have tested content, the interface, as well as training and deployment, and have solid results about the efficacy of the model. However, with the advent of COVID, our response was to take the learning and tested results we had from our flagship ELAN program, and adapt them on to a different medium of delivery, the smartphone, with a new interface. As this is a remote, at-home program, facilitation processes have changed, and we are navigating the best practices in remote learning and support. Similarly we have had to explore some new content that is supported by smartphones. In order to test all of this, we have a robust pilot with approximately 1700+ students underway in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
