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AllGrow is a nonprofit organization from Romania working in the educational and community building space. One of their main initiatives is “Change Architects,” which aims to turn ****children from spectators into architects of their own future through social entrepreneurship and community development, and collaborative projects. In this process, students develop their 21st century skills, including creativity, critical thinking, the ability to communicate, collaboration, problem solving, initiative and leadership, etc.
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AllGrow has built the curriculum with 3 different levels, integrating agile and design thinking, created a community of innovative teachers, and developed avenues for collaboration between corporations and schools. Their impact includes…
Beneficiaries
Students
Teachers
Students led Projects
AllGrow’s existing curriculum and educational ecosystem has already been successful in Eastern European schools. However, there is an opportunity to extend its proven educational curriculum by providing these resources to students worldwide by adapting the content into the digital realm. Moreover, AllGrow’s curriculum has yet to be expanded for students above the age of 14, as they seek independence from their facilitator’s instructions and more guidance from a mentor. Regardless of their location and background, mature students should be able to develop design thinking and problem solving skills alongside mentorship, peer-to-peer collaboration, and self-guided passion projects.
With this background, we began to design a solution with these questions in mind:
<aside> 🌎 How might we build a platform that makes AllGrow’s education more accessible and inclusive for students worldwide?
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<aside> 🔖 How might we create tools and features that encourage creativity and collaboration among young learners on a global scale?
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<aside> 🌟 How might we develop a system that keeps students motivated and engaged throughout their educational journey?
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Based off of initial client meetings and conversations, we concluded that there were three feature priorities: gamification, social/community abilities, and project based learning. We wanted to understand how similar applications implement these features, and how we might be able to translate them to relevant solutions for AllGrow.
Through competitive analyses (slide deck here) across education organizations, startups, and nonprofits, we came up with some potential solutions informed by initial research questions.
| Feature | Research Question | Potential Solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Gamification | How might we help AllGrow incentivize students to complete projects, especially group projects? | Create a culture of creativity with storytelling + visual elements. Align clear expectations and goals, maintain transparency, and personalize the experience with tasks + feedback systems or progress tracking + initial surveys. |
| Social/Community | How might we help AllGrow foster effective student-to-student and student-to-mentor relationships? | Enhance a community section with forums, polls, video discussions. Encourage genuine connection with live sessions and real-time interactions. |
| Project Based Learning | How might we help AllGrow facilitate project based learning and completing projects that impacts students’ community? | Implement proven project based learning tools, such as flow charts, mind maps, wireframes, student portfolios, and inclusive communication. |