OMPT partners with organizations working in difficult and hard-to-reach areas of the world to provide them with audio-visual instructional technology solutions, training and services to support their efforts to alleviate poverty through education on critical topics. 

OMPT is an initiative of Polder, Inc., a U.S.-based nonprofit corporation that supports organizations and instructors in developing nations by facilitating access to technology and content that is appropriate for the instructors, their target populations and their instructional objectives.

OMPT sponsors teachers and trains partners in hard to reach places on using simple, affordable, self-powered, durable A/V devices such as digital media players and portable projectors to facilitate the delivery of highly effective audio and video-enabled instruction in places where few teachers exist. OMPT provides partners with access to affordable players, and helps partners acquire and produce high-quality instructional content.

Audio-Visual Instructional Solutions

Rapid advances in technology make it possible to provide powerful teaching tools to instructors working in difficult and hard-to-reach places of the world.

The pedagogical approach we advocate is Tutored Audio-Visual Instruction (TAVI), based on an approach pioneered by Dr. James Gibbons of Stanford University that imparts quality instruction using recorded lectures augmented by tutored mediation and interaction processes.

By using this approach, a semi-skilled instructor working in a remote or destitute region can facilitate delivery of an audio-video lesson from a highly skilled instructor working in another part of the country or world. The facilitator, or “tutor,” can halt the lesson periodically by pausing the A/V device, as indicated within the content or as he/she recognizes a need. During the pause, the instructor can engage the group in discussions using material embedded in the lesson or by asking questions he/she believes are relevant. In this way, low or moderate skilled instructors may facilitate the delivery, comprehension and retention of material delivered by highly skilled instructors from far away.

The training required by tutors to facilitate a lesson is minimal and requires no particular subject matter expertise, other than the ability to operate the A/V devices. Training is provided by OMPT or qualified partners.

The technology solutions vary, but they have several common elements:

• Portable: The devices and the content are necessarily portable, so they can be easily transported to a village via a rutted track and then be used indoors in an unequipped room or outdoors under a tree.
• Self-Powered: Electricity from the mains or central power grid is unavailable, or unpredictable at best, so the devices run on rechargeable batteries that can be powered manually, by a solar panel, by motorcycle or car batteries, or by any other existing power source in the area.
• Durable: Dust and heat are the enemies of electronic components. The devices must be durable to resist difficult climatic conditions.
• Easy to Use: Easy menus, simple plug-ins, clear instructional diagrams. Even with training, digital electronic devices are new to the instructors and unusual in these parts of the world, so operators have little frame of reference to infer operation, decipher menus or troubleshoot.
• Affordable: Cost for the solutions is low enough so that a minimal investment will have maximum impact for learning outcomes
• Require Human Facilitation: These technology-assisted teaching solutions require human intervention to facilitate the delivery of the content and to insure comprehension and retention.