GLOBAL LEARNING XPRIZE - PROPOSED GUIDELINES, V.1 22 September 2014
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GLOBAL LEARNING XPRIZE
PROPOSED GUIDELINES, V.1
22 September 2014INDEX
1. Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………..3
2. Why this Competition?…………………………………………………………….…5
2.1 The Global Crisis in Education……………………………………………….…5
2.2 The Grand Challenge………………………………………………………….…6
2.3 The Opportunity……………………………………………………………….…6
2.3.1 Breakthroughs in the Science of Reading……………...……………6
2.3.2 Affordability of Computing Devices……………...………………….7
2.3.3 Evidence of Potential for Child-Driven Learning……………….….7
3. Competition Details…………………………………………………………...………8
3.1 The Prizes …………………………………….…………………………...………8
3.2 Competition Timeline……………………….……………………..……...………8
3.3 Judging Criteria……………………….……………………..……...…………...10
3.3.1 Semi-finalist Selection Criteria………………..……...……………..10
3.3.2 Final Judging: Reading………………..……...………………….….11
3.3.3 Final Judging: Writing………………..……...……………………...11
3.3.4 Final Judging: Numeracy………………..……...…………………...12
3.4 Host Country Selection………………..……...…………………………..……...12
3.4.1 English as an Official Language...…………………………...……...12
3.4.2 Political Support from Host Government………………...………..13
3.4.3 Potential Host Countries………...…………………………………..13
3.4.4 Test Population and Delayed-Entry Cohort (Control Group)……14
3.5 Hardware and Communications………………………………………………...14
3.5.1 Hardware Platform…………………………………………………..14
3.5.2 Power………………………………………………………………….15
3.5.3 Local Communication………………………………………………..15
3.5.4 Troubleshooting ……………………………………………………...15
3.6 Key Operational Partners………………………………………………………..15
3.6.1 Partner Selection Criteria…………………………………………....16
3.7 Supporting Roles………………………………………………………………….16
3.7.1 Advisory Board…………………………………….………………....16
3.7.2 Ethics Review Board…………………………….…………………....16
3.7.3 Judging Panel…………….…………………………………………...17
3.8 Open Source…….………………………………………………………………....17
3.8.1 Open Source License Agreement…………………………………......18
3.8.2 Code and Content Availability………………………………….........18
3.8.3 Collaboration and Competition……………………………………....18
4. Phases of the Competition………………………………….………………………....19
4.1Registration…………………………………….………………………....19
4.2 Qualifying Round ……………………………..………..………………………....20
4.2.1 Qualification of Teams……………..………………….……………....20
4.2.2 XPRIZE Community Forum……………..……………..……..……...20
4.2.3 Virtual Team Summit…..………………………………..………….....20
4.3 Software Design Period………………………..………………………………......20
4.3.1 Submission of Entries……..…………………………...………............20
4.4 Finalist Round……………………………………..…………………………….....21
4.4.1 Finalist Team Summit………………..………………..….....................21
4.4.2 Adaptation of Entries to Local Culture……………..….......................21
4.4.3 Baseline Testing………………………………….………......................22
.4.4 Iteration of Entries during Field Testing………...…….........................22
4.4.5 Controlling External Influence and Communication…….....……….22
4.5 Post-Field Test Assessment………………………………………………..……...23
4.5.1 Assessment Teams ……………………………………………….…….23
5. Questions for Public Comment…………………………………………………...…...23
21. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The document you are reading now is the result of an intensive design period to build a
competition that will address perhaps the grandest challenge facing humanity today: the need to
educate all children. We have set a clear vision and course for what we believe is the best way to
face the Grand Challenge of educating the hundreds of millions of children who cannot read,
write, or do basic arithmetic. Throughout these guidelines, you will see a series of questions. So
please get involved, give us your feedback, or form a team. We believe we are strongest when we
work together to create radical breakthroughs for humanity.
There are still 57 million children who have no access to any kind of primary school, and an
additional 250 million kids who have some schooling but do not learn basic literacy and
1
numeracy. Of the eight United Nations Millennium Goals (MDGs), world leaders identified the
achievement of universal primary education by the year 2015 as key to meeting the needs of the
world’s poorest. XPRIZE believes that there is enormous untapped potential for technology-based
learning to transform the education opportunities of children living in even the poorest and most
remote places on Earth.
Technology holds promise to transform the learning environment for these children. While there
has been a rush to introduce technology in classrooms in wealthy communities, scant effort has
been made to focus technology on where it is needed most—rural villages around the world
where resources are scarce.
Governments and the international community have made progress on getting children into
school, but significant work remains to be done. Technology-based learning enables children to
learn at their own pace in their own space. This is particularly important in impoverished
communities where children—especially girls—are expected to contribute to the work of the
family or may not have a safe school environment. Early experiments in using technology for
self-directed learning have shown that children in non-literate communities with no access to
school and no prior experience with a computer are able to self-organize into learning
2
communities where children teach themselves and each other.
