Learn Limitless

Comprehensive digital learning toolkit that offers offline educational access as well as affordable computing devices.

Learn Limitless consists of two components that address the dual challenges of lack of internet access and expensive tablets. 

The first component consists of scraped, static educational websites loaded onto a USB drive, which is then mounted onto a router for easy offline access. Up to 30 individuals in a classroom can connect to the router simultaneously. The total cost is $30, lower than an alternative solution like RACHEL that offers similar functionality for $280. 

The second component consists of a Raspberry Pi 2W connected to a monitor (that can be a TV) and a keyboard. This allows students to access educational content by connecting to the router network or by viewing preloaded content on the Pi’s SD card. Depending on the monitor and keyboard chosen, the price can be as low as $18, lower than the cheapest tablet at $50. Widespread adoption due to economies of scale could reduce the price further. Crucially, our solution enables individuals with no smartphones or internet access to learn digitally.

Thus, this is the most affordable education solution for the developing world. We harness existing hardware in an innovative way, which keeps costs low and allows for easy self-assembly.

Twenty percent of youth in developing countries fail to complete primary school, lacking the necessary skills for work. 250 million primary-school-aged children cannot read or write. Furthermore, girls are 1.5 times more likely to be excluded from primary school than boys. To make matters worse, the spread of COVID-19 has led many schools to conduct remote learning. However, because much of the developing world lacks internet connectivity, students are left without access to education. An estimated 810 million students were out of school at the peak of the pandemic in developing countries. Due to learning losses, the current generation stands to lose an estimated $10 trillion in earnings. Learning outcomes remain stagnant, as the quality of education remains low. Lack of quality teachers, inefficient school networks, and gender barriers continue the cycle of poor learning outcomes.

Digital education, with its ability to provide personalized and high-quality learning, has the potential to address these challenges. However, e-learning requires equipment such as WiFi, tablets, or computers, which can cost upwards of $50. This equipment is prohibitively expensive for schools or families to purchase, explaining their low uptake. In developing countries, less than 1 in 5 people are online. However, with work and public services becoming increasingly reliant on the digital world, much of the developing world is posed to be left behind. Without access to technology, students are not equipped with the tools needed to participate in the digital economy, furthering the global digital divide.

Our target population is middle to low-income children in developing countries, with an initial focus on India as this is where our partners are located. These individuals likely do not have internet, as 1.3 billion school-aged children do not have internet access. They also may not have a smartphone, as is the case for 55% of the developing world, especially in rural areas. However, they are likely to have a television, for example, as 75% of people in India have a TV. Lastly, they almost certainly do not have a computer, as 89% of students in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have a computer at home. COVID-19 has exacerbated the effects of these disparities, as 100 million additional children will fall below the minimum proficiency level due to insufficient remote learning resources. The need for accessible digital education is greater now more than ever.

Taking these circumstances into account, Learn Limitless provides low-cost digital educational access without requiring a PC, tablet, smartphone, or internet. We provide students offline access to educational content through the router network. With less than 10% of schools in the developing world connected to the internet, this would be tremendously impactful. Students can then use the Raspberry Pi-based PC in a multitude of ways, connecting to a monitor during school and connecting to a TV at home. At home, they can access the preloaded content on their SD card. In this model, we ensure that digital learning occurs in even the most resource-poor settings.

We have worked with an existing organization, JumpToPC, to better understand our users’ needs. They launched a product to integrate a smartphone with a keyboard and TV monitor, creating a low-cost PC. Because their goal of increasing access to digital education is similar to ours, we solicited their perspective on user needs. 

JumpToPC focuses on mobile users, while we focus on individuals who do not have smartphones. These individuals comprise 55% of the developing world and are likely to have a television. They are also likely to be cost-sensitive, so we decided to offer alternatives for most of our parts at multiple price points. This helps ensure that customers can choose the price and usability combination that works best. 

The above customizability creates a price range of $18 to $50, making it accessible for a wide range of consumers. Given the requisite components, the device can be self-assembled in minutes. The dynamic nature of Learn Limitless makes us uniquely poised to serve a large consumer base with a variety of different needs.

We have prototyped both of our products. We have tested the router and loaded sample educational content. We have also built a content library that dynamically allows for easy updates of content. We have also tested the Raspberry Pi PC in many variations (tv monitor, computer monitor, on-screen keyboard vs standard keyboard, old CRT TV as monitor, content preloaded on SD card, accessing content from router) and have confirmed that it functions properly. We are currently working on doing trials with students to receive feedback and will make adjustments accordingly.

We are also mentored by a more established organization in the same space, JumpToPC. JumpToPC is a previous Solve winner that developed a device to connect a smartphone with a keyboard and a TV monitor that costs ~$50. They are currently piloting their product in India. Given their experience and similar goals, we hope to benefit from their guidance.

We offer two low-cost, customizable solutions for digital access at school and home. 

For our first solution, we preload a USB with static versions of popular educational websites. We then mount this USB onto an affordable router. This allows devices to connect to the router network and access the content without WiFi or data. This router’s bandwidth allows for up to 30 students to browse the web and watch videos simultaneously. 

Our second solution connects a Raspberry Pi 2W device to a keyboard and a computer monitor (or a TV). Students can connect the device to a TV when at home, and connect it to a computer monitor during school hours. Students can access content by connecting to the router described above, or accessing preloaded content on their device’s SD card. This SD card can be removed from the Pi and updated at school for new content. Crucially, the consumer can choose the level of functionality desired in the keyboard (full keyboard vs mouse), size of sd card, and size of the monitor. Depending on these variables, the price ranges from $18 to $50, making this the cheapest solution available. 

Although the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W does not have the processing speed to render modern dynamic websites, its processing speed suffices for loading the static, scraped websites described above along with playing embedded videos.

Thus, these technologies work in harmony to provide an accessible, customizable, and affordable digital learning solution.

Currently, Learn Limitless is in prototype mode. However, in the coming year, we plan to launch an initial pilot with 100 students in a school in India. Our partner, JumpToPC, has experience piloting educational products in rural Indian schools. We will utilize their vast network to connect with a school. Ideally, this school would be in a remote location, where students do not have internet or mobile connectivity at home or school. 

The pilot would focus on improving early learning for elementary-school-aged children. We would demo our solution to teachers, parents, and students to get full support. Additionally, we would measure the change in learning outcomes via standardized assessments and compare that to the previous years’ outcomes in order to gauge the effectiveness of the solution. 

By improving the learning outcomes of school children, we can empower communities as a whole and work to lift them out of digital poverty, even if they do not have internet access or smartphones. 

We have three areas for impact – curating offline content for our solution, launching our devices, and forming partnerships with educational nonprofits and hardware suppliers.

For the first goal, we plan to augment Khan Academy with other educational resources online. Given that we preload offline educational content, we want to make sure that students are receiving the best of what the internet can offer. We also plan to develop lesson plans that correspond to the videos to provide teachers a template for “flipped classroom” learning, an evidence-based model. Structured lesson plans along with computer-aided education are among the most effective interventions for improving education quality in the developing world. 

For the next goal, we would like to conduct an initial pilot with 100 devices, geared towards elementary-school students, in a school with limited mobile and internet connectivity. Our partner, JumpToPC, has extensive connections with schools in rural India as well as experience conducting pilots. By launching a pilot, we can get a sense of the specific impact Learn Limitless can have on the community.

Thirdly, we would like to partner with other related educational nonprofits such as Educate Girls and Pratham. Ultimately, we would like our solution to aid them in their efforts to educate the developing world. We would also love to partner with nonprofit hardware organizations such as Raspberry Pi, in order to secure better distribution channels.

We plan to collect measurements on user satisfaction, the number of devices in use, the number of students using our devices, the number of classrooms using our devices, and the average length of time each day they use the device. We would measure the quality of the offline preloaded content by comparing learning gains on standardized tests to historical data. Because our devices are not connected to the internet, teachers would ask students to report these numbers and inform us accordingly. 

