Ogboju (Courage)

Girls face more barriers to attending school than boys (EducationCannotWait, 2018). Up to 500 million women remain illiterate; 16 million girls will never enter a classroom (UNESCO, 2018). The high costs of building good schools in remote, emergency and disaster areas, and staffing them with high-quality teachers in addition to changing the destructive social norms that keep women at a disadvantage will mean that they will be waiting a long time. 

Should they have to?

We propose to take school to girls wherever they are by encapsulating competency based learning within low cost IT solutions that can be deployed anywhere. No longer would girls and women have to choose between their physical safety and getting an education. Our solution provides a platform where female learners can feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, build confidence and take ownership of their learning.

#GetSchoolToGirls

#LearnWithoutFear

Research has shown that girls’ math self-efficacy is correlated with their low interest in pursuing higher levels of math education and STEM career opportunities (Bandura et al., 2001; Schwery et al., 2016). PISA 2018 confirmed that girls have lower self-efficacy in science and mathematics than boys (OECD, 2020), a difference that remains unchanged since 2009. 

With women accounting for only 35% of STEM students in higher education (UNESCO, 2017) many females will be unable to take advantage of the increasing job growth in STEM (Australian Government, 2020; Brookings, 2013). 

62 million girls around the world are not in school, millions more are fighting just to stay there, facing barriers such as gender norms, violence (both enroute and at school), early marriage and pregnancy and the stigma surrounding them (Plan, 2012). These marginalized learners are unlikely to have the self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1977; Bandura, 2010), which research shows directly affects academic achievement (Doménech-Betoret, 2017). 

Boosting girls self-efficacy can improve their mathematics achievement by up to 59% (Yurt, 2014) and thus increase their access to high-quality higher education opportunities in STEM.

Ogboju, meaning courage in Yoruba, is an AI-powered math game situated in the mythical African forest of Irumale. It celebrates female courage needed to scale numerous barriers to high-quality education in STEM and compete in male dominated fields. Only courageous heroes can enter Irumale forest. To save the forest and maintain their courage, players must engage in a number of quests commissioned by Esho Irumale: the guardians of the forest.  Each quest comprises a series of minigames that guides players to build their mathematics competency by fixing errors in the underlying mathematical code that runs the forest. These mini-games are designed to increase self-efficacy in the following ways:

• An infinite source of low-stake opportunities for learners to practice math concepts through automated item generation.

• A novel gap analysis model to adapt the user experience.

• Emphasis on positive reinforcement over penalties.

• Incorporation of stories of girls and women from various backgrounds who have succeeded in STEM.

• Learning analytics to adjust the balance between fun and challenge based on the psychological state of the player

Finally, levels in the game build up to hero challenges that correspond to education milestones and related high-stake testing.

Our software initially aims to increase the performance of girls in urban areas on high-stakes tests. This will serve as a proof of the efficacy of our solution. Consequent to this we hope to reach marginalized learners who struggle to reach key learning milestones with a low technical burden. Our literature review shows increased self-efficacy as key to improving female mathematics achievements and based on our team's experience working with marginalized learners, we have first-hand experience that formative assessment is an effective approach to improving math competency quickly. We are building a minimal viable product that contains the main elements of our proposed solution and will then conduct user experience studies with participation of low-performing girls in school in Canada, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Brazil to drive the development of the game mechanics. Once the game play and the efficacy of the game have been established as improving the performance of these groups, we plan to address the hardware challenges to extend our studies to populations in these countries that do not have access to consistent schooling and adapt our solution to their particular social and technological constraints. Finally we will expand to conflict and emergency areas.

Our solution is a gender responsive solution that helps girls and women increase their competency in mathematics. High-stake tests form critical milestones in education that determine a student’s ability to take advantage of high-quality opportunities in STEM. Ogboju will provide a low-stake environment for learners to gain mastery experience in mathematics that they may not be able to achieve in a formal classroom due to social and physical barriers. This is well-aligned with the Solve’s goal to increase the number of girls and young women participating in informal learning.

Ogboju’s ability to adapt to learners is based on our evolving automated item generator which incorporates machine learning algorithms for extracting test item templates and the Wolfram engine for creating an infinite amount of mathematics test items and their solutions. Other innovations include:

• Holistic: Formal education curates learning towards specific milestones, which is missing in informal platforms e.g. Wolfram alpha, Wolfram alpha problem generator, Khan academy. We use a novel Cognitive Diagnostic Model to create a customized learning path towards educational milestones.

• Complexity: Many math games can easily present simple topics within the gameplay but have difficulty handling more complex math concepts, e.g. MathQuest, LogicRoots, Arithmagic, DragonBox, MathBlaster, MathInvaders. Ogboju gameplay is able to gamify an unlimited level of math difficulty. 

• Accessibility: Many interventions focus on getting more girls to school. We are looking at the opposite solution: getting school to girls. Therefore part of our solution involves implementing various low-cost tech deployment options.

• Safe: Girls and women may find it challenging to return to school after experiencing a break in their learning. They may feel too old, discouraged or afraid. Ogobju takes learners at any age or social circumstances and starts them at an appropriate level with an opportunity to move faster if they are progressing well, and it teaches largely in an indirect way by allowing students to discover patterns and figure out the logic to various problems.

• The Wolfram engine is an existing powerful symbolics math engine that can be used to solve math problems. Wolfram already deploys this technology through Wolfram Alpha and Wolfram Alpha Problem Generator, and offers a free version for software developers that we leverage in our game.

• We are developing a machine learning algorithm that extracts math problem templates from standard samples. Together with the Wolfram engine we envision having a fully automated item generation system that provides an unlimited number of secure test items that can be used to support gamified formative assessment.

• We adopt the Q-matrix concept in a novel gap analysis model to discover positions of strength and fill in learning gaps to help struggling learners break out of vicious cycles of failure.

• The Wolfram engine is a well established product https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WolframAlpha

• Studies show that certain game-based mechanics can motivate learners i.e. instant and frequent feedback, and a trial-and-error process that allows replay, information manipulation, gradual growth and a way to easily recover from mistakes (Martí-Parreño et al., 2016). Such mechanisms (e.g. immediate and frequent feedback) as part of the formative assessment process support deep learning (Higgins et al., 2002).

• Game-based learning can boost students’ achievement, self-efficacy, and motivation in mathematics (Hung et al., 2014).

• Formative assessment has a positive impact on students’ engagement and performance (López-Pastor et al., 2012)

• Formative assessment motivates students to learn (Weurlander et al., 2011)

• The Chinese Learning Diagnosis System employs the Q-matrix for feedback (You et al., 2019)

Ogboju - Theory of Change

Ogboju's mission is to provide girls and young women with the knowledge and courage to pursue higher education and subsequent job opportunities in STEM.

Specifically Ogboju focuses on providing continuous mastery experiences towards desired competency milestones

1. Complete game quests and win in game rewards which show the mastery of fundamental mathematical concepts
2. Accept hero challenges to apply these concepts in a more complex and rewarding fashion. These hero challenges are designed to mimic challenges expected in a more traditional test.

The game story will introduce the player to courageous women who have succeeded in STEM. The story and its protagonists adapts to the player background, player character selection and on a continuously updated player profile.

Completion of game level will provide positive feedback of progress towards learning milestones. 

Overall this will result in higher self-efficacy and math competency leading to high achievement in mathematics. 

Our solution is in the prototyping stage. The game will be available through Iphone and Android app stores as well as a web service. So scale out of deployment is easily achievable.

Within in the next year we will target 40,000 school-age (17 years old and under) refugees arriving to communities and schools across Canada (Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 2017a).

In our second deployment country Nigeria, 400 000 female students take the high stakes Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), while 7.93 million girls remain out of school in Nigeria.

Within five years, we plan to reach millions of girls not receiving an education in the 10 toughest places for girls to go to school  (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-41558486).

April - December 2020: Complete the development with a gameplay that majority of girls will find engaging and entertaining, and deploy to millions of users via web and mobile platforms.

• Finish development of the minimum viable version of the game i.e. version that contains all the key features.

• Conduct studies to detect and fix usability issues.

• Roll out the game to a website and to mobile app stores

January - June 2021: increase the performance and self-efficacy of female students in Canadian schools with historically poor performers and/or gaps in their schooling. 

• Usability study in Canadian schools with low achieving female students and refugee populations in Canada

July 2021 - April 2022:  increase the number of senior high school female students with competitive math scores in university entrance high stake tests in English.

• Pilot studies with low achieving female senior high school students in Nigeria and Canada/US preparing for JAMB and SAT.

• Usability study with students in remote aboriginal communities in Canada

• Development of low-cost technological deployment of game

July 2022 - April 2023:  increase the number of senior high school female students with competitive scores in math in university entrance high stake tests in French and Portuguese, and from communities with inconsistent access to formal schooling.

• Usability studies with females in urban areas in Nigeria

• Pilot studies with low achieving female senior high school students in Ivory Coast and Brazil based on adaptation for French and Portuguese

July 2023 - December 2025

• Technological deployment to refugee communities internationally

• We are currently a team of volunteers. To move quickly we would need part-time and full time staff. These include

  • 2 Software developers (FT)

  • 1 Data scientist (PT)

  • 1 Instructional designer (PT/Consultant)

  • User experience designer (FT)

  • Subject matter expert (PT/Consultant)

• There is little off the shelf art-work for games with female heroes especially for women of colour.

• Resources to carry out international pilot studies

• Currently no contact with the native Canadian community and a refugee community.

• Raise funds to employ part-time and full time staff.

• Commission artist to create female-positive artwork for the game

• Commission a creative writer to embed stories of successful women in STEM into the game narrative.

• Collaborate with aligned NGOs (e.g Plan International Canada, Engineers without Borders)

• Network with educators in native Canadian communities and refugee communities and identify participants for pilot study.

Our team is made up of  6 volunteer IT professionals passionate about social enterprise. We plan to incorporate a social enterprise company in the near future.

Our expertise covers: software development, data science, UX research and communication.

Our expertise covers: software development, data science, UX research and communication.

• Andreas Putz - PhD Mathematics (subject matter expert), Data Science

• Ireti Fakinlede - MSc Information Systems (13+ Software Engineering)

• Arnaud Konan - BSc Applied Mathematics (10+ Data Analytics/Data Science)

• Lollie Fakinlede - BA Economics and Mathematics, MA Journalism 

• Leandro Collares - MSc Computer Science, user experience researcher / data visualization developer

We are planning an integrated approach to our endeavour

• The game will be sold to urban learners as a mobile app. The revenue realised will be used to support programs that provide low cost technical alternatives to marginalised learners.
• The business is created as a funding mechanism and to expand/enhance the mission 

We are a small yet passionate team that has been working on a solution to take math education to marginalized girls and women across the world. Becoming a Solver team would impact our solution in numerous ways.

We believe the feedback we would receive after having our solution thoroughly analyzed by MIT would help us validate our model and its impact, and better understand its strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, we would be able to exchange ideas and potentially forge partnerships within the Solver community. Finally, we would have access to organizations that could provide us with additional funding, which would certainly help us overcome financial challenges pertaining to our solution.

Refugee children's and youth's access to education is subpar. Only 61% of refugee children had access to primary education, compared to 91% globally in 2016. This scenario is even worse at secondary level: 23% of refugee teens and 84% worlwide. Moreover, refugee girls are only half as likely to enroll in school as boys (UN, 2019). Early marriage and pregnancy further aggravate the already bleak scenario.

We truly believe Ogboju can provide refugee girls and young women with the knowledge and courage to pursue higher education. Refugee girls and women have always been potential users for Ogboju. Our roadmap includes usability studies with participation of refugee populations in Canada in early 2021. We also aim at deploying our solution to refugee communities internationally. 

The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion would allow us to achieve our goals faster by hiring full-time professionals to work on the development of the solution, carrying out international pilot studies and giving our project the necessary recognition to connect with the refugee community worldwide. 

Girls and women face more barriers to attending school than their male counterparts. Approximately 500 million women remain illiterate and 16 million girls will never enter a classroom (UNESCO, 2018). Girls' participation levels and learning achievements in Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education are low. Women account for only 35% of STEM students in higher education (UNESCO, 2017).

STEM professionals play a pivotal role in driving innovation and solving environmental, social and economic challenges in this day and age. Without proper education, women will not be able to participate actively in STEM initiatives and take advantage of the increasing job grown in that domain.

Ogboju is a solution that helps girls and women to increase their competency in mathematics. It offers an environment that prepares learners to sit high-stake tests -- gateways to high-quality opportunities in STEM. Furthermore, Ogboju incorporates inspirational stories of girls and women who have succeeded in STEM. 

The Innovation for Women Prize would allow us to make Ogboju available at App Store and Google Play faster as it would be used to hire full-time professionals to work on the solution development and conduct studies to detect and fix usability issues.

Girls and women face more barriers to attending school than their male counterparts due to gender norms, violence (both enroute and at school), and early marriage and pregnancy. Approximately 500 million women remain illiterate and 16 million girls will never enter a classroom (UNESCO, 2018). 62 million girls around the world are not in school (Plan, 2012). These marginalized learners are unlikely to have the self-efficacy beliefs, directly affect academic achievement (Doménech-Betoret, 2017). 

Ogboju takes school to girls and women wherever they are by offering competency-based learning within low cost IT solutions that can be deployed anywhere. We believe that our solution provide female learners with a safe environment in which they can take risks, make mistakes, improve their competency in mathematics and boost their self-efficacy. Improving girls' self-efficacy can increase their mathematics achievement by up to 59% (Yurt, 2014) and thus facilitate their access to high-quality higher education opportunities in STEM.

We aim at making Ogboju available to marginalized girls and women that have no access to consistent schooling or live in conflict and emergency areas. In order to achieve this goal, we would use resources provided by The GM Prize on Learning for Girls and Women to employ part-time and full-time staff to finish the development of the minimum viable version of Ogboju and conduct user studies with participants from different countries.

Many social norms that put women at a disadvantage (including early marriage, pregnancy) do not have to result in being permanently locked out of an education. Having an education does not mean having to wear a uniform and go to a school building. 

As more opportunities for STEM open up, previous poor grades in mathematics will continue to be a barrier for women to take advantage of these opportunities. 

In South Sudan, up to 86% of learners are at least five years over age for their grade – meaning that a learner in primary grade 1 may be 10 years old or older. 

The stigma of going back to school after a gap can be discouraging for many female learners.

We are committed to circumventing any stigma of gaining competency in basic mathematics concepts at any age. Games on the market assume a particular age group and maturity level of below 12 years. Going back to school is not the best solution for many mature learners as the curriculum in school is paced to follow maturity rate of learners below the age of 18.

We would therefore use the Gulbenkian Award to provide opportunities for learners to move at a pace that matches their maturity level. We plan to accomplish this by making our game adaptable to maturity levels and having gameplay that is engaging for both girls and women. Moreover, women will be able to move quickly to attain the competency they need.

AI for Humanity Prize will be used to continue development on our machine-learning algorithms for building mathematics template questions that are gender responsive and to adapt the game engine to individual users. 

At the moment our algorithm is focused on extraction of question templates from existing question templates. However, not all the samples are gender sensitive and many girls struggle to understand concepts that are given to them in contexts that they cannot connect with.

We hope to expand our algorithm to include natural language processing techniques that would be able to rephrase mathematics word problems in a contexts that match the background of female learners. 

This would be a major step in providing vicarious experiences that can improve female self-efficacy which has been shown to have a positive impact on performance.

In addition will continue to improve our cognitive models and provide learning analytics that both can help girls take ownership of their learning. 

In Nigeria (one of our target countries), of the 748 595 girls enrolled in school that take the high-stakes university entrance exams only 50% of score passing grades in mathematics and english. Only 55 561 of girls not enrolled in school take the same exams and only 35% have passing grades in mathematics and english. These girls who account for less than have to compete with boys for fewer than 600,000 post secondary spaces. These numbers to do include the 3.85 million girls in the country that have little or no access to primary education. 

The high costs of building good schools in remote, emergency and disaster areas, and staffing them with high-quality teachers in addition to changing the destructive social norms that keep women at a disadvantage will mean that they will be waiting a long time.

AI offers the most viable opportunity for providing this huge population with high quality education. We are passionate about realizing this potential and we will use AI for Humanity Prize to advance the reach of competency-based learning to girls everywhere.

"The loss in human capital wealth due to gender inequality is estimated at $160.2 trillion" - worldbank.org

We have been experiencing a global learning crisis. While the number of learners who attend school has increased, access to education and learning remains unequal. Individuals without access to proper education may never reach their full potential and contribute to their respective communities.

Girls' participation levels and learning achievements in Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education are remains lower than boys and Women account for only 35% of STEM students in higher education (UNESCO, 2017).

We believe Ogboju can change the reality of marginalized girls and women who struggle to reach key learning milestones. Our solution focuses on providing female learner the help they need to complete their education. Thus increasing the number of females that can take advantage of education opportunities in STEM.

Apart from impacting the lives of millions of girls and women, Ogboju can improve the well-being of entire communities indirectly as better educated women tend to earn higher incomes and provide children with better health care and education if they choose to become mothers (The World Bank, 2017). 

The Future Planet Capital Prize would allow us to employ part-time and full-time staff to finish the development of the minimum viable version of Ogboju, make Ogboju available at App Store and Google Play faster, and conduct studies with participation of potential users from diverse countries to detect and fix usability issues.