The Global Learning XPRIZE is designed to stimulate the development of software solutions
aimed at accelerating child-driven learning. Teams must agree that if their solution is selected as a
Finalist, their software and content will be released under open source licenses, creating a global
public good available for anyone to use, adapt, or improve upon for the benefit of children
everywhere.
We are on the cusp of a moon-shot moment where the merging of advances in neuroscience,
computer technology, and child-driven learning methods can provide a transformation in the lives
of children around the world.
XPRIZE is looking to challenge the world to develop open source software that can make a
powerful contribution toward creating dynamic learning environments accessible to all children,
no matter where they live or their station in life.
1
UNESCO. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2013.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002256/225654e.pdf
2
Dangwal and Gope, “Indian adaptation of Motivated Strategy Learning Questionnaire,” International
Journal of Education and Development using ICT 7.3 (2011)
http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1275
3The Global Learning XPRIZE is a $15 million Competition that will reward the Team
whose technology results in the greatest levels of learning achievement in reading, writing,
and numeracy by children with no access to quality education.
The Competition will invite Teams from all over the world to develop open source software
capable of fostering self-guided learning among young children.
The Judging Panel of the Global Learning XPRIZE will select the top five software Entries, each
of which will receive a $1 million prize. These Finalist software Entries each will be loaded
onto a standard tablet and field tested for an 18-month period with children in a set of villages in
one region of Sub-Saharan Africa (as described in Section 5.2). The judges will award a $10
million Grand Prize to the Team whose Entry results in learning gains double that of current
educational achievement in three key building blocks for 21st century literacy:
• Reading
• Writing
• Numeracy
The ultimate goal of the Global Learning XPRIZE is to spur social and technological change to
empower children anywhere on Earth to develop the skills to be critical and creative 21st century
thinkers who ask questions, challenge assumptions, solve problems, and communicate effectively.
Innovative educational content will:
• Be immersive in all aspects of a child’s life
• Reward and challenge children to continue to develop as creative and critical thinkers
• Support how children naturally learn from each other by providing the opportunity to
organize themselves into a community of learners
The Global Learning XPRIZE is about empowering all children no matter their circumstances to
reach their fullest potential. Education saves lives, fosters peace, strengthens the rights of women
3
and girls, and promotes economic growth. According to UNESCO, if all students in low-income
countries had basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty—a 12 percent
4
reduction in world impoverishment.
Because the Global Learning XPRIZE is about viewing children as a mission and not a market,
we expect it will harness the passion and the power of the open-source community to make real
and demonstrable impact on the global learning crisis. In the post-Competition world, we
envision enormous growth in the quality and quantity of technologies specifically designed to
reach illiterate, underserved children, and a rallying of global leaders, policy makers, parents,
and—most importantly—children themselves to embrace learning in an exciting, engaging, and
child-centered way.
3
For a good discussion of the impact of education on poverty, see www.globalpartnership.org/who-we-
are/the-value-of-education
4
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001902/190214e.pdf
42. WHY THIS COMPETITION?
The gap between the rich and the poor will continue to increase unabated without a radical new
approach to bringing quality education to those who are currently being left behind.
In 2014, the World Economic Forum identified growing income inequality one of the top five
5
global security risks. A basic literacy foundation is one of the most important factors for a
child’s success and a country’s economic growth. However, there are key market failures in
addressing this critical area:
• Resources: A shortage of teachers exists throughout the world; millions more are needed
to help teach in overcrowded classrooms filled with students of varying age and skill
levels. Skilled teachers are less likely to serve in remote areas where the greatest barriers
to quality education exist. Political forces favor middle-class urban populations, resulting
in more educational resources—including teachers, supplies, and school buildings—
being directed to such areas rather than to remote villages.
• Scalability: Current educational models leave millions of children without the
opportunity to learn basic skills. These models cannot scale because they require finite
resources such as teachers and schools, which are simply not available to many children,
especially in the poorest communities.
• Time: The amount of time it takes a child to achieve a basic literacy foundation is on
average between three and seven years. However, if we can prove that certain key
elements of literacy such as reading, writing, and numeracy can happen more rapidly, we
will push the boundaries for multiple areas and types of learning and learning delivery
systems, shifting the education paradigm as a whole.
• Customization: Personalized learning opportunities have the potential to revolutionize
the learning space. Customizing one’s learning experience according to personal
relevance, need, and interest—as well as adapting the experience to one’s speed, pace,
and style—can transform the learning industry into a robust, commercial industry and
bring it to even the most remote parts of the world.
The Global Learning XPRIZE seeks to address the market failures in global education by
providing financial incentives and attracting global attention to the challenge of developing
scalable solutions to reach children who lack access to quality educational opportunities. The
Global Learning XPRIZE is designed to stimulate the development of software solutions aimed at
accelerating child-driven learning.
