R01 - Testing Manager

Background

Global Learning XPRIZE is a competition challenging teams to develop open-source software that will enable children with limited access to schooling to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic. XPRIZE, a non-profit organization, is the world’s leader in designing and managing incentive prize competitions for the benefit of humanity.

Midnight Illusions Ltd. is a +20 year strong digital media solutions company specializing in award-winning start-to-finish mobile application development services for all major mobile platforms.

The Global Learning XPRIZE is a crowdsourced problem designed for the world to solve. Midnight Illusions has taken on the challenge of addressing this problem by crowdsourcing the solution.

We have conceptually developed our solution, known as The ShiraX System™, from the ground up specifically for the Global Learning XPRIZE competition.  The System will not only achieve the competition goals but has massive potential to greatly exceed them.  And we look forward to adding YOU to our team by working together to fully realize this System!

What is The ShiraX System™ ?

The Cocktail Party One-Liner

The ShiraX System™ is a web-based magic toolbox that will allow anyone to easily create and share their educational app with the world.

The Geek Meetup Two-Liner

The Super Helpful Intelligent Resource Architect (Shira) X System™ (or simply, “ShiraX”) is an open source layperson-friendly modular platform that facilitates the creation of educational apps for Android, iOS, Web, PC, and Mac deployment.

ShiraX blends a highly-intuitive User Interface (UI) with strong User Experience (UX) design principles and strong MVC architecture at its core.

Prize Payout Structure

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN INDIRECTLY FUNDED CHALLENGE
Awarding of any prizes in any of The ShiraX Challenges is contingent on the Midnight Illusions Ltd. team being chosen as either a Finalist or Winner in the Global Learning XPRIZE.

The following breaks down the potential prize amount ranges:

Submissions and Team Invites

We will evaluate all submissions, comparing against this Challenge's technical requirements and all other judging factors.  See the Guidelines tab for this Challenge for more information.

Innovator submissions will be short-listed and organized by the top performing submission, onward.  The Top Innovator will be contacted first.  A list of Finalists will also be assembled, in the event that the Top Innovator is unable to continue.

An invitation will be sent to the Top Innovator submission for this Challenge to officially join Team "Midnight Illusions" in the Global Learning XPRIZE Challenge.  The Innovator must meet all Global Learning XPRIZE requirements and sign both an agreement with Midnight Illusions Ltd. and a Team Member agreement with Global Learning XPRIZE.  All documentation and forms will be supplied.  

Should the top Innovator decline the invite, the invitation will then be sent to the Finalist(s) in the order of their evaluation in this Challenge.

Open Source.  Variable IP.

Should our team earn the status of Finalist or Winner, our collective software solution will be open sourced to the world.  As per Global Learning XPRIZE regulations, IP is retained by the team (Midnight Illusions).

Shoud our team not earn Finalist or Winner status, our collective software solution will still be open sourced to the world.  You, the Innovator, will retain the IP related to your code.

Post-HeroX Challenge &
Global Learning XPRIZE Timeline

The ShiraX Challenges on HeroX represent one key component of our solution submission to Global Learning XPRIZE.  After the winners are announced for each HeroX Challenge, with your assistance as an official Team Member we will continue to enhance the System, while our team educators load in English and Swahili content, to meet the requirements of Global Learning XPRIZE.  This process will occur from mid-Sept to end of October 2016.  We officially submit to XPRIZE on or before November 1, 2016.

After submission, we wait to hear back from Global Learning XPRIZE to learn if we have made it the semi-finalist level (currently March 1, 2017).  In the interim, solution development will continue, as we are able to submit updated software at each evaluation milestone.

Should (no....WHEN!) we make it to the Finalist announcement (currently July 10, 2017), we will arrange prize payout with each ShiraX Challenges HeroX sub-challenge Winner, as per the "Finalist" Prize Payout Structure outlined above.  Solution development will further continue, with your assistance as an official Teal Member from July 2017 to September 2018.  We will have several opportunities to submitted updated code while our solution is being tested in the field (with appox. 800 children in several villages in Tanzania), further enhancing our opportunity to fully win Global Learning XPRIZE.

