Tackling Education Data Deficits In Contexts of Intermittent Connectivity

and Power:

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Open Learning Architecture

2 October 2024

Introduction: Building the literacy and numeracy skills children need to achieve their full potential

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SECTION 1

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Education is the foundation

for a better life

Literacy and numeracy increase economic mobility, family strength and community connection — benefits that are multigenerational

Gains in literacy are associated with increases in life expectancy and overall health, especially for girls

Children with stronger literacy and numeracy skills are more likely to stay in school and be employed in higher-skilled jobs

A country’s GDP growth is correlated with the learning gains of its children

Wealth

Literacy + �Numeracy

Health

Employment + Financial Strength

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• Severely overcrowded classrooms
• Insufficient teacher training/absenteeism
• Scarcity of instructional materials
• Lack of electricity and connectivity

There are over 180 million primary school children in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are currently operating in 7 countries

Imagine is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa as our model is uniquely well-suited to overcoming critical systemic challenges:

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• Adaptive software includes a full, culturally appropriate curriculum created by our software partner onebillion
• Each primary school-aged child learns on a tablet (used by an average of 5 students per day for 30-60 mins each)
• Tablet sessions supplement teacher-led instruction with children learning at their own pace
• Learning software is available in multiple languages: English, Chichewa, French, Swahili and Portuguese
• Tablets work without internet connectivity and are charged through solar-power

Imagine and our partners designed the program to overcome major systemic barriers and serve children in the most difficult environments

We provide a massively scalable learning solution

• Provision of all required equipment during initial rollout
• Use of existing structures at schools
• Tablets are stored in existing storage room or head-teachers office or classrooms
• Tablets are used in students’ regular classrooms
• Program is integrated into regular teaching structure and timetable
• Whole classroom approach, i.e. targeted grades/standards can use the tablets for one full period

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Proposed design: integrated, school-based implementation

• Long battery life (12-14 hours)
• Screen protector and protective bumper to increase durability
• Replaceable parts (i.e. battery, screens) are screwed in rather than glued on for easy replacements in-the-field
• Estimated life cycle of 4-5 years when used correctly
• This can be extended by replacing the battery and screens as needed, rather than replacing the entire tablet
• Tablets are ‘locked’, i.e. they can only be used with the learning software, which is installed during manufacture. This disincentives theft

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Tablets are custom-made for frequent child use

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Solar power

Solar systems are installed by Technical Service Providers.

• Schools are outfitted with solar panels, solar batteries and an inverter
• Power runs from the solar panels into a secure cage which houses the solar batteries, inverter, and tablets (see next slide)

Challenges of robust data collection with poor/ intermittent connectivity

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SECTION 2

Challenges and Limitations

5800

3.5M

Wifi Routers are not able to:

• Manage connections to large numbers of tablets
• Collect and store tablet session data until it can be synced to the cloud, requiring very labour intensive manual USB data extraction
• Repeatedly attempt to connect to the internet to transmit data without error or manage the volume of data being transmitted
• Provide reliable or up to date data to monitor devices and infrastructure performance

Learners are not able to:

• be identified and have their own unique profile
• track and continue from where they left off in previous sessions
• have their own personalized learning journey to accelerate learning outcomes

SCHOOL SITES

LEARNERS

930K

Tablets:

• Lose track of accurate time affecting validity of session time data
• At offline schools, manual USB data extraction from individual tablets involves a manual process prone to error, e.g. lost and corrupt files.
• Cannot easily be monitored remotely in terms of location, battery, usage etc

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TABLETS

Over the next few years, the program will reach millions of Standard 1-4 learners in Malawi with almost a million tablets in almost 6,000 schools. A number of current challenges will compound as we scale:

These challenges will compound as we scale beyond Malawi as well

Descriptive Analytics

Diagnostic Analytics

Predictive & Prescriptive Analytics

Identify missing building blocks

Investigate patterns in drop-offs and errors

Ascertain where learners are likely to get stuck or drop off

Ascertain how learning challenges and disabilities manifest

Conduct causal path analysis links behind metrics

Show a more comprehensive set of metrics from tablet learning data

Develop concept heatmap to surface most common knowledge gaps / faults

Identify drop offs and develop illustrative funnel

What is happening?

Figure how to get feedback directly from learners

Why is it happening?

What is likely to happen? Can we improve outcomes?

Develop prioritised list of actions to redirect selected profiles of learners on their journey and improve their learning

Run A/B experiments on actions and modifications affecting learning

Individual learner tracking is essential to build deeper intelligence about learners’ journeys in order to accelerate learning gains

Currently the tablet does not know who the learner is. At the start of each session, the learner completes a short diagnostic assessment to determine proficiency and placement on the learning pathway. This significantly limits the degree of personalization possible.

A solution for educational data collection and management for low connectivity environments

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SECTION 2

Provide operational management and visibility for 1000s of sites, 100,000s pieces of equipment, and 1,000,000s of learners

Allow for identification of individual learners, to deeply personalize learning paths, conduct A/B testing experiments and enable AI-supported learning in the future.

INDIVIDUAL LEARNER TRACKING

VISIBILITY

Manage the collection of learning session data from tablets, as well as data from monitoring implementations practices - to virtually eliminate use of USBs.

DATA COLLECTION

Allow for remote software updates to improve learning experience and content, and remote device management and tracking for variety of equipment.

DEVICE MANAGEMENT

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The only way to sustainably address data collection and other challenges is to develop a robust, integrated, fit-for-purpose platform to administrate large-scale roll-outs.

OPERATES WITH INTERMITTENT OR POOR INTERNET CONNECTIVITY

Open Learning Architecture (OLA)

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TABLET APPLICATIONS MANAGEMENT

CLASS & LEARNER MANAGEMENT

INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT

Manage individual sessions on learning apps, learner authentication and access, and collection of session data, for onebillion or any other software used.

Manage remotely all equipment - solar systems, batteries, routers, tablets, servers, databases

Monitor program implementation across all schools, complete surveys, support data collection and track inventory.

Proposed Technology Ecosystem

required to scale with fidelity

onebillion

SCHOOL MONITORING

Manage roster of learners across standards and classes, consolidate session data.

Deploy

Monitor

Administrate

Aggregate and individual learning progress

Hardware uptime and system performance

Manage student roster and learner activity

Roll out software updates in offline schools

Improve

Research into usage and effectiveness of learning and support software

Run A/B experiments on modifications affecting learning

Prioritize ISP capacity for school oversight

School internet connectivity status

Provide role based access control

Device delivery schedule and installation status

Prioritize TSP capacity for efficient installation

Manage hardware purchase orders & invoices

Manage purchased assets in warehouse

Personalize learning paths

Manage repairs and maintenance of hardware

Manage logistics of device delivery to schools

Track assets post deployment in schools

Reminders for asset maintenance schedules

OLA will provide the foundation for critical BEFIT programmatic functions

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OLA will become a destination for timely, high quality and reliable data for evidence-based decision making

School infrastructure data including number of classrooms, washroom facilities, lighting, etc. is difficult to keep up to date

Our goal with OLA is to develop a digitalized Education Management Information System (EMIS) for countries

Children with disabilities or special needs and orphans are often not accounted

Daily attendance written down manually on paper and often unreadable

Data on teacher qualifications, trainings, attendance is fragmented and inaccurate

Current education management is fraught with unreliable and outdated data systems

Teacher companion apps will become a pivotal point of data collection across the educational hierarchy

Enrolment data collected on paper by teachers, sent to district and consolidated somewhere at the start of the term

OLA Development Update

Iterative development, testing, piloting, rollout

• Version 0.5, Q1 - Q3 2024 �Focuses on more robust, easier data collection in online and offline schools.
• Version 1.0, Q2 - Q4 2024 �Introduces the web portal for better operational management, as well as data security ready for identification.
• Version 2.0, Q2 2024 - Q1 2025 �Enables learner identification using visual and voice identification; biometric data are stored locally.

School Router

Student Tablets

Management Device

OLA Cloud Database and Dashboards

4G Connectivity

Session Data

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