Learning From Home Recommendations 

Curious Learning has had many expressions of interest from organizations wanting to help promote learning at home, given the current circumstances of restricted movement and closure of schools due to COVID-19. Our advice has been to tailor some of our distribution strategies based on their access, opportunity and resources. The reading fundamentals app, Feed the Monster, is a great place to start with follow-on apps thereafter.

  1. Trusted Sources - organizations that already have the contact details of parents and caregivers.

  • SMS and WhatsApp blasts

     

    Example: 

    Dear parent/care-giver, download the Feed the Monster app at https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Curious+Learning. 

    Using this app during the break from school will help your child to continue learning. 

    We have designed a 12 week campaign with a message per week, sharing facts and tips, to help reinforce learning and equip parents to support their child.

  • Promotional Flyers shared via social media, email, WhatsApp, MMS or taken home from school by learners before schools close.

Download Printable Flyer

These options are further amplified via partnerships with network providers who may be able to send messages to their subscriber database on behalf of the government (particularly Ministries of Education), and/or zero rate the download of the app. Since our apps work offline and are free, once a person has the app, their child can use it at no additional cost, and they can share it from one device to another at no additional cost.

2. Google Ads (and/or facebook ads)

  • Advertisement to target low income (but smartphone ownership) demographics with informational campaigns about the apps - experiments show an average spend $.10 for each download.

We have been experimenting with these approaches for the last year, so we have some useful insights on how to go about reaching learners through parent devices. 

We are also fast-tracking our ability to refer to other free high impact learning resources within our app so that parents/caregivers have follow-on content from Feed the Monster. Interactive storybooks and digital libraries are already part of our Learning Referral Network, to ensure children have the content that they need to continue on their literacy journey, should they spend an extended period out of school.