2.1 THE GLOBAL CRISIS IN LEARNING
Children are the most precious natural resource of any nation, and literacy is one of the single
most important skills for children to develop if they are to thrive as individuals and global
citizens. Literacy opens the mind of a child to a lifetime of critical and creative thinking. The
development of such forms of thought in a society fuels discovery, productivity, and innovation,
which, in turn, drive economic and social development.
Nevertheless, millions of children never learn to read, never learn basic math, and never develop
the creative and critical thinking skills necessary to achieve their full potential. The problem is
two-fold – some children do not have the opportunity to attend school and others receive sub-
standard teaching in class.
5
World Economic Forum. Global Risks 2014: Ninth Edition. http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2014/
5Although more children now enter school, the quality of education that many children in low
income countries receive is of extremely poor quality. As a result, a stunning 250 million children
in developing countries are struggling to read even basic words, to write, and to count even
though half of these children attend school. The global shortage of teachers, particularly in Sub-
Saharan Africa, is growing. UNESCO projects that countries will need an extra 1.6 million
teachers in classrooms to achieve universal primary education by 2015, and this number is
6
expected to rise to 3.3 million by 2030. To compound the problem, pressure to achieve universal
primary education enrollment has exacerbated overcrowding of classrooms and hiring of
unqualified teachers, resulting in sub-standard learning.
2.2 THE GRAND CHALLENGE
The number of children out of school is not the only crisis. Although more children now enter
school, one third of all children are not learning the basics whether they attend school or not.
About 137 million children began primary school in 2011, but at least 34 million are likely to
drop out before reaching the last grade. Twenty-five percent of children are now leaving school
early—reflecting no improvement since 2000.
Over the last two decades, national education policies and international aid for education have
mainly focused on improving access to primary school. Progress has been made on this front, and
this progress must be accelerated. However, the reality is that at the current pace, 47 percent of
primary-school-aged children who are currently out of school are unlikely to ever enter school.
We must redouble our efforts to ensure that children who attend school actually learn.
2.3 THE OPPORTUNITY
At XPRIZE, we asked ourselves what can be done to spur innovation aimed at radically
transforming the learning experience for the millions of young children today who have no access
to quality education. And what does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? We see three
powerful forces at work that, if harnessed, have the potential to transform learning:
• Breakthroughs in the science of reading
• Affordability of computing devices makes scalability possible
• Evidence of the potential of child-driven learning
What is lacking, however, is any unified effort to merge these forces in ways that could benefit
the world’s poorest children.
2.3.1 BREAKTHROUGHS IN THE SCIENCE OF
READING
Brain-imaging research now allows us to see and track the multiple component processes that
make up what is called the "reading brain circuit.” This same research, when studied across time,
gives us a developmental trajectory for understanding what processes are critical to the
development of reading—from acquisition phases in the new reader to full fluent comprehension
in the adult.
In turn, this evolving knowledge base has created opportunities for more precise approaches to
teaching young and older readers alike how to read, as well as a platform for better understanding
6
www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/fs27-2013-teachers-projections.pdf
6which forms of intervention work best for different readers. For example, research has revealed
that very young readers need particular emphasis on the sounds (i.e. phonemes) in their language
to learn how to decode. Comparatively, older readers can be helped to move from basic decoding
to fluent reading by emphasis on the unique orthographic patterns in their language and on the
roots and affixes that form these patterns.
We believe there is enough understanding of these principles to create transformative,
technology-based learning systems that can provide children with critical learning experiences in
the absence of a human teacher. This can be achieved by leveraging how children learn in self-
organizing peer groups, and incentivizing and rewarding their desire and ability to learn and
improve together in a deeply immersive way.
2.3.2 AFFORDABILITY OF COMPUTING DEVICES
MAKES SCALABILITY POSSIBLE
The price/performance curve for computing and communications hardware has reached the point
where it is possible to develop and deploy high-performance mobile computing devices in the
most remote regions of the world. The One Laptop per Child initiative is a case in point. Through
the program, more than 2.8 million laptops have been purchased by developing country
governments and deployed all over the world in very remote places. Tablets such as the Huawei
Impulse are now on the market for close to USD $100. And Datawind has announced a USD $38
Android-based tablet for the North American market. These tablets have sufficient capabilities
(e.g., Internet connectivity, memory, and battery life) to build dynamic learning platforms. Given
the economies of scale, we can expect further price drops, coupled with greater capabilities, in the
near future.
2.3.3 EVIDENCE OF THE POTENTIAL OF CHILD-
DRIVEN LEARNING
All children have a natural curiosity and an inherent ability to create, communicate, and express
themselves. The challenge is to create learning opportunities that nurture these talents in ways
that make learning joyful and to incentivize children to take charge of their own learning.
As anyone knows who has ever witnessed a small child play on a smart phone or tablet computer,
these devices are highly engaging. Because children intuitively understand how to use the
applications on such devices, they are quickly able to manipulate the apps and maneuver the
device.
Early experiments in using technology for self-directed learning have shown that children in non-
literate communities with no access to school and no prior experience with a computer are able to
self-organize into learning communities, where children of a wide range of ages teach themselves
and each other. In the Hole-in-the-Wall experiment in India, where a computer was placed in a
community without any instruction, children developed a proficiency in computer literacy
rivaling that of children who received explicit instruction in school.
The ongoing Global Literacy Collaborative being conducted by MIT, Tufts University, and
Georgia State University in Ethiopia presents further evidence. Within one year, 40 children who
live beyond the reach of schools in two villages that are largely illiterate have been achieving
remarkable precursor literacy skills using tablets. With no adult to teach them, many of these
children have learned the alphabet and letter-sound correspondence rules, can recognize almost
all English letters, and can write letters from memory. A few of the children can even read a
group of sight words, with the top performers on the cusp of decoding and beginning to read. In
both villages, older girls are among the most advanced learners and are actively teaching the other
7children. Through their own motivation, these children are using the tablets an average of six
hours a day—exploring and sharing more than 300 apps and educational media. Their drive and
7
desire to learn to read—and to do so together—is inspiring.
3 COMPETITION DETAILS
The Global Learning XPRIZE is a 4 ½ -year competition with total prize purses of $15 million.
This is a two-round, incentivized Competition that will allow Teams to demonstrate tablet-based
learning tools in an engaging and self-directed way for children who lack access to quality
education.
The XPRIZE model actively avoids presupposing what the eventual winning design may entail.
Entries submitted by Teams are expected to vary immensely and represent a wide range of
innovative approaches.
The winning Team will be the one whose software produces the highest achievement in aggregate
scores in the core competencies of reading, writing, and numeracy. The winning Team must
produce results that are twice the control group scores.
3.1 THE PRIZES
• Finalist Prizes
In the qualifying round of the competition the Judging Panel will select up to 5 Finalist
Teams that have crafted the most impressive technology based on the criteria found in
section 4.3.1. Each Finalist Team will be eligible to receive a USD $1 million Finalist
Prize.
• Grand Prize Award
Following an 18-month field-testing period of the five finalist Teams’ Entries by children
in rural villages in a Sub-Saharan African country (to be determined by XPRIZE), judges
will award the Grand Prize based on the results of post-assessments of children using the
tablets. The Team with the highest aggregate score greater than twice that of a control
group will be the winner of the USD $10 million Grand Prize. Points will be awarded in
each of the following three core learning competencies:
• Reading
• Writing
• Numeracy
3.2 COMPETITION TIMELINE
The Global Learning XPRIZE will operate over a course of approximately 4 ½ years. The
timeline below includes the major Competition phases and events. The Global Learning XPRIZE
is a fixed-date Competition with four phases, one of which involves testing the performance of
competitors’ Entries. A more detailed Competition Calendar will be available in the Rules and
Regulations (to be released at a later date). The major phases of the Competition will be:
7
http://globallit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Global_Literacy_White_Paper_2014.pdf
8• Registration: After the Competition launches in September 2014, individuals and
Teams will have until March 31, 2015 to register and pay.
• Phase 1: After Registration closes on March 31, 2015, Teams will have 18 months
(until September 30, 2016) to develop their Entries. The XPRIZE Community Forum
(http://forum.xprize.org) will be available for Teams and individuals to ask questions,
discuss, and if they choose, to share ideas.
• Phase 2: During Phase 2, Semi-finalists will be announced, followed three months
later by the top five Finalists.
• Phase 3: There will be 18 months of field testing from June 2017 through November
2018.
• Phase 4: A panel of judges will assess the results of the field testing beginning in
December 2018, and the Grand Prize winner will be announced in March 2019.
KEY DATES
September 22, 2014 Competition Launch
March 31, 2015 Registration deadline
April 3, 2015 Virtual Summit for registered Teams & individuals
4th Quarter of 2016 Submission of Entries
4th Quarter of 2016 First Judges’ Summit
1st Quarter of 2017 Announcement of Semi-Finalists
1st Quarter of 2017 Team Summit for Semi-finalists to convene and/or team up
1st Quarter of 2017 Submission of updated Entries (Semi-finalists)
2nd Quarter of 2017 Announcement of Finalists, $1 million award
2nd Quarter of 2017 Field testing begins
4th Quarter of 2018 Conclusion of field testing; Assessment begins
1st Quarter of 2019 Assessment concludes; Final Judges’ Summit
1st Quarter of 2019 Announcement of Grand Prize Winner
XPRIZE encourages Teams to merge, reorganize, collaborate and/or share technical assets during
the course of the Competition in order to create the most effective Entries with the highest
likelihood of winning a Prize, subject to the terms and conditions in the Competitor Agreement.
