Digital Adventure:

Globally, thought leaders, educators, governments, and parents alike express a common refrain: "The education system is not working!" This sentiment underscores a persistent challenge that our educational infrastructure fails to address the diverse learning needs of individual children. The one-size-fits-all approach largely ignores the varied learning speeds and styles of students, such as those who learn better visually versus verbally, or those who show interest in specific subjects over others. Consequently, students are forced into standardized educational models that do not cater to their unique learning profiles, potentially wasting valuable years of their childhood and, in some cases, unfairly labeling them as underachievers when they do not fit the conventional mold.

This systemic flaw in education is not a recent discovery. Over a century ago, pioneering educational theorists like Caroline Pratt, Maria Montessori, and John Dewey criticized the long-established systems for their failure to facilitate effective learning. They, along with many successors, have argued that mere incremental improvements in certain aspects of the educational value network are insufficient. Instead, they advocate for comprehensive systemic reforms to fundamentally alter the way teaching and learning are approached.

Fortunately, there is a beacon of hope with the advent of digital transformation, which promises a paradigm shift in all facets of our lives, making traditional methods increasingly obsolete. This shift presents an unprecedented opportunity to rethink and redesign educational practices to better align with the needs of today's diverse learner population, ensuring a more personalized and effective educational experience for all.

At the core of our educational philosophy is the belief that every child possesses an inherent talent for learning. Our mission is to ignite and nurture this curiosity, guiding each child to discover and develop their unique strengths and interests. This foundational principle inspired the creation of "The Digital Adventure," an innovative educational platform designed to transform traditional curricular objectives into a dynamic, engaging, and inclusive learning experience.

"The Digital Adventure" reimagines how educational content is delivered by employing highly visual animations that turn learning objectives into captivating story plots. These narratives provide contextually relevant scenarios that make subjects relatable and exciting for children. Following each animated segment, children engage with interactive problem-solving mini-games. These games are crafted to reinforce the material covered in the animations, enhancing knowledge retention through active participation.

To ensure inclusivity, "The Digital Adventure" offers its content in multiple languages, including ethnic minority languages such as Kazakh and Tuvan, as well as formats accessible to sign language users and the visually impaired. This approach broadens accessibility and caters to diverse learning needs, making educational opportunities available to a wider audience.

Reflecting on our own childhood experiences with animated series, where we effortlessly remembered characters and plotlines, "The Digital Adventure" leverages this effective learning mechanism. By integrating it into our educational tools, we harness the power of storytelling and interactive engagement to foster a meaningful and lasting learning impact on children.

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent closure of schools and kindergartens following border closures, the Government of Mongolia swiftly transitioned from traditional classroom instruction to televised educational lessons. This shift was essential to continue providing educational services to approximately 1 million children. By May 2020, UNICEF Mongolia had conducted an assessment to evaluate the effectiveness of these televised lessons. The findings revealed that over 36% of the children found the TV lessons ineffective, while 16% had access to the necessary devices but chose not to participate.

Building on these insights, UNICEF Mongolia initiated the development of "Digital Adventure," a first of its kind project in Mongolia. This initiative marked a significant collaboration involving diverse stakeholders, including multimedia production companies, Ministry of Education subject matter experts, and methodologists. Together, they worked to transform the official curriculum into engaging storylines and interactive visual content.

Moreover, Civil Society Organizations focusing on ethnic minorities and children with disabilities were integral to ensuring that the content was accessible to all children. This collaboration represented a significant shift for the Ministry of Education, which had not previously engaged with such a broad array of stakeholders.

UNICEF Mongolia was at the forefront of coordinating and managing this complex project. Through "Digital Adventure," we are not only providing exemplary educational content but also championing a new approach to learning. This approach is tailored to stimulate and satisfy children's natural curiosity and enthusiasm. It advocates for a shift from a top-down methodology to one that is responsive and adaptive to the needs and interests of the children, encouraging Ministry officials to embrace this innovative direction in education.

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to enhance their opportunities to reach their full potential. Consistent with this mandate, our strategy includes grassroots engagement aimed at addressing the educational needs of children comprehensively. This involves conducting consultations with children, teachers, and parents, and engaging with professional organizations to integrate their feedback into the development process. We also conduct demo testing of educational content to ensure continuous improvement.

Additionally, our education team is composed of professionals with profound experience in assessing and implementing innovative solutions within the education sector. Their expertise facilitates the adoption of unorthodox and novel teaching and learning methodologies, specifically designed to enhance educational outcomes for children.

Since August 2020, we have successfully produced over 209 episodes of "Digital Adventure," covering subjects such as Mongolian language, Math, and Natural and Life Sciences across pre-primary, primary, and secondary education levels. In an effort to create a centralized digital learning repository that is accessible to all children at zero-rating, UNICEF has partnered with the Ministry of Education to develop the platform www.medle.mn. We consistently upload our content to this platform to extend educational resources to children throughout Mongolia.

Since the launch of the first episode of Digital Adventure in January 2021 on Medle platform, it has recorded over 1 million views. Additionally, the content is accessible to children in Kazakhstan and the Republic of Tuva, Russia, broadening our reach and impact. This initiative is currently in a growth phase, having established a regular local audience and receiving funding from the Maßvoll Stiftung under the auspices of the Luxembourg foundation. We are committed to continuing our efforts to expand educational opportunities and foster learning across the region.

We are eager to share our experiences and the story of our journey with fellow solvers, the global EdTech community, educators, and children to amplify our visibility worldwide. We are equally excited to listening and learning from your insights and feedback, as we believe this will unveil new perspectives and innovative strategies to enhance our initiatives.

We are keen to discover if our vision resonates with that of potential partners who are interested in collaborating to expand our reach beyond Mongolia. Our ultimate goal is to scale our solutions and make them accessible to children globally, fostering a more inclusive and effective educational environment. 

We are guided by the belief that education should not be imposed on children; rather, it should be an engaging, interactive, and enjoyable process. By championing this transformative approach in Mongolia, we aim to inspire both public and private sector stakeholders to move beyond the traditional confines of classroom-based learning. Our vision encourages experimenting with innovative solutions that make learning more dynamic and relevant to childrens lives.

Furthermore, our objective is to encompass the full spectrum of the curriculum, ensuring that high-quality educational resources are freely accessible to all children. This initiative represents our commitment to fostering an inclusive and stimulating educational environment that supports the holistic development of every learner.

The theory of change underpinning "Digital Adventure" is predicated on providing high-quality and effective digital learning content that is accessible to children anytime, anywhere, free of charge.

We hope to catalyze both public and private stakeholders to diversify and enrich the digital learning resources available, incorporating various formats and modalities such as mobile games, learning experience platforms, and informative TV shows.

The digital learning resource will enable children to catch up on subjects where they may be lagging, thereby improving learning outcomes and enhancing retention of subject matter, effectively mitigating learning loss.

This will allow teachers to transition from traditional lecturing methods to utilizing classroom time for mentoring, addressing queries, and facilitating collaborative activities that bolster children’s competency and understanding.

By enabling rich digital learning resources online, we make learning at the time and place of the child’s choosing, which is particularly beneficial for children from remote herder families, those affected by severe winter conditions preventing them from attending school, and during global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ultimately, schools will evolve into vibrant hubs where children come together to interact, socialize, collaborate, and acquire new skills, thereby reinforcing knowledge gained independently. This transformative educational model not only addresses immediate learning challenges but also prepares children for future as an indepedent individuals fully competent to learn and acquire skills they need.  

Our strategic impact goals are focused on producing quantifiable data on the effectiveness of our learning content through a controlled study and achieving a milestone of 100,000 monthly active users.

Currently, we actively monitor the engagement and reach of our content via the Medle platform to assess our impact. To date, we have engaged 200 Ministry of Education officials and methodologists in a comprehensive survey to evaluate the appropriateness and effectiveness of our educational content. Additionally, we have conducted demonstration tests with our content in numerous schools, gathering feedback from over 1,000 teachers and students. We have also specifically tested our content with 50 children with disabilities and their parents to assess suitability, effectiveness, and gather insights for future improvements.

To further validate and enhance our educational contents, we are actively seeking a partnership to support us in conducting a controlled study. This study will compare the effectiveness of our digital learning solutions against traditional classroom teaching, aiming to generate solid, actionable data that will further strengthen our scale up process.

The Digital Adventure is a web-based digital learning resource.

The UNICEF Mongolia Education team comprises 4 dedicated professionals responsible for overseeing the implementation and coordination of the development process.

From MoE, there are 30 methodologists provide essential pedagogical support to ensure that the content aligns with the official curriculum.

The contractors team will include Project Manager, Creative Director, Coordinators, Script Writers, Storyboard Artists, Visual Designers, Audio Engineers, Animators, Programmers, Voice-over Actors, Translators, and a Sign Language Interpreter. On average, these teams consist of 50 professionals.

Since August 2020.

At UNICEF, we are committed to upholding the United Nations' values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our operations. This commitment extends to ensuring equal opportunities for all stakeholders, including our contractors, implementing partners, and government counterparts.

To achieve the highest standards of service and foster an inclusive environment, we conduct our development work in structured batches—typically handling 30 to 60 content development projects at a time. Selection of our contractors is executed through a transparent, open competitive bidding process, which ensures fairness and access to a wide range of potential service providers.

To guarantee that our content is both appropriate and inclusive, we actively involve representatives from each target group in the content development process. Our implementing partners, which include the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind, the Mongolian Association of Sign Language Interpreters, the Association of Parents with Disabled Children, the Mongolian Association of the Deaf, and Special Needs Schools of Ulaanbaatar, play an indispensable role. These collaborations are crucial for ensuring that our digital content is accessible, addressing a diverse array of learning needs and preferences, and truly embodying the values we strive to promote.

We firmly believe that education is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone Sustainable Development Goal that catalyzes the achievement of the other 16 goals. Consequently, we hold the conviction that education should be universally recognized and upheld as a public good.

During the initial year of our project, we secured funding from the UN Multi-Partner Trust Fund to maintain essential education services during the pandemic, allocating $200,000 of these funds to design and develop the first 104 content.

From the second year onward, we successfully mobilized over $250,000 from Maßvoll Stiftung under the auspices of the Luxembourg Foundation. These funds are earmarked for expanding our content offerings to include an additional 105 content.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, we developed a centralized digital learning repository equipped with integrated Learning Management System capabilities. This platform has been adopted as the national official learning resource repository. The Ministry is actively augmenting this repository with a range of official educational resources, including digital interactive textbooks and video lessons.

In partnership with the government, we reached a consensus with Internet Service Providers to implement zero-rating for the Medle platform, ensuring it is accessible at no cost to users. Consequently, the government has assumed responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and operational costs of the platform.

On the other hand, UNICEF is committed to enhancing the educational content available by developing Digital Adventure episodes that cover the full spectrum of the curriculum, thereby enriching the learning experiences of children nationwide.