Mobile Pedagogical Assistant to develop meaningful pathways to personalised learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mobile Pedagogical Assistant to develop meaningful pathways to personalised learning

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Inclusive education lies at the heart of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It gives direction to governments, administrators, educators, parents and people with disabilities on how to achieve this aim.

In response, our project’s primary objective is to support inclusive education systems by developing tools that can help school staff develop the potential in every learner, and to accommodate particular students with different impairments, so that those with special educational needs (SEN) can be included in mainstream classrooms. At the heart of our project is an AI-enabled tool to support the decision making processes of teachers in inclusive education in the types of pedagogical approach that should be adopted for each child.

We have achieved this by developing a mobile App that uses sensor data (e.g. eye gaze, body posture and facial features) and Machine Learning to infer the level of engagement in learning activities of each individual child using a simple ‘Traffic Light’ system as an output of the App. This is supported by a Handbook, which provides teachers in inclusive settings with a range of practical strategies to re-engage each child should engagement wane (our ‘What’s Next’ approach). In addition, we have developed a set of interactive games which allow us to gather sensor data from a wide range of students with mild and moderate learning disabilities throughout our partner countries to robustly train the engagement algorithm operating at the heart of our App. Our Manual gives inclusive teaching staff practical guidelines on installing and using the App.

Our primary target groups are inclusive teaching staff – including teachers, teaching assistants and Special Educational Needs Coordinators working with students with mild and moderate learning disabilities in a range of formal learning environments – in mainstream, inclusive and special needs schools. We also promote the use of our tools in other settings – with parents and carers, and to support the social and emotional health needs of students.

Pathway+ comprises partners from 5 countries:
– Nottingham Trent University – United Kingdom
– National Association Of Professionals Working With People With Disabilities – Bulgaria
– Centre for Special Educational Support – Bulgaria
– International Association for Research and Development of Vocational education and Training – Turkey
– Nottingham City Council – United Kingdom
– PhoenixKM – Belgium
– SOFTQNR – Serbia

The following project results have been created:
– IO1: A descriptive map of effective pedagogical approaches to promote inclusive education.
– IO2: A set of mobile games to gather sensor data to train our engagement algorithm.
– IO3: A Mobile App with a ‘Traffic-Light’ system to give a real time indication of the level of engagement of students.
– IO4: A Handbook for inclusive teaching staff and ‘What’s Next’ section to give practical guidance on strategies to re-engage students.
– IO5: A Manual for inclusive teaching staff on installing and using the App.
– E1: An online Multiplier event.
– A series of Piloting Events in the UK, Belgium, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Impact attained:
The Pathway+ partnership has created a unique set of AI-enabled tools for the assessment of learners` engagement using embedded sensors in mobile devices, together with a set of interactive games that are used to train our engagement algorithm. Packaged along with a Handbook to support inclusive teaching staff in selecting teaching strategies to re-engage students and a Manual to describe the installation and use of the App, our tools have already had an immediate impact on the organisations involved in the Pathway+ consortium. They have increased their organisational capacities by using these tools when working with teaching professionals and other specialists providing training and support to SEN students.

Teachers working in inclusive mainstream education, school psychologists, special educators, resource tutors, pedagogical advisors and teaching assistants all over Europe have access to our AI-enabled tool which can be used direcly within the classroom, and indeed in other informal settings to support all students and ensure they reach their full potential.

The piloting phase of our project has involved more than 150 inclusive education teachers who iteratively tested the Pathway+ outcomes with more than 200 SEN students. The results were used not only to train the engagement algorithm in the development stage of our project, but to also enrich inclusive teaching practices and transform the educational process for students with mild and moderate learning disabilities. Positive results from the piloting phases and the resulting positive impact achieved demonstrates that Pathway+ has the potential for a transformational impact on teachers’ attitudes to AI approaches to help them to engage more effectively with students with disabilities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 422541,16 Eur

Project Coordinator

THE NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• PHOENIXKM BVBA
• Nottingham City Council
• International Association for Research and Development of Vocational Education and Training
• Center for Special Educational Support
• SoftQNR D.O.O.
• SDRUZENIJE NA NA RABOTESHTITE S HORA S UVREZHDANIYA