Learning Equality
2016 – 2022
At Learning Equality I led the team that built Kolibri, an open-source learning platform designed for low-resource contexts. Kolibri includes a learning application for engaging with content, a coaching application for managing lessons and assignments, and an administrative application for managing users and data.
It works exceptionally well in facilities with minimal or intermittent internet connectivity and can run on nearly any device or operating system. The application has been translated into dozens of languages and is used in hundreds of countries by millions of users.
Kolibri is the primary user-facing product within a broader supporting ecosystem of educational technology. Other Learning Equality products include a curriculum-alignment tool for managing openly-licensed educational resources, a data portal for managing large implementations, and a variety of plugins to meet the needs of diverse learning contexts, ranging from schools to refugee camps to prison systems.
The Learning Equality team also provides implementation support through training services, connects users worldwide to foster mutual support, and assists with translation and curriculum alignment work.
The slides above are from a 2022 Learning Equality fundraising deck and provide an overview of the organization's work and approach.
Learning Equality places emphasis on accessibility, effective learning, community ownership, and consistent user experiences in its products. They actively seek opportunities to learn directly from the students and coaches who are Kolibri's primary users, ensuring that it caters to their needs.
One of the highlights of my work at Learning Equality was the opportunity to meet and learn from our users around the world (e.g., 1, 2). The teachers were some of the most passionate, hard-working, humble people I have ever met, and they deserve all the support we can give them.
As the Product Development Lead, I bridged the gap between abstract strategic goals and concrete product deliverables. During my time there, I designed and built core aspects of the application architecture, nurtured and mentored the team, and standardized our processes for product development, testing, internationalization, and release. I also worked closely with stakeholders both inside and outside Learning Equality, making difficult prioritization decisions to meet deadlines while ensuring key user needs were addressed.
Some notable achievements include:
- Released 15 major and dozens of minor Kolibri versions over the course of five years.
- Led the development of a design system for Learning Equality products, providing shared design guidance and UI components.
- Developed infrastructure and processes for universal language support in Kolibri.
- Introduced and championed the use of an internal "clearinghouse" database to process user feedback from various sources (in-person conversations, UX research, bug reports, community forums, etc).
- Maintained extensive developer documentation to support both Learning Equality and community developers.
