Train to Teach - resource platform helping educate India
Winner of the Global Goals Hackathon, 2021
In collaboration with the Rope of Hope Foundation, Indore
My Role & Skills
About
Product Designer, Researcher, Product Manager, Facilitator
User interviews, Workshop Facilitation, System Mapping, Empathy Mapping, Product goals, User Journey Mapping, Product requirement documentation, Feature prioritization, Competitive analysis, Wireframing, Information architecture, UI Design, Prototyping, Business Plan, Revenue Planning, Budgeting, Fundraising, Pitching
Duration
10 Months, March - September 2021
T2T was founded as a non-profit organization building a web-app resource platform to help volunteers working towards educating India. The founding team was an interdisciplinary group with combined experience of >12 years of working and volunteering in the Indian Education space. The application collates teaching and progress tracking tools to improve the efficiency, impact and consistency of youth groups and grassroots level NGOs working towards educating India.
The team
Pooja Issar - Communications Manager
Apeksha Gadia - Accounts Manager, Secretary
Nanak Malkani - Education Activist, On Ground Facilitator
Myself - Product Designer, Researcher, Product Manager, Facilitator
Process
This project uses methodology from the Disruptive Design Toolkit. Similar to the Double Diamond, but more systems oriented and key to successful facilitation with a cross-functional team.
Problem?
"
Learning outcomes in government primary schools in India are well below acceptable standards. Evaluations by the government and NGOs across several districts highlight alarming deficiencies in children’s learning per their stated grade level.
- Urgent needs of NGOs in the education sector, Deloitte report
REPORTS SUGGEST
50%
Students in grade 5 in rural areas are unable to read at a grade 2 level, and less than one-third are able to do basic division.”
During the pandemic
Students in grades 2-6 lost at least one ability in language and mathematics, respectively, over previous year.
36.9% and 41.7%
of the urban and rural population of students have lost their ability in language and the same trend follows in mathematics.
Interconnections
Identifying intervention points
Other Stakeholders?
The Aim
How might we increase the support for young, education focused NGOs and independent youth groups to act as efficient and consistent support systems to government school education?
Parents, Teachers: Overburdened
NGO groups: Struggling, Trial and error, Lack of networks
CONSTRAINTS
Do not burder teachers further | Do not increase student dependency on tech and the internet | Cost efficiency
Thoughts
We conducted workshops with teachers and NGO members.
How could we empathise better with the NGO teams? What is their role in this system?
IDEAS
What is realistic? What is feasible? What is necessary?
The Solution
A teaching resource aggregator, work documentation and mentor network platform for education focused NGOs and volunteers. Built as a web-app that ensures consistency, efficiency, and streamlining of NGO volunteer teaching sessions. Centralized login for NGOs and youth groups to log their process.
The MVP User Flow
FEATURES
01
Resource Access
A central database of open source teaching resources - activity videos, teaching methods, worksheets and games - categorized according to education board, language, subject, and students’ grade.
A demographics tests and filtering for volunteers to find the right resources.
02
Planning Canvas
An upcoming session planning canvas to fill out in collaboration with students and teachers at the end of every session, in anticipation of the upcoming week of classes and the next session. Canvases can be uploaded to the group’s account to save and review at any time.
03
Role Based Usage
A dashboard system which allows the core-team to generate login details for new volunteers, and ensures that everyone is on the same page. They can keep track of active members, ongoing programmes, and removing members when required.
FUTURE SCOPE
Volunteer Motivation
A gamified point-earning and positive redemption experience on the platform for volunteers to remain motivated, leading up to regular mentoring sessions with educational pioneers and leaders.
Early Feedback
The whole idea of this process is very good & efficient. The notion that we can track a student's record is very helpful. We should try to find out a child's talent or passion to try and improve their skills in that particular thing along with making him educated.
The idea in itself is impressive. Having all the resources at one place is a major plus point. Some may face issue with not knowing how to use the resources properly but I guess mentoring will be an aid to it. And learning the best techniques along with knowing a child’s weakness is all one needs to ace at their teaching skills.
FUNDING & NEXT STEPS
Unilever x Restless Development Youth Power Hacks
For context, Unilever, in partnership with Project Everyone and Restless Development, launched the Youth Power Hacks initiative in December 2020 in an effort to address pressing global challenges. The initiative spanned six countries over three months, inviting hundreds of young hackers to develop innovative solutions to a range of issues, that directly impact communities.
Ten months after the initial challenge, four winning teams emerged from the Youth Power Hacks, among them T2T, focused on Global Goal #4: Education.
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Train to Teach's solution initially secured seed funding at the competition stage and subsequently was awarded substantial funds to support its continued operations, starting in Indore, India. Next steps included Pilot tests, resource collation, building Collaborations, 1 year and 2 year budgets, Business plans, and Revenue models.
Write to me about this, I'd be happy to chat!
Watch a recap of the incredible work from the top 4 teams
Up Next
Card Game / Illustration / Early Learner Development
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