Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Tamil Nadu’s digital learning platform showed promise with its universal design and contextualised content promoting student inclusivity. However, program implementation faced challenges due to inadequate infrastructure, lack of funds, multi-stakeholder coordination, and lack of robust evidence.

Paper long abstract

The integration of AI-driven open educational resources (OER) in public schools offers significant potential for equitable education, especially in multilingual and low-resource contexts. This paper presents a case study from Tamil Nadu, India, where an open-source digital language learning platform with voice recognition technology was launched in 2023 to improve language outcomes for middle-school students. The digital platform was built using content from a Creative Commons-Licensed platform which was contextualised and customised for the state with the help of external technology partners. The platform design applied Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles which included multilingual instructions, audio prompts, and screen readers, enabling students with minimal literacy to navigate the platform confidently and independently, promoting a safe and inclusive learning space. However, scaling up this program to more schools exposed systemic challenges which included inadequate institutional infrastructure, server overloads, and governance complexities in multi stakeholder collaboration, especially conflicts between local content creators and technology experts. Lack of a dedicated program budget and limited evidence of measurable learning outcomes further constrained sustainability. Introducing AI-driven personalisation raised more fiscal and ethical concerns, including the increase in financial investment towards upgrading institutional infrastructure and privacy risks related to the collection and storage of large-scale individual student data. This paper explores how AI-enhanced open-source contextualised digital content hosted by state institutions can democratise learning, while acknowledging that the sustainability of such programs is dependent on political will for long-term financial investment and resource allocation, coordinated governance, and rigorous learning-outcome evidence in developing countries.