Should (no...WHEN!) we make it to the Global Learning XPRIZE Grand Prize announcement that team Midnight Illusions has W-O-N (currently April 2019), we will arrange prize payout with each ShiraX Challenges HeroX sub-challenge Winner, as per the "Winner" Prize Payout structure outlined above.

And of course, we'll have to arrange some sort of massive party to celebrate!  ;)

Additional Rules

Who can participate:
The Challenge is open to individuals and teams. To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the Challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement.

Selection of Winner:
Based on the winning criteria, one or more prizes will be allocated, pending the performance of the Midnight Illusions team in the Global Learning XPRIZE.  See "Prize Payout Structure", above.  In the case of a tie, the winner will be selected at the discretion of the Judging Panel.

Submissions:
All Team submission materials must be submitted online on or before the Submission Deadline indicated in the Timeline. No submissions will be accepted after this time. Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. All submissions must be received online, via the Challenge website, and all uploads can be in PDF format only. Submission reporting requirements are detailed in Judging.

Challenge Guidelines are subject to change. Registered competitors will receive notification when changes are made, however, we highly encourage you to visit the Challenge Site often to review updates.

The ShiraX Challenges are an ambitious plan for compassionate coders to
create a self-teaching educational system that will significantly improve
the status quo of impoverished girls around the world,
by providing hope, freedom, and possibility.

Join  •  Code  •  Innovate  •  Win!

Description

In order to determine if a child is successfully learning educational content, ShiraX will offer testing mechanisms that the Creator can use as extensively or as minimally as desired.

The Testing Manager should intelligently recognize whether a user has successfully answered testing questions, allowing for a margin of failure and also optionally allow for repeat attempts, with or without successive hints.  Should the child not succeed at a question (after optionally repeated attempts), they can be redirected back to the content Screen that discusses the material they are currently having difficulty with.

Real-World Social Reinforcement

The Testing Manager must incorporate Real-World Social Reinforcement.  It is our goal to bring a social/communal layer into the child’s learning environment as much as possible.  Benefits of Real-World Social Reinforcement include:

• Increasing the number of stakeholders in a child’s success.
• Increasing cultural/communal acceptance of the educational app, by making it more approachable and relevant to the child’s real world, particularly in cultures not familiar with digital technologies or methodologies.
• Providing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational reinforcements to the child, as per context.  Some will seek and thus thrive on approval from adults and/or peers while others will be self-motivated to “win” at all aspects of testing.

Throughout testing, we must ensure that the child continues to have FUN using the app.  Success is great and is to be celebrated.  “Failure” is fine and the Testing Manager should encourage the child to “fail forward”, providing positive reinforcement / acknowledgement for previously accomplished tests, or portions of current tests, and then redirect the child back to the Screen discussing the material they have yet to master.

Create the Following Features/Functions:

