The Learning Toolkit Plus

Updated Aug 14, 2020

The Learning Toolkit Plus

https://www.concordia.ca/ltk

Philip Abrami

Evidence-based and evidence-proven interactive multimedia software for literacy, numeracy, inquiry, self regulation, designed to promote the development of essential educational competencies especially for those who are at risk of school failure. The software and extensive digital support materials are available to educators worldwide without charge.

The LTK+ is an online application that provides an engaging, interactive, learning environment for school children and the adults who teach them (see http://www.concordia.ca/ltk). It currently consists of five bilingual tools: ABRACADABRA (ABRA) for emerging literacy skills; READS, a collection of hundreds of digital stories and books in multiple languages; ELM, for emerging mathematics develop...

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Education

Stage 4: Transition to Scale

We are looking for NGOs, government organizations, and global funders prepared to support our efforts to go to scale while maintaining the philanthropic outreach for our efforts.

Registered in Canada

Focus Areas:

Education, Youth and Technology

Implemented In:

Canada, Australia, Kenya and 3 MoreSEE ALL

Countries Implemented In

25,000

Customers

Employees

$11,500,000

Funds Raised to Date

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Problem

Around the globe, there are 750 million adults who cannot read, write, or count; there are 250 million children who cannot decipher a single sentence. Among students in sub-Saharan Africa, millions are not acquiring functional literacy or numeracy. International assessments reveal that by the end of primary school, less than 30 percent of students achieve the threshold of minimal proficiency in reading or mathematics. One major reason is the pedagogical skills of teachers.

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Solution

The Learning Toolkit Plus (LTK+) is a suite of evidence-based and evidence-proven bilingual (English, French) digital tools that scaffold the learning of essential competencies of boys and girls and promotes more effective instruction by teachers. By taking full advantage of the power of interactive multimedia, school children and teachers are carefully scaffolded in their learning in an especially engaging and effective fashion.

Target Beneficiaries

We are focusing especially on the developing world and those students and their teachers where educational attainment is low including poor urban areas, rural and remote regions, and places where the displaced reside. Forty-six countries of sub-Saharan Africa, including 24 with 120 million French speakers, represent some of the least developed areas on earth where half of the world’s extreme poor live and have low levels of educational attainment, with millions who cannot read or write.

Mission and Vision

The costs of a poor education are staggering: poverty, crime, poor health, and a host of other social and personal ills are exacerbated by the inability of people to command rudimentary educational skills, especially the ability to read and write. Education is linked to freedom and democracy as well as financial well-being at both the individual and societal levels. Educational attainment is linked worldwide to a country’s GDP.

Competitive Advantage

Harnessing the power of digital technologies, especially interactive multimedia, means that the LTK+ promotes learning and engagement beyond traditional methods. Furthermore, not only is the LTK+ based carefully on cutting-edge theory and research but it has also been well-validated in 17 rigorous studies conducted worldwide. The LTK+ is also distributed globally WITHOUT CHARGE, where philanthropic outreach is especially important in the developing world, reinforcing the idea that economics should not be a barrier to education. How does ABRA compare to other literacy software? In a third-party assessment of about two dozen literacy tools, ABRA scored highest based on quality and comprehensiveness. Finally, the UK’s Education Endowment Fund examined the cost efficiency of ABRA in the UK with technology in place and rated the ABRA intervention “1”, or very low cost, on a 5-point scale.

Planned Goals and Milestones

While we have convincingly demonstrated the usability and the impact of the LTK+ in a range of global contexts, we must now work on scalability and sustainability, not only in those countries where we are currently working but elsewhere. This means further refining the tools and digital support materials to be seamlessly integrated into a range of curricular contexts and, importantly, providing teacher professional development at scale utilizing best practices in online and blended learning.

	Funding Goal	5,000,000
	Projected Cumulative Lives Impacted	1,000,000
	New Implemented Countries	Senegal, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania
	Recruit	Government and NGO partners, educators, trainers, and local ambassadors
	New Feature	Further expand and refine the LTK+ for the widest range of curricular contexts and evidence-based teacher professional development at scale using online and blended learning.

The Team Behind the Innovation

The Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance at Concordia University is an externally funded and internationally recognized educational research centre of excellence. Our team consists of both academics from across Canada and around the globe, professionals, administrative staff, and educators including a significant number in Kenya. We have more than a dozen international NGOs and Kenyan NGOs as well as partnerships with branches of Kenya’s Ministry of Education.