There are several moderate barriers. Firstly, there is currently a semiconductor chip shortage which has led to a shortage of single board computers, such as Raspberry Pi. Given that we want a relatively small number of devices, 100, we hope to acquire enough Raspberry Pis this year. This shortage is expected to be resolved this year. Secondly, in order to deploy 100 devices, we would have to install Raspberry Pi OS on 100 SD cards which would require a reasonable amount of effort on our part due to our limited resources. Thirdly, we would need funding for the pilot and we need to finalize our partner school. Mentorship from the Solve community would be tremendously helpful when navigating these challenges.

Akhila came up with the idea when she traveled to India to visit her family. She encountered Iniya, an 8-year-old girl, living on the same street that did not have access to quality remote education as she did not have smartphones, internet, or computers. Iniya used Khan Academy on Akhila’s computer, and she quickly picked up basic subtraction and addition on her own in under two hours. Akhila, using her knowledge of Raspberry Pi, was inspired to create a low-cost device that would work effectively in these resource-poor situations. 

Our other team member, Soumya, has experience leading deployment for JumpToPC, an education company serving Indian villages. To solicit feedback for JumpToPC, she has visited Chandauli village in Uttar Pradesh, Palghar, Sanjegaon, Jawhar in Maharashtra, and Udupi, Puttur, Karkala, Manipal in the southern region of Karnataka. She has demo-ed JumpToPC to teachers, farmers, and students in these areas. By conducting various demos and feedback sessions, she has gained an in-depth knowledge of user needs along with the educational landscape. She is uniquely positioned to develop relationships with the community with her extensive experience of cultural norms and languages. Her vast experience translating user feedback into product improvements will be invaluable for our efforts. 

Our combined experiences in both technological innovation and cultural know-how make us well-situated to deploy Learn Limitless.

We currently partner with JumpToPC, a previous Solve winner, working to provide access to digital technology in rural regions in India. Their device pairs a smartphone with a TV to provide a PC-like solution. Because of their experiences in deployment and understanding local context, they will be able to guide us on user needs as well as deployment logistics. Our audience is slightly different, as our solution does not require mobile data or a smartphone, but we expect there will be overlap. 

Learn Limitless was conceived and prototyped by Akhila, who is a 17-year-old girl. 

Project Drawdown ranked girls’ education as the #6 best investment for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even higher than many green technologies. Research has estimated that girls’ education can avoid over 51.48 gigatons of carbon emissions by 2050.  This is because the expansion of girls’ education can reduce the expected world population by 2 billion people by 2050, due to lower birth rates. 

Our solution substantially reduces the cost of digital access through offline preloaded educational content as well as reusing existing components such as TVs. This focus on reusing components also advances sustainability through decreasing e-waste, as computer parts contain toxic metals such as lead oxide, cadmium, and mercury that are difficult to dispose of. Through our solution, girls, who otherwise would not have been able to, can receive a quality online education. 

Mentorship from HP, due to their unique position as a consumer electronics company, would be invaluable for us as we navigate challenges such as sourcing boards during the semiconductor chip shortage and making our solution more usable for first-time PC users. The financial grant associated with the prize would also be tremendously helpful for funding our pilot.

In Africa, 97 million children attend school, but 37 million still fail to learn basic skills. The low quality of education, exacerbated by large classroom sizes, inexperienced teachers, and a lack of personalized attention, leads to high drop-out rates throughout the developing world. A quality education empowers girls to break the generational cycle of poverty. In fact, it is estimated that quality universal secondary education would eliminate child marriage.

Digital learning has the potential to address the above quality issues by providing high-quality, personalized content. Our solution lowers the barriers to digital education by providing the cheapest solution thus far to resource-poor areas that lack smartphones, internet, or tablets. Our solution utilizes the TV as a monitor, low-cost single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, and curated offline content to provide quality education at an affordable price point. In addition, we include socio-emotional content geared towards girls that helps them deal with negative societal pressures. Lastly, this digital content can be integrated with the school via a flipped-classroom approach, an evidence-based method that improves school quality.

A grant from the Posen Social Innovation Prize would be greatly helpful in launching our pilot of 100 devices. A confirmed source of funding would allow us to negotiate with manufacturers for cheaper rates as well as approach schools to host our pilot.