• Integrate the Testing Manager with Content Creation -- Core System.  See the Content Creation -- Core System task in the “Create Create Create” Challenge set.
  • Creator clicks a button on a toolbar (or elsewhere) to access the Testing Manager and work through context-specific options.
• Testing Templates
  - The Testing Templates integrate with the Template Manager.  See the Template Manager task in the “Foundation” Challenge category.
  - Create 3 categories of pre-designed Testing Templates that can be used by the Creator. 
  • Character Writing / Multi-Character Writing Template
    • Creator selects one character (alphabet letter or number) to test the child on.
      • Integrates with Character Manager, to obtain the photo associated with the selected character, if available.
        - see the Character Manager task in the “Foundation” Challenge category.
      • Integrates with Character Manager, to obtain the character trace data and variance
        - see the Character Manager task in the “Foundation” Challenge category.
        • NOTE:  You may be able to access character trace data and variance by either creating or incorporating software for/from the English Handwriting Recognition Framework task in the “Foundation” Challenge category.
    • Creator can also test for more than one character at a time, e.g., “ch”
    • Incorporates Hinting (see below)
    • Incorporates “Déjà Vu” Review (see below)
    • Incorporates Level Management (see below)
    • Incorporates Progress Management (see below)
    • Additional features as you see fit.
  • Word Writing Template
    • Similar functionality to “Character Writing / Multi-Character Writing Template”, above.
  • Sentence Writing Template
    • Similar functionality to “Character Writing / Multi-Character Writing Template”, above.
  • Comprehension Template
    • Creator creates a question, e.g., “are dolphins mammals?” and can choose if the answer is:
      • Single word, e.g., “Yes”
      • Sentence, e.g., “Yes, dolphins are mammals.”
        • Creator identifies if the child needs to enter all words or if just one or more keywords suffice for a correct answer.
      • Multiple choice, e.g., “Yes/No/Sometimes”
        • Creator identifies which answer is correct
    • Incorporates Hinting (see below)
    • Incorporates “Déjà Vu” Review (see below)
    • Incorporates Level Management (see below)
    • Incorporates Progress Management (see below)
    • Additional features as you see fit.
  • Mathematics Template
    • Creator creates a question, e.g., “5+5=” and can choose if the answer is:
      • Single number, e.g., “10”
      • Multiple choice, e.g., “10, 55, 0”
        • Creator identifies which answer is correct
    • Incorporates Hinting (see below)
    • Incorporates “Déjà Vu” Review (see below)
    • Incorporates Level Management (see below)
    • Incorporates Progress Management (see below)
    • Additional features as you see fit.
• Hinting
  • Creator can optionally also enter a hint, if the child gets it wrong on “x” number of tries
    • Hint can be written text or selected audio/video
  • Multiple hints for multiple tries and various combinations of, e.g., after 2 tries show hint A, after 4 tries show hint B.
• “Déjà Vu” Review
  • Creator can determine the wrong answer threshold for a question, e.g., 2 attempts or 5 or …
    • If the child exceeds the threshold, direct the child back to the Screen discussing the material they have not yet mastered.
• Level Management
  • Creator optionally enters the number of questions a child needs to answer correctly from the current level, before a child can access the next level, e.g., “8 correct answers from Level 1”
    • Creator establishes what the next level/sub-level would be, based on completion of an existing level, e.g., Level 2
  • Level data is obtained from the settings for all Screens in the Project.  See the Screen Category Manager in the “Create Create Create” Challenge category
• Progress Management
  - In the “Project Settings” for a Project, the Creator can set whether the app will have “Account Management” enabled or not.  Project Settings are managed via the Project Manager.  See the Project Manager task in the “Foundation” Challenge category.
  - Upon level completion, manage a child’s app progress as follows:
  • If Account Management is enabled
    (app stores user account info.):
    • Store the current level, so the child may return here at a later date.
      • Integrates with User Account Manager.  See the User Account Manager task in the “A+, 100%, 10 out of 10” Challenge category.
    • Optionally trigger (as determined by the Creator) In-App Session Manager (to account for devices getting misplaced)
      - see the In-App Session Manager task in the “A+, 100%, 10 out of 10” Challenge category.
  • If Account Management is disabled
    (app does not store any user account info.):
    • Trigger In-App Session Manager
      - see the In-App Session Manager task in the “A+, 100%, 10 out of 10” Challenge category.
• Real-World Social Reinforcement
  - Level complete?  New word learned?  Or just trigger totally randomly because it’s fun?!
  • “Show your friend what you just learned!  Have them draw something in this box!”
  • “Show your parents/relatives what you just learned!  Have them draw something in this box!”
  • “Is your friend also working on this character / word / sentence / math question/  Are they stuck?  Help them out and when they get it correct, have them draw something in this box!”
  • The Box:
    • Create a rectangle on the screen where the friend/parent/relative/etc. can draw anything they like.  Once done, the box makes some fireworks or other fun particle effects.  Plays a tune.  Dances around.  Something different each time?

Stack / Tools
 

• Backend Stack: 
  • PHP 5.6 with Laravel
  • MySQL DB
• Github, Slack, Trello, Invision, Lucidchart

Code Licensing Requirements
 

• Code must be released under the Apache License 2.0 and contain the boilerplate notice at the beginning of each file in your solution.
• Content must be released under the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license
• Any existing code/libraries from other sources must be released under an approved Open Source Institute (OSI) license listed in the OSI Open Source Licenses by Category index at opensource.org/licenses/category
• This licensing must be granted by September 31, 2016 or earlier.
• Any third party code must also be released under a license that does not conflict with Team Midnight Illusions licensing its own code under the Apache License, 2.0 as part of the same application.  
• NOTE:  Some open source licenses (such as the GNU Public License) do not meet this criterion, as they require any derivative work to be released under the same license.