WHAT IS PROJECT SCHOLAR?

Project SCHOLAR is an innovative approach to increase the literacy of children, especially students with disabilities, through the use of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) based intelligent virtual agent that interacts with students, providing real-time feedback and positive reinforcement.

THE MOTIVATION

Literacy is a skill that drastically affects a child’s ability to succeed in both education and life beyond school. Currently, there are insufficient resources and support to provide students in rural areas and, more prevalently, students with disabilities, with the guidance needed to develop a strong reading base, upon which they can build. Without those basic skills, students struggle to excel in areas beyond the humanities, such as science, mathematics and technology. 

As such, we’re focusing Project SCHOLAR on 1st and 2nd grade children and students with disabilities, in rural North Carolina, to best develop a program that can address teacher shortages, student diversity, and learner variability, giving every child an equal opportunity to learn the skills they need to succeed.

We’ve divided this project into 5 key steps:

Enhance

The Enhancement phase will have us take our existing model and research to the next level by exploring through co-design the feasibility of independent implementation of SCHOLAR, which means ensuring that training can be provided to teachers, and that there is on-going support and communication.

Refine

Next, we’ll refine SCHOLAR through iterative development, using co-design activities with both teachers and students. This way we’ll get feedback and data needed to accurately address any flaws in the system. 

Pilot

This phase will see the pilot test of SCHOLAR. We’ll conduct a pilot study over a larger group of teachers and students, selected from schools best suited to identify a wide range of needs and identities.

Evaluate

Once we’ve incorporated the feedback and improvements, we’ll conduct an evaluation of the system by selecting a small group of teachers and students to use SCHOLAR as it would be disseminated, with researchers no longer playing the role of helping teachers closely, rather, letting the system operate for itself.

Disseminate

Once Project SCHOLAR has passed the Evaluation phase, we’ll share our findings through scientific and educational outlets, such as research journals, and more accessible mediums like a project website and social media presence full of project activities, pictures, and milestones.

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Project SCHOLAR will engage students struggling with reading in first and second grade, especially those with disabilities. Using proven literacy curriculum, we hope that this system, once designed and tested here in North Carolina, will be able to be used across the country.

FOLLOW THE PROJECT

SCHOLAR is funded through the Office of Special Education Programs under the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) through the Stepping-Up Technology Implementation grant.

Currently, Katabasis is working to develop the SCHOLAR application, with our partners at WestEd and the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) providing key insights into the interaction students will have with virtual agents. We are also partnered with Jones county, where we plan to host co-design sessions with teachers to understand their experiences teaching reading and integrate their thoughts into the application.

To follow this project, feel free to visit our social media channels. We hope to see you there!

This project is made possible with support from the Office of Special Education Programs, under the U.S. Department of Education.

Special thank you to our project partners:
WestEd and University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI)
Jones County