Call for innovations: Evidence-based effective use of Artificial Intelligence to support education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Instructions

UNESCO is pleased to invite you to take part in a call for innovations on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If your application is selected by the evaluation committee, your innovative AI tool(s) or AI in education project(s) will be featured in a UNESCO report on evidence-based effective use of AI to support education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you may have opportunities to address a large-scale international audience at events to be organized by UNESCO on AI in education.

The Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence and Education calls for Member States and partners to “ensure that AI promotes high-quality education and learning opportunities for all, irrespective of gender, disability, social or economic status, ethnic or cultural background, or geographic location.” The importance of leveraging AI to strengthen the resilience of learning systems as well as the inclusion and equity in education was heightened by the impact of the COVID-19. However, how AI was used during the pandemic, whether it played a positive role or generated a negative impact, remains unknown. It is in this context that UNESCO is opening this call to examine how AI was used to address specific challenges in education during the COVID-19 pandemic and to consider the benefits and risks.

For more information and further enquiries, please email the Unit for Technology and AI in Education, Future of Learning and Innovation Team of UNESCO at mlw@unesco.org.

Deadline

Applications must be received by Friday, 9 July 2021 (midnight, Paris time).

Eligibility of the AI tools, technologies, or AI in education projects

The AI tools, technologies, and/or AI in education projects presented in your application(s) should:

have been designed to ensure the continuity and quality of learning during the COVID-19 crisis;
have been implemented for at least six months;
have reached a large number of beneficiaries (at least 5000 end users or 500 schools or 500 education institutions);
have robust evidence for its effectiveness on pre-set targets or unexpected results; and
have robust evidence for how it protected learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being.

More specifically, the AI tools, technologies, and/or AI in education projects should be designed to address at least one of the following categories of challenges or objectives:

1. Regulations, strategies, or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being.

Examples include:

Legal frameworks that have been adopted and implemented to regulate the designers, developers and providers of AI tools for education.
Regulations and rules that have been adopted and implemented to guide the adoption of AI tools in schools and other education institutions as well as online platforms recommended to teachers, students and parents.
Regulations and strategies that have been implemented to protect teachers’ human rights when teachers are requested to use AI tools.

2. The use of AI to support inclusive and equitable access to distance learning programmes

Examples include:

AI tools and/or technologies designed to enhance inclusive access for learners with disabilities. For example, the use of AI-powered speech-to-text apps or sign-language apps to support learners with disabilities.
Algorithms and data analytics designed to monitor and mitigate inequality, including gender inequity, in access to distance learning.

3. The use of AI in Learning Management Systems or similar

Examples include:

AI tools designed to manage learner data and/or to expand access to distance learning programmes.
AI tools to deliver automatic formative assessments to diagnose individual learning problems, recognize learning patterns, recommend relevant learning content and learning routes in order to enhance the relevance and quality of home-based distance learning.
AI tools to reduce teachers’ administrative workloads and facilitate data-based planning and decision making.
AI tools designed to support parents, caregivers, or other facilitators of home-based distance learning.

4. The use of AI to support remote summative assessments and/or examinations

Examples include:

AI tools to deliver remote summative assessments.
AI tools to deliver remote national or large-scale examinations.

5. The use of big data to monitor long-term learning outcomes and to provide early warning of education dropouts.

Example includes:

Data mining across platforms or multiple data sources to monitor long-term learning outcomes and diagnose the major problems of learning systems.
Data mining to alert education administrators and policy-makers to dropouts during the COVID-19 school closures.

Application Form

The following form asks for a description of your AI tool(s) or AI in education project(s). Please complete the form separately for each AI tool or AI in education project that you wish to submit.

The form also requests that you provide a professional biography and a picture of the providers or managers of the AI tool or project. Please have the necessary digital files available before you begin. Work in progress on the form cannot be saved. Please complete the application form carefully to ensure clarity and readability.

If you encounter problems with uploading videos or large files, please contact mlw@unesco.org.

Focal person of the application (manager or coordinator of the AI tool and/or AI in education project).

1. First name *This question is required.

2. Last name *This question is required.

4. Email address *This question is required. This question requires a valid email address.

5. Telephone number - including country code *This question is required.

6. Please provide a brief professional biography that is relevant to a general audience. Feel free to include links to personal websites or social media accounts. The biography should be written in the third person. Example: 'John Doe is a professor of education'. (100 words maximum)

7. Please upload a high-resolution profile pictures (maximum file size: 500 KB).

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The organization that developed and implemented the AI tool or AI in education project.

