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An audio MOOC framework for the digital inclusion of low literate people in the distance education process

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Abstract

This work introduces an innovative audio massive open online courses (MOOC) framework which enables distance learning through mere phone calls, leveraging the existing telephony infrastructure as an alternative to internet connectivity, for the illiterate/semi-literate population. It has been conceived to open up access to learning materials to the unreached and the have-nots usually hindered by barriers such as language, literacy, culture, connectivity and distance. While existing MOOCs are being developed for higher-end phones and tablets having internet access, we are proposing a framework for lower-end mobile phones by exploiting VoIP and IVR technology over existing telecommunication infrastructure to enable access to audio learning materials. This work formulates 47 requirements for an audio MOOC framework, which comprises three layers, namely the application, the interfacing and the telephony layers, each having their respective functionalities. As proof of concept, we derived two (2) architectures, namely the configuration-only and the plugin architecture. From thereon, several systems were implemented on varying case scenarios and tested on controlled groups of 267 semi-literate participants both in Mauritius and India, respectively. Very conclusive and promising results were obtained in terms of infrastructure setup under various scenarios, usability and ease of use of the system, learning effectiveness through the pre- and post-test carried out. The framework proved to be reliable, robust and performed as per its requirements.

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Availability of data and material

The authors declare the data are available upon request.

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The authors declare that there is no code pertaining to this research.

Notes

  1. https://www.ibm.com/analytics/spss-statistics-software

  2. https://www.elastic.co/products/kibana

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Funding

This research was sponsored by the following: (1) Mobile for Malis, India—Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Research-I Foundation, and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur. [Grant No. NA—It was an MoU between IITk and COL], (2) Mauritius Research Council (MRC) [Grant No: MRC/RUN/1726], (3) Outer Island Development Corporation (OIDC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Digital Technologies, University of Mauritius, Rm 2.25, Phase 2 Building, Reduit, Mauritius

    Raj Kishen Moloo & Kavi Kumar Khedo

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, 208016, India

    Tadinada Venkata Prabhakar

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  1. Raj Kishen Moloo
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  3. Tadinada Venkata Prabhakar
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Correspondence to Raj Kishen Moloo.

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Moloo, R.K., Khedo, K.K. & Prabhakar, T.V. An audio MOOC framework for the digital inclusion of low literate people in the distance education process. Univ Access Inf Soc (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-023-01051-5

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