Bringing learning to rural classrooms without internet
Create a product model for rural teachers who cannot rely on internet access as a default.
UX, information architecture, value-proposition work, and prototyping across a short timeline.
Desk research plus interviews with 10 teachers and 5 ICT leaders serving low-connectivity schools.
An offline-ready content package model supported by a simpler publishing workflow and clearer value proposition.
Role
UX, Information Architecture
Date
July 2021 - ongoing
Team
Camilo Beltrán - development lead
Natalia Torres - visual designer
Link
Sector
Education
Challenge
How do you get educational resources to rural teachers when internet access can't be assumed?
Background
Aprender Digital was a spin-off of Colombia Aprende. It was created to assist the educational community with content and guidelines during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was a temporary solution while we finished the evolution of www.colombiaaprende.edu.co. In fact, when we launched the new version of Colombia Aprende in October, Aprender Digital became redundant.
It had gained real recognition, though, so the Ministry gave us the chance to rethink it around a new value proposition. The goal was singular: create a solution that worked for people without an internet connection.
Process
Unlike Colombia Aprende, this project ran on a short timeline: three months to propose a new value proposition, define the scope of the product, build an MVP, and test it with rural teachers.
Working with agile in mind, we chose Lean UX to create value fast. Instead of defining requirements meticulously, we started from desk research to frame the problem.
We found that more than 7 million rural Colombians lack internet access, and 47% of rural schools have no network infrastructure at all. The gap between cities and rural areas runs so deep that a rural child receives only about half the education of a peer in a city like Bogotá or Medellín.
Problem statement
The lack of access to educational resources is increasing the gap between rich and poor, and it's also damaging the performance of the rural teachers.
Hypothesis
If we can deliver educational resources and guidelines consistently — even without internet — we can improve rural teachers' performance and, with it, the quality of education.
Finding the users
We brought the regional Education Secretariats into the process and built two proto-personas: a rural teacher and an ICT leader within the Secretariat.
We then interviewed 10 teachers and 5 ICT leaders to gather insights and turn those proto-personas into deeper, evidence-based user personas.
Creating value
To define the MVP, we first established our new value proposition, running the exercise for both user personas.
The workshop produced a key insight. On one side, we had to speed up how we managed content packages, so the Secretariats could make specific requests and get the resources they needed within two or three weeks. On the teachers' side, we had to make sure resources weren't downloaded one by one, but packaged in a clear, simple way.
Aprender Digital became a microsite of curated content packages. Secretariats and teachers download a package as a self-contained HTML interface and carry that single compressed file to the computers in rural schools. On our side, no one assembles packages by hand: we publish content the way we always have, and the CMS does the rest.
Prototyping and testing
We built two interfaces: one for the website, one for the offline packages. The first was an iteration of the previous site; the second was built on the Material Design guidelines.
Lessons learned
This project taught me how to build and iterate fast enough to deliver value early — and where speed has a cost.
We shipped the first version quickly, which was the right call under the circumstances. But content design lagged behind product and UX, and that gap showed in the first weeks. A short beta or early-access period would have let us close it sooner.
Within two weeks the experience was already in much better shape, and the lesson stuck: content strategy has to run in parallel with design from the first sprint, not after it.