Every stage of our development is the result of reflection, collaboration, and patience. Since our first deployments in 2017, we've collected a wealth of valuable feedback from our users — teachers, students, and partners. These exchanges have helped us to identify specific needs and guide our decisions to improve our on-board portal.
However, every innovation, every new feature takes time, research and adjustments to ensure that it perfectly meets the expectations of the field. It's an iterative process: we've taken the time to implement these improvements gradually, evolving the DataCup portal step by step.
Today, after months of development and testing, we are proud to present the new features that enrich our platform: an interface with new functionalities, a responsive portal designed to work on all devices, the addition of the Moodle application, and much more.
Discover how these enhancements are transforming the use of the DataCup and delivering an optimal user experience, whether they are in a classroom or outside.
The advantages of a portal:
Simplify access and use of resources
Our portal provides a single point of entry, where users can access all available applications, features, and information in a single, consistent interface.
Our goal is to reduce complexity and make navigation easier and faster.
Our interface is equipped with explicit standard visual icons, a simple navigation bar and a menu reduced to the essentials to promote immediate accessibility to information.
The homepage layout is similar to a smartphone home screen: applications are presented in the form of tiles.
Our portal continues to be responsive, which has a significant impact on the user experience, especially in areas where mobile devices are more common than desktop computers. This means that the portal adapts its layout to the size of the screen. This feature allows users to access all portal content and functionality without layout or navigation issues, regardless of the device they are using.
Our latest update introduces three new integrated features:
New features to improve accessibility
Multilingual portal:
We work with communities for whom our DataCups are often the first digital tools they ever receive. These audiences, located in isolated regions, discover digital technology through our devices. In these contexts, where the native language is often the only language spoken, it is even more important to provide a portal directly accessible in that language.
That is why we have developed a portal that can operate in several languages. Four languages are already available: French, English, Spanish, and Arabic, which covers most of the languages spoken by the populations we serve, but it doesn't stop there.
Our portal can be translated into any local language, including those with different alphabets, such as Cyrillic, Devanagari or complex scripts like Chinese.
This allows our users to navigate, learn and teach in a language environment that is familiar to them. By facilitating access to educational resources without language barriers, we provide an environment that is immediately understandable, intuitive, and engaging.
Moreover, language is an important vector of identity and culture. By enabling the use of local languages, we support the preservation and valorization of regional cultures.
With the help of our partners, we are now ready to integrate even more languages in the future.
Text-to-speech:
According to UNESCO, nearly 1 billion people in the world cannot read or write, or have major difficulties in these areas. These numbers are even more alarming in rural areas.
In response to this challenge, in addition to improving accessibility for the visually impaired, we have added a text-to-speech feature to our DataCups. This innovation makes it possible for all users, including those with poor reading skills, to navigate on our portal while listening to its content.
Cross-application search engine:
Search engines play a central role in our daily use of the Internet. To provide a similar experience on our DataCups, we wanted to make it possible for our users to search multiple databases simultaneously, including Wikipedia and OmekaS.
This feature provides a more fluid and exhaustive search experience by aggregating information from multiple applications.
For users, it's also a time saver: no need to search each application separately; a single query provides combined results.
Moodle, a new application available
The key to interactive personalized teaching
Moodle is a world-renowned learning platform (LMS = Learning Management System) used by millions of teachers and students. Its integration on DataCup marks an important step in improving the pedagogical experience of teachers in isolated regions.
By enabling teachers to create, customize and manage their own online courses, Moodle offers unique flexibility to adapt learning to the specific needs of students, whatever their level or environment. This is particularly important in areas where access to educational resources is limited.
Moodle also promotes a more active and engaging pedagogy, giving teachers the ability to track student progress, share resources and encourage a more collaborative approach to learning.
This feature meets a crucial need: to give teachers total control and a practical solution for creating their courses in digital format, for immediate use in the classroom.
Updates already available in the field
These new features are now available for DataCups already deployed in the field, notably in Morocco and Niger. Thanks to our remote update system, our partners only need to reconnect the DataCups to the Internet and we can quickly integrate all these improvements. True to the values of open source, we are committed to continuous updates without programmed obsolescence.
This flexibility makes it possible to continually upgrade devices, without having to replace existing hardware.
To conclude
The latest developments to the DataCup portal reflect our ongoing commitment to improving the experience of our users, whether they are teachers, students, or members of isolated communities. Each new feature is a response to a specific need identified through our discussions with our partners.
With simplified navigation, access to multilingual content, integrated text-to-speech, a cross-application search engine and Moodle for interactive learning, we continue to work towards an inclusive educational future. These enhancements make our portal a powerful, easy-to-use tool that is accessible to all, regardless of level or environment.
We will continue to evolve to meet your needs and remain open to your suggestions to provide you with even better support.
In our next article, we'll dive into the world of our Documentation Resources, with details on what's new this year !