Asynchronous Access: Digital Education Tools, AI and Usage Data

Over 50% of the world's population cannot access the increasing wealth of educational opportunities because they lack internet.  As a result, these offline learners are falling behind, and the education gap keeps widening as technology continues to evolve providing now AI tools that, if properly used, can significantly help improve education outcomes.  The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic in the education process of millions of students in rural areas have been devastating, as most of them could not continue their education when schools were shut down.  And worst of all, many of them have slowly returned, or not returned at all, to classes after schools were finally reopened, loosing some gains already made towards the goals of the 2030 Education Agenda.

Furthermore, education methods and techniques, especially in developing countries, still greatly rely on rote memorization and focus more on the development of hard skills, or technical skills.  Although these skills are needed, it has become evident that the soft skills, or XXI century skills, are necessary to thrive academically, professionally and in life in general.  Skills such as critical thinking, communication, team effort and creativity are not given enough attention, when they are essential for students to be able to face the ever-changing challenges of this century in an efficient and ethical manner.  This particularly applies to the use of AI in education, where critical thinking skills are imperative to foster in order to minimize inherent risks and ensure integrity in learning and teaching practices.   

In these contexts, it is unfortunate that most governments don't have the financial resources, and in many cases nor the political will, to provide a sustainable solution to the lack of connectivity in schools, improve their infrastructure and resources, and innovate methods of teaching/learning.

RACHEL (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning) helps solving this problem by making the best educational websites like Wikipedia, Khan Academy, and many more, available anywhere.  RACHEL is a rugged, portable offline server, with a 2TB storage capacity to support up to 50 simultaneous users, that can turn a graveyard of underused computers or tablets into a 21st century learning center with the push of a button.

RACHEL makes learning accessible and engaging, giving teachers an opportunity to personalize learning through the different interactive websites and platforms available, such as Kolibri and Moodle, allowing them also to upload their own local content.  In Guatemala, for instance, the World Possible chapter has created different modules to provide access to most resources from the Ministry of Education, including those in the different Mayan languages.    

More recently, we are in the process of launching the latest version of DataPost, an application that allows asynchronous access to AI tools and to pickup/deliver emails from and to the RACHEL servers using an Android phone.  DataPost also gathers statistical usage data that provides important insight into how a community interacts with a RACHEL device, including how many users are directly impacted and what is the content that is being used the most.  This tool is particularly useful for education authorities, funders, content creators and local governments that need to track the impact of their programs and make timely decisions.

Our DataPost technology involves a cloud platform that sits as a middle man (the post office) between online services and offline endpoints. The offline endpoints will get updates delivered to them by courier devices (devices that have intermittent connectivity such as smartphones) and vice versa.   

Our solution also includes an offline virtual teacher training program that has a special emphasis on the development of XXI century skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, team work and communication, which are essential for students to be able to face the ever-changing challenges of this century in an efficient and ethical manner. This particularly applies to the use of AI in education, to ensure integrity in learning and teaching practices.

Our beneficiaries are by definition marginalized communities worldwide, those without access to internet connectivity.  We support different educational settings, including community centers, refugee camps and schools in rural remote areas.  These schools not only lack access to internet but also to books, basic education resources and even main basic services.  

Our repository of open education resources is constantly growing, as we and our partners in the field are frequently on the lookout for high quality websites and educational tools that can serve a wide diversity of contexts and information needs.  With over 200 offline modules available, students from kindergarten to university can find the content they need to support their learning efforts; and community members can find information, tutorials and tools that can help them improve and promote their economic activities.  Or simply find and download a book to their smartphones for pleasure reading. 

RACHEL also allows an easy way for end users/teachers to upload local content in different formats, which enhance efforts to tailor education to meet the different needs of students; and through our DataPost app, which allows asynchronous communication, we provide important support to implementers, education and health authorities share additional content and information and make informed and timely intervention decisions.

By bringing more content and services in which they can participate and discover, we bring better opportunities and data for education, healthcare, and livelihoods.

World Possible begun efforts to support offline learners back in 2009, when Cisco engineer Norberto Mujica and a few volunteers built the first version of RACHEL, after teaching in an Ethiopian university where they experienced first-hand the lack of connectivity and access to high quality educational resources.  This first version worked on a Raspberry Pi with only 32GB capacity. During the last 15 years World Possible has evolved into an impactful and sustainable organization that now provides a much robust server with additional capabilities, including our DataPost app released in 2021, and many more open-source educational resources.

With chapters and partners in different parts of the world, RACHEL has reached over 50 countries serving around 750,000 unique users.

Through these chapters and partners around the globe, World Possible gets input from the communities that are being served. World Possible chapters are led by local entrepreneurs who know very well their contexts and they gather and curate local content based on the needs of the schools they are supporting. When chapter leaders visit the communities, they get feedback from teachers and students about the use of RACHEL servers and the available content. This feedback is key to find and provide relevant and appropriate resources, as well as to allow our tech team to identify and solve glitches on the system.

During the development of the newest DataPost version, there have been discussions between World Possible leadership, including chapter leaders, and organizations, teachers and local education authorities in terms of the need of getting data from and to schools and options for collecting it and store it.  These discussions have been key in determining and shaping additional features, which will include customizable forms to fit communities, schools and education authorities’ needs.

Since World Possible's beginning in 2009 our digital library RACHEL has reached over 750,000 unique users in more than 50 countries.  It started with a basic Raspberry Pi version with 32GB storage capacity, allowing 12 simultaneous users.  In 2019, RACHEL 4.0 became our more robust server with up to 2TB storage capacity serving up to 50 simultaneous users.  

Since the release of the first version of our DataPost app in 2021, over 295 compatible devices have been registered, collecting around 92,000 days of usage data.

We are currently working on our latest version of DataPost, which allows to pickup/deliver emails from and to the RACHEL servers using and Android phone, while also gathering statistical usage for monitoring and evaluation purposes.  This information can be viewed on the DataPost map.

One particular new feature that needs further development, in order to offer the best experience possible to offline teachers and students, is the asynchronous access to AI tools for education.  

We are applying to Solve to: 

1. Increase our opportunities to network and collaborate with tech organizations, especially those in the AI field.  Not only for technical aspects but also in terms of discussing and proposing the best approaches to ensure that integrating this resource in schools will foster the development of different new skills, while keeping the integrity in all learning and teaching practices.
2. Get support in implementing an efficient system for measuring long term impact in education practices and outcomes in multiple countries.
3. Increase our network of partners and collaborators across the globe to bring and test our solution in offline remote areas where students have less chances of succeeding academically and professionally. 

The innovation in our solution relies on the fact that it doesn't require an internet connection, making it functional and sustainable in remote offline communities across the globe. 

There have been different efforts to bring digital educational resources, normally available through the internet, to remote offline communities and which have relied on providing satellite connectivity, now that it is more broadly available. However, in most cases, bandwidth was not enough to support an entire classroom connected, and in the long run schools were not able to keep paying for monthly fees.  Furthermore, studies have demonstrated that restricted access to the internet can be more efficient in improving education outcomes, as opposed to having full access.  A particular study showed that by restricting internet access to a source of engaging and accessible reading materials, it is possible to encourage independent reading and positively affect educational outcomes. 

As of now, we are the only organization that is offering asynchronous exchange of information and data through an app. Our new DataPost version, in addition to the latter, will offer offline students and teachers the possibility of accessing language models to experiment and learn about how can AI be used in education.

This technology can catalyze an entire offline ecosystem for remote disconnected schools. This ecosystem can include access to educational websites, AI tools and resources, asynchronous communication with donors, implementers and government education authorities, access to usage statistics and the ability to submit and receive evaluation/monitoring forms as well as to issue digital badges for teachers and students.

This technology can also be applied to community centers or government health centers that need to communicate with central offices, send reports and even photographs for asynchronous diagnostics, for instance.

Providing schools with technological tools that allow free access to digital resources and high-quality educational materials, and a training program for teachers that gives them the tools to integrate it and foster XXI century skills with their students.

Students are more engaged and motivated, reducing drop-out rates, and improving academic performances.

Students are better prepared and motivated to continue a higher education.

There are more and better prepared professionals, critical thinkers, actively participating and contributing to the development of their communities and their countries.

In the upcoming iteration of DataPost for the 2024-205 period, our goal is to boost the registration and regular check-ins of RACHEL devices, from the current monthly average of 10 and 54 respectively to at least 13 and 81.  We anticipate working with at least 5 partner organizations in customizing forms to collect data, and we aim to elevate the number of registered RACHELs from the current 297 to a minimum of 450, fostering a more robust and dynamic network of active devices.  We expect to benefit 30,000 new direct users, which are mostly offline students and teachers, totaling 780,000 worldwide active users benefiting from accessing high quality educational resources and tools, and improving their academic performances. 

Through DataPost we are able to globally and asynchronously track number of unique users, login events, teachers that complete our virtual training program and the content that is being accessed and used the most.

One of our goals is to help teachers and students improve academic performances, especially improvements in reading comprehension and math. Through our DataPost app we help our chapters and partner implementers in the field to deliver pre and post-tests evaluations to measure progress after using RACHEL during a school year, as well as to create their own customized forms to track and evaluate their own specific metrics.  

Our chapter in Guatemala, for instance, has set as indicators increased percentages of students with advanced command in math and reading comprehension, by at least 10% (compared to students in control group schools) one year after deploying RACHEL and training teachers.

Our solution is based on two main technological components: 

1)    RACHEL:

RACHEL is an innovative, low-cost server and an accompanying package of software and content that capitalizes on three technological trends: (1) the development of HTML5 standards, (2) the plummeting costs of storage, and (3) a robust creator community of Open Educational Resources.

These three trends converge in RACHEL, where we use high speed internet to “scrape” high quality open educational websites. We replicate these websites in our hardware solution RACHEL. Once we’ve loaded RACHEL with copies of dozens of websites, we leverage 802.11 networking protocol to create an access point which allows any device with a web browser to access the content stored in RACHEL, thus providing the highest quality educational resources available to offline learners without the need for internet.

2)    DataPost:

Our DataPost App provides asynchronous email exchange and usage data from RACHEL logs.  We have a cloud platform that sits as a middle man (the post office) between online services and offline endpoints. The offline endpoints will get updates delivered to them by courier devices (Android smartphones that have intermittent connectivity) and vice versa.  Students and teachers will be able to submit questions or prompts to language models that will be operational on World Possible servers and results will be returned asynchronously.  Using GIS technology we are able to locate all registered RACHEL devices in our DataPost world map, where usage statistics can be accessed. 

World Possible has a very small team who is 100% committed to the development and implementation of our solution worldwide.  We are three full-time staff members working for World Possible's headquarters in the US.  There are two full-time staff members working for the Guatemala chapter, who deploy and test upgrades of our solution in Central America.  There are two chapter leaders in Ghana and Sierra Leone who work part-time deploying our solution and providing support to others organizations using RACHEL in Africa.

The first version of RACHEL was released in 2009, which worked on a Raspberry Pi with a 32 GB SD card.  During the last 15 years World Possible's team has released different version with different levels of improvements and upgrades, currently offering a more robust and reliable RACHEL 4.2 version, with 2TB of storage capacity.  In 2021 we released DataPost 1.0 and are currently working on the 2.0 version, which will allow additional features for asynchronous communication and access to online services.

Our leadership team is integrated by Romeo Rodríguez (ED), Jeremy Schwartz (COO) and James Kainer (CTO).  We mostly work remotely.  Romeo, a latino from Guatemala, started as a volunteer supporting RACHEL deployments in Central America and Africa.  During 6 years he led the World Possible chapter in Guatemala and in 2023 he was appointed as World Possible executive director.  Jeremy and James, from the US and Canada, also started as volunteers.  Jeremy helped implement the first ever RACHEL deployments, which happened in Sierra Leone, and then he became the first World Possible paid employee as the executive director from 2014 to 2023.  James Keiner has led World Possible’s technology development and roadmap since 2018, rising from a committed volunteer on our online community to eventually lead technology development. 

Our chapter leaders in Guatemala and Africa are local entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of their contexts and who's input and feedback have been key in developing our solution.

Although we don't have specific written policies regarding staff management and opportunities, our history has proven us to be an organization that welcomes diversity and minimizes barriers to growth.

The populations our solution serves are mostly in remote areas where they lack internet connectivity and have very limited access to high quality education resources and tools.  Our main partners and customers are organizations and governments that bring our solution to these populations.

Through our RACHEL servers we provide free and unlimited access to top quality open source education websites, as well as curated collections of localized content.  This content, which includes encyclopedias, interactive lessons and courses, tutorials, books and video collections, among many others, serve not only teachers and students of all grades, but also out of school youth and community members who wish to learn or improve any technical skill.  By approaching the school or community center where there is a RACHEL server, they can use their smartphones to access all those resources, or simply download a book to read at home.

Our DataPost app provides end users with the opportunity to asynchronously exchange emails with anyone in the world, and to asynchronously access and experience the benefits of new AI tools such as language models.  It also provides our partners and customers with the opportunity to asynchronously track usage and get important insight into how communities are interacting with RACHEL devices, as well as to send and receive reports and/or evaluation forms.

We sell and globally ship RACHEL devices through World Possible's website, where customers can choose language, storage capacity and request additional open source content based on the needs of end beneficiaries.  Our chapters in Guatemala and Africa in addition of customizing and selling RACHEL servers locally and regionally, provide a training program for teachers which helps them integrate new technologies in the classroom while developing XXI century skills, such as critical thinking. We are particularly focusing on this skill, now that AI is becoming more broadly available, to ensure ethics and integrity in learning and teaching practices. 

The RACHEL and DataPost package provides a needed solution to organizations and governments that strive to reach and support offline communities in their education efforts.  Our solution enables the creation of dynamic ecosystems that can include access to top of the line educational resources, training programs for teachers and an asynchronous system for monitoring and exchanging information with end users.

Our organization's sustainability relies on a combination of revenue from RACHEL devices sales, donations and grants.  We anticipate that when the new version of DataPost is fully operational and has been tested with different partner implementers, we will be able to sell it as a service to organizations that need to provide additional resources, monitor and communicate with offline end users.

On April 3, 2024, a $225,000 grant from Cisco was awarded to our organization to further develop our DataPost app and RACHEL hardware and software.