8. Please indicate the name of the organization. If you have no organizational affiliation, please write 'independent'. *This question is required.

10. Please indicate where your organization is based or where you are based if you are independent.

11. If applicable, please list the specific country or up to five countries that the AI solution or AI in education project is currently covering.

Name of the country
Name of the country
Name of the country
Name of the country
Name of the country
If more than five countries or for a whole region, please specify:

12. The title of the AI tool and/or AI in education project. (15 words maximum) *This question is required.

13. Please indicate the category or categories of challenges or objectives your AI tool or project is designed to address.

Regulations, strategies, or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being
The use of AI to support inclusive and equitable access to distance learning programmes
The use of AI in Learning Management Systems
The use of AI to support remote summative assessments and/or examinations
The use of big data to monitor long-term learning outcomes and to support early warning of education dropouts
Others, please explain: Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

14. Please explain how your AI tool or project relates to the overarching theme of the evidence-based, effective use of AI to support education during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the relevant category selected above.

15. Please explain the relevance of the AI tool and/or AI in education project for inclusion, equity, gender equality and the quality of the distance learning during COVID-19 (more detailed information on the results and impact can be provided under Question 18).

16. Please explain the target end users and the number of end users that the tool or project has covered (e.g. schools or other education institutions; children or kindergartens; learners in primary and secondary schools; TVET institutes; learners in Higher Education institutions; learners in non-formal learning settings; teachers, parents, education managers, education administrators, etc.).

17. Please upload supporting documents that can validate the number of end users who have been covered (maximum file size: 500 KB)

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18. Please explain the objectives, indicators and targets set up for the use of the AI tool and the implementation of the project (this can overlap the information relating to inclusion, equity, gender equality), and provide data or evidence to show the results and impact of the use of the AI tool or the project.

19. Please upload the supporting documents that can validate the results (maximum file size: 500 KB).

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20. If your AI tool or project is NOT under category 1 (“Regulations, strategies or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being”), please describe what AI tools or AI technologies have been used or developed, especially the algorithms, data collection and processing, and functionalities that have been developed or adopted from AI developers or providers.

21. If your AI tool or project is NOT under category 1 (“Regulations, strategies or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being”), please describe the developers and owners of the AI tools, the validation/certification/approval by national and/or international regulatory agencies for the use of AI tool in education, the relationship between the AI developers/owners and implementation agency of the project (e.g. the same organization, partners, or simply AI providers and clients), and the business models used to adopt and deploy the AI tools (for example: commercial procurement, free trial for basic functions and charged service for advance functions, in-kind donation for a limited period, long-term charitable support for the free use of commercial AI tools, free charge for end users supported by public funds, etc.).

22. If your AI tool or project is NOT under category 1 (“Regulations, strategies or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being”), please give details on how your AI tool protected learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy, and well-being. More specifically, please explain who collects and processes the data of end users (e.g. learners, teachers, parents, etc.), who monitors the data-collection and data-processing organizations, who owns the data, and whether the data are removable and portable for the end users.

23. If your AI tool or project is NOT under category 1 (“Regulations, strategies or tools for protecting learners’ and teachers’ human rights, data privacy and well-being”), please explain how the AI tools or technologies are deployed (for example: cloud-based solution, on-premise deployment, deployment to individual devices, or combined both based solution and on-premise deployment), what are the requirement for internet connectivity (e.g. 3G/4G, speed of connectivity, etc.) and digital devices as well as other environments or facilities. More specifically, please explain whether the AI tool or project supports offline applications or low-cost technological setting up.

24. Please upload a demo video (maximum of 2 minutes) of your tool.
[If the file is too heavy (more than 500 KB), please provide an internet link to the video in Question 25 below]

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25. Please indicate internet links to information including the evidence related to the actual use of the AI tool and/or the implementation of AI in education project (e.g. a website describing the project, reports about the effectiveness of the tools, technologies, or projects, etc.).

26. If the project is about regulations and strategies, please explain how those regulations and strategies are adopted, and how they are executed to monitor the designers and providers of AI tools and to protect the end users.

27. Please explain the total cost of ownership of the AI tool (e.g. set-up and ongoing costs, and other costs incurred) or the estimated costs of the project implementation, and the funding mechanism.