PraDigi Open Learning

Many studies have highlighted the vast benefits of involving youth in civic action to drive positive socio-economic change and holistic youth development. UNICEF in its report, ‘Young People’s Participation and Civic Engagement’ states that the inclusion of youth in civic action improves their problem-solving, negotiation, and communication skills and enables them to build better relationships. A study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in 2019 also found that young people who are involved in civic activities are more likely to have a positive outlook on life and are more satisfied with their personal and social well-being.

Providing the youth with a conducive environment to assert themselves can enable them to strengthen civil society, increase accountability of decision-making units, and lead to greater social cohesion and reduced polarization. Even in India, youth’s participation in civic learning and civic action can pave the way for a more engaged, informed, and responsible citizenry. Furthermore, when young people are exposed to different perspectives and encouraged to engage in constructive dialogue, they are more likely to develop empathy and a sense of common purpose.

India is home to the largest youth population in the world, with an estimated 422 million young people aged 15-29 years (NSSO 2017-18). Despite such a massive demographic advantage, the country has struggled to leverage its young population to its full potential and drive positive socio-economic change. This is because of several reasons - lack of quality education and skills training, limited access to resources and opportunities, digital divide, and socio-economic and political differences and inequalities to name a few. Furthermore, the separation of the home, the communities, the educational institutes, and the decision-making units from each other has led to the development of isolated spheres of learning that prove detrimental to the overall growth and development of youth in the long run. Such separations limit their exposure to skills and values necessary for civic engagement and deprive them of opportunities to fully integrate within their society and become active changemakers within their communities.

It, therefore, becomes important to bridge the gap and look for solutions that integrate the home, the community, and the decision-making units and provide youth with holistic, substantial, and real-life learning opportunities that educate, empower, and encourage them to lead civic action.
With the growing need for innovative solutions to complex social and environmental problems, it is essential that young people are equipped with the skills to think creatively and work collaboratively to address these challenges. This can be done by mobilizing youth, building their capacities, and providing them avenues to take ownership of their communities. Through a community-focused approach, it is possible to enable and support the youth in such a manner that they become effective civic leaders in the future, leaders who are able to not only identify socio-economic deprivations in their communities but also come up with solutions together on their own.

PraDigi Open Learning is a technology-enabled remote learning program that aims at driving a community mission led by Youth who work towards education, environment, health, and livelihood. The program is designed based on the principle of ‘Education for Education,’ where youth aged 14-25 years commit to community projects and earn social credits. In turn, they gain access to courses and mentorship delivered on a digital community platform that equips them with vocational and 21st-century skills.

The aim of the program is to help youth think critically, provide them with hands-on learning opportunities, promote collaboration, and help youth understand real-world problems logically – thus, enabling them to find creative solutions together. Instead of taking a classroom approach, the program is structured around the community, placing youth at the center. It focuses on creating avenues for youth to practice civic action by addressing real-life challenges and socio-economic issues prevalent within their communities. This has been proven to be an impactful method for generating awareness amongst the youth and building their civic know-how, thereby creating a solid cadre of youth leaders who are well-equipped and confident in leading social development activities in and for their communities. For instance, between January-March 2023 alone, 19,000 youth mobilized 51,000 children and engaged them in creative learning activities.

The program is a one-stop solution for learners, allowing them to register for the program, access hybrid courses, take assessments, earn certificates, engage with mentors and experts, organize themselves in groups, lead developmental projects, collect data, and much more. The tool helps youth become village leaders in their own right by giving them the agency to choose their own learning path, collaborate with their peers, and apply their learnings through project-based activities.

The program is offered through low-tech technology tools in 6 regional languages through an integrated, easy-to-use, and customizable interface which makes the platform scalable according to contextual needs.

In 2017, ASER conducted the Beyond Basics Survey to understand the abilities, access, and aspirations of youth between the ages of 14-18 years. Amongst those sampled, only 28% of the youth had used the internet and 26% had used computers in the last week, while 59% had never used a computer and 64% had never used the internet. Additionally, the Beyond Basics Survey attempted to understand the awareness and aspirations of the youth. With only 60% of youth hoping to study beyond class 12 and more than 40% of youth claiming to have no role model for guidance, a clear need for a community support system to define their learning goals was identified.

From the above data, it is evident that there are vast inequalities prevalent at the different junctures of learning that affect youth in detrimental ways. Lack of experiential learning opportunities, a rigid and restrictive curriculum, prevalence of rote learning practices, inequitable access to diverse learning resources, lack of guidance and mentorship, digital divide, etc. lead to deprivations in the cognitive and socio-emotional abilities of the young learners. They also impact the motivations and aspirations of the youth. These deprivations are even more accentuated amongst youth from rural India. Out of the 1.5 million schools in India, only 16.5% are in urban areas and 1.2 million are in rural communities. The split is an indicator of the extent of the divide, in terms of opportunities and possibilities. Affluent private schools in urban areas have started advocating metacognitive skills such as creativity, collaboration, and communication. However, these opportunities are unavailable to the majority of young India.

Therefore, PraDigi Open Learning focuses on working with youth aged 14-25 years and building their capacities on all fronts – awareness of different learning pathways, vocational skilling, 21st-century skills, community service, and more. The youth from marginalized communities are mobilized and enrolled in the program where they access remote courses, engage with mentors and trainers, interact with one another and experts, undertake group projects, and practice civic action. While the program primarily works with the youth, it also engages other stakeholders in the community. Through the community-level projects, children, mothers, teachers, Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, and village heads are also impacted. For example, in between January 2022 – November 2023, 27,000 youth from 14,000 communities organized reading and maths camps for 230,000 children aged 8-10 years. During these camps, youth organized children in groups, conducted play-based learning activities with them, and assessed and tracked their progress using the PraDigi Open Learning platform. At the end of the camps, the following results were observed:

• Reading Camp – Children who were able to read increased from 14% at baseline to 57% at endline
• Math Camp – children who were able to divide increased from 8% at baseline to 37% at endline

Therefore, it is safe to say that although the program focuses on the youth, it leverages their potential to drive social change and impact the entire community.

The program is being implemented in 20,000 communities across 15 states of India. The overall design and structure of the program are guided by three pillars - Social structure, Technology, and Content. Through an interplay of these three, we have been able to establish strong relationships with different stakeholders in the communities:

• Social Structure: We work with the village/urban community to create an open learning environment for young adults. This is done by a) initiating a dialogue with the youth and mobilizing them, b) Engaging with other community stakeholders such as Sarpanch, AASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and teachers, and c) generating awareness around the status of Education, Health, Environment and Creativity outcomes in the community to create a sense of ownership amongst the stakeholders. The social structure also comprises a cadre of mentors and mentor leaders who communicate and engage with youth and other stakeholders. These mentors and mentor leaders are mostly hired from within the communities to ensure representation. They collect feedback from the community members and share their own suggestions and recommendations on all processes of the program. This ensures that the needs of the target population are correctly identified and well-represented and addressed in the program design.
• Technology: Simple, contextualized, and familiar technology tools have been embedded into the program to make sure that the youth and other members of the community are able to leverage these to their full potential. The program uses SMS, WhatsApp, WhatsApp Bot, and a customized Portal to implement various facets of the program.
• Content: The learning resources shared with the youth are contextualized, hybrid (on-tech and off-tech), and made available in 6 regional languages. Courses under two domains - preparation for work and preparation for life are offered to the youth to support them in their learning. While Level 1 courses are usually self-paced, Level 2 and Level 3 courses are mentor or trainer-guided. All courses have group-based projects, group discussions, and other activities to facilitate experiential learning. The process of content creation also involves piloting the resources and the content structure and modifying it as per the feedback from relevant stakeholders

Apart from the monetary support, by being part of the Solve program we are seeking support on the monitoring and evaluation aspects within PraDigi Open Learning. We would want to explore methods of measuring qualitative impact on youth who are participating in the program. 
Further, we would also be excited to access the network of Solvers for technology-based innovations that can be integrated into our existing program to strengthen it further.

PraDigi Open Learning provides a tech-driven, light-touch, scalable solution to engage youth in an effective manner and get them to lead developmental activities within their communities. By leveraging simple yet effective technology systems, the program is able to personalize the education journeys of the youth in line with their interests and aspirations. The youth are not just passive receivers of the program but are active participants who define the program and its success.

While technology has traditionally been implemented from the perspective of being a knowledge repository, our program for 14-25 aims to utilize technology in a different manner. Digital content acts as a trigger for learners to ‘do’ things away from their devices and explore the world around them, helping them learn to gather knowledge and work with the resources surrounding them.

Another aspect that makes PraDigi Open Learning relevant is its diversity of offerings for different age groups. For youth, there are more than 25 courses vocational and life-skills-based courses that they can choose from. These courses are available in 6 regional languages. The types of community activities that they youth can participate in also vary - Health, Education, Environment, creativity, and livelihoods. The youth also get the opportunity to engage with each other in the program and engage with experts from different fields. Overall, ready access to mentorship opportunities and expert interactions, technology tools, resources, training, and toolkits makes it fairly easy for the youth to build their technical, cognitive and social abilities.

Overall the program can support learners from low-income, marginalized communities, and through a low-touch, high-impact, and contextualized learning design, we are able to reach a large number of youth, children, and communities in a short span of time.

In the coming year, we will initiate community projects on Health, Education, Creativity, and Environment

In the next five years, we plan to scale the PraDigi Open Learning initiative to 100,000 communities across new geographies, especially the global south. This will be achieved by:

• Strengthening existing communities to self-sustain the program
• Leveraging existing resources to establish connections in new communities.
• Building partnerships with governments and other organizations to establish the program in new geographies and reach more learners

Pratham Digital has a dedicated Digital Analytics and Learning unit. This is an integral part of our programming, providing relevant feedback from various initiatives and helping guide data-driven decision-making. Members of this team - which has members based in states across the country - work on a) developing and deploying measurement systems across different interventions, b) designing and implementing appropriate monitoring and tracking processes, c) ensuring timely availability of accurate as well as relevant data, and d) training, supporting and building capabilities of staff actually implementing the intervention themselves. Through the easy-to-read and visual data dashboards created by this unit, it becomes easier for the program and implementation teams at all levels to compare the planned versus actual progress of the program, while also helping them look at their own performance versus that of others. This has enabled us to also recognize pain points in terms of low-mobilization areas, low-performing courses, youth participation, and completion rates, the efficiency of mentors, etc.

Under PraDigi Open Learning, the youth have been participating in and completing courses for work and life. A mix of qualitative and quantitative indicators has been identified and measured to ascertain the improvements in key learning areas. These indicators are categorized into i) Access, ii) Engagement, iii) Completion, and iv) Community Service

Indicators to measure access include basic demographic indicators such as age, gender, educational qualification, and access to smartphones. Indicators under engagement and completion include participation in online sessions, submitting assignments, correctly answering viva questions, and completing assessments. The collection of such data allows us to do two things - gauge the engagement of the youth with the course and measure the change in their foundational ability by assessing whether they have understood the basic concepts and are able to apply them successfully. This data can be evaluated at the course, region, mentor, educational qualification, gender, and mentor level. Furthermore, engagement patterns can also be monitored across gender and educational qualification. Re-enrollments into different courses are also being tracked under the program.

With respect to Community Service, the KPIs for community projects are defined based on the different aspects of each intervention. Some examples have been mentioned below:
- For the reading and math camp (Education bucket), youth are the primary data collectors where they fill out the information on children’s learning levels and improvements on the PraDigi Open Learning Portal. This form captures demographic data along with the competency level of the child. We also measure youth demographic data and their participation.
- Similarly, for the rural plastic waste management survey (Environment bucket), youth were provided with survey questionnaires (jot form) for different stakeholders which they filled out by conducting in-person interviews.

The program makes use of a digital tools that enables changemakers and community members to access technology tools and impact measurment metrics to be accessible in one place. to bring together the changemakers, tools, and impact measurement in one place. 

• The youth and other members of the community are brought together through simple communication tools such as WhatsApp, Social Media and customized PraDigi platforms.
• Technology innovations such as Artificial-Intelligence based self-assessments contextualized digital content for personalized learner journeys, and remote skilling training mechanisms have also been embedded into the program.
• Lastly, impact measuring tools such as digital report cards, skill passports, and transparent automated assessments have been integrated to allow communities to visualize and see the change.

Understanding that more than 90% of the target audience resides in rural areas of India where internet connectivity is a challenge and internet speeds are very low, the technology used within the program is simple and easy to use. Also, since most of the users are not fluent in reading and writing in the English Language, efforts have been made to provide these tools in regional languages. The other aspects kept in mind while developing the technology for the program are:

• Multi-Lingual Platform: The PraDigi Open Learning platform is offered in 11 Indian languages
• Lightweight: The platform is designed to be lightweight, consume fewer resources, and load faster, even at lower internet speeds.
• Accessibility: The platform can be accessed on all smartphones, computers, and tablets.
• Simple and user-friendly: The platform is designed in such a way that the users find it easier to create their account, enroll for courses, check course status, manage projects, collect data, track progress, access their skill passports, and more.
• Scalability: The platform is designed to be flexible enough for the integration of new functions or improvisation of existing functions as per changes in the program design and/or introduction of new interventions. 

• Diversity: Pratham works in communities spread across 15 states with diverse cultures, languages, dialects, contexts, religions, and geographies. Amidst this, there are special measures taken to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusivity within the program. Contextualization of the digital resources, availability of resources in regional languages, multi-lingual digital tools, and technologies have been built so that children, youth, and communities can truly access and partake in the program. The teams are created keeping in mind the diverse needs, thereby leading to completely diverse teams.
• Inclusivity: The largest team within the PraDigi Open Learning program is the field implementation team. The hiring processes of these teams ensure that mentors and mentor leaders that work on the ground are from the communities themselves. Their feedback along with the feedback from the communities on different processes of the program is taken and is instrumental in defining the final program design and delivery. This ensures that the different needs of the communities are well-represented. Additionally, the program design incorporates the challenges faced by different sections in the communities and tries to address them to the best of its ability. For instance, recognizing the mobility restrictions on girls and women, workshops and training are held closer to their villages and during day-times. Similarly, girls are encouraged to participate in traditionally male-dominated courses, take up community projects and partake in camps. This is made possible by having discussions and consultations with their families. The success of these efforts was observed when during the reading and math camps when there was higher participation from female youths as compared to male youths.
• Equity: Working specifically in low-income communities, the programs are designed to provide learning opportunities and access to resources to marginalized groups, thereby creating equity. Additionally, our applications, digital platforms, digital content, and resources are open-source and can be accessed by anyone. The belief is to provide learning opportunities to people from all backgrounds with a genuine opportunity to thrive.

Through a robust monitoring and evaluation strategy, we have been able to demonstrate the success of the program. This has enabled us to garner support from a diverse group of donors who have been funding different interventions under the PraDigi Open Learning program. We will continue to identify opportunities to raise support from other donors, grants, and awards whilst strengthening the program in the existing communities. So far, we have been successful in implementing a light-touch model with limited mentor involvement. 

To ensure the sustainability of the program in the long run, efforts will be made to build the capacities of the youth in such a manner that they are able to lead and implement PraDigi interventions on their own without relying on external resources.

Initially, when the program was launched in 2015, one mentor was mapped to five villages. As the program progressed, we were able to develop technology tools and implementation methodologies that allowed the mentors to look after more villages at a time. In 2017, the mentor ratio increased to 10 villages per mentor. In 2020, through continuous advancements and modifications in technology, content, and social structure, a low-touch, low-cost model was established that allowed 50 communities to be mapped to a single mentor.

Over the past few years, our experiments of working with the community and creating ownership opportunities for youth volunteers have led to the creation of a 'youth-centric' model. Through capacity-building exercises, we are in the process of creating a cadre of youth leaders that can sustain community-focused activities on their own.

While we will utilize existing funds and continue to raise funds for the time-being, the long-term plan is to exit from these communities and let the community take complete ownership of their growth and development.