Researchers partnered with IPA, Learning Equality Foundation, and Shoulder-to-Shoulder to conduct a randomized evaluation in Honduras to measure whether a tablet-based learning platform improved students’ math and Spanish skills during COVID-19. The platform had no impact on test scores, but it was considered easy to use by teachers and increased student’s access to learning resources and motivation to study.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the transition from in-person to virtual instruction during COVID-19 created learning challenges for children from low-income households, who often lacked access to technology. In the Intibucá department in Honduras, 79 percent of households live in poverty, 64 percent have electricity, and just 32 percent have internet access,¹ limiting opportunities to learn and in turn creating learning gaps with other students.² To alleviate this and leverage the potential of technology, the education organization Learning Equality Foundation developed a low-cost, tablet-based platform called Kolibri. Kolibri was pre-loaded with seven channels containing different subject content and materials for students and teachers to access offline.

Researchers partnered with IPA, Learning Equality Foundation, and Shoulder-to-Shoulder to conduct a randomized evaluation to measure whether the Kolibri platform increased test scores in math and Spanish and reduced learning gaps during COVID-19. The intervention involved 102 schools in Intibucá serving seventh, eighth, and ninth-grade students. The schools were randomly assigned to either receive the Kolibri program and given the necessary technological equipment (tablets, computers, routers) or serve as a comparison group.

The Kolibri platform had no significant impact on students’ math and Spanish test scores. This was most likely due to the delay in delivering the technology to students that prevented them from becoming familiar with Kolibri and the insufficient training for teachers to use the Kolibri effectively. Despite the lack of impact, however, there was high satisfaction with Kolibri. For instance, teachers reported that Kolibri was easy to use while caregivers said it was beneficial for their children’s learning because they had greater access to more learning resources and were more motivated to study.

Sources

^1. Global Data Lab, “GDL Area Profile Report: Intibuca (Honduras),” Global Data Lab, Accessed December 18, 2024, https://globaldatalab.org/areadata/profiles/HNDr110/

^2. Munguia, Judith Pineda. "Digital Learning Measures in Honduras During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Current Issues in Comparative Education 24, no. 2 (2022).

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