Affordable Smart Board for Playful and Interactive Learning

Problem to be solved: Affordability and reach of advanced technology based digital learning with conventional solutions e.g. a smart boards or whiteboards(say, with projector), or touch panel(with a computer/laptop) allows access only to a small percentage of students.

These solutions are practically not available for the Bottom of Pyramid segment (rural and urban) because of cost and other issues. Even if available, they are mostly used by teachers, and do not facilitate frequent use directly by students - costly and fragile equipment. 

Even in urban areas, and in most schools, not every classroom can use the advanced technology solutions for interactive learning. The lack of easy portability, equipment cost, and handling risks are other limiting factors. Specifically, some of the top challenges faced by rural students in India* are on - learning outcomes, access to advanced learning tools, Financial constraint, Sports training and equipment, After school activities, English Communication, Digital Literacy(access), Access to schools(transport and cost), Sanitation(in schools), Personal attention.(* - Ref: https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/challenges-of-rural-students-in-india-1703143-2020-07-22)

Scale: Each village can use our solution, although it is not necessary for each village to keep/own one since it can be designed to be portable. A teacher can carry it to the villages once a week, or rural schools can buy one or more and circulate these in the classrooms. There are more than six lac villages only in India. Then there are urban underprivileged students also. 

Even for other students, our solution can be provided as an additional smart board to play with. The concept of our solution can be scaled down to be affordable for even middle class students and for use at home. Parents can also design tests, or we can provide a platform with lot of content/tests which can be accessed by all students. So, scale can be increased based on many factors beyond what is described above.

Our solution despite its simplicity can achieve a lot for those for whom the much costlier solutions are out of reach.

How many people are, will be, affected?

As indicated above, all who are unlikely to have access to advanced solutions in foreseeable future can be affected. Only for the village market, with six lac villages, and say, 10 students per village(elder enough to use the board), we can say that it can affect 6 million students. Our solution, as it is has not yet been used by target users, but feedback has been positive by all users(school representative) who have used an advanced technology solution with same format of testing and learning, but it has much higher cost. In that solution, the touch on a flat surface was captured by a rotary laser sensor. We have designed a simple board to provide same functionality.

Which factors contributing to the problem relate to your solution?

As per the ten challenges of rural learning shared above, our solution addresses eight of them if it used in rural schools - except access to school and sanitation, and all of them if used within a village. It can be used in both schools and villages.

What is it?

A simplified digital learning solution which comprise of a software based test and some hardware. The software is in the format of a set of multiple choice questions and their answers. It can be run using a computer, or in planned development using an app on a mobile phone. The interactivity with this software is enabled using the hardware - an affordable smart board with sensors and electronic unit to handle the data of touch by a user. The board is designed according to the needs of the software. The current prototype of the solution is shown in the video. The smart board includes a board(structural frame), a layer of conducting material(sensor), and an electronic unit(sensor data integration with the software). The software runs a session of a multiple choice question answer, which can be called a test. In the prototype, we have displayed only one question and its answers. The answers to the questions can be words or pictures, which can be real or virtual. The prototype shows real pictures. In further development, we can display the answers on the board using a projector.

What does our solution do?

It provides an affordable and playful digital learning experience to students. They can be tested for quality of learning, with or without markings(for practice). Their entire performance can be recorded and analysed in digital form. It can be done when they are at school, and/or right inside their village/colony/home as a side activity or as a formal one - a teacher visiting say, a village each week and testing all students. Our solution does not necessarily need internet connection because a lot of content and a testing software (an app) can be loaded on a smart  phone. New content can be loaded, when required, when one* has access to internet or from their computers. * - could be teachers or a village SPOC. The performance data of each student can be integrated with a national level IT platform. 

How does our solution work?

It is a simplified smart board currently designed(customized) only for a multiple choice question answer format - shown in the video. So, on a screen(the board itself, in the video) there are four quadrants, which can capture four options of an answer, which can be in the form of words or pictures. A user is asked a question. In response, the user touches the screen for an answer choice. Say, for example, we ask a question, "When should one wash hands after coming from school to stay safe from corona", and answer choices are, "1. first thing when you enter home and with soap, 2. after changing clothes and without soap, 3. after hugging mom, 4. after eating your food". Now if choice 1. is shown in first quadrant and student touches 2nd quadrant, the touch signal is sent to a computer(or an app) for analysis, and student gets an indication - a red light or a prerecorded audio,"wrong answer". So forth and so on. A session/test can comprise of many such questions focused on a particular topic. The answers for another question can be in the form of pictures, which can be like flashcards(as shown in the video) or can be virtual(projected on the board, using a portable projector). The board may be covered by a white screen for display of virtual pictures. The learning or testing session embodied in the software can be designed to run using a smart phone also. Our solution is amenable to practically limitless content, and can be customised in many ways. For example, the smart board can be used as a touch pad for remote use(small sized, like a remote control), or as a display come interactive panel(big size). Besides, it can be designed according to different designs of the games to be played using the board. As an example, many of the games played on Lumosity can be integrated with our smart board.

Similar tests can be created based on a chapter a student has read. This can be done with or without marking, learning practice and testing, respectively. 

Just using the above described format itself, a lot can be achieved. The limitless content could help people learn about agriculture, hygiene, educational content, or games can be designed with educational content(e.g. similar to those in Lumosity). Our solution can also be used in healthcare to support patients of mental health. 

Besides all the above for the existing design, as in the demo, the design of the board can be customized to another format - e.g. to capture the "touch" at more than 4 points. We also plan to improve it and hope to make one where the touch can be captured at any location on a screen but it needs significant R&D. One way how we plan to do it is using the technology used in touch screen of a smart phone but we will use an opaque conductive screen, on which any kind of educational game or software can be displayed and user's touch captured at any location on the screen. 

Note - As per the above description, at least at present our solution is not a substitute for the advanced technology solutions currently available in the market. It is like a different product catering to its own market, which at present is nearly uncaptured and is unlikely to be captured by those much costlier and advanced products. 

Our solution is also very sturdy. Rural students can even punch it and it will either not break or can be repaired very easily, in terms of technical challenge and cost of equipment/parts. 

Who are they?

Those students who have no access to digital learning solutions - rural students and urban poor. 

In what ways are they currently underserved?

They have practically no access to advanced digital learning tools and equipment - smart boards, white boards, and touch panels. 

How will the solution address their needs?

Their is no easy way to monitor their quality of learning, with poor outcomes. Our solution can help improve their quality of learning, with more frequent testing and monitoring. Our solution can be integrated into a national level platform with standardised content. For some of the content, the same can be done globally also, e.g. a child in rural Africa can be tested for his or her skills in basic maths. The possibility of integrating performance of each student on a national platform is a very cumbersome task if done manually. Even if the entire platform is there - our solution is that last mile tool that will enable the students to connect to that platform. A substitute is that each can be given a smart phone and does an online test, regularly, but that would not involve a teacher and phone can easily be lost or damaged. Of course, a shared phone given to a village SPOC can be circulated among students, but it is very difficult to eliminate an instructor - the teacher - especially for the target students.

Proximity: I have direct access to many rural students. For sales to schools, we will have to visit the buyers – private and government.

Representation and understanding of needs: I have dealt personally with many students from rural background to understand their problems, which are quite similar to but not limited to those described in the article on challenges in rural education.

Engagement during development – During demos in a city with a different version of the solution (not ours) all students liked it. That solution used similar but advanced software with much costlier hardware (rotary laser sensor) to find the location of touch by a user.

Design guidance (from a fundamental perspective) – We are offering a motorised bicycle instead of a flying car. Ours is a simplified version of what is well established and used worldwide by all kinds of students. If schools where students from underprivileged background study could afford those solutions the same students would use them or will be trained for that purpose. We are only using technology to make an affordable and significant outcome based version of what is already being done and growing.

Besides, by virtue of enabling easy and direct access of our hardware to the students it enables something that may be very difficult with advanced technologies – not all students are frequently allowed to touch a touch panel then how can they be tested without any additional gadgets. A classroom with a touch panel can also use our smart board and can test each student. In wireless version it can be taken to each seat. In a miniaturised version it can be embedded in each desk – a touch pad in each desk to interact with the big touch panel display used in front of the classroom. The concept of our solution can enable real time quality monitoring of learning at school for each student - a 10 question test after leach lecture!

Essentially, it is the financial barrier. But it will be great to get help on other aspects too, and that our solution gets used quickly by more and more students, especially in the target segment.  Solve may also help us enable access to organisations or individuals who would like to make and use our solution in different locations/markets. It will take us much longer to do it alone, and hence the impact will be delayed. We believe our solution can be used worldwide, with resulting benefits to all students, especially the underprivileged ones.

Background: An already existing solution used a rotary laser sensor to determine location of user’s touch on a screen/flat surface on which pictures were displayed using a projector. The sensor used in that solution could determine the location anywhere on the display but it was much costlier. Moreover, the software was just a multiple choice question answer format. 

Our innovation: 

Summary: Affordability, frequent and direct access for students irrespective of background, easy portability, low risk of device damage and losses during handling, transport, and use. 

Details: The motivation for what we have developed was to enable interactivity only for what is required in that software, and with significant cost reduction. Additionally, our solution eliminates the need for, and the risk of damage of a costly sensor. This is all the more important when we want to give direct and frequent access to students - something they directly touch, especially a portable access. That software alone used regularly can have a big impact on quality of learning for those who are highly unlikely to have access to any of the advanced solutions which are currently used in the market. Commonly the advanced solutions have many different features and abilities but that is an overkill for the purpose of frequent testing of students. So, our solution is currently focused on doing only that. 

Test is already supposed to be an integral part of learning - each chapter has practice questions which not all students attempt. Even if they do they cannot be tested as regularly even for practice, because the alternatives are either much costlier or cumbersome (manual). as an alternative to our solution, a mobile phone or tab can be given to each teacher, but allowing all students to handle it, especially in rural areas is till a challenge. Our solution also needs very less power - can be run using a USB port of a computer, or a battery of equivalent capacity.

The simplicity and low risk advantage of our solution also address the issue of community factors* that influence the adoption of ICTs in the rural education(Ref):

• a provision for unbiased technology access to children – our solution enables and necessitates automatic and transparent reporting of performance of each student. System of manual complaints is practically ineffective.
• the need to maximise application of local language within technology and content  - our solution enables standardisation of content based on local dialect also, although it will need more effort; and
• equipping teachers with technological skills while creating positive attitudes toward technology adoption – our solution is simple and easy to handle physically. Teachers will always be concerned about responsibility of carrying or using costly equipment. The lesser they have to handle the better it is. Ref: https://itidjournal.org/index....

Note - everything in italics above has been taken from the reference link shared.

Summary:

• Prerequisites* for the impact goals
• Impact goals**(and execution options)
  • 1st year: we plan (and hope) to reach 3 lac students by end of 1st year
  • 5th year: proportionately, we should be able to reach 27 lac students by end of 5th year ( 27 = 3 + 3*2*4 = 6 months of 1st year+ 48 months of rest 4 years)
  • Besides, we will make efforts to expand outside India also.

* - we will need to hire resources for the prerequisites and to achieve our impact goals.

** - we will also make efforts to reach more and more prospective customers by onsite demos( signups for future sales), participating in events and using digital marketing(especially, presence and efforts on social media networks)

Details:

Prerequisite for the impact goals: First, we will need to refine our prototype into a saleable product, and send it to the market. We believe it will take 2-3 months once we have funding. The work is not technically challenging but still needs to be done.

• We need to develop the mobile version of the software. the desktop version we have needs to be developed as a software product. We do have access to a fully functional software - that used with a rotary laser sensor. We may adapt and use it on a paid basis.
• We will need to make 5-20 units of our solution and send them into the market, to enable people to use and give us feedback for any refinements.

Impact goals:

Even though we can have two options to execute our plans, with a conservative estimate we assume our impact plans remain same in both the options. We may do better in the 2nd option in terms of final impact, reaching more students. Besides, the impact can improve by our efforts in the bulk sales opportunities – government contracts, entities which run many schools (private, non-profits), education related NGOs with nationwide presence, international agencies supporting such solutions, etc.

Option 1(preferred): Execution entirely through partners, who manufacture and sell the solution –

• They make and assemble the hardware (board with conductive layer, electronic unit) and connect it to the software (which we will give).

 They will need their time to develop or outsource and streamline their manufacturing capacity. The manufacturing of electronic units could be outsourced. We may also get them made in bulk and distribute it to them. Say, it takes them 3 months to get ready for sales.

Impact goal: 1st year

• We make 90-100 partners in one year
  • 10-12 per month(11 * 9 months), and
  • say, 3-4 in each state of India (36 states and UTs * 3-4 per state/UT)
• Each partner should be able to sell 20 units per month in 1st year (say, 6 working months after they have the manufacturing capacity), and even if each unit could be used by one classroom (fixed use), it will start having an impact on 3 lac students by end of year (100 * (20 * 6) * 25 = number of partners * (units per partner per month *  months) * students per classroom.

Impact goal (five years):

Impact goal (India): 2nd and 3rd year

• We can reach a number of 20 partners per state - There are around 740 districts in India. So, around one in each district.
• The impact on the number of students will be proportional to the number of partners, as shown in the calculations above.

 Impact goal (abroad): 4th and 5th year

• We would make around 250-500 partners outside India – 10-20 per month.
• We may also start doing it from 3nd year also.

Option 2: We make and distribute everything. Even for this we will prefer to have a manufacturing unit handled by a partner in each state.

To improve our impact, we would also try to work on supply side work plans related to IT and R&D:

• IT – new software, and improvements of existing ones (mobile and computer versions), and the national platform to integrate them, and
• R&D –
  • we have other ideas also for similar smart boards but we need to build prototypes for a comparative assessment, e.g. we can use different kinds of sensors.
  • We plan to work on improving our existing hardware to be able to determine location anywhere on our display/board. If it works well, it would enable an experience nearer to or similar to that in case of a touch panel.
• We can develop different applications using variants of out existing solution, e.g. a small version of the board can be integrated with games people can play on their advanced TVs(which can be conncted to computers and smartphones, miniaturised version can be embedded in each desk(say wireless form) in a classroom to create testing facility which can be used after each lecture, or as test rooms.

