Design team members: Gobind Johar, Jenny Lu, Yifan Tong
Supervisor: Prof. Stacey Scott
Background
According to the latest statistics released by the United Nations, approximately 73 million children of primary school age do not have access to education, and many more are under chronic threat of dropping out due to low education quality, discrimination, and exclusion, as well as other challenges including poverty, health epidemics, and war [1].
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals, agreed upon in September 2000 by 189 nations around the world, encompass universally accepted human rights – freedom from hunger, the right to basic education, the right to health, and a responsibility to future generations – and are targeted to be achieved by 2015. Specifically, Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education, mandates: “Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling” [2]. Bold policy measures have been implemented to significantly scale up and accelerate progress towards education targets. The surge in school enrolment when a country moves to free schooling has been seen to disrupt teaching quality and bring immense challenges to the entire learning infrastructure, including class sizes, education materials, and school facilities [3].
Project description
The team proposes a solution for matching volunteers with students enrolled in educational systems struggling to maintain the quality of education in the face of increased demand in one-on-one tutoring sessions of basic subjects such as English and mathematics, leveraging online collaboration technologies and increasing computer and wireless access in low-income countries through initiatives such as Microsoft’s Partners in Learning programme.
The proposed solution consists of three components: platform, collaboration technologies, and user interface. The platform shall provide scheduling and optimization functionalities to match availabilities, interests, and skills of volunteers to the needs of individual students. At minimum, two complementary collaboration technologies shall be implemented to facilitate communication and interaction between volunteers and students, particularly supporting the demonstration of concepts in basic subjects including English and mathematics. The user interface shall fully expose functionalities of the platform and implemented collaboration technologies in an intuitive manner for a non-technical audience.
Design methodology
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Design constraints and selection criteria:
The design constraints and selection criteria are specified adhering to best practices in online learning environments, summarized from the technical research and requirement gathering phases.
- The selected design must be implemented using Microsoft tools and technology, to best leverage sizeable gains made by Microsoft’s Partners in Learning programme.
- The selected design must be implemented within a time period of four months and subject to meeting specified deliverables throughout the design process.
- Ease of use. The selected design must incorporate intuitive navigation systems and audio and visual cues, to accommodate the anticipated lack of familiarity with computer use for the students.
- Data usage requirements. Collaboration technologies and modes of interaction must require minimal data transfer, to accommodate anticipated limits in speed and bandwidth.
- Session duration. Tutoring sessions should be flexible in duration, based on individual student needs. Suggested session lengths range from 30 to 90 minutes.
- Session scheduling. Effectiveness of scheduling functionalities is evaluated based on the number of suitable matches generated, given similar sets of volunteer availabilities and student requests.
- Progress tracking. The selected design should support progress tracking and reporting to provide the necessary understanding of student strengths and weaknesses for individualizing instruction.
- Synchronous vs. asynchronous interaction. Selected collaboration technologies should represent a blend of synchronous and asynchronous interaction.
- Control of medium. The selected design should enable the student to control and interact with the selected collaboration technologies.
- Recorded sessions. The selected design may include tools or features for recording sessions for post-session sharing and distribution.
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Technical Research
Technical research is conducted to identify available Microsoft tools and technology that provide support for components of the solution.
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Requirement Gathering
A series of one-on-one interviews are conducted, both from the perspective of volunteers and that of primary school students in developing countries.
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Design
Based on results from technical research, requirement gathering, and feasibility analyses, detailed designs and functional specifications are to be generated for each component of the solution.
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Implementation and Testing
Components are first implemented independently according to detailed designs and functional specifications. Components are then integrated into a single solution. Unit testing and integration testing will be conducted to ensure functionality.
References
[1] Nisha Chatani-Rizvi, April 5, 2006. Lessons learned: African countries share experiences with abolition of school fees. Accessed October 13, 2009. http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index_33182.html
[2] United Nations, September 25, 2008. GOAL 2: Achieve universal primary education. Accessed October 13, 2009. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/newsroom/Goal%202%20FINAL.pdf
[3] The United Nations Girls' Education Initiative, April 2006. School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) Workshop: Building on What We Know and Defining Sustained Support. Accessed October 13, 2009. http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/files/HighlightsSFAIWorkshopNairobiApril2006.pdf