Pop-Up Learning Bangladesh education

Giving access to learning for children fleeing violence

Pop-Up Learning is a tablet-based computer-assisted learning program, aimed to mobilize quickly and efficiently on the onset of crisis.
Filter by status
Design
Test
Scale

Pop-Up Learning Bangladesh is at the Rigorous Evaluation stage

education

EdTech Global Landscape Analysis

The research identified six EdTech innovation trends that represent patterns of approach we observed across many individual global projects. Accompanying each innovation trend are 2-3 case studies that illustrate how...

Find out more

economic-wellbeing

Local Manufacturing of Medical Supplies in Northwest Syria

Northwest Syria

Open source designs, local manufacturing, and business support can enable a localized supply chain of critical medical equipment while also supporting the market and providing income to families in economic...

Find out more

empowerment

Service Delivery for Mobile Populations

Jordan

As people displaced by the Syria crisis begin returning to their homes, new approaches will be needed to deal with the unprecedented scale of returns.

Find out more

empowerment

Urban Housing

Jordan

Rapid urbanization in many parts of the world has led to a great deal of challenges ensuring the availability of adequate housing. In the Middle East, this is coupled by...

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Design Research phase

No projects currently, try another filter

innovative-finance

Crisis Risk Finance

Global

IRC’s work on crisis risk finance seeks to develop a blueprint for how organizations can reorient more of their resources and processes to be better prepared for, and how the...

Find out more

innovative-finance

Defining and driving innovative finance

Global humanitarian budgets are not keeping pace with our clients’ needs and aspirations. Airbel is designing and testing new approaches to raising finance, and impactful new ways to use funds...

Find out more

innovative-finance

Financing Refugee Crisis Response

Together with the Centre for Global Disaster Protection, Airbel is working to assess the potential to use risk-based financing approaches to respond to refugee influxes.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Generate Solutions phase

education

Humanitarian EdTech Innovation Toolkit

The toolkit is developed for organizations in the humanitarian sector seeking to improve the education access and quality for crisis-affected communities via technology-enhanced solutions.

Find out more

empowerment

Information Flows

Jordan

Displaced people live in challenging circumstances where accurate information can become difficult to obtain. Strengthening information flows can aid in decision-making and make their circumstances easier to manage.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Generate Solutions phase

empowerment

Placement Algorithm

United States

Airbel is piloting and scaling an innovative machine learning algorithm developed by the Stanford University Immigration Policy Lab that matches refugees in areas where they are likely to thrive when...

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Generate Solutions phase

economic-wellbeing

Trade Accelerator

Focused support for Jordanian businesses to foster rapid growth and help them tap into the European market and hire refugees to do so.

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Generate Solutions phase

health

Virtual Baby

This portable game would let children earn points for raising a happy baby, teaching them about sexual health and nutrition.

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Generate Solutions phase

No projects currently, try another filter

empowerment

Ask Laila

A hotline, SMS, and web-based service to help resettled refugees get quick answers from a trusted local source - in their own language.

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Prototype phase

education

Audio-Class System

Colombia

The Colombian education system is struggling to support an unprecedented influx of students in the midst of a global pandemic. To respond to the crisis, the IRC created an innovative...

Find out more

health

Dela

Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo

Dela aims to be an open-source mobile application that connects community health workers and their supervisors with a consistent channel of communication, to improve the quality of services delivered through...

Find out more

empowerment

Games for Diversity and Inclusion

Airbel worked closely with colleagues in the Asia Region to prototype approaches to increasing diversity and inclusivity in our workplaces through mechanisms with wide appeal, that can be easily integrated...

Find out more

This project graduated following the Prototype phase

health

Medicine Bank

Jordan

People with low income in Jordan often struggle to access the medicine they need. This solution is aimed at making supply chains more efficient to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals....

Find out more

health

InforMH

Jordan

Leveraging people’s existing practices to bridge the information and stigma gaps that prevent people from seeking mental health and psychosocial support.

Find out more

health

Sprout

Niger

Over 16 million children under the age of 3 are afflicted by severe acute malnutrition. To pinpoint the most impactful prevention methods, Sprout is experimenting with 3 distinct approaches.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Prototype phase

education

Spark

Tanzania

Spark creates alternative learning spaces outside of refugee camp schools to practice play-based learning and social-emotional skills with primary school children.

Find out more

This project became inactive following the Prototype phase

No projects currently, try another filter

empowerment

IRC Connect

United States

In partnership with Twilio.org, Airbel is developing an SMS-based system to streamline communication between caseworkers and newly-settled refugees as they adapt to their new lives in the United States.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Pilot phase

education

Coach Erevu

Tanzania

Coach Erevu is a virtual teacher coaching program designed to empower teachers to learn and practice social-emotional learning activities that they can use in their classrooms.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Pilot phase

health

Low-Literacy Malnutrition Tools

South Sudan

In hard-to-reach areas local community health workers are key to treating malnourished children. Commonly used tools for diagnosing and treating malnutrition have been adapted to meet the needs of workers...

Find out more

This project graduated following the Pilot phase

economic-wellbeing

Impacts of anticipatory cash to small-holder farmers and livestock owners in Northeast Nigeria

Find out more

health

Micronutrient Condiment

Kenya

Two billion people are affected by micronutrient deficiencies worldwide. One third of them are children. We aim to introduce an affordable product inspired by existing porridge preparation practices for sale...

Find out more

education

PlayMatters

Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda

PlayMatters is an IRC-led consortium funded by the LEGO Foundation that cultivates holistic learning and wellbeing outcomes for refugee and host-community children aged 3-12+ in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda through...

Find out more

education

Pop-Up Class Tanzania

Tanzania

Pop-Up Class Tanzania is an after-school digital learning program where children learn on personalized game-based learning software called onecourse and Kitkit School.

Find out more

education

Pop-Up Learning Tanzania

Tanzania

With more students out of school around the world due to COVID-19 than ever before, we need solutions that ensure the hardest-to-reach children receive quality education. The IRC is delivering...

Find out more

innovative-finance

Resettlement Revolving Fund

In this new model for refugee resettlement finance, a self-sustaining fund provides countries with finance for refugee resettlement, and is replenished as refugees fuel economic growth.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Pilot phase

economic-wellbeing

Seed Security Solution Package

Syria, South Sudan, Pakistan, Niger

This package of three solutions leverages contests, prizes, field experiments, and peer-learning to identify and multiply high-yielding and climate-adapted seed varieties, increase seed quality and availability, and ultimately enhance the...

Find out more

education

Tunakujenga

Tanzania

Tunakujenga is a family learning program designed to empower caregivers to engage in nurturing and playful parenting to support their children’s social and emotional development.

Find out more

This project graduated following the Pilot phase

No projects currently, try another filter

education

EmpaTeach

Tanzania

EmpaTeach is a project that aims to reduce corporal punishment in low resource settings by helping teachers learn positive discipline methods, change destructive thought patterns, and plan ahead for positive...

Find out more

This project graduated following the Rigorous Evaluation phase

safety

Real Man Challenge

Liberia, Uganda, Peru

The Real Man Challenge is a mobile messaging campaign that engages men with an aspirational and positive masculine identity to prevent intimate partner violence. It sends WhatsApp messages to men...

Find out more

education

Pop-Up Learning Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Pop-Up Learning is a tablet-based computer-assisted learning program, aimed to mobilize quickly and efficiently on the onset of crisis.

Find out more
No projects currently, try another filter

safety

Becoming One

Uganda

Becoming One is a counseling program designed to bring couples closer and prevent intimate partner violence. The program is delivered in partnership with local faith leaders, who guide couples through...

Find out more

health

ComPAS: Combined Protocol for Acute Malnutrition Study

South Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Mali, Chad

The current malnutrition treatment is inaccessible for 4 out of 5 acutely malnourished children globally. A new combined approach is simpler, less expensive, & offers more comprehensive treatment, with the...

Find out more

other

Dioptra

Dioptra simplifies the process of conducting cost analyses, helping humanitarian and development actors make use of limited resources in a transparent and effective way.

Find out more

economic-wellbeing

Match

Jordan

Working to counter the high rates of unemployment that follow mass displacement, the Match project in Jordan is testing a set of new innovations for placing vulnerable populations and refugees...

Find out more

education

Ahlan Simsim

In this historic effort, IRC and Sesame Workshop have partnered to help children whose lives have been uprooted by the war in Syria to build brighter futures.

Find out more
No projects currently, try another filter

33 million children are displaced from their homes because of humanitarian crises. Almost 40% of those children do not have access to formal education. Between funding gaps, political challenges, and poor-to-nonexistent access to educators, it can take months or years for a child to receive adequate education. During this period in a displaced child’s life, education is critical to reducing trauma and stress, creating stability, and generating positive norms around going to school.

Even when in school, children are not learning. Many leave school without the skills needed to calculate the correct change from a transaction, read a doctor’s instructions, or interpret a political campaign promise—let alone build a fulfilling career or educate future generations. 

