The tutorial material produced by Learn365® is available through tablets and smart mobile phones. Currently, the material is produced for students from grade 7 through 10 on the subjects English, Math, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. In the future, other subjects and grade levels will be covered and made available. The lessons on the videos are aligned with the chapters and lessons in the student’s textbook according to the Ethiopian curriculum. The tutorial material works online and offline, which makes it convenient for both students and parents.
Each lesson in the tutorial material is presented by highly experienced teachers using videos and graphics. After each lesson, the students are presented with some questions so that they can evaluate their understanding. At the end of each chapter, the student will receive a test administered from a “question bank”, a regularly updated collection of regional and national exams from the past five plus years. Any further question by the students will be addressed by a team of teachers. Moreover, the material provides a regular report to parents about the progress their child is making, such as which subjects they have studied for, how long they have studied for, whether they have done the exercises and the test, and more.
In addition to what has been listed above the Learn365© tutorial material in particular has the following advantages:
The world is becoming one global community especially through the digital technology and the internet. To make the world a safer and better place, we should invest on the youth to come to the forefront in all our collective endeavors. The number of youth in Ethiopia is above 41,000,000 out of the total population of around 120,000,000. These youth should be supported to become productive citizens and contributors to the peace of the nation. It is their aspiration to contribute to the transformation of their society. Youth should be able to enjoy their inherent human privilege and dignity, by benefitting from the society they live in and giving back as productive members. They naturally want to transform themselves and contribute positively to their communities. To make sure they do so in the world which is more digitalized and globalized by the minute, they have to be well equipped with digital knowledge, skills, attitudes and qualities. Our youth should be empowered to play a major part in transforming their communities, country, Africa and the world. We intend to develop accessible and equitable digital interventions now and in the future for all youth in Ethiopia. Therefore, the following make up elements of the framework for our immediate exertions:
The future of work is here and now in digital technology. We are faced with continuous challenges; hence, we need a problem solver state of mind. The digital world provides the youth with a platform to advance in this fast-changing world. The natural state of the youth like high energy, flexibility of mind and easy mobility, are better served with the digital platform. The digital world is the now and the future. Digital technology lays the foundation for students’ future life and future jobs. It benefits youth to cope up with the constantly shifting job market. Future jobs will be mostly technology enabled jobs. Technology is a key enabler for future jobs through employment and job creation. 80% of new jobs being created are as a result of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are becoming more digitalized by the day. The Learn365 digital video support material is just a little step in the preparation of the youth for the jobs in the future. Digital technology can meaningfully contribute in the developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the students to become better employees, self-employed individuals or businesses. This extensive horizon needs to be kept explored and addressed with commitment.
We have been keen ever since the start of the project on transferring of knowledge and skills in the production of the video support materials from our team in India to our team in Ethiopia. Local teachers can write contents and present the lessons with the relevant language and subject matter for the different regions. We want to extend this effort and get local teachers in writing content, directing the recording, and presenting the lessons.
Therefore, if we can expand the horizon and reach out teachers in a large scale, the material should:
Local talent should also be raised in the technical production of the videos and other innovations we embark on in the future. These include videography, video editing, sound recording, sound editing, directing, animation, graphic designing, promotion, marketing, managing, etc. Youth, especially young girls should be encouraged and supported to play a leading role in these areas.
To achieve gender equality, girls and young women need equal access to technology, the internet and digital trainings, to develop their knowledge, skill and attitude to benefit from the opportunities in the digital world. The biggest gender gap in internet access is seen in the least developed nations in the world, where it is more than 30%. Africa has the widest disparity. Without equal access to technology and the internet, girls and women are not able to equally participate in our society which is being constantly more digitalized. Holding back girls and women in this area affects every aspect of their lives.
