Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

HITCH is a Waterloo, Ontario based educational technology company innovating e-learning solutions for remote communities across the globe. Such communities are often underserved by technology and unreliable internet connectivity which has been further compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic forcing classes online. The HITCH platform provides access to a digital-library-in-a-box capable of serving up to 200 students, without the need for infrastructure updates. The discovery, usage, and integration of high quality educational, vocational, mental-health and other resources for those impacted by social isolation policies and remote living is the focus of the platform, helping educators turn content into teaching and learning processes for students. HITCH's mission is to become the go-to educational video platform for all underserved curriculums globally. For this to happen research is needed to develop a machine learning driven Universal Curriculum Filter that applies local parameters such as grade level, subject, topics, textbooks, learning outcomes, concepts and languages to dynamically tag, categorize, and arrange their expanding curated library of world-class educational videos. The Conestoga Research Team will work with HITCH to identify and aggregate large amounts of curriculum source material, and then build learning outcomes for all that material. Later phases will focus on the creation of a software tool able to fetch specific learning outcomes for a curriculum by creating a management system built around tags attached to various URLs. The final phase of the research project involves the re-purposing of existing supplied mobile devices into HITCH smart community hotspots to expand the platform's capability.