Engaging stakeholders across the education system for holistic EdTech solutions

• In Event: Unlocking the potential of EdTech for effective learning by engaging communities

Proposal

This presentation features a digitally supported learning platform for schools in the low and middle-income country (LMIC) context with the primary aim of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). As of July 2023, the platform has over 200,000 monthly active students predominantly in Kenyan pre-primary government schools. Across 2022 and 2023 the platform is being evaluated by an externally-run randomized control trial in Kenya. Provisional midline results indicate that the platform generates a learning uplift comparable to around the top 10% of education interventions measured in the LMIC context.

A critical component of the platform’s impact and scale is the holistic approach to engaging a variety of stakeholders across the education system in the communities we operate in. Foundational to the platform is its student-facing Digital Personalized Learning (DPL) tool. Students engage individually with learning content through one or two lost cost devices in classrooms. Content is personalized based on each learner’s individual history and performance using personalization algorithms which are continuously evaluated to ensure their efficacy. The content is either linked to the relevant lessons a teacher has taught on any given day or a teacher is free to choose an area they want their learners to focus on. This balance is a key element of effectively engaging teachers, where sufficient structured support is given where needed while a free choice is available where desired.

The platform includes digitized content from the Tayari program, a proven high-impact structured pedagogy program designed for the Kenyan curriculum. As part of this program, teachers receive training and digital lesson plans along with structured feedback from government teacher trainers. These teacher trainers are another vital member of the community which the platforms engages. Teacher trainers also receive dedicated training and a software tool to enable their support work. This trainer tool helps trainers identify schools that may need support in addition to helping them plan their visits and structure their feedback sessions.

A final key member of the community the platform engages with are the policymakers in government who are provided with high level analysis and dashboards of how their education systems are evolving over time. Critically all personal data is encrypted locally on devices to ensure the privacy of all stakeholders involved.

Identifying and engaging stakeholders in the community is a key component to unlocking the potential of EdTech interventions. By engaging with stakeholders on every level the platform is able to ensure support across the whole education system rather than as an isolated intervention, creating a promising opportunity to accelerate learning outcomes in the LMIC context.

Author

• Aidan Friedberg, EIDU