93.3 JUDGING CRITERIA
The first round of judging will take place during a down-select period at the end of 2016. These
submissions will be judged on the design, the technology, the potential for a child’s learning, and
the quality of the explanation of the overall solution (see section 4.3.1) Semi-finalists will be
announced in early 2017, and will have about a month to tweak their Entries before another round
of judging to determine the top five Finalist Teams. After the 18 months of field testing, the top
five Finalists’ Entries will be judged on the highest aggregate improvement in the core
competencies of reading, writing, and numeracy. To be eligible for the Grande Prize, the winning
Team must also produce results that are at least twice the control group scores. Testing will be
done using the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), the Early Grade Math Assessment
(EGMA), and the Early Grade Writing Assessment (EGWA). These assessment criteria are
summarized below. In this final assessment, reading will count for 60% of the final score (see
section 4.3.2), writing will count for 10% of the final score (see section 4.3.3), and numeracy will
count for 30% of the final score (see section 4.3.4).
3.3.1 SEMI-FINALIST SELECTION CRITERIA
Once XPRIZE receives all Entries, down-selection begins to determine the Semi-finalists. Entries
will be judged on the following general criteria:
• Ability to measurably increase the learning of children in villages with limited access to
schooling
• Creation and implementation of a design that is easy to use and engaging for children, so
they can operate it alone and/or in self-organized groups
• Creation of open source software that makes marked improvements to existing
technology
• Judges will also assess the background research and quality of explanation of the overall
solution in each category.
The breakdown of each category is as follows:
• Learning (50%)
Judges will assess the educational content and teaching method of each Entry to
determine the likelihood of significant learning gains in reading (60%), numeracy (30%),
and writing (10%).
• Design (30%)
Judges will evaluate features of design such as: usability (a child can operate
autonomously), engagement (motivating, playful software that is usable up to eight hours
a day), localization (ability to be adapted to different languages and cultures),
personalization (capable of tracking individual progress and engaging multiple cognitive
styles), and community integration (enables or
encourages involvement with adults and other
children). PUBLIC FEEDBACK: We hope that
• Technology (20%) Teams will work collaboratively to
Judges will evaluate Entries for customizability, find the best solution possible to
device/OS portability, code transparency and enhance learning. However, we do
resiliency. Teams will be rewarded for not currently require it for
participation. Should collaboration
collaboration on design and implementation. Judges
between Teams be part of the
will look for software that is scalable and judging criteria or simply be
customizable for 100 million children or more rewarded with perks?
across many cultures and languages
10Once the five Finalists are selected, XPRIZE will distribute the Entries crafted by those Teams to
the 3,000-4,000 children ready to receive them for the field testing.
A more detailed description of the measurement procedure will be provided in a set of Rules and
Regulations that will be prepared and adopted by XPRIZE and will be provided to each Team as
an Attachment to these Guidelines at a later date (“Rules and Regulations”).
After the top five Finalist Teams have completed their field tests, their Entries will go through a
final round of judging as outlined below.
3.3.2 FINAL JUDGING: READING
Learning to read is a passport to everything else in life. Learning to read not only sets up a child
for a lifetime of literacy, it also opens up the brain to new ways of thinking and learning.
Reading ability will be measured using the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA). The
aspects of reading that will be assessed include the following:
• Letter name knowledge – the ability to recognize and name the 26 uppercase and
lowercase letters used in the English language
• Phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge – the ability to understand the
sounds associated with each letter of the alphabet
• Familiar word reading – the ability to automatically recognize and memorize
commonly used words (“sight words”) without having to “decode” or sound them out
• Unfamiliar word reading – the ability to use strategies, such as replacement with a
familiar word, to decipher unfamiliar words
• Oral reading fluency– the ability to read a text accurately and fluently
• Reading comprehension – the ability read and understand a text
3.3.3 FINAL JUDGING: WRITING
Research indicates that reading and writing instruction is most effective when taught together.
When children read extensively they become
better writers. At the same time, practice in
writing helps children build their reading skills. PUBLIC FEEDBACK: We are basing the
competition on success in reading,
Writing ability will be assessed using the Early writing, and numeracy. Are these too
Grade Writing Assessment (EGWA) which is many to focus on? Most experts agree
currently under development and should be that reading is the most important
building block to literacy, so we have
available before our field testing begins. The
weighted it far more heavily than writing.
aspects of writing that will be assessed in the Is it important to keep writing as a
context of this prize include the following: criterion?
• Dictation – the ability to write letters,
words, and short sentences when they are
dictated
• Recording – the ability to write the names of common objects when they are displayed
• Cloze Tests – the ability to write a correct word in a simple sentence where one word has
been left out
• Description – the ability to describe a common object or activity
113.3.4 FINAL JUDGING: NUMERACY
As with literacy, a basic understanding of numeracy is a crucial building block for lifelong
learning. Numeracy enables one to develop logical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving
skills. Mathematics skills are also critically important for children as they grow older and enter
the workforce.
While numeracy involves all dimensions of mathematics and is the type of skill needed to
function in everyday life, it is more than just numbers. Numeracy is intricately linked to language,
as words are the tools for translating numerical code and giving it meaning.
The Global Learning XPRIZE will challenge competitors to go beyond basic arithmetic and to
demonstrate that children have a working sense of numbers and intuition for logic. Children will
be assessed using the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA). Numeracy will be judged
on mastering the following areas:
• Oral counting fluency – the ability to count out loud
• Number naming fluency – the ability to recognize and distinguish between numbers
• One-to-one correspondence – the ability to count objects
• Quantity discrimination – the ability to make judgments about differences by
comparing quantities in object groups
• Missing number – the ability to name a missing number in a set or sequence of numbers
• Addition and subtraction – the ability to add and subtract
• Shape recognition – the ability to recognize shapes such as circles, squares, triangles,
and rectangles
• Pattern extension – the ability to identify similarities and differences among the objects
that make up a patterns or guesses
3.4 HOST COUNTRY SELECTION
While it is expected that the technologies generated as a result of the Competition will have
benefits for children and their communities in privileged and non-privileged circumstances alike,
XPRIZE is conducting the Competition in developing countries rather than in the United States
for two reasons:
• Our aim is to address the market failure in using technology to address the learning crisis
in the least-developed areas of the world where crippling poverty prevents children from
accessing quality education.
• In developing countries we will be able to test the Entries’ ability to help children who
have not had previous exposure to educational technology, demonstrating that the Teams’
interventions can improve learning achievement in children.
3.4.1 ENGLISH AS AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE AND
THE LANGUAGE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL
EDUCATION
XPRIZE recognizes the cultural and political importance of local languages and does not intend
for this prize to affect the teaching or use of the many languages around the world. We want the
Global Learning XPRIZE to be consistent with the national education goals of the host country.
The Global Learning XPRIZE will be conducted only in a country with a national policy of
promoting English fluency and where English is a language of instruction but not necessarily the
only language.
12XPRIZE is conducting the Competition in English for a number of reasons:
• Conducting the Competition in one common language creates a uniform basis upon
which to compare Team Entries.
• English is a language of global communication, and many developing-country
governments have committed to it as a goal.
• Many Heads of state support English as the language for long-term national productivity
and competitiveness.
• Learning to read and write in English will have immediate local and social value, as well
as long-term economic value through as a passport to 21st century skills.
• Early experiences in using computer-aided learning have shown that children are able to
learn basic skills in English regardless of their local language.
Much research shows that when learning to read English as a second language, people of all ages
show greater progress when also learning to read their native language. That is why Teams are
strongly encouraged to design programs that include the local language. That language will be
announced before the start of the development phase.
3.4.2 POLITICAL SUPPORT FROM THE HOST
GOVERNMENT
For political, legal, and logistical reasons, XPRIZE must operate in a country where there is
strong support and approval from leaders at all levels of government, including local leaders at
the village level. Without such support, implementation will be impossible.
3.4.3 POTENTIAL HOST COUNTRIES
XPRIZE is exploring potential partnerships with Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and
Uganda. Vetting these countries will require deeper research, including interviews with
government and UN officials on the ground in each location.
The Global Learning XPRIZE will work with ministries of education, United Nations (UN)
agencies, and local nonprofit organizations to identify villages that are willing to participate in the
field testing (including the delayed-entry cohort as described in 3.4.4) Teams’ Entries will be
randomly assigned to the villages.
The villages to be selected are intended to be representative of the typical conditions found in
rural villages with low educational achievement rates. The precise indicators to be used are to be
determined. Villages will be selected based on the following criteria:
• Full support of parents, elders, and leaders in the community/village
• Full support from the national ministry of education and local ministry officials regarding
access to villages and their people
• Commitment to girls’ access to education and technology
• Adequate nutritional levels for the children, as physical and intellectual stunting could
8
preclude children from taking full advantage of the technology offered
• Adequate security to enable children to assemble safely and enable access to the village
by XPRIZE staff, partners, and assessors as needed
• Approximately 30 children between the ages of 7-12
• Low primary school completion rate
8
Global Learning XPRIZE will use United Nations World Food Programme guidelines to determine
minimum nutritional requirements.
133.4.4 TEST POPULATION AND DELAYED-ENTRY
COHORT (CONTROL GROUP)
The test population will be children between the ages of 7 and 12. This wide age range will allow
a greater opportunity for children to teach each other. In recent work done in Ethiopia and
elsewhere, observers noticed that older children quickly became the “teachers” and spent hours
per day working with younger children.
We can expect that each village will have an average of 30 children of the test population age.
With a target of at least 100 villages participating, the total number of children participating in the
field testing will be approximately 3,000-4,000.
XPRIZE commissioned a statistical power analysis to determine the number of villages needed to
achieve a sound level of confidence that the judging will be based on robust data.
The Global Learning XPRIZE will abide by international research protocols related to studies
involving children during field testing. This includes prior consent by parents or guardians of
children participating in the field testing. Each parent of a child receiving a tablet will be fully
informed and will have the absolute right to refuse the tablet. This holds true throughout the
course of the Competition.
To assess the efficacy of Teams’ Entries against the current state of learning for children who are
either attending inadequate or no school at all, XPRIZE will establish a delayed-entry cohort.
This will be a control group of at least 40 villages. Children in the control group will not receive
tablets during the Competition, but will receive them loaded with the winning technology after
the conclusion of the Competition. Children in both the treatment and control groups will be
given the same baseline and final assessments. Once the pool of villages is established, XPRIZE
will randomly assign villages to either the control group or the test group.
3.5 HARDWARE AND COMMUNICATIONS
PROVIDED BY XPRIZE
The Global Learning XPRIZE is about software. To make the Competition accessible to as many
Teams as possible from around the globe, to allow Teams to focus their attention on creating the
best software possible, and to ensure fairness in the evaluation of software solutions, the Global
Learning XPRIZE will be conducting the field testing and evaluating the results of that testing.
Specifically, the hardware and communications support necessary to Test Teams’ Entries in the
field—and all of the logistics around field testing—will be provided by the Global Learning
XPRIZE, either directly or through partners. Because this Competition is based on the
presumption that the software should be designed for self-directed/peer-to-peer learning, XPRIZE
will provide the hardware to children without any instructions or training. Teams will not have
direct access to the villages. However, XPRIZE will provide the Teams with periodic reports
containing data on use of the software by the children involved in field testing, as well as give the
Teams opportunities to update their Entries at four points during the field-testing period.
3.5.1 HARDWARE PLATFORM
Teams must design their software to run on an Android tablet. The Android tablet to be used in
field-testing will be equipped with microphones, cameras, and speakers, as well as a minimum
six-hour battery life in normal usage. Teams are encouraged to make use of these features.
Competitors can and should assume that children will use the tablets up to six hours a day.
14However, given the likely absence of a power grid in most if not all treatment villages, XPRIZE
cannot guarantee that children will be able to simultaneously use and charge their tablets.
Tablets will be delivered to the children directly. XPRIZE is agnostic on whether the tablets are
used in a classroom setting or not. This is neither required nor prohibited. XPRIZE expects that in
some locations tablets may be integrated into classroom learning or accompanied by some kind of
mentoring support organized by the community itself. In other locations, children may self-
organize into peer groups as they have done in many computer-based learning experiments to
date. The Competition is designed with a large enough sample size so that the outcome will be
applicable to a wide range of real-life learning circumstances of children who lack access to
quality education.
3.5.2 POWER
The Global Learning XPRIZE will arrange for participating children to be able to charge their
tablets via stored or alternative energy means. XPRIZE will provide energy to the testing sites.
Assuming there are 30 tablets per village, the Global Learning XPRIZE expects to provide
sufficient power and storage to provide each tablet with one full battery charge per day
consistently throughout the year. Testing villages will be able to keep the tablets and power
source when testing is complete. Delayed-entry cohorts who will be the control group during the
testing period will receive tablets and a power source when testing is complete.
3.5.3 LOCAL COMMUNICATIONS
Peer-to-peer communication is key to learning and, accordingly, key to the technology
environment of this XPRIZE. The Android tablets will be equipped with the ability to talk to each
other directly, as well as to receive from and transmit to a central in-village “server”. Competitors
are encouraged to develop and make use of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint
communications as part of their software solutions.
While the Global Learning XPRIZE will provide local connectivity, competitors are strongly
encouraged to design solutions that run stand-alone as much as possible.
The tablets will not be connected to the Internet. This ensures that the Competition is a level
playing field and mimics the real-world situation in the communities in which XPRIZE aims to
be most helpful, i.e., places where there is no practical or affordable Internet access.
3.5.4 TROUBLESHOOTING AND POWER/HARDWARE
FAILURE
Global Learning XPRIZE staff or their partners will regularly visit and assess each testing site to
ensure functioning of both hardware and power. Site assessors will come equipped with
replacement tablets and necessary tools to replace the power supply. If something does happen,
best efforts will be made to keep the Competition running with as little downtime for the children
as possible. Upon final country and village selection, a risk assessment will be performed and a
risk management plan will be created for each village that will guide the XPRIZE staff and
operational partners in the management of critical downtime events, including force majeure.
3.6 KEY OPERATIONAL PARTNERS
Success of the prize will depend on strong partnerships. In particular, XPRIZE will need one or
more operational partners (such as United Nations agencies, local and international NGOs, and
government ministries) to assist with the field-testing phase of the prize, including the provision
15of power, tablets, and troubleshooting, as well as with the learning achievement assessment
process on which the final judging will be based.
Field testing of the Competition Entries will require partnerships with international organizations.
XPRIZE will seek partnerships with organizations that have excellent relationships with the host
government, solid experience operating in the country, and the requisite capacity to work with
host governments and other local officials in identifying villages, setting up field-testing
operations, and monitoring implementation.
The best partner organizations will have multiple strengths to share, including a strong champion
within the organization, a shared vision, and a strong organizational profile in terms of reach,
reputation, and operational capacity within the country.
3.6.1 PARTNER SELECTION CRITERIA
Organizational partnerships will be selected based on the following criteria:
• Relationship with governments – The partner must have a relationship with a
government that is manifested in a basic country agreement that allows for the import of
technology and other goods in an expeditious and tax-free manner.
• Operations – The partnership can contribute dedicated staff and the necessary
organizational and logistical support in the implementation of the field-testing of
Competition Entries.
• Reputation – The partner has a reputation for integrity and excellence in the host country
and has leaders in the field of development, and can remain neutral in the Competition.
• Policy – The partnership can result in influencing the thinking of government officials
and development experts.
3.7 SUPPORTING ROLES
3.7.1 ADVISORY BOARD
An Advisory Board will be formed to assist with the formulation of the technical aspects of the
Competition. The Advisory Board will be independent of XPRIZE, and all competing Teams and
Team Members. All members of the Advisory Board will be required to sign non-disclosure or
similar agreements, as well as statements acknowledging that they make no claim to the
Intellectual Property developed by Teams or relevant Team sponsors or partners.
3.7.2 ETHICS REVIEW BOARD
An Ethics Review Board will be commissioned to ensure compliance with ethical guidelines
developed specifically for the Global Learning XPRIZE. When dealing with children, the strictest
ethical considerations must be met and XPRIZE takes seriously its responsibility in ensuring the
safety and protection of all children participating in this Competition. The role of the Ethics
Review Board will include, but not be limited to, ensuring that parents and other significant
leaders in the community where tablets will be deployed are adequately informed about the
project and given consent forms for their acceptance or refusal. In addition, the Board will be
charged with making regular inquiries into the conduct of the prize and the status of the children.
163.7.3 JUDGING PANEL
The official judges of the Competition make up the Judging Panel. The Judging Panel will
evaluate the Entries and will be responsible for assessing compliance with the Competition
Guidelines, and Rules and Regulations. The judging panel will be comprised of highly qualified
and impartial judges from around the world, including the host country. Members of the Judging
Panel will have cross-functional and relevant backgrounds in order to ensure that the Judging
Panel will be able to address all aspects of the Competition. The judging panel will be
independent of any Team participants and will not be involved in any other area of Competition
operations. All members of the Judging Panel will be required to sign non-disclosure or similar
agreements, as well as statements acknowledging that they make no claim to the Intellectual
Property developed by Teams or relevant Team sponsors or partners. XPRIZE shall select all
members of the Judging Panel and submit them to the Advisory Board for review and approval.
Members of the Judging Panel are outside experts and volunteers, not employees of XPRIZE.
All determinations, exercises of discretion, and decisions made by the XPRIZE Foundation or the
Judging Panel may be made in the XPRIZE Foundation’s or the Judging Panel’s sole and
absolute discretion, including—without limitation—the award of prizes. All decisions and
opinions made by the Judging Panel shall be rendered by a majority of the judges, are binding on
both the Teams and the XPRIZE Foundation, and are not subject to review or contest. The
Judging Panel retains sole and absolute discretion to declare a winner of the Competition and
otherwise award all prizes.
3.8 OPEN SOURCE
An essential component of the Competition design is a commitment not only to open source
software solutions, but also to an open source development process. In order to maximize the
potential for the growth of this solution beyond XPRIZE, the Finalist Entries will be released
under permissive licenses allowing both commercial and non-commercial use. To achieve these
goals:
• All code, content, and assets developed by all Finalists will be released under open source
licenses that permit free distribution, derivative works, and use in commercial and non-
commercial settings.
• Teams will be able to build solutions that use existing open source libraries and
components, allowing them to work faster and focus on their unique contributions.
• The five Finalists’ solutions and all code developed in common will be made available to
and supported by a public foundation to which multiple organizations and individuals can
contribute future work.
• During the Competition period, the open community and repositories will be cultivated.
Competitors and others can contribute and collaborate on parts of the project while
competing with other parts.
• Participation in the Global Learning community by non-competitors is encouraged and
supported. XPRIZE will create and support open code repositories, forums, and events to
enable this participation.
XPRIZE will require all code developed by finalists and contributed to the project to be licensed
under the Apache License, 2.0 (Apache-2.0). This license is also used by the open source Android
operating system used in the competition. XPRIZE will require all content and assets developed
by finalists and contributed to the project to be licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY
(4.0) license.
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