This document discusses offline internet solutions for learning in low-resource environments and emergencies. It begins by defining offline internet and providing statistics on the large portion of the world that remains offline. It then discusses the barriers to internet adoption, including lack of incentives, low incomes, digital literacy, and infrastructure issues. The document categorizes different types of offline internet solutions, including completely offline systems like Sneakernet, hybrid systems like Ulesson that work both offline and with limited data, and offline server systems like Kolibri that function through local content hosting. Overall it provides an overview of the problem of internet access and a taxonomy of approaches to offline internet learning.

2. OFFLINE INTERNET FOR
LEARNING IN LOW
RESOURCE
ENVIRONMENTS AND
EMERGENCIES
Paul Ingiona Adie
B. Ed Educational Technology (UniCal)
M.Sc.(Ed) Educational Technology (UniUyo)
pauladie@unical.edu.ng

3. WHAT IS OFFLINE INTERNET?
That specially-designed computer system that
stores up information in very large quantities
for learning in low-resource regions and/or
emergencies, either by direct retrieval of
information from a storage device, a WiFi-
enabled Seeder sharing its resources with
leech-computers or a gadget that periodically
updates its local information contents
whenever it goes online.

4. 7.8 Billion People in the world
www.endlessos.org
3.6 billion people around the world still lack online access.
https://www.africanews.com
(Nov 2019)
46% of the world’s population still offline (and 28% of Africa’s population)
“Across Africa, just 28% of people are online and across the Asia & Pacific
region, more than half of people are offline
https://itweb.africa
(October 2019)
Africa region has an offline population of over 71% while Europe has the
lowest of 17.5%.
The Africa region has the lowest Internet use (28.2 per cent) while the Europe
region has the highest Internet use (82.5 per cent)
https://www.africanews.com
(Nov 2019)
PROBLEM

6. WHY OFFLINE INTERNET?
The offline population faces barriers to Internet
adoption spanning four categories:
1. incentives
2. low incomes and affordability
3. user capability and
4. infrastructure

7. INCENTIVES
1. A lack of awareness of the Internet or use
cases that create value for the offline user.
2. A lack of relevant (that is, local or localized)
content and
3. A lack of cultural or social acceptance.

8. LOW INCOMES AND AFFORDABILITY
1.Low income or consumer purchasing power
2.Total cost of ownership for device
3. Cost of internet data plan

9. USER CAPABILITY
1. Lack of digital literacy
2. Lack of language literacy

10. user capability and
infrastructure
1.Lack of mobile Internet coverage or network
access
2. Unstable Internet Connection
3. Lack of adjacent infrastructure (e.g., grid
electricity)

11. STOREWIDTH
not
bandwidth!

12. TAXONOMY OF OFFLINE INTERNET
• Completely Offline Systems
• Hybridized Offline Systems
• Offline Servers

13. Completely Offline Systems
SNEAKERNET

14. Smart TxtBks
• The Smart TxtBks democratizes
access to content by converting
old SIM cards into ‘textbooks’
which students can access, even
offline, using even feature
phones.
• With the use of even analog
technology, students gain access
to e-books, are more engaged and
are freed from the burden of
carrying heavy school books.
• Smart TxtBks is ideal for delivering
‘bite-size’ (160 characters)
learning content that can be
stored in the phone’s SIM cards
and retrieved as messages.

15. Kiwix
Kiwix is a free software that
brings knowledge to millions
around the world, even in
remote places. This may be a
school in the countryside.
Wherever you go: Kiwix
gives you access to
Wikipedia, Project
Gutenberg, TED talks and
much more even if you don’t
have an Internet connection.

16. LibraryboxLibrarybox is designed to enable the
distribution of digital information to
areas with little or no Internet
access, even off the grid. It does so
using open source software and very
inexpensive hardware, allowing the
distribution of Library Box hardware
at a far lower cost than other
solutions.
From language learning to basic
math and science skills, Library Box
can serve educational materials to
learners regardless of local
connectivity or regional/national
censorship. If you can provide
power, Librarybox can provide digital
resources for learners to any wifi
enabled device.

17. Two Rabbits
An interactive audio program
based on the Cameroonian
official curriculum recorded
via a hand-crank mp3 player
featuring songs, stories, and
games performed in the Baka
style and language. When an
initial two-year pilot showed
remarkable results, they
worked to strengthen the
model based on lessons
learned, and expand it to 20
villages over two years.

18. Rumie Tablet
• Preloaded with high-quality
educational textbooks,
videos and games tailored to
a student’s age and
curriculum, Rumie Tablets
are interactive digital
libraries that cost less than
the average textbook.
• All learning content can be
used offline, making each
tablet a portable library for
students to use wherever
and whenever they want.

19. Mavis Talking Pen and Book
The Mavis Talking Book consists
of a digital pen (Mavis Pen) and
a specially printed book (Mavis
Book). When the pen touches
text or pictures in the book, it
reads out the corresponding
audio, including interactive
games, quizzes, multi-language
translations, etc. They are
talking books for literacy,
numeracy, health and other
subjects – English with Phonics,
Mathematics, Rhymes,
Languages, etc

20. V-Pendrive
• V-pen drive has complete video
lecture of courses.
• No need for Internet
connectivity.
• Validity of pendrive is life time.
• Topic-wise, chapter-wise
explanations, videos,
worksheets, quizzes, and more.
• The pen drive has the entire
content and can be viewed on
the TV, laptop, tablets,
projectors or your smart phone.

21. Tap Tap Read
• Tap Tap Read empowers low-literate
youth and adults to teach themselves
basic reading skills with short, interactive
lessons that are fun and engaging.
Lessons on alphabet, phonics,
vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
help students become solid readers.
• Lessons work offline once the app is
downloaded
• Most lessons take less than 5 minutes to
complete
• Friendly clean design helps students
focus on lesson
• Curriculum based on science of reading

22. Jara Emergency Unit
• Jara empowers children in under-
resourced communities to receive a
quality education anytime, anywhere
through the Jara Unit.
• The Jara Unit is a personal education
device that enables children to learn
localized education content in any
language without needing access to
power, a quality classroom, or the
Internet.
Jara Emergency Unit is built for:
• Building for durability and low/no-
infrastructure contexts
• Partnering with e-learning platforms for
locally customized content
• Enabling the technology to be remotely
updatable
• Designing for data collection (IoT)
• Designing with communities

23. NENA Offline e-reader
NENA has published around
3,000 eBooks in all the fields
covered by African authors,
half in English and half in
French. Most of them are in
ePub and HTML format, for
offline or online reading,
and on any medium
(computer, tablet,
smartphone, eBook reader).
More complex works are in
interactive PDF format. All of
them offer a rich hypertext
navigation feature.

24. Sayans Computer
• Sayans computers come with educational
software containing a collection of
resources to enhance research even
without internet. This means improved
access to information and better learning
outcomes. Secondly, Sayans computers
have a low power consumption and are
installed with a long lasting battery bank.
They are cheaper at both purchasing and
the continuous use as they use very little
power so anyone now can get a
computer.
• The computers are great for ICT
programming and are installed already
with programming software and tutorials
and so better ICT development STEM
learning outcomes.

25. Hybridized Offline Systems

26. Ulesson
• The SD card contains the contents on the
app, including the video lessons and
quizzes) and a dongle (an OTG device that
plugs into the charging port of a
smartphone or tablet and enables you to
read content from the SD card). Together,
these two items enable you to watch the
pre-recorded video lessons offline without
worrying about expensive data streaming
costs.
• However the package will require that you
keep your data on to enable us to run an
authentication process that consumes ONLY
0.1MB of your data. This is to ensure that
the SD card is being used on the account it
is intended to and that the contents are not
being pirated.
• Available subjects include Senior secondary
school English, Mathematics, Physics,
Chemistry, & Biology and Junior Secondary
School English, Mathematics, Basic Science,
Business Studies, & Basic Technology.

27. Kytabu
Kytabu is a textbook leasing
mobile app for curriculum
textbooks used in the Kenyan
education system by 11.8
million students. Built to
provide low-cost access to
digitalized versions of all Kenyan
textbooks, Kytabu enables
teachers and students to rent
textbooks a page at a time, a
chapter at a time or full book
for time periods varying from
one day to one week, one
month and one school term.

28. ustad mobile
Ustad Mobile provides a
free, open-source mobile
learning app that enables
conflict-affected and
marginalized youth to
access and share
educational content
offline.
The app is designed for
limited connectivity, works
on almost any Android
phone, and does not
require a mini server or
Wifi access point.

29. Offline Servers
SEEDER NETWORKS
or
NANO SERVERS

30. Kolibri
Kolibri is unique in that it provides
educational content offline that can be
curated to standards or to meet local needs,
while providing pedagogical support to
educators. It shines in environments where
mini learning hubs can be created to
replicate the experience of some tools with
LMS functionality available online, but
without Internet.
Digital content is first scraped from the web
and hosted in a library which runs on a local
server. From there, content can be organized
by a curriculum developer or any other
educator into channels, or lists of curated
content, which are then synced to instances
of the app installed on local devices. The
content is then able to run without any
further internet connection, and the teacher
is able to work with learners through a
special teacher view which allows them to
manage classes, view student progress,
create exercises, and more. Syncing of both
content and data through peer-to-peer or
storage devices is seamless.