Furthermore, current disparities may be made worse if girls and women are not included in developing digital tools and online content. The capacity for economic growth and development of nations is also negatively impacted by the gender technology gap. The majority of professions will soon demand sophisticated digital skills, and over 90% of jobs currently have a digital component. It is our obligation to make sure that technology and the internet empower girls and women rather than acting as barriers to their advancement
However, we understand a lot need to be done in this regard to address the different aspects of the girl’s life. The Learn365 digital video support material will contribute to the girl’s advancement in this path. In the Ethiopian context, where most of the girls do not enjoy the luxury to go to the library and consolidate what they have learnt in school, or get a private tutor hired for them, the Learn365 app will be there as an extra support for the girl student, maybe after household chores when she finds the time to sit down and study.
The inception of the idea for Learn365 came into being when we were looking for educational support materials for our children outside school. After exerting some effort to find what is out there that could help us and our children, we agreed we needed to do something different. What is out there could not solve our problem. We thought we could put our background knowledge to use to develop support material for our children and the rest of the children in Ethiopia. Mrs. Martha Mulu was a dedicated mother who spent some hours each day helping her children at home. She was also the founder of Super Readers, the first digital library for children, in Ethiopia. Mr. Ermias Sebsibe was an experienced educator, who specialized in Curriculum design and development and Instruction, with long years of experience as teacher and director in private colleges and schools. He was also an editor-in- chief for a children’s newspaper and had compiled a number of students’ textbooks. Mr. Biniam Mersha had extensive experience in the media business, especially in photography and videography. He had run a cinematography school in collaboration with Indian filmmakers.
As parents, we felt our children are limited with what was provided by their teachers in the school. We were also aware of the chalk and talk methodology that was mostly used in the classrooms. To make things worse our children were often faced with under qualified and inexperienced teachers. One option that usually came to mind in resolving this issue was hiring private tutors from their schools or around in the neighborhood where we lived. However, private tutors used the same boring methodology they used in the classroom. We felt it was like torturing the children again back at home. The tutors were also very expensive, often not qualified and inexperienced; some were not disciplined and were absent often.
So the question we asked ourselves was, in a world abundant with resources, thanks to the internet, how can we help our children benefit therefrom? We know, one could find world class teachers with long years of experience and high-level of qualifications on the internet. So, we set out to accomplish this tremendous task of collecting contents in the internet and making them available to students based on the grade levels and subject matters. As we were doing this and consulting among ourselves, we felt we needed to do more if we wanted to make what we produce available to a large number of students. There were some shortcomings to this approach that needed to be overcome, such as aligning the content with the curriculum that was taught in the schools; making the videos interactive; availing the support material to the students whether there is internet connectivity to access the materials or not, and securing copyrights to freely disseminate the product.
So we started making our own product to which we would enjoy full copyright here in Ethiopia. But we were faced with some major challenges. The production was time taking, the graphics and animations developed were not to our satisfaction and the cost was very expensive. So, we had to look for other options somewhere else. We turned to Biniam’s old partners from India in the videography business for production. We consulted on the project and were able to form a partnership to pursue the project.
This time around, we wanted to upgrade the production to overcome the challenges by meeting the following criteria:
Thus, the production began with the criteria above in mind. We were able to get within a very short time a quality production at low cost. We have produced more than 2000 videos, which were aligned with the Ethiopian curriculum, for grade 7 to 9 students. The subjects covered for the grade levels included English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. We also made available the digital library and digital labs for students through collaboration with other educational institutions. We were able to benefit from the knowledge and technology in the field from India, which we would work to transfer to our local human resources gradually.
Learn365 team can now boast a resilient content writing and production team. We can produce high quality video contents which can be viewed and interacted with on tablets, mobile phones and desktops. We want to extend our production to lower grades and the preparatory grades, i.e. grade 11 and 12. Now that we have the experience, we plan to produce student support materials in literacy and numeracy. The pre-primary level is another big field of opportunity for digital interventions.
Our product can play a more crucial role with children who are displaced by either natural or manmade catastrophes.