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Meta-Platform Digital Agora

Technical Assignment

Targeted audience: Programmers and budget developers

Goals of the technical assignment: 

  1. Defining the minimum functionality for the Digital Agora
  2. Assessment of technical feasibility of the project
  3. Assessment of programming efforts
  4. Estimation of the costs of the creation of the Meta-Platform Agora for writing an educational grant proposal

Definition: A meta-platform is an app-platform that enables and fosters a participant-controlled integration across and among other app-platforms. A meta-platform allows its participants (customers) to create rich and unique ecosystems of apps, tools, libraries, databases, automatized services, and so on.

Digital Agora: Map

  1. Commerce
  2. Dating
  3. Politics
  4. Socal hanging out
  5. News
  6. Education
    1. University of Students
    2. University of Masters
    3. University of Credits
    4. Support for autodidacts
  7. Professional organizations
  8. Arts
  9. Games
  10. Etc.

University of Students

Digital Agora Meta-platform as a particular platform: the necessary minimum features for UniS

  1. The platform must be available on all devices: iPhone, Android, Windows desktop, Mac desktop, and Chrome desktop for the convenience of users
  2. Multilingual interface for international participation
  3. Creation of a subcommunity “University of Students” (UniS) under “Education” category by an administrator of the Digital Agora meta-platform to make the meta-platform self-sufficient
  4. The UniS subcommunity should be able to become a part of the Digital Agora platform -- this will promote serendipity for the potential UniS participants to discover the UniS and its entities (among other possible functions)
  5. Representation of the UniS as a virtual space with the calendar of events, forum, storage of the files, videos, audios, meeting records, platforms, and so on
  6. Integrated connection of edu-clubs with other standalone platforms like Moodle, Doodle, xoyondo.com, Zapier, Miro, Zoom, Teams, Skype, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Facebook, Qualtrics, tally.so
  7. The special role of members of the UniS Org Committee so each of them can manage the UniS subcommunity 
  8. Self-registration in the subcommunity, moderated by the members of the UniS Org Committee to prevent bots and trolls
  9. A rich profile of an UniS member to promote AI offering edu-clubs and events based on the UniS members’ profile and the past participation in and interests in the edu-clubs and events (personalization of participation)
  10. Announcement and notification system for the UniS members by the UniS Org Committee members for informing the UniS members about the creation of new and upcoming clubs and events
  11. Educational clubs (edu-clubs)
    1. Each member of the UniS can author/create an edu-club with its title, description, meeting dates, recurrence of the meetings, video-conference platform (e.g., Zoom, MS Teams, Skype), language(s) of the meetings, type of the edu-club (open to all UniS members, closed -- controlled by the edu-club’s author or the whole club membership or the club’s subgroup) and the process of enrolling members (and finding the recursive date for the meetings, which is good for all potential members)
    2. Automatic notification of all members of the UniS about the creation of the new edu-club
    3. Automatic posting on the UniS Facebook group about the creation of the new edu-club
    4. By default, all UniS members will get automatic notifications about the recurring edu-club meetings unless a member opts out of these notifications (this is only for open edu-clubs)
    5. The automatic notifications can be also customized for each upcoming meeting by the members of the edu-club
    6. The Digital Agora platform should create an automatized scalable dynamic map of all edu-clubs available on the UniS (with a possibility to a closed edu-club, red on the diagram, to opt-out from the club map) visible to all members of the UniS (and maybe even outside it?) 
Agora Structure
    1. If an edu-club is open, an UniS member can visit the club
    2. Possibility for a signified/marked participation in an edu-club during a meeting (a badge?) controlled by each participant: e.g., “club organizer”, “active participant,” “peripheral participant,” “temporarily away”, “window shopper” 
    3. Connection of an edu-club with other platforms like Moodle, Doodle, Zapier, Miro, Zoom, Teams, Skype, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Facebook, tally.so
    4. A virtual space for each edu-club with the calendar of events; forum; chat; storage of the files, videos, audios, past meeting records; list of available platforms; polls; and so on
    5. The organizational communication system (e.g., chat, messenger, email) for the members of the edu-club
  1. Standalone UniS events; somewhat similar to the edu-clubs, plus:
    1. Database of the past standalone events on the UniS subcommunity
  2. Calendars
    1. Overall UniS automated calendar of the past and upcoming edu-club meetings and standalone events
    2. Personalized automated calendar of the standalone and edu-club events, customizable by an UniS member
      1. Ability to synchronize it with Outlook and Google calendars
Proof-of-the-Concept website: https://diaped.soe.udel.edu/unis
Possible Sources of Funding
Small Business Innovation Research program grant
SBIR Program Announcement: 2022 Requests for Proposals Now Open
The Department of Education and IES Small Business Innovation Research program (ED/IES SBIR) has released two the Fiscal Year 2022 solicitations, Phase I and Direct to Phase II.
  • Phase I solicitation #91990022R0001 is a request for proposals for $250,000 awards for 8-months for the research and development (R&D) and evaluation of new prototypes of education and special education technology products. IES anticipates up to 14 awards through this solicitation.
  • Direct to Phase II solicitation #91990022R0002 is a request for proposals for $1,000,000 for 2 years for R&D and evaluation of new education technology products to existing researcher-developed, evidence-based innovations (products, interventions, practices) for use at scale and to plan for commercialization. IES anticipates up to 3 awards through this solicitation. Direct to Phase II projects are awarded without a prior Phase I award.
  • Information on the proposal requirements and the 2022 program priority areas are provided within the solicitations.
Deadline for proposals for both solicitations: February 1, 2022, at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
The Institute of Education Sciences, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, is the nation's leading source for rigorous, independent education research, evaluation, statistics, and assessment.

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