With thoughtful facilitation and the best autonomous learning software, we can improve education access and quality in emergency settings. At crisis onset and at a low cost-per-child, Pop-Up Learning aims to deliver locally-relevant, tablet-based learning that supports the acquisition of foundational literacy, numeracy and social-emotional skills for primary school-aged learners. Pop-Up adapts to the varying needs of displaced children around the world, including different educational levels and languages.

We have completed a pilot of the Pop-Up Learning model with the Rohingya community in Bangladesh, where over 380,000 Rohyinga children don’t have access to learning opportunities. We have proven feasibility and desirability of the Pop-Up model and have pre-positioned Pop-Up as the solution to take to scale with local and national partners.

How it works

Personalized, adaptive learning software on mobile devices like tablets serves to enable children with the tools needed to reach their development potential regardless of environmental circumstances.

Autonomous learning includes:

  1. Low cost, flexible and mobile technology which enables deployments in homes, centers, schools. Learning can happen anywhere, at anytime.
  2. Interactive, engaging and adaptive learning games which enable children to learn at their level and at their own pace.
  3. Thoughtful human support which guides children through their learning, without the need for people with academic expertise, which can be difficult to find in crisis contexts.

Pop-Up aims to fill the critical educational gaps in a displaced child’s life, providing some sense of normalcy, continuity and critical foundational skills while formal education is being established. This product will make it possible to rapidly deploy learning programs in emergencies where no formal education is available and in a way that supports an eventual transition to formal schools.

What’s next

With the critical support of donors and partners - including Bezos Family Foundation, Arnhold Family Foundation, Cartier Foundation, Imagine Worldwide, and Enuma (creators of KitKit School) - we are launching Phase II of Pop-Up Learning in Bangladesh with the aim of developing improved operational models to reach an even greater scale at a lower cost. We will conduct implementation research to further test the Pop-Up Learning model theory of change and prepare for a robust study to better understand impact and cost-effectiveness. The cost-effectiveness randomized controlled trial will help us identify the impact of Pop-Up Learning on key research outcomes like literacy, numeracy, social-emotional learning and transition to formal schools for high-risk displaced children. The implementation research and cost-effectiveness study will reach a combined 800 children in Bangladesh with supplemental education through Pop-Up Learning and lay the groundwork to reach 180,000 refugee children in Bangladesh over the next five years. 

February 2022 | Kickoff randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh

Working closely with partners, the IRC will implement a cost-effectiveness randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh reaching 400 children with access to supplemental education in literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional learning. The aim of the study will be to understand the impact and cost-effectiveness of the Pop-Up Learning model on literacy, numeracy, social-emotional learning and transition to formal school.

November 2021 | Kickoff implementation research study in Bangladesh

The IRC will implement the Pop-Up Learning program for a second time with 400 children to confirm the Pop-Up theory of change and prepare for the cost-effectiveness randomized controlled trial.

August 2021 | Kickoff 8-week 're-design' sprint

The ‘re-design’ will focus on optimizing the Pop-Up Learning model for storing, distribution, charging, connectivity and hardware procurement for cost and efficiency. 

April 2020 | Bangladesh pilot report

The results of the Pop-Up Learning pilot study in Bangladesh confirm that autonomous learning  software is a promising avenue for alternative education in crisis settings. However, it requires further investment in nimble infrastructure and rigorous research to ensure the model can be deployed quickly at the onset of a crisis, in a cost-effective manner.

Resource

April 2020 | Pop-Up is a finalist in Fast Company's 2020 World Changing Ideas.

Pop-Up Learning is a finalist in the Educationcategory. World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better.

Resource

March 2020 | COVID-19 interrupts data collection

Endline data collection was interrupted due to COVID-19. Enumerators had already collected 50% of data, allowing for data analysis to commence.

November 2019 | Bangladesh pilot launch

The Pop-Up Learning pilot launched in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, aiming to reach 600 kids of all ages. Children will learn on tablets in their homes and in community centers.

Resource

May 2019 | Prototyping takes in Bangladesh

Prototyping begins to test out hardware and software for use in Cox’s Bazaar, one of the world’s largest refugee camps. Localization needs begin to be identified and met by translating content into local languages.

October 2018 | Pop-Up Learning Supporter Dinner

An information session and dinner for Pop-Up Learning supporters and those interested in participating in the seed investment round.

September 2018 | Pop-Up Learning Feasibility Study in Bangladesh

The feasibility study concluded that Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh met the conditions to serve as a site to prototype Pop-Up Learning.

Resource

The Airbel Impact Lab at IRC is a team of researchers, strategists and innovators committed to the accelerated design, rigorous evaluation and cost-effective scaling of the most impactful solutions supporting people affected by crisis.