Multigrade schools are ones in which two or more grades study together in same physical class with same teacher. This student project was an attempt to surface design opportunity in such environment. The paper at IndiaHCI 2015 focuses on design idea primarily related to human-computer interaction. For more information visit: http://riken312.com/

1. Design Opportunity for Learning Aid
in Multi-grade Schools
in Rural India
Riken Patel & Anirudha Joshi
IDC IIT Bombay
For IndiaHCI 2015 “Design for Bridging”
18/12/2015

2. Typical School
pic courtesy: Sandeep.jgupta

3. Multigrade School
• A school in which two or more grades study together in same
physical class with same teacher
• A necessity in rural area

4. Multigrade Schools in India
Primary Schools According to Number of Teacher
in India

5. Multigrade School
Issues
• Course curriculum, academic calendar, and teaching aids are
all designed keeping in mind monograde

6. Multigrade School
Potential Benefits: Desired social habits
• helping attitude,
• group learning
• discussions due to interactions
• ‘Manitoba Education and youth, Canada’ reports school
adopting multigrade model by choice due to it’s benefits

7. SDT and Multigrade school (our take)
• Higher grade student can act as
more knowledgeable other
• Effective interaction among peers
due to similar world view
Can do
can not do
World view of lower grade student

8. Method of study
• Study in 5 multigrade schools in Anand Dist., Gujarat
• Shadowing in classroom
• Four to five hours each day for 2 weeks
• Video Recording
• Interviews with teachers

9. Demographics of Classrooms

10. • text
Classroom environment

13. Learning issues

14. Difficulty in reading comprehension
• Very common issue among all grades
A digital book/tablet which will speak out the words and
sentences on sliding finger

15. Less instruction time
• 20 minutes of instruction time in 1 hour period
• Less individual attention
Automate the learning for repetitive things
(like mathematical operation: +,- )

16. Difficulty with complex exercises
• Copying without understanding concept
Exercise-books: One can borrow the other’s book and
understand it step by step (by using screen-record and
playback)
More group activities (game or quiz with multiple mouse,
remote control or multiple-voice recognition system)

17. Students unable to articulate their learnings
• Difficulty articulating the concepts as they may be abstract
i.e. reading minutes in a clock
Interactive props and animation video can help, for clock,
children can change the time and clock will show the time and
speak it out

18. Class setup & spatial movement related issues

19. Diversity of class combination
• Combination was based on
Based on Teacher’s personal preference
Number of student in a grade
• Trade off
More instruction time v/s Common topics
Suggest best class-combination or develop time-table for easy
planning and efficiency

20. Variety of class setups
• Setup were based on
Availability of physical infrastructure
Teacher’s convenience
Provide engaging intra-grade activity like digital games or
specially curated TV programs supporting learning

21. Spatial movement
• Free movements
• Forming circle
(Will providing bench would help in this
context?)

22. Administrative issues

23. Unavailability of teachers
• Unplanned meetings at other schools (major issue)
Reserved set of interesting & engaging activity for peer-
learning

24. Course curriculum
• Can not complete the course curriculum
Dynamic rearrangements of topics from the book based on
time
(‘Basic concepts first’ approach)

25. Tech-savviness of teachers
• Online blogs to download new content like
poems, stories, daily news etc.
Platform for sharing resource material among
various schools through web? (Crowd-source)

26. Technology perception in Rural Education
Basic infrastructure v/s Moonshot

27. Summary
Few of the ideas…
• A digital book/tablet which will speak out the words and sentences
on sliding finger
• Automate the learning for repetitive things
• Exercise-books: One can borrow the other’s book and understand it
step by step (by using screen-record and playback)
• Dynamic rearrangements of topics from the book based on time
• Platform for sharing resource material among various schools
through web? (Crowd-source)

28. Thanks to…
All the teachers and students associated with study
Prof. Venkatesh Rajamanickam, Prof. Pramod Khambete, Prof. Girish Dalvi and Prof.
Ravi Poovaiah, IDC, IIT Bombay
Ms. Anisha Malhotra, Ms. Bindu Chowdhry, Prof. Jhumkee Iyengar for their feedbacks

29. Thank You
Riken Patel (riken312@gmail.com)
Anirudha Joshi (anirudha@iitb.ac.in)
IDC, IIT Bombay

30. References
• 8th AISES Provisional Statistics for 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2014 from http://aises.nic.in/surveyoutputs
• Dan S. 2009. Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices. New Riders.
• Independent Together. 2003. Manitoba Education and youth.
• Learning Well Together. July 2002. Retrieved September 5, 2014 from
http://www.wholeschooling.net/WS/WSPress/WSRptMI/WSR%20AToc.html
• Mathot G. 2001. A Handbook for Teachers of Multi-Grade Classes: Volume one. UNESCO, France.
• Riddle E. 1991. Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory.
• Schacter L., Gilbert T. and Wegner M. 2009. Psychology. Worth Publishers.