We will measure progress by

• the number of units sold per year
• the number of students we can reach every year, and ideally –
  • how many actually start using our solution and
  • how many times per year
• learning outcomes or performance data of students * (monthly or quarterly) –
  • performance of each student, and
  • average performance of each class
  • performance reports of  teachers may also be included -outcomes under a teacher’s leadership

*  -  That information will need to be obtained from schools.

Simultaneously we can rely on structured feedback from the teachers, school management, students, and parents. We can also conduct our independent testing of the students frequently by visits to schools, or villages. We can also plan regular quizzes and competitions. 

The outcome of our work: Quality of learning/Performance of the students, say rural students. Our scope of influence is making our solution available to them, training people in its use, and then monitoring for maintenance/availability and impact.

Link of performance with our solution and activities:

Link with solution (content and technology):

Content: Practice questions are always an integral part of each chapter in each subject. They are already supposed to be done. But to enforce that practice a good alternative is technology, which is already being adopted.

Technology: With use of technology, our solution, it is likely to become easier to test each student. We are only giving a digital tool for practice and marked testing, which can generate performance data for each student much more frequently for a faster feedback and trigger for corrective action. A teacher has to just start a test and make students attempt it. Not all students need to tested every day. Teacher can test 5 students per day and a class of 25 can be tested in five days. In a village visit, 10 students can be tested in a day and per week. Once testing data is generated for each student, and stored in the app/computer, everything else can be designed to work automatically. Relying on manual alternative, it may not even happen – checking that every student has done the practice questions manually is cumbersome, without enforcement they just fail to perform at end of the term. Manual testing is also less frequent because it is burdensome. There is no easy way to improve this situation. The performance data does not go frequently to higher levels, is not publicly available and on per student basis. Finally, it only ends up as a reported population level statistic with no possibility of individual level identification and improvements.

Link with activities:

The solution needs manufacturing and assembling of the parts, it has to reach students, and it has to be used by them regularly. Say, each student tested twice a month.

Scope of our activities is -

• manufacturing (hardware and software*).
• sales and distribution.
• post sales maintenance, and
• maybe, engagement in testing services. 

We plan to make agents for first three of these activities.

* - In software part we can create the national platform also, which would essentially be a centralised MIS to which data of all students can be uploaded and analysed – designed to be done at click of a button. But it might take a longer time than developing and distributing an app. It should be possible to develop the national platform also by end of 1st year. Till then, the app in a smart phone can still create analytics reports – summary or details, and upload it to a backend where some advanced analysis may also be done. In the simplest option, summary reports from app can be uploaded on a publicly available document sharing platform. Those reports can be monitored by the school management or those above them – other government officials. 

The core technology that is key enabler of our solution, and our unique contribution, is the physical overlapping of the touch sensors with our content (answer choices) such that touching (near) the content is sensed as touching the sensor. The sensor data is integrated with a testing software. We have four answer choices so we have four sensors. This works equally well for real images(say, cards) and virtual/projected images. Our board needs power to run and currently it can be operated from USB port of a computer, or we can use a small battery*. The touch data is also sent to the software through that port itself. (* -  battery functionality/compatibility is yet to be incorporated.)

Our work was completely based on availability of talent and interest of the members. There was no other criteria for inclusion or exclusion of anyone. To be specific, if 7 people worked on the development, 3-4 were women members.

Supply side: Manufacturing, Sales and Distribution through partners, who can pay us based on sales, besides a fixed fee for the know-how. We may also opt for partners, on lean profit basis, if they are themselves non-profit agencies.

Demand side: The partners can rent the solution to schools or sell it by a one time transaction like other advanced solutions are sold – e.g. touch panels.

Alternatively, we can do all the above, like any organisation which makes and sells its products, but we will prefer the above at least for wider reach along with faster execution.

We or our partners may also work as a testing agency for the educational institutions - private, non-profit, and government.

Since, our solution can also be used at homes, say people who already own projectors, computers, and smartphones, domestic users can also be a significant market segment. for them, we can create an online platform for access to content, e.g. big question bank accessible by our app, or even Lumosity kinds of games which our smart board can handle or be customised to handle.

Funding:

Initially, we may check with angel funds or seed funds. Once everything about our business and model is established, we may opt for loans or venture funds which may be interested in supporting such solutions.

We will rely on the following options:

• selling or renting our solution, after sales services, services as an external testing agency
• service contracts to governments*
• raising investment capital

No external funding has been used till now.