Developing an Evidence Basis for Technology-Supported Education

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description of Session

USAID and Norad’s workshop proposal for the 2015 CIES Annual Conference will enhance awareness of how impact evaluations can deepen understanding of the effectiveness of technology-supported interventions for improving education in the developing world.

Background and Context

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) are keenly aware of the extent to which deficits in children’s progress toward basic education goals, including literacy and numeracy, in the early grades limit progress towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals across the developing world. The enormity of these challenges for early grade reading are aptly highlighted by UNESCO’s reference that – “in low and lower middle income countries around one-quarter of the youth population – cannot read all or part of a sentence. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of young people are not able to do so.” The GMR 2013/2014 states that an estimated 5.2 million additional teachers are needed to address this learning crises, in addition to extensive training and support for existing teachers. Each time we say “this is not good enough” – and act upon that belief – we, as donor organization partners with developing countries, affirm the spirit of Ubuntu on which the 2015 CIES Annual Conference is focused. We are one humanity – and must lend each other a hand where we can.

To help address these challenges, USAID, Norad, and other institutional partners are proactively exploring the role of appropriate and cost-effective use of technologies to advance educational objectives including through such initiatives as the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) and in partnership with the steering committee members of the Mobiles for Education Alliance.

To ensure that developing country educators as well as donor agencies actively learn “what works” in terms of integrating technologies to support and within education systems for teacher instruction and for student learning, Norad and USAID want to build movement towards and international funding of rigorous impact evaluations for selected field projects. To finance these evaluations and foster lessons learned from other in future technology-supported education initiatives funded by USAID, Norway, other donors, and a potential host of other interested stakeholders, we are seeking inputs on the creation of streams of funding for technology for education impact evaluations.

Workshop Objectives

Expand awareness of and interest in the use of rigorous impact evaluations as a tool for systematically expanding professional understanding of the effects of innovative uses of technology-supported basic education interventions, including on literacy and other relevant skills, and the relationship between impact evaluations and evidence-based decisions about scaling up such technologies in resource-scarce environments.

Target Audience

Individuals researchers and donor/implementing organization representatives who are considering or are engaged in the design and/or evaluation of innovative mobile education technology interventions overseas or domestically, and are interested in learning more about rigorous impact evaluations (research trials) as a mechanism for systematically advancing understanding about the effects of such technologies on literacy and other education subjects.

Instructional Goals

Participants who complete the workshop will have a firm understanding of: what impact evaluations can determine; what characteristics of a planned intervention (within a larger project or as a stand-alone research trial) make an impact evaluation feasible and meet minimum standards for accurately determining the size of an intervention’s effect; and what kinds of evaluations might be more suitable if a new intervention idea is not yet ready (stable enough) for an impact evaluation or if a suitable comparison group cannot be identified.


Planned Workshop Activities

The workshop will involve a blend of presentations and exercises that encourage participants to continuously apply what they are learning throughout the seminar. Case materials will be drawn from published technology-supported intervention findings as well as from existing and planned projects in developing countries, and from other disciplines where that experience provides important lessons.

Topics and activities will include:

• The evaluation continuum – a quick guide to options for evaluating technology-supported interventions, including those which are “mobile”-based, under different readiness and feasibility scenarios.
• Minimum standards – process and scale determinants of high-quality impact evaluations and the implications of what is already known about the effects of technology-supported interventions for the design of new impact evaluations.
• Ubuntu thinking – working through local systems to design impact evaluations and building local evaluation capacity through participation.
• Small group discussion about approaches for identifying planned interventions that are appropriate for impact evaluation and models for collaboration within the mEducation Alliance and with other stakeholders on impact evaluation funding. Plenary discussion on collaborative funding options to follow the small group discussions

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Workshop Organizer

• Anthony Bloome, USAID