Microsoft and The Open Data Institute Education Open Data Challenge

Microsoft and Tthe Open Data Institute Education Open Data Challenge

About Microsoft and Tthe Open Data Institute Education Open Data Challenge

Microsoft and the Open Data Institute are proud to announce an Education Open Data Challenge to better understand the relationship of broadband penetration and education

The problem we want to solve

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted learning for more than 1.6 billion children and youth worldwide. Many governments around the world have closed educational institutions in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. In response, schools and teachers have attempted to reach students remotely through distance learning tools and platforms.

Educators and research organisations all over the world are trying to understand the impact that this move will have on the world’s most vulnerable learners. One concern is that online learning will exacerbate the digital divide worldwide. Many students, and especially those from marginalised groups or low-income backgrounds, do not have equal access to digital services.

Now more than ever, we believe it is vital to find new ways of understanding how and where the digital divide affects communities. We believe understanding these questions is necessary both for managing the short-term delivery of education, as well as ensuring long-term economic recovery.

Some of the questions we would like participants to consider include:

* How do students access remote learning, especially those who may not have easy access to digital infrastructure? (e.g. technology and internet connectivity)

* What level of digital access to learning do students from disadvantaged groups have, relative to more advantaged groups?

* What is the relationship between levels of digital skills and learning outcomes for different demographics?

Challenge outcome

We are seeking teams to evaluate the current state of the digital divide in K-12 Formal Education (ages 5–18) worldwide and suggest innovative solutions to close the divide. We would like teams to identify gaps in digital infrastructure that affect delivery of education services online for children and young adults, potential impacts on learning outcomes, and suggest innovative and realistic solutions to address these gaps at the lowest costs.

Innovative solutions should focus on at least one of these aspects:

* The steps governments, education providers, businesses or society can take to help students have equal access to education in areas affected by a lack of digital infrastructure

* How education system leaders can most effectively improve digital access to enable equal learning for all students

* How to develop the skills needed to make online learning tools and platforms inclusive and effective to students from disadvantaged communities

How to become a participant:

* From the 10 November to the 9 December people will be able to pre-register and get access to a suite of activities run by partners designed to help people preview sample data which will be made available on the 10 December, learn how to work with open data and connect to the other participants in the challenge to form interdisciplinary teams.

* From the 10 December to the 10 January participants will be able to register, organise in teams and get access to the full datasets made available.

For more information & Online Application refer the Official Publisher

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