Sesame Workshop International, South Africa (Takalani Sesame) requested NBA to conduct a needs assessment to inform content development for a WhatsApp Chatbot to be implemented in South Africa. Three partners are involved in the Chatbot project: Takalani Sesame, the LEGO Foundation and DBE-E3. Takalani Sesame and the LEGO Foundation focus on promoting and building capacity in learning through play (LtP) and DBE-E3 draws on project-based learning (PBL) to promote new cultures in schools such that learners become more self-reliant, solution-orientated, and develop a proactive mindset. The programmes are developing and implementing a WhatsApp Chatbot that will support caregivers of children from ECD to Grade 7 in accessing supportive learning services through social media. While Chatbot technology provides a host of new opportunities for content delivery and interaction with caregivers to support learning, the value-add of this technology depends on the relevance of the content shared to the needs of the target users as well as being responsive to contextual realties that influence social media access and use. NBA conducted the needs assessment research with caregivers of children in three sites (rural location, township location and urban location) across three provinces (Limpopo, Gauteng, Free State) in South Africa in four languages (Sesotho, Sepedi, Tswana, and IsiZulu) to inform the development of a content creation, curation and delivery strategy.
Services
Conducting research and evaluation in the education sector