SBIR Phase I: The Games and Learning Digital Distribution Platform: Increasing Access with Web-Based Content

SBIR一期项目将创建首个可信赖的资源，家长和教师可以轻松地为他们的孩子找到、购买和采用高质量的数字内容。游戏、电子书和其他数字学习工具显示出改善生活的巨大潜力。低收入家庭的孩子（占美国所有孩子的43%）比高收入家庭的孩子花在屏幕上的时间更长，他们的老师报告使用教育技术提高学生成绩的可能性是高收入家庭孩子的两倍。尽管与数字学习工具相关的供需不断增加，但优秀的内容被埋在现有的分发平台中，教育工作者找不到符合他们需求的选择。因此，3000万生活在低收入家庭的美国儿童无法获得相关内容，55%的家长和80%的教师无法找到他们想要的内容，内容生产者面临着可持续性的重大挑战。通过为服务于低收入社区的教育工作者优化的平台，提供广泛的高质量跨平台数字学习内容选择，该项目将在获取、影响和收入方面取得重大进展。根据第一阶段原型的反馈，该项目将扩展到目前在课堂上使用数字学习产品的300万美国教师和在家中使用数字学习产品的3000万美国家庭。与数字学习提供商的收入分成将在200亿美元的全球电子学习市场中建立一个专门的、可持续的渠道。该项目是数字学习分发的系统解决方案，满足了教师和家长的需求，但从根本上破坏了他们目前对有效内容的期望。作为第一个将基于网络的、以证据为基础的数字学习工具与大规模教育工作者联系起来的项目，存在重大风险。为基于网络的学习工具创建一站式商店的技术要求每天都在变化，从如何支持开发更多高质量的HTML5内容，到如何最好地销售和交付跨平台/跨设备交付的访问代码，再到如何确保在带宽有限的情况下易于下载和教育工作者采用。HTML5的开发提供了一个新的机会，可以更有效地瞄准全球用户，而无需维护同一应用程序的多个版本，并改善家庭和学校之间的教育联系。然而，许多数字学习开发者缺乏将高质量内容转换为HTML5的资源，没有可持续的分销平台支持。该项目将创建一个基于网络的电子商务应用程序，优化跨平台内容的交付，一个可搜索的高质量数字学习产品清单，映射到教育标准，以及一个旨在提高长期满意度、可持续性和有效性的数据/反馈循环。第一阶段的研发工作将使用调查、虚拟焦点小组和教育期刊/访谈来测试新平台的供需两方面的技术和商业可行性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This SBIR Phase I project will create the first trusted source where parents and teachers can easily find, buy and adopt high-quality digital content for their children. Games, e-books and other digital learning tools show significant potential for improving lives. Children in low-income families (43% of all U.S. children) spend more screen time than their higher income counterparts, and their teachers are twice as likely to report improved student achievement from using educational technology. Despite increasing supply and demand related to digital learning tools, great content is buried within current distribution platforms and educators do not find choices mapped to their needs. As a result, 30 million U.S. children living in low-income families lack access to relevant content, 55% of parents and 80% of teachers cannot find what they are looking for and content producers face significant challenges to sustainability. By offering a broad selection of high-quality, cross-platform digital learning content via a platform optimized for adoption by educators who serve low-income communities, this project will achieve significant advances in access, impact and revenue. Using feedback from a Phase I prototype, this project will scale to reach the 3 million U.S. teachers who currently use digital learning products in the classroom and the 30 million U.S. families who use digital learning products at home. A revenue share with digital learning providers will establish a dedicated, sustainable channel within the $20 billion global e-learning market. This project is a systemic solution to digital learning distribution that meets teachers and parents where they are, but fundamentally disrupts their current expectations for effective content. As the first project to connect web-based, evidence-based digital learning tools with educators at scale, there are significant risks. The technical requirements for creating a one-stop shop for web-based learning tools are evolving daily from how to support the development of more high-quality HTML5 content, to how to best sell and deliver access codes for cross-platform/cross-device delivery, to how to ensure ease of download and adoption by educators despite limited bandwidth. Development in HTML5 offers an emerging opportunity to more efficiently target a global audience without maintaining multiple versions of the same application and improve educational connections between home and school. However, many digital learning developers lack the resources to convert high-quality content to HTML5 without the support of a sustainable distribution platform. This project will create a web-based e-commerce application optimized for delivery of cross-platform content, a searchable inventory of high-quality digital learning products mapped to educational standards and a data/feedback loop designed to improve long-term satisfaction, sustainability and efficacy. Phase I R&D efforts will use surveys, virtual focus groups and educator journals/interviews to test the technical and commercial feasibility of both the supply side and demand side of a new platform.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.