31. i-Pathways Oasis
i-Pathways Oasis is an
innovative solution that delivers
all of the i-Pathways curricula,
features and functionality to
your computer lab environment
on a single, unique device.
Students can wirelessly connect
to the device and access the i-
Pathways system and curricula.
Students can complete
assessments, engage in all the
instant feedback activities, and
prepare for their High School
Equivalency Exams. Teachers
can track student progress and
provide feedback.

32. Internet-in-a-Box
• Internet-in-a-Box brings the very
best of the World’s Free Knowledge
(Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Open
Street Map, E-Books and many
others) to those who are offline
e.g. anybody nearby with an old
smartphone, tablet or laptop.
• You can install an Internet-in-a-Box
"learning hotspot" anywhere in the
world — even under solar power,
using very diverse hardware. Here
is just one example, using a
terabyte hard drive with built-in
hotspot.

33. Ideas Cube
• The Ideas Cube creates a Wi-Fi hotspot that
users can connect to using a smartphone,
tablet, or computer to access thousands of
educational, cultural or training resources.
• In a library, a school or a medical dispensary in
a rural area, the Ideas Cube provides content in
the form of texts, videos or online courses and
allows around forty simultaneous
connections. When connected to the Internet,
the Ideas Cube can be updated to broadcast
new content. The data and frequency of user
use are then collected to best meet their needs
in the field.
• The Ideas Cube emits a Wi-Fi signal up to 30
meters range depending on the environment
• Up to 40 users can log in simultaneously with a
smartphone, tablet or computer.
• The battery allows up to 5 hours of autonomy
and can be charged with solar panels!

34. KA Lite Offline Server
KA Lite is a lightweight web
application software that allows
users without Internet access to
engage with Khan Academy videos
and exercises in completely offline
settings. It brings the flipped
classroom model to some of the
most remote areas in the world.
Users can track their progress
through videos and exercises, and
coaches can log in to check
students’ progress, identifying
which areas the students need the
most help in. If KA Lite ever
reaches an Internet connection, it
can sync this usage data with the
KA Lite Hub – an online data
repository that allows project
administrators to view data and
manage accounts remotely of
offline deployments.
KA Lite is no longer under active
development

35. RACHEL Pi
• RACHEL: Remote Area Community
Hotspot for Education & Learning
• RACHEL is a portable, plug-and-play
server that can connect a whole
classroom of computers to a world
of educational content with a single
click. It stores copies of open
educational websites such as
Wikipedia, Khan Academy, PhET
physics simulations, and much
more, and makes that content
available over a local wireless
connection.

36. The Corrections Off-Line Education
Platform (COEP)
• is an off-line digital library
that provides full Internet-
like experience for users in
detention, treatment and
other institutions that lack
Internet access. Rich with
millions of resources for
GED, high school, secondary,
and post-secondary
education, it is in use at
dozens of correctional
facilities around the U.S.

37. Scolaryx
• The educational Box is a micro server
containing the equivalent of 10,000
lessons available offline. Its
administration is relatively simple and
can be done by the Head of the School,
the learner or a Parent. The Box
SCOLARYX contains a Wifi card through
which you can connect with a computer
and access educational content without
internet. The Scolaryx mini box also has
HDMI access for classroom class
screenings.
• SCOLARYX can be used with a mobile
phone or tablet as well, and thus enjoys
the intuitiveness of mobile technologies
to enable learners to feel the reality
they are entering in the classroom. The
diversity of educational resources
(videos, animations, sounds, quizzes,
games, etc.) offers learners an
exhilarating learning experience.

38. EdBox
EDBox is a nano server that allows students,
teachers and parents to access on WI-FI tens
of thousands of educational content without
access to the internet. Teachers can use these
digital resources in class. Accompanied by a
mini projector, the EDBox can be used to
simulate difficult concepts that need to be
represented, and to show or demonstrate the
operation of mathematical, biological,
physical, chemical, etc. process. The box is
also a library of downloadable resources that
enable students to have documentary
resources in all disciplines and in several
formats from developed countries. This
affords students equal opportunity in
accessing knowledge. The pedagogical uses of
this device are numerous: (self) teacher
training, course preparation, classes before
pupils, provision of free educational content
for download on Wi-Fi smartphones, for
teachers, parents and students.

39. Kekelithique
KEKELITHEQUE is a virtual library
accessible via a web platform or a
mobile application, without necessarily
requiring an internet connection. A
virtual library is a collection of digital
documents (texts, images, sounds) -
(that is, digitized or born digital)
accessible remotely (especially via the
Internet), offering different modalities
of access to public information. The
KEKELITHEQUE offers several
advantages: (1) a very easy “offline”
access to educational resources
(without a need for Internet access),
(2) easy installation of the
KEKELITHEQUE chest, (3) a library
suited to rural areas; (4) the effective
preservation and classification of
educational resources; and (5) a
reduced budget for installation and
maintenance of KEKELITHEQUE.