Africentric Learning Design: Socio-culturally Sensitive and AI-driven Virtual Learning Platform to Support African Canadians

The school closures due to COVID-19 accompanied with the change to remote learning had further exacerbated disparities in the already existing achievement gaps of African Nova Scotian learners in Canada. We propose a technology innovation to be co-developed with the African Nova Scotian community and teachers, offers flexibility in delivery, with content and pedagogical approaches linked to local resources, integrated with social and cultural presence consistent with African worldviews. The proposed study employs a co-design approach along with the relatively untapped machine learning (ML) capabilities to develop a smart socio-culturally sensitivity e-learning system that adapts to each learner’s state via dynamic ablation experiments to discover and implement a personalized learning experience and learner’s engagement using various persuasive strategies. The study would engage the Nova Scotia Black community in participatory action research to co-develop the e-learning system consistent with their social and cultural practices. Our project partner Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute is an Africentric Institution committed to facilitating educational change and genuine opportunities for learners and communities of African ancestry to reach their full potential.

Faculty Supervisor:

Rita Orji

Student:

Partner:

Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Education; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: