Blended learning with BloomED

Almost 70% of the school-going children have been disconnected from schools and teachers in Nepal.  This is because of the fact that the majority of the schools have not been able to run remote classes despite the presence of internet connectivity.  Likewise, the quality of the education offered either remotely or in physical space has been chronically lackluster.  

This is where the BloomED comes in. We wish to provide a complete set of subject-wise courses, which can be used by students in isolation (self-learning), or teachers in classrooms (blended learning). We will use openedx backend to power our courses. 

Our solution can be scaled globally by customizing the local syllabus.  Our courses will cut access gaps, supplement schools that lack a full set of subject teachers and create a solid foundation for students to never miss on learning.  

We are motivated to solve the following four major problems in the education space of Nepal. 

a) Lack of access to education in general and blended learning opportunities in particular 

• During the ongoing lockdown, 4 million school-going children (70% of the total) are out of school and not learning. A huge majority of them come from community schools. These schools have not been able to operate remote classes mostly due to technical challenges. 

• The children also don’t have access to an alternative reliable one-stop solution from where they can learn as per the syllabus.

b) Low learning outcomes 

• National Assessment for Student Achievement report says more than 70% of students only have meager 28% competency of the syllabus.

• The learning outcomes are in decreasing trend.

c) Lack of subject teachers in the majority of the schools 

• Only 674 schools out of 28,000 community schools have a full set of subject teachers 

• Teacher absenteeism is also very high leading to low syllabus target achievements

d) High cost of schooling 

• High cost of schooling is an entry barrier for children to continue at the secondary level 

BloomED is an edX type innovative platform geared to address identified problems. We build courses that align in full with the national curriculum and distribute via portal and app.  

At its core, BloomED offers a complete set of syllabus-based courses for grades 9 to 12, which can be used by students for self-learning or teachers for blended learning. These courses include,  (a) Mock exams, (b) Review notes - Interactive course notes for all concepts specified by the syllabus, (c ) discussion forums, (d) static lectures, and (e) Short animated videos, covering the main concepts and key questions.

BloomED can be used by teachers and schools for supporting blending learning in classrooms. The static courses have high-quality content, which supplements classroom learning and provides a reference base for generating classroom discussions. 

On the side of the technology, BloomED operates out of the openedx system, which is the same architecture that all edx courses use. The platform is updated periodically by the leading software engineers and comes with tailored course authoring and featuring solutions.

The target beneficiaries are all Nepalese children between the ages of 14 and 17, who are currently enrolled in schools and have access to the internet. Currently, there are about 4 million such children.  Currently, 85% of the population of Nepal is within reach of cable, fiber, broadband, 3G, or 4G network options.

Additionally, we also aim to supply our solution to teachers and schools. Nepal has a total of 330,000 teachers and 35,000 schools, catering to different levels of students.

Currently, school-going children have been disconnected from regular engagement with teachers and the school mostly due to the inability of concerned schools to run remote classes.  Lack of quality in education is a chronic problem, which is caused by a shortage in supply of a full set of subject teachers and quality learning materials.  

Well-built courses kept online, and accessible both from the portal and mobile devices seem like the best way forward in addressing access and equity gaps, not just for covering up what has been missed but perpetually going forward. In the short run, these resources will be extremely handy for those students who have lost on learning during the pandemic. This can potentially save the ongoing academic year from being lost. In the medium and long run, these courses will help establish equitable access and bolster learning outcomes by engaging students early and repeatedly with quality learning materials, designed to become accessible and engaging.  

To validate the needs, we built a course and piloted it among over 100 users. We collected feedback from these first sets of users on a number of hypotheses on problem-solution fit and product-market fit. The users were selected covering various economic, social, and geographic segmentation so as to collect representative feedback. The major findings point that our solution is highly desirable especially during the pandemic and that we should build a comprehensive set of courses and do so quickly. The users also provided suggestions on their course needs. Currently, we are piloting our courses to a larger group of students, with more courses. 

Additionally, we have been running schools and teaching students for the last eight years. We have worked closely with a diverse set of students, parents, and administrative bodies to understand the needs of students. 

BloomED is designed to be used by teachers to support blended learning in classrooms. The course materials can be used as lesson plans, reading assignments, and even to supplement classroom learning for schools that lack a full set of subject teachers. 

Additionally, we aspire to bring equity to education with our complete courses that offer ample practice, exercises, and learning paths. In Nepal, a large majority of the school are public and these schools suffer quality. Our solution will be designed to fill the gaps in these target segments, with quality course materials blended with the learning path. 

We are in the round II of piloting our courses. We have developed 5 full sets of courses and have kept them online. These courses contain videos, exercises, interactive graphics, simulations, and polished content all organized as per the syllabus.

The completed courses were then distributed among 200 and teachers at  Bloom Nepal School students to be used to support blended learning experiences in classrooms. Students learned the assigned chapter at home and came prepared to participate in discussion sessions on these chapters. These discussions would be facilitated by teachers. Students would ask questions actively and participate fully in the classrooms. 

The pilot phase will be over in October of 2021, after which the courses will be launched for the general population of students and teachers in Nepal.  These materials can either be used for self-learning or for blended learning in coordination with teachers, schools, and the students.

BloomED builds off the open-sourced the openedx platform, coming from the ranks of MIT for building courses. The immediate advantage is the flexibility it allows in our ability to create rich course materials using the best technology tools. Our approach to democratizing school-level offerings using openedx can be adapted worldwide, both at the level of the technology and also at the level of the structuring of the course materials. 

Second, our courses are comprehensive and can replicate classrooms. We provide a complete set of materials featured in one place, alongside ample practice questions, mock exams, peer teaching, videos, and project works. This is expected to be a boon, for students who can otherwise not attend regular schooling or are in need of a better quality learning experience.  We fill that gap. 

MOOCs have not been used at the school level. Gradual emergence can be seen in neighboring countries like India (Byjus, Toppr), but these are paid services, which are unaffordable for the most. 

We are trying to make high-quality education accessible with full affordability by utilizing open-sourced technology. The impacts of universal access to high-quality learning materials, designed to get students to move up the academic path, as per the national syllabus, can be manifold. 

We are offering our service now to 200 students and teachers and one school. 

In one year, we will reach 7000 students and 35 schools. 

In five year, we will reach to 500,000 students 250 schools 

Our impact is calculated in access, equity, and quality front, within the larger framework of SDG 4 and 10. 

Indicator 1 (Access): Number of students completing course requirements using BloomED

Indicator 2 (Equity): The proportion of users completing course requirements using BloomED come from community schools.

Indicator 3 (Equity): The proportionof teachers using BloomED for blended learning comes from community schools.  

Indicator 4 (Quality):  The marginal gain in average GPA at annually held national level exams ( grade 10 and grade 12 students) with respect to all examinees. 

The data will be collected from the website and the outcomes of national examinations. 

BloomED currently employs 5 full-time and 50 part-time staff.

We are well-positioned to drive BloomED with our track record of setting up successful educational initiatives in Nepal. 

• Our founders have set up successful companies in Nepal with 7 years 
  of track record in the education sector.
• We have good connections with course creators across the education sector in Nepal.
• We have in-house expertise in customizing openedx for our needs.     

We ensure diversity at source, i.e at hiring. 

To harness this diversity, we maintain open communication channels. Feedback and opinions can be sent via emails. We also identify training needs and provide demand-based training for enhancing capacity. Finally, we follow a flexible work assignment system allowing team members to rotate roles.