Measuring Skills Acquired Through Technology and Play

Abstract: The Top Parent app is very new and we launched the prototype in order to meet the needs of children affected due to COVID-19. The biggest barriers are, a) secure funding to help us scale rapidly and reach audiences beyond the government system; b) improve the product based on adoption and engagement data; c) develop a common assessment framework for foundational literacy and numeracy for EdTech and d) find partners who can enable us to take it to scale through their networks to reduce the cost of adoption.

Presenter: Sashwati Banerjee, Entrepreneur in Residence with the Central Square Foundation

Organization: Top Parent App

Abstract: CurrantMobile measures skills that are critical for participation in school, work, and life. The current package includes games for problem solving and conscientiousness, enabling assessment of complex cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The games allow users to exhibit (rather than self-report) a set of skills within authentic scenarios of home and work situations. CurrantMobile uses a stealth assessment approach, collecting data unobtrusively in real time while users are playing. Data collected by the games can then be combined with other cognitive data to produce a holistic view of applied skills and competencies. RTI has researched and developed game-based approaches to skills measurement since 2012, starting with a comprehensive literature review and industry consultations on critical skills and tools to measure them. Since then, we have developed and field tested three different games, measuring different skills. in different contexts.

Presenter: Carmen Stigel, Director of Technology for Education and Training and Sarah Pouezevara, Sr. e-Learning Specialist

Organization: RTI International

Abstract: Mindspark is a technology based adaptive learning program that allows students to learn and practice Math and Language. It can be used in in-school and out of school contexts. The software includes continuous student assessment, instructional games, videos, and activities from which students learn through explanations and feedback. To ensure success we apply research on how students learn, and support vernacular language instruction and leverage technology to compliment human instruction. Tutors, teachers and parents when provided with automation of tasks like assessments and grading along with continuous individual data insights can help them in supporting children to learn better. The software has been built to accentuate learning experiences for children in a low resource environment – characterized by capacity constraints, a high student to teacher ratio, lack of parental support in their academics, a wide diversity of student learning levels, and availability of trained resources.

Presenter: Ritesh Agarwal, Sr. Manager, Growth and Partnerships, Large Scale Education Programmes

Organization: Educational Initiatives

Abstract: We seek support to introduce EdTech components and their evaluations in development investments. Prior to COVID-19, the Edu-tainment program of the World Bank Development Impact Evaluation department was working with World Bank operations, the entertainment industry, and governments in SSA in testing EdTech solutions that included the provision of solar chargers and smartphones with games and books designed for low-literacy populations. A 2019 pilot (n=200 households) in northern Nigeria revealed high app use, substantial improvements in parents’ self-efficacy beliefs towards helping children to learn at home spillover effects inside and outside the household, and despite the low literacy rates, a good proportion of children explored more advanced reading apps. Leveraging our existing partnerships, we seek to scale up the distribution of pre-loaded smartphones in rural areas (and PSA campaigns to increase app downloads for smartphone owners. We have funding for the latter).

Presenter: Victor Orozco, Senior Economist

Organization: The World Bank