Using a Traveling Van to Deliver Blended Learning in a Developing Country

This paper presents the design, deployment and evaluation of a blended learning intervention that used Khan Academy videos to teach Grade IV and Grade V Mathematics to children in a developing country. A unique aspect of this learning intervention was the use of a self-contained, satellite-enabled learning van that visited a school once every two weeks to provide learning access to children and teachers in remote areas. Pedagogy included teacher mentoring and structured feedback to students and teachers based on online formative and summative assessments using Android tablets. Six pairs of control and treatment groups were used to evaluate this intervention. Based on results of standardized test instruments, the treatment groups outperformed the control groups in five out of six cases, observed effects were from 0.86 to 2.5 indicating that the approach worked well.