Canvas Assignment: Zoom Designed For Education

Published in

Grand Challenges Team 1

5 min readNov 24, 2020

A High Level Overview

Income inequality is arguably the most pressing problem America faces. Eighty percent of Americans make up only around ten percent of the nation’s income, and poor Americans are subject to a host of injustices. They are disproportionately harmed by pollution and the criminal justice system; they are denied the same access to opportunity that their wealthier peers receive. Gaps in education can be attributed to income inequality and these gaps have only grown by COVID-19-induced lockdowns. With companies holding communication skills as the most desired skill in employees, our group wants to decrease the gap shown in Figure 1 by improving students’ communication skills. There is a correlation between students’ communication skills and their reading and writing achievement. By improving students’ ability to engage with others in meaningful dialogue would result in an improvement in their reading and writing skills and would improve their chances for employment. By focusing on developing communication skills in low-income students, we are working towards breaking the cycle of poverty and reducing income inequality in America.

Our Solution

Description: Teachers in low-income communities are generally forced to use lower-quality educational tools, which is one factor that contributes to the income achievement gap. While all school districts have access to business-grade video call software like Zoom or Google Meets, these platforms are not designed for education. Our idea was to make our own platform that would improve on these bare-bones alternatives, adding on features such as games, more natural breakout rooms, and improved systems for presentation and teaching.

Value Proposition: By utilizing our network of educational professionals and student in combination with our members interested in computer science, we can provide students and teachers an app that targets the specific classroom needs of K-12 systems in order to increase student and teacher engagement thereby increasing interpersonal, reading, writing, communication skills within students.

As students with access to a network of teachers and other students that have been regularly using video calling platforms like Bluejeans, Teams, Zoom, and related applications, we understand some of the advantages and pitfalls of current virtual learning apps. We are active members of the education ecosystem, so we can reach out to school systems including relevant stakeholders in the problem including not only the students but also the parents, teachers, and administrators.

Customer Needs

As a teacher, I want to be able to track student performance through a more intuitive platform.
As a teacher, I want to increase student engagement in class
As a teacher, I would prefer if all my educational resources were centralized.
As a student, I want virtual learning to be fun and engaging.
As a student, I want to have more interactions with my peers.
As an administrator, I want my district’s virtual learning software to be as affordable and cost-effective.
As an administrator, I want virtual learning software that is simple to implement schoolwide.

Experiments and Assumption

Major Assumption 1: This solution will still be useful after Coronavirus is over

Major Assumption 2: New and engaging features will be helpful, and not distracting

Major Assumption 3: Low-income high students’ academic skills will improve with this product, more so than Zoom

Sub-assumption 1: As a low-income student, I have access to the technology needed for something like a zoom call

Sub-assumption 2: I find traditional virtual meeting software boring and unengaging

Sub-assumption 3: As a teacher, I would be willing to learn about a new video calling app for class

Sub-assumption 4: As a teacher, I would be willing to learn about a new video calling app for class

Sub-assumption 7: I want new, more engaging features such as interactive games — I don’t think they’ll be distracting

Experimental Design

Major Assumptions 1 Experiment: If we survey target audience and ask them whether they think platforms like Zoom, Google Meets, etc. will be useful when things go back to “normal”, then we can confirm that our product will retain relevance after the Covid pandemic. We will give teachers a survey, after month of them using our product, asking if they would still implement our product. We will run our experiments in low income public schools, specifically Decatur High school.

Major Assumptions 2 Experiment: If we first provide students a survey on how they think the current system is (i.e. Zoom), then give the students our product for a duration of time and finally give them the exact same test and compare the results between both tests to see if there is a statistically significant difference between the results, then we can affirm that the features of our product are helpful. We will consult teachers after month of them using our product and ask them about the grades of the students in their class. We will run our experiments in low income public schools, specifically Decatur High school.

Major Assumptions 3 Experiment: If we measure student engagement, by calculating both the average number of times a student engages in conversation with others and the time period of each interaction, then we can determine if students’ communication skills are developing as a result of our product. We will ask teachers through a survey if students have engaged in others students more. We will run our experiments in low income public schools, specifically Decatur High school.

Experimental Metrics

Since the goal of this product is to increase engagement, which would in turn increase students’ communication skills, measuring engagement with the product can prove increased interaction with consent from volunteers. Monitoring retention or engagement in apps is very common these days; some examples of how we could measure including recording active time microphone is being used, active camera time, time spent on different parts of the app (in classroom, within interactive features).

Sources

Image Credits:

Fig 1: https://www.wordpip.com/img/articles/12-tips-for-zoom/zoom-image-12-tips-450x262TP.jpg

Fig 2: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime