Overview

1. Introduction to Cafe Sensorium

In the 2020-21 school year, we would like to leverage the immense experience we have gained in running a complex and intricate program such as My Sensorium plan to experiment with a “hands-off” franchised version of our program in a different school system. Our goal is to demonstrate that our program can be run and managed by a team which is not managed and run daily by our central management and operating team. This will allow us to scale and expand our programs beyond our current operating area using locally sourced talent and team structures; and thus replicate the benefits we have been able to impart to students from our programs. Cafe Sensorium will be made up of three main components: Our Cafe Sensorium Online Learning Platform (CSLP), a minimal local staff in each operating block and a scalable centralized remote operating team based out of Kollegal, Karnataka. In this operating model, Ashraya management and central operating team in Kollegal will provide the following:

Define the vision for the program and gaining buy-in from the block education office, HMs and teachers in a given operating BLOCK
Selecting the schools and students in a given operating BLOCK
Hiring the local staff (project coordinators) needed to run the program in a given operating BLOCK
Hiring, training and maintaining the central staff in Kollegal (across all operating BLOCKs)
Program content and syllabus for all our programs (program modules, test and exam papers)
Develop, maintain and continuously update the Cafe Sensorium Learning Platform (CSLP)
1. Lesson plans for each club
2. Videos, quizzes and assignments for each lesson
3. Standard templates for monitoring progress of each club in a given operating block (e.g. scorecards, audits, schedule tracking, test scores)
Periodic guidance to the operating block staff (once a month) by our central operating team in Kollegal
Funds needed to run the entire program (all 3 components: CSLP, local staff and remote central staff)

Please note that all content for version 1.0 of CSLP have already been created by our staff and launched through this website in time to start operations in October 2020.

2. Introduction Video

3. Operating Scope and “Footprint”: Cafe Sensorium in its default mode will be operated total hands-off with minimal local presence. A Cafe Sensorium BLOCK will have 5 schools in a single Taluk under a single BEO (Block Education Officer). We would expect a minimum school student strength of 250 students per school (with 150 students from standard 5th to 8th). Please note that we restrict our programs to students in standards 5th to 8th. In each school, the student footprint in Cafe Sensorium will be as follows:

Clubs targeted at Skilled Students:
1. MLL club: 12
2. Book of the Month, Story Writing and Drama Club: 12
3. Science Club: 12
4. Art Club: 12
5. Computer Club: 12
Clubs targeted at students with learning challenges:
1. Remedial Club: 12 per batch x 3 batches per year = 36

Please note that there should be very little overlap between students in each program, i.e. we would like to have different students in each program based on their interest and skills, except for some exceptional students whom we call All-Rounders whom we would like to restrict to 5 per school. The All-Rounders will participate in all programs as well as their own club called the All-Rounder Club in which they learn to to leverage all skills learnt in the various clubs. Thus in a typical school, our operating footprint will be 60 students will participate in our various skill-based clubs and 36 students going through our remedial program.

In the first year of operations, our centralized infrastructure consisting of the Cafe Sensorium Learning Platform and the central remote staff in Kollegal will be able to support 4 Blocks of 5 schools each i.e. 20 schools. Thus the expected total student footprint per year is 60 X 20=1200 students in our 6 Advanced Clubs and 36 X 20=720 students in the Remedial Club.

Please note that libraries and annual days have been left out of scope for the first year of operations for Cafe Sensorium, and we plan to revisit this aspect of Cafe Sensorium once we have our online library up and running.

4. School Requirements: The schools that we select for each Cafe Sensorium BLOCK should meet the following criteria:

Each school should have a minimum of 250 students with 150 students in standards 5th to 8th
Each school should be a higher primary school (with classes up to 8th standard)
The HM and teacher staff should be vested and interested in sponsoring our programs and ensuring program success by encouraging students to participate in our programs and and tracking student progress on a monthly basis
Each school should ideally have least 6 desktops or minimum 4 (donated by other institutions or provided by the government) that are in good working condition with MS office and Google Chrome installed already.
ASHRAYA will provide the routers and internet connections to access our online materials from the school desktops. ASHRAYA will also provide webcams needed to upload the assignments
Each school should have Unlimited Power Supply (UPS) so that there is continuous access to internet
Each school should provide a dedicated room for hosting the desktops where the students take the online classes and submit assignments
Each school should also allocate time to the students to take the online lessons, do and submit the provided assignments in each lesson (see expected time allocation below)

5. Expected Student Inputs:

Each student is expected to spend one hour per week per club in a “class” session in which all students take the online lessons at the same time
Give that we expect a minimum of 4 computers per school and 12 students per club, we would like students to take the lessons in groups of 3 (groups will be formed at the beginning of the school year)
Each student is also expected to spend one additional hour per class per week outside the class setting
Each student should maintain materials (eg lab reports is science club, art portfolio book in art club that will be audited by the Project Coordinator and a central auditor
Each student should complete all assignments based on the calendar provided by the Project Coordinator
Even though students work in projects and assignments in groups, they are still expected to make individual submissions for grading
Each Club will operate for a minimum of 26 weeks in a year from the beginning of July to the end of February

6. Student Lesson Journey:

Each student should follow the schedule in their respective club set by the Project Coordinator at the beginning of the year
During the first week of the year, each student will register on the Cafe Sensorium Platform (CSLP) by clicking on the “Student Registration Tab”. They should also go to the “Student Account Tab” and login using the credentials they created in the “Student Registration Tab”(username and password) and upload a profile picture. If they do not have a profile picture, they should use the webcam on the desktop to create a profile picture.
Every student is expected to remember their username and password which will remain the same throughout the year
Each time the student visits CSLP, they should click on the “Student Account Tab” and login with their username and password
They should then go to the “Student Journey Tab” to access the Club level and Lesson Level content. At the end of every session, the student should go to the “Student Account Tab” and remember to logout.
Since students operate in groups of 3, they can access the content with one Student’s login but submit assignments with each individual student’s login.
In the second and third weeks, the students are expected to access the Club level content through CSLP’s Student Journey tab and understand how the Club operates.
From the 4th week to the 26th week, students will access the Lesson level content for their Club one lesson at a time
1. They will first read the lesson page
2. They will next see the Lesson Video
3. They will download quizzes and assignments provided on the page to the desktop
4. Project Coordinator will provide printouts to each student
5. Project Coordinator will also provide materials if the assignment needs it
6. Assignments and quizzes will be completed as per instruction in their notebooks (eg Lab reports). If there are projects that need more than allotted session time, they will conduct the projects outside the session (eg Science Projects)
7. Once assignments are completed in the books, they will take a photo of the book using the webcam and upload those images to CSLP by visiting the “Manage Assignment” sub tab under “Student Journey Tab”.
8. If the assignments requires posting of a video, the students should record the video as a group using the webcam and upload the video to CSLP to Manage Assignment” sub tab under “Student Journey Tab”.
9. Please make sure that the student always using the following format while submitting the assignments: StudentName_Club Name_Lesson_Number. (eg:(SuryaKumar_Science_Club_Lesson_2
10. Students can view all assignments submitted to date in the same page where they submit the assignments – (Student Journey-Manage Assignments – Club Name)
11. Students can call the Central staff at the call center (Respective Club teacher) during nominated hours provided by the Block Project Coordinator
12. Students should view their scores once the central staff corrects them in the tab “Student Performance” for their respective school and Club

7. Local Presence: Cafe Sensorium will hire a project coordinator in each BLOCK (of 5 schools). Their role will be to

Build relationships with the BEO and school HMs
Select the right schools based on the criteria provided above in collaboration with the BEO
Select the students for each club through initial tests (at program onset) and place them in groups (groups of 4 in each school)
Develop a club schedule (see the section above for expected student inputs) for each school in coordination with the school HM and teacher staff based on class availability
Train the students on using the Cafe Sensorium online platform, taking lessons on the platform, submitting assignments, viewing scores and following a set schedule for completing all lessons as per our published calendar
Visit each school at least 3 times a week
Procure and provide materials to the students needed in each club (e.g. lab report books in science club, art materials in art club, print outs)
Coordinate with centralized Cafe Sensorium staff and project head (in the “call center” location in Kollegal) to ensure that the program is one track
Run weekly meetings with the Cafe Sensorium staff and project head to submit and discuss progress status
Run monthly meetings with the school HMs and teachers to show them program progress
Award prizes to one best performing students per club per school (based on grades provided on the online learning platform) every month to incent them to do better
Conduct year-ending certification exams in each school in the block
Get the certification exams graded by the centralized staff and issue certificates to students in each school in the block in school-level certification ceremonies
Coordinate and run the annual-day event in the block in coordination with the central staff and local BEO

8. “Call-Center” Central Staff: Cafe Sensorium will have a centralized core staff in Kollegal that will operate in a “call-center” mode. The central staff will consist of one teacher for each of our clubs (science club; art club; book of the month, story writing and drama club; MLL club; computer club; remedial club; and all-rounders club), a call-center manager and a project head. these staff will be sourced and staffed in the Kollegal area. The staff will operate out of our Kollegal central office. The responsibilities of the central staff will be as follows:

Come to the central office every day from 9AM to 4PM
Download and grade assignments of students in each school (across all BLOCKS)
Provide feedback to students on their assignments
Be available on call to the students in each BLOCK to answer their questions and guide them at set times (different times for each block)
Track progress of each student in each school/BLOCK in their respective clubs and relay that progress to the project coordinator in each block.
Participate in weekly progress meetings with the project coordinator in each BLOCK (one meeting per block per week)
The Project head and the teacher will visit each Block once in 3 months

9. Seed-Sensorium Central Staff: Seed Sensorium will continue to run in the current mode of operations in the Hanur Taluk (click this link https://www.ashraya-usa.org/my-sensorium/seed-sensorium/ to learn more about Seed Sensorium. Seed Sensorium is staffed already with one teacher for each club, one project coordinator, one project advisor and 10 librarians (one per school participating in Seed Sensorium). We will use Seed Sensorium to be the test bed to learn about the efficacy of each club and lesson before we launch them on Cafe Sensorium. In addition to their current duties, the Seed Sensorium staff will also be responsible for creating the content (e.g. videos, quizzes, assignments) to be used in the Cafe Sensorium online learning platform.

10. Annual Operating Budget to Run Cafe Sensorium: The costs to start and run Café Sensorium are made up of three types: School Level, Block level and Central Operating Team Level. The annual total expected expenditure to run Cafe Sensorium for 20 schools in 4 blocks is Rs, 13.2 Lakhs or $18.1K in Year 1, and Rs 10.5 Lakhs or $14.4K in subsequent years (no infrastructure costs, but without adjusting for inflation). Thus, it will cost us $900 to run Cafe Sensorium per school in year 1 and $720 in subsequent years (without adjusting for inflation)

School Level (x 20 Schools): Rs. 21,300 per school x 20 schools = Rs. 4.726 Lakhs
1. Initial infrastructure (2 webcams + D-link router) – Rs. 6,500
2. Internet connectivity: Rs 1,000 per month x 8 months = Rs. 8,000
3. Materials (e.g. Lab reports, art material, print outs of assignments): Rs. 50 per student per year x 96 students (across all clubs) = Rs. 4,800
4. Prizes and year-ending certification ceremonies= Rs. 2,000
Block Level (x 4 Blocks): Rs. 78,000 per block x 4 blocks = Rs. 3.12 Lakhs
1. Project coordinator salary = Rs. 8,000 per month x 9 months = Rs. 72,000
2. Quarterly meetings with HMs and Teachers = Rs. 500 per meeting x 3 = Rs. 1,500
3. Project Coordinator Travel Expenses = Rs. 500 per month x 9 Months = Rs. 4,500
Central Operating Team Level: Rs. 5.81 Lakhs
1. Call-center teacher staff = Rs. 6,000 per month x 6 teachers x 9 months = Rs. 324,000
2. Project head (part-time) = Rs. 5,000 per month x 9 months = Rs. 4,000
3. Office rent and expenditure = Rs. 56,000 per month x 12 months = Rs. 72,000
4. Infrastructure (laptops, printers and furniture) = Rs. 1,38,000
5. Visits to operating blocks by project head = Rs. 500 x 4 per year = Rs. 2,000

Please see below the itemized annual budget for Cafe Sensorium

11. Cafe Sensorium Pilot: When we started Seed Sensorium in Hanur Taluk in 2008, the BEO at that time was Mr. Swamy – a very dedicated and passionate man. He took a lot of interest in our project and drove its expansion top down, and was instrumental in making this project a success to date. He got transferred from that area in 2012. We have kept in touch with him since then, and have met him many a time in the past 8 years. He is now the BEO of T Narsipur Taluk in Karnataka, which is ~100 Kms from Hanur Taluk. We spoke to him about our Café Sensorium initiative. He loved it and said that he will drive it top down if we help him kick start it and provide all the guidance especially at the onset. He is ready to start this in as many schools as we want (we settled for 5 initially) in the coming new school year which will start in Oct 2020 (after schools reopen). Good news is that it is not too far for our staff to go and train the teachers that Mr. Swami has said he will hire once we transfer all the knowledge to him and his local staff.

Once this pilot has been deemed successful (in one block of 5 schools), we plan to incorporate the learning from this pilot into CSLP and the Cafe Sensorium operating plan and expand the scope to normal operating levels defined above in the school year 2021-22 in 4 blocks (of 5 schools each), with one block in each neighboring taluk close to Kollegal.

12. Operating Manual: You can download this Cafe Sensorium Operating Manual we have written in Kannada describing the workings of each program along with content and program templates. The manual has the following key sections:

1. What is Project Sensorium?
2. Program Goals
3. Program Mission Statement
4. Where have we done this before?
5. How will this help students?
6. Some program statistics
7. Recipe book to start and run the program (i.e. key success factors): Team, Process, Content, Sponsorship by local BEO, Relationships with school HMs and teachers
8. Program overviews (one sub-section for each of the 8 programs)
9. Program details for each of the 8 programs: Job contracts, process trackers, program content, program budget, program tests, competitions
10. What support will we provide
11. Program contacts
12. Video links (training videos, videos of historical events and programs, external content links like Arvind Gupta one minute experiments)

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