Schoolhouse Ghana
Prospective Students
There is a role for everyone! We encourage all majors to join, but we are especially looking for students with the following or related skills: graphic design, quality assurance, community assessment, computer science, computer engineering, and web development (back-end, front-end, or full-stack). If you are looking for more information about how you can contribute, see “Interested in Joining?” at the bottom of this page.
Project Description
The project team is partnered with the Godfreds Foundation, an organization whose goal is to build and operate a low cost, sustainable private school that promotes a positive learning environment for the children of rural Ghana. Currently every child in Ghana has to take a national exam in 9th grade to be able to continue with their higher education. If a child happens to fail this exam, they are forced to look towards labor given their inability to continue with their studies. This exam tests their computer literacy through digital test-taking. Unfortunately, most rural communities in Ghana have unreliable access to internet and electricity, which results in a lack of computer literacy among their students, contributing to the cycle of poverty in these areas.
The Semanhyiya American School (SAS), built by the organization in the rural village of Senase has provided computers for the students to use, but without a reliable source of wifi, the only curriculum they can offer in their computer class is typing. Schoolhouse Ghana aims to facilitate the improvement of their computer skills by providing a server and a local network that allows the teachers to download webpages and content from the internet, such as textbooks and other educational resources, to later be accessed by the students without the use of wifi. This network also seeks to provide a “cloud” storage to facilitate computer usage between students. The project is currently divided into four main areas described below.
Software
This area includes the creation of the website, downloader software, and user interface for students, teachers, and administrators. Some of the goals for this area include:
Goals
- Usability testing
- Improving software user interface
- Adding features like quizzes to the platform
- Automation/quality assurance
- Preloading the server with resources
Hardware
The hardware area includes the building of two servers (one for Senase and one for testing at UC San Diego) and preparing them to work with the software. Some of the goals for this area include:
Goals
- Clone the server to send a new version and keep the current server to iterate on
- Test the routers’ connectivity and hardware components
- Prepare hardware for packaging and shipping
Impact Assessment
The impact assessment area includes the analysis of the user experience and success of the product through data collection of user knowledge and feedback before and after implementation. Some of the goals for this area include:
Goals
- Creating surveys and interviews for the user
- Adding a feedback form within the user interface
Manual and User Experience
The manual and user experience area includes the training of the users for an easier interaction with the website. Some of the goals for this area include:
Goals
- Create how-to videos
- Finish written manuals
- Create workshops
- Add built in help resources within the website
Current Progress and Solution Images
SAS Images
Current Team
- Tina Reuter: 3rd year Chemical Engineering major
- Andrew Nguyen: 5th year Computer Science major
Previous Team Members
- William Duan
- Ayushi Sharma
- Lantz Darling
- Upasana Tejwani
- Daniel Truong
- Haimanot Ashenafi
- Neve Foresti
- Matthew Chen
- Sohyun Lee
- Oguz Sayim
- Cynthia Butarbutar
- Vanshika Agrawal
Faculty Advisor:
Dr. Mandy Bratton
Undergraduate Advisor:
Cristina Barney-Gutierrez
Partner
The project team is partnered with the Godfreds Foundation, an organization whose goal is to build and operate a low cost, sustainable private school that promotes a positive learning environment for the children of rural Ghana. They plan on achieving this positive environment by using innovative teaching methods, while maintaining local traditions and following the local curriculum. The main goal of this is to help the students of rural Ghana succeed on their national exams, which determine their future educational and career opportunities. The organization’s co-founders are: Director of Operations Fredrick Benneh Frimpong, Executive Director Barbara R. Allison, and Financial Director Michael E. Allison. They are currently working on the development of a school in the rural town of Senase, Ghana, with the immediate goal of expanding it to create more grades for the growing children. This is the school the SchoolHouse Ghana team is directly helping.
http://godfredsfoundation.org/
Honors
This team was accepted into the Clinton Global Initiative University program for 2020. Our team will be travelling to Scotland for the annual CGIU conference in April.
Interested in Joining?
We hope to finish the system by the end of spring quarter, at which point our team will go to Senase, Ghana to set up the system and train teachers & administrators.
Next quarter will focus on:
- Polishing user interface of software (React, MongoDB, Material-UI)
- Testing the hardware and software
- User-testing for software
- Creating troubleshooting manuals and training sessions
- Impact Assessment preparation to make sure our project is sustainable
Why you should join:
- You’re interested in the project!
- Your skills/background can contribute to our goals for next quarter!
- You are hoping to get get more practice with skills that recruiters want (e.g. React)
There is a role for everyone! We are especially looking for students with the following or related skills: graphic design, quality assurance, community assessment, computer science, computer engineering, and web development ( back-end, front-end, or full-stack). As you can see, our goals next quarter range from coding to interviewing to designing manuals, so please apply if any of these goals are up your alley!