In the earlier post, we took a deep dive to understand the children and youth that we are helping. In order to create the right solution for the people from the bottom of the pyramid, SE!’s solution has to allow self paced learning, geographic flexibility, online and offline learning, and it needs to be able to run on low end mobile devices.
One of the most widely adopted education technology is MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). This is used by most universities, corporations and e-learning companies. So far the completion rate of MOOCs hovers only between 2 – 10%. There are different discussions and theories about the low completion rates. A study done by HarvardX state that student intention is the crucial factor. Another research by Technology and Social Change Group found that the lack of time is the number 1 reason.
We looked at where the children and youth are spending their time – focussing first in Indonesia. Other than social media apps like Blackberry Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they are spending a significant amount of time on games. It does not seem like the lack of time is hindering learning. also it appears that superficial gamification techniques implemented in MOOCs (like trophies, badges and leadership boards) are not sufficient to retain users.
Hence SE!’s approach consists the below four main key components:
Game psychology and Social network have both demonstrated the ability to retain users for a long period of time. Most of the most downloaded Android apps are social media/communication apps, followed by games. SE! aims to push the user retention rates higher with:
- Right use of game psychology
- Incorporation of social elements to the game (this bring adds offline/real life elements to the game)
- Real life incentives for the users
- Ability to learn while they learn
The aim is to get our users addicted to learning, and the more they play, the more they learn!
In order to ensure we are creating something that our target audience like. We have started designing our game together with 100 beta users, based in Indonesia (we are currently on track to signing up the next 10,000 beta users, mainly from Indonesia, and 100 each from Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia respectively). We will be observing how our users react and engage with the game, and will be using Big Data analysis to gather the feedback, in order to improve the app continuously.
User generated content is essential for the longevity of the app – with our users (both learners and educators) creating content, users are less likely to run out of content to consume. We also intend to open source our code, so that the tech community can also contribute to the continuous evolution of the product.
We began to work on our solution incorporating these components.
Revealing: “Dawn of Civilization” (game name as voted by our beta users). It is in alpha stage right now.
More on DOC (Dawn of Civilization) soon!
Thank you for reading,
Janine
Stand with us, and bring awareness about the challenges that education is facing today by joining the passionate bunch at Friends of SE!. Email us directly at info@solveeducation.org
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About Friends of SE!
If you are passionate about education, and want to do your bit to make the world a better place, join us at Friends of SE!. As a SE! Friend, we just ask you to spread awareness about the importance of education and the challenges that education is facing at the moment – you can easily do so by sharing the SE! posts that jump out to you on your own social media channels. That is already spreading the word – it is that simple. 
Drop us a note either here or via email at info@solveeducation.org