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App could restrict access to social media/all other apps until quiz is completed

Partnership with local high schools; allow students to preload a weeks-worth of content on school wifi

SE clubs that allow for elective-hours access to computer lab

Partnership with local universities, let college students come in and broaden high schoolers' horizons

Reward could be subsidized/free school lunch, some payment that is more tangible and pertinent to schoolchildren than crypto

Guaranteed placement into a bootcamp at X tokens, guaranteed postsecondary experience through commitment?

Start with a broad top-down overview of technical skills and allow for specialization in later modules, more of a catch-all program than singling out rare students who are already interested/aware of SE opportunities

App should support multiple accounts, many households are crowded and may not be able to support a 1:1 child to technology requirement

Implement video learning modules? Youtube and tiktok most cited forms of social media from interviews

Emphasis on LinkedIn for school, getting kids aware and considerate of life after high school can make them more keen on learning technical skills

"Commission" for teachers, faculty who recommend high-performing students get partial tokens. Makes staff more accessible for off-the-curriculum learning opportunities

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App Features

Daily quizzes

Separate section for self-paced, online, guided lessons --> will focus on frontend web development and follow typical frontend progression (HTML, CSS, Java script)

Interface: the screen can map out the lessons so students can see their progression

Create a competitive component / leaderboard to motivate students. Potentially could offer rewards or bonus points to those in the top five each week

Section for additional resources and learning materials (articles, videos, etc.)

Demographics / Targeting

Currently partnered with 6 public schools in the area --> could reach out to other public and private schools in the area to partner with them and broaden the program's reach

Can market through different social media channels to reach target audience

Facebook / Facebook groups could be a good way to reach parents who want the app for their kids, potentially schools for partnerships and companies for funding as well

LinkedIn can be another route for reaching companies to partner with for funding purposes

Rewards

Converting game tokens to real monetary value. Some ideas:

Crypto currency that could be used to make real world purchases

Purchases within the app (unlocking special lessons, access to signing up for speaker events or shadowing opportunities)

Funding / Pricing Model

Continue to partner with companies and look for sponsors

Another way to generate revenue could be by offering a package price to schools (so the schools would pay for the app, making it free for students to use)

These funds could then be funneled back into paying for rewards

Companies would need an incentive for buying a subscription plan: the app offers access to SE education, which is something most schools don't offer

Hackathons

We could see if there are local companies we can partner with. They could sponsor the event and propose a real business question for students to solve

If a team does well, could even see their solution implemented

Also a great way to promote the Younglings app and program

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Instead of cryptocurrency, in game currency could rather be displayed on a leaderboard where students compete with peers to be at the top of the leaderboard.

Motivates kids to want to be first and better than their peers with in-game currency and rids of the cryptocurrency system which the students won’t understand.

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App Design:

“Duolingo teaching format” → Teach coding languages almost like teaching a foreign language

translating like if this happens, do this = if statement or do this N number of times = for loop

Start with multiple choice to teach syntax and then moving to more free response questions with coding

Customizable app (you can change the icon of the app on your home screen or background color) → when they reach a certain level they can change different things

For teaching frontend: the result of the code needs to show in a “browser” after they write the correct code

Leaderboard + competitive aspect to motivate students and get them to invite their friends as well

Resources within app: glossary with coding terms + videos with tutorials

The app should mostly focus on teaching beginner coding concepts to inspire students to pursue software engineering

At a certain level, the students should be encouraged on the app to move to a computer, so they can work on a full scale project in a text editor → need a “desktop version” of the app

Use notifications every day to encourage students to do their daily 10 short coding questions

Reward with token when they build up their learning streak and show some sort of  negative visual when they lose their streak

Need to have the app display the progress of the student, so they can see how far they’ve come and motivate them to keep learning and complete the app

In order to make the app more fun and like a “game”, teaching some broad problem solving skills can involve less coding and more “game” like activities

E.g. give them a problem and have them break it down into smaller steps (like how you would approach a coding problem)

Make coding seem easy by breaking it down into smaller bits

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An app that has gained popular traction with the Tufts students on campus has been an app called 'Forest.' It's an app that allows students to both individually and collaboratively have a professional incentive to study. While not directly related to or a competitor to the Younglings project, it was an interesting idea that gave inspiration to other apps/games that try to enable kids to do an academic task. Forest allows the user to set a timer on their app and if the user successfully does their work in the time frame set (or at least retains focus) they are rewarded with a visual forest/tree that grows depending on your consistency and quantity of studying. While there is no financial incentive, students have still told others that they feel a sense of accomplishment simply by seeing their forest grow from their relatively boring and uneventful task. The app became not an addiction like many other studying games try to target themselves as, but as a bonus and additional incentive to do something students did not want to do. The simple 3d graphics and colors help to give a sense of peace and calm while also keeping the UI simple and easy to use. While I do not own the app myself (as it is not free) I have heavily considered purchasing it myself. There are different modes in which you can cooperatively study and grow forests with other members.

While Younglings has many different goals and current pathways to solve its problem statement concerning computer science, I believe that this app can be a source of inspiration for the app. Whether it be the calming graphics/color scheme to the structure of the collaborative element. I found the idea of a non-financial incentive the most intriguing and how people had a genuine incentive to study with this tool rather than studying for a financial goal. I believe that this method would be more effective as by implementing a financial goal, the real effort and learning incentive is not put into the material/content, but the end goal.

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One of the most complex aspects of the app is that it will have to operate in an offline setting because, in all three interviews, it was mentioned that data and wifi are major problems for high school kids.

A lot of talks were had during interviews about adding some competitive mechanism to the app, where users could compete against each other. We must find a way for this to work offline if we want to implement it.

Is it also possible to send the ling into the mini pay wallet while offline?

I also feel that the rewards system should be itemized rather than monetary, such as a data package they could redeem or a discount to a restaurant or grocery store.

The user interface should be engaging, and complex enough to keep the users from getting bored. There should be multiple sections within the app, such as a tab with quizzes, a tab with past quiz results, and a tab to track progress. This could be shown through a roadmap, with each quiz being a level.

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the app's popularity is very important, so to increase this, the following is very important:

reaching out to high schools

emphasizing the importance of education

aggressive advertising even in problematic neighborhoods

Adds on social media, etc.

The app is token-based but connects students also with other students who are studying abroad or affiliated with these issues

Within the app, the reward system will probably bring the most success BUT there must be more clarity on how this will work

Like the language app babbel focused on making people continue through smart easy-answer systems

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I agree with what many others have been saying. The idea of this app promoting monetary gain is a little unrealistic and confusing, and it would be best to center it around friendly competition and leaderboards. Building something similar to the app Forest, which was brought up by another intern, I think is a good idea. "Having extra motivation to do something you normally wouldn't want to do is a key point."

Obviously imitating the same forest is not what we want to do but instead something different. Like a mall that begins with a computer lab and then after that continues growing and you can evolve and get more stores. Maybe the more coins/tokens you get from quizzes means the faster you can develop and the cooler your mall can become. Or maybe the game is that you get an avatar that is a programmer/coder and as you complete more quizzes and achievements you get coins that you can use to buy your character clothing, homes, vehicles, accessories, etc.. And then maybe there can be online lobbies where you can move your avatar around with your friends and therefore some friendly competition is created when avatars are being compared.

I think for this app to actually become popular it has to be more of a game. if not, then it will NEED a monetary gain that is simple to understand... others have mentioned working with schools to get free lunches... stuff like that. I think it is unrealistic to tell kids to play the game so they can get some type of cyrpocurrency because not many people know what that means... will be motivated to get it.

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Most kids don’t have computers available at their homes

Utilize schools, libraries, government, and other NGOs to get kids access to computers for certain tasks

Most of these kids live in poverty

Make app free to use

Most highschoolers don’t go to college in South Africa, because they can’t afford it && It’s difficult to get the qualifications to work in tech

Provide a path to get qualifications without going to college

Not many have access to internet at home

Make the app function mostly offline

(76% of South Africans have access to internet)

Acceptance

Make app culturally relevant for South African children to insure it resonates with the local audience

Engagement

Gamify the  app, keep the app interactive and engaging. Make it seem as if kids are playing a game rather than just learning how to code. Social element is also important, give something for kids to talk about and share with their friends.

Advertisement

Advertise app in spaces kids and p  arents are going to be frequent in: playgrounds, social media, etc

Funding

App can run on ads, which can help sustain the app longterm, but app will require large engagement first