SBIR Phase II: Offline Edge Learning Management System

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响将有助于缩小美国的家庭作业差距。家庭作业差距一直是一个酝酿已久的问题，1200万至1700万K-12学生没有可靠的家庭互联网来完成数字作业。可以从需要在家访问的学习应用程序中获益最多的学生不成比例地来自低收入、农村和高危少数民族人口。虽然新的宽带资助举措可能会逐步改善这种情况，但低收入和农村地区的数百万学生仍然被落在后面。该项目旨在利用网络技术和智能代理的最新进展，提供一种软件解决方案，使任何学生都能参与到一个完整的数字作业流程中，包括互动课程、视频和强大的教师反馈，即使他们无法或无法访问互联网。未联网的成人学习者也将从该项目中受益，因为包括计算机编程在内的技术技能培训将得到支持。这一解决方案将有助于填补美国劳动力中的关键技术技能缺口。SBIR第二阶段项目将推进一个新的作业管理系统，该系统将为在线、离线或在任何可用设备上的学习者提供一致的数字化学习体验。通过创新的离线优先分布式架构，解决了围绕状态分歧和冲突解决、用户身份、系统集成和离线内容管理的复杂问题，该系统试图为历史上无法或无法获得家庭数字作业解决方案的学习者提供公平的访问机会。该系统将利用边缘智能来促进有效的、基于研究的教学方法，以改善学习成果并最大限度地减少教师的开销。试点项目和用户反馈研究，以及定制的学习模型模拟器将用于评估和迭代改进系统的功效。该项目的研究和开发目标是发布一个可生产的、可扩展的作业管理系统，在弥合作业差距方面取得积极进展。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。

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Resesarch (SBIR) Phase II project will be in helping to close the homework gap in the United States. The homework gap has been a long simmering problem where 12 – 17 million K-12 students do not have reliable home internet to complete digital homework. Students that could benefit the most from learning applications that require home access are disproportionately from lower-income, rural, and at-risk minority populations. While new broadband funding initiatives may make incremental improvements to the situation, millions of students in low-income and rural areas continue to be left behind. This project aims to use new advances in web technologies and intelligent agents to provide a software solution that will enable any student to participate in a complete digital homework workflow including interactive lessons, videos, and robust teacher feedback even when they have unreliable or no access to the internet. Unconnected adult learners will also benefit from the project as technical skills training including computer programming will be supported. This solution will assist in filling the key technical skill gaps in the American workforce.This SBIR Phase II project will advance a new homework management system that will support digital learning with a consistent experience for learners that are online, offline, or in degraded network conditions and on any available devices. Through an innovative offline-first distributed architecture that solves complex problems around state divergence and conflict resolution, user identity, system integrations and offline content management, this system attempts to bring equitable access to learners who have historically had limited or no access to at-home digital homework solutions. The system will utilize intelligence at the edge to facilitate effective, research-based, pedagogical approaches to improve learning outcomes and minimize teacher overhead. Pilot programs and user feedback studies, along with custom-built learning model simulators will be used to evaluate and iteratively refine the system's efficacy. The goal of this project's research and development will be the release of a production-ready, scalable homework management system that makes positive progress toward bridging the homework gap.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.