I have finally completed 7 weeks at Outreachy internship and it’s been a really great journey, full of learnings, both technical but also personal. So today, I would like to talk about what I have accomplished so far at Oppia, in the first half of the internship, and some things I have learned during this time as well.

So far, I have working in three different workstreams:

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1.Translation and Validation of Basic Mathematic Lessons
2. Community Outreach + External Validation 
3. Scaling Digital Outreach 

Translation and Validation of Basic Mathematic Lessons

For Translation and Validation of Basic Mathematic Lessons I have translated most of Oppia’s Classroom Lessons to Portuguese, and also have been conducting User Studies on these lessons in order to validate their effectiveness.

This process has resulted in new changes in the lessons, as well improvements in the Research Documentations. If you want to know more about how the research on Oppia works, you can check my blogpost on “How Does Oppia UX Team Conduct User Studies”.

Community Outreach + External Validation

For this workstream, I have been contacting NGOs and social/educational organizations in order to present Oppia, discuss how they can benefit from using the platform in their activities and finally form mutually beneficial partnerships with predefined pilot plans.

So far, we have been able to partner with an NGO called “Movimento Amplia” who is helping to broadcast Oppia to their students. We also are working together in a project called “Amplia Tecs” that aims to connect device donors with students that need devices to carry their studies.

We have also been in contact with other NGOs that have shown interest in knowing more about Oppia and partner with us, so I am hoping by the end of the internship we will have a more broad list of partners benefiting from Oppia lessons and also helping make them better from brazilian students.

Scaling Digital Outreach

For the Digital Scaling workstream, I have done Persona Research with parents to better understand how to reach and introduce Oppia to them. As the result of this research, I have started working on social media content

I have created and published an “Introduction to Oppia” video, a “Parents Guide to Oppia” video and several posts for new @oppiabrasil Instagram as well. In this process, I have created a new and more scalable process with video and social media post templates on Canva, so other people can easily duplicate these videos and posts in their own language.

Finally, I am trying to reach social media influencers who are involved with education and might be interested in helping to publicize the project.

Learnings

During the last few months, I helped to build a new team of volunteers in Brazil, to contribute with the translations, user studies and also with the introduction of the platform to parents, teachers and NGOs in Brazil. Helping grow and coordinate that new amazing group got me thinking a lot on what gets people motivated, and why they are willing to volunteer and spend some of their free time doing this instead of other things.

I am so glad that this experience is bringing so much learning. Beyond the technical skills, I feel I have been thinking a lot about the process and scalability of my work. Working with different people around the world, and with the amazing people on the Oppia’s Brazil Team have also helped to improve my communication and social skills as well.

Finally, looking at my workstream, made me realize that even if you are really excited about your project, it is important to maintain a good work-life balance, both for the sustainability of your projects and for your health and needs.