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Session Submission Summary

Highlighted Session: Learning from EdTech Covid-19 responses toward building back with greater equity

Mon, April 18, 6:00 to 7:30am CDT (6:00 to 7:30am CDT), Pajamas Sessions, VR 120

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Overview:
To strengthen the evidence base on EdTech use in the COVID-19 response, and to better understand how different distance learning modalities had reached different groups of learners, EdTech Hub has funded 10 independent primary research projects to carry out short-term primary research on topics including radio-based learning in rural Bangladesh and Ghana, remote teacher training and data systems in Sierra Leone, personalised adaptive learning in Pakistan, and the use of text-message nudges to influence caregiver behaviour in Ghana. Research was designed to respond to government priority areas and researchers are working with government decision makers to encourage use of this evidence in their ongoing distance learning efforts. Each piece of research is looking at some of the most marginalised children in these countries, including rural students, children living in slums and marginalised girls, and so findings will speak directly to equity issues in policy.
Authors of three of these studies (abstracts below) will present their findings in this panel session, bringing out lessons learned from the COVID-19 response, and showing how these findings have shifted practise to improve learning outcomes for the most marginalised. The panel will set out their findings, including voices from teachers, students and policy makers facing COVID-19 school closures, explore policy implications from analysis across the studies, and look forward to discuss how technology can be used to build back equitably. The research is focussed on the most marginalised learners in the countries studied, and the chair will ensure that equity is kept at the centre of the conversation around the immediate and on-going response to COVID-19. The variety in country and thematic focus will be drawn together coherently through an exploration of equity.
Questions answered through the panel will include:
Who benefitted from distance learning during COVID-19 school closures, and how were they reached?
What were the barriers for others to continue their education while schools were closed?
How should governments use the findings from this research to improve resilience and equity in their education systems?
Our independent discussant will interrogate findings, and audience interaction will be encouraged. This will also give valuable insights into the preliminary research, helping us to finalise research and understand the most vital lessons to share.
Format:
Proposed format is as follows:
Introductions
Part I: Presentation on preliminary research findings from contributors
Time for clarification questions following the group of presentations
Part II: Cross-study analysis of policy implications of research
Remarks from the discussant pushing for further information on rigour and use of research
Question and answer session with the audience, moderated by the chair.
To improve interaction and keep audience members engaged, each contribution will make only a short presentation, and the majority of the time will be spent on conversation with the discussant and audience.
Equity:
Contributors to the symposium will be carefully selected to represent the diverse research community, and include researchers from EdTech Hub’s partner countries alongside globally recognised researchers from the UK, as well as a good gender mix - as presented indicatively above. Additionally, the research presented will be methodologically diverse, grants were given for a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research to give rounded information on the use of EdTech in the COVID-19 response:
Impact: RCTs and quasi-experimental research on the impact of interventions on student learning outcomes; and
Experience: qualitative studies will shed more light on the experience, opportunities and barriers faced by learners and teachers in the COVID-19 response.

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations