Konnect is an online platform for connecting adolescents and young people between ages 13-18 to develop their creativity, capacity, and nurturing abilities through activities and gamification, and to build a secure cyber productive environment, as a government initiative of Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme’s Future of Education team under a joint initiative of the ICT Division and Cabinet Division. Currently, Konnect has over 38,100 verified contents which are divided into books, life skills, experiments (science content), comics, movies, and news. Launched on February 1, 2018 as a part of efforts to transform the vision of Digital Bangladesh 2041 and advance ICT education, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched it as a specialized forum for Bangladesh's youngsters and adolescents. This portal encourages learners to be able to enhance their own development with the motto- “I am the Solution.” Till date, over 2.7 million students from 50,000 institutions have registered with a majority being female users.

http://konnect.edu.bd/

• Bangladesh

• Youth

This platform can be easily replicated if the opportunity arises for both national and international collaboration levels. The a2i Programme would be able to provide the technical assistance where required.

In terms of assuring the proper quality of the platform, the QA activities are carried out through workshops conducted for different professionals and citizens namely the User Acceptance Testing (UAT). All the educational content evaluation is conducted through academician, experts and policy makers. This ensures different types of stakeholders are involved in the product development phases and the product is sustainable to use across all platforms. Digital solutions, such as the use of new algorithms, provide flexible and personalized methods to learning, while the web provides learners with nearly limitless chances to obtain new competences and abilities. With the emergence of 4IR skills, students in Bangladesh are all the more ready to relearn beyond the existing curriculum. However, due to the lack of accurate and reliable resources, the majority of them feel demotivated to look for sources beyond their scope. There is a vivid demand of such a dynamic platform to enable them with sustainable knowledge and training to execute with an opportunity for users to increase their productivity whilst ensuring an improvement in the quality of living. Several international organizations such as UNFPA, UNICEF, Bangladesh Scouts, Children Film Festivals and World Vision have partnered with Konnect to provide content, resources and valuable participation for future development.

Using the social media presence in Facebook, Konnect organizes events ranging from mental health well-being to competitions aimed at the new generation of students. Through the Facebook page, students are able to get information and interact with experts on diverse topics. Workshops are carried out several times annually to conduct a demand analysis and use the feedback to update the features, contents and services of the platform accordingly where schools from all over Bangladesh participate. These students are of various schooling backgrounds ranging from- madrasahs, scouts, secondary and higher secondary levels. The ‘Ful Bondhu Online Quiz Competition’ was a milestone for Konnect, which was arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Education and a2i. Konnect had also worked with Bangladesh Scouts, NGOs and INGOs to engage the youth in different social activities such as tree plantation, social movements, creative works, etc to understand about shared responsibilities towards each other and to nature. Konnect hosted programs like ‘World Youth Skill Day’ and ‘World Population Day’ that brought together national and international entities with the students which helped to increase social integration and cultural exchange. Within the platform, the learners can explore themselves by attending different events like ‘South Asian Youth Festivals’ where they are able to dig deep into their existing knowledge about SDGs, entrepreneurship, social skills, and social engagement. It proved to assist the learners in upgrading their knowledge and adding value to their lives by promoting tolerance for various cultural aspects.