Education in emergencies
Search terms
| Search strings | Terms searched in combination with others |
| EdTech-related terms | EdTech, education technology, educational technology, ICT, digital learning |
| Emergency-related terms | Conflict, crisis, emergencies, war, disaster, natural disaster, natural hazard, epidemic, pandemic, earthquake, tsunami, virus |
| Education-related terms | Education, school, school closure, emergency online schools, higher education, disaster education, university |
| Specific countries searched | Syria, Yemen, DRC, Haiti, Nepal |
| Specific emergencies searched | Ebola, cyclone idai, typhoon haiyan, cholera |
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion Type | Inclusion Criteria |
| Setting | Emergency or post-crisis |
| Education | Primary and/or secondary |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2009–2020 |
Screening process
Total returned results through searches [not unique results]: 1,126,859. (Excluded: 845,144)
Studies deduplicated: 281,715 (Excluded: 253,543)
Studies screened on title: 28,172 (Excluded: 28,099)
Studies selected on title and abstract: 73 (Excluded: 44)
Studies selected on full text for thematic analysis: 29
Girls education
Search terms
Numbers in brackets show the number of records returned by searching Google Scholar (an asterisk denotes searches restricted to records published since 2008), followed by the number of records which were included following screening.
- “girls education” ICT (3430, 7)
- “girls education” ICT (2670, 35)*
- gender primary “education technology” Africa (8,730, 0) *
- “girls education” “education technology” (435, 3)
- GEC ICT (4540, 0)
- “girls education” “technology” “developing countries” (7220, 7)*
- “girls education” “ICT for Education” (63, 2)
- “girls education” “digital learning” (156, 6)
- allintitle: “ict” “girls education” (1, 1)
- “girls education” “ed-tech” (29, 0)
- ODL girls education (2570, ~8)
- “education for girls” “ICT” (1170, 3)*
- “girls education” computer aided learning (2650, 26)*
- “girls education” “distance learning” (1100, 0)*
- “girls education” “ICT Africa” (26, 3)*
- “girls education” “ICT South Asia” (0, 0)*
- “girls education” “ICT South America” (0, 0)*
- gender divide “primary education” ICT (16900, 15)*
- ICT4E girls (451, 0)
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion type | Inclusion criteria |
| Education | Primary and / or secondary |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2000–2020 |
Screening process
Total studies found through searches: 52,141
Studies screened on title and abstract: 90 (Excluded: 52,051)
Studies screened on full text: 67 (Excluded: 28)
Studies included for thematic analysis: 39
Refugee education
Search terms
- refugees
- refugee education
- EdTech refugees
- “education technology” refugees
- “refugee education” ICT
- “refugee children” AND “education technology”
- technology refugees school
- blended learning refugees
- “blended learning” refugee education
- “education technology” forced displacement
- forced displacement EdTech
- “meducation” refugees
- “online education” refugees
- teacher “professional development” AND refugees AND technology
- “distance learning” refugee children
- protracted displacement “education technology”
- OERs refugee education
- “mobile learning” “refugee education”
- “education technology” refugee integration
- refugee education technology
- refugee education ICT
- “psychosocial support” AND “education technology” AND refugees
- “psychosocial support” AND “ICTs” AND “education” AND “refugees”
- “social emotional learning” AND “education technology” AND refugees
- “socio-emotional learning” AND “education technology” AND refugees
- “SEL” AND “ICT” and “refugees”
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion type | Inclusion criteria |
| Education | Primary and / or secondary |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2008–2020 |
Screening process
Total studies found through searches: 817,782
Studies screened on title and abstract: 155 (excluded: 80)
Studies screened on full text: 75 (excluded: 42)
Studies included for thematic analysis: 33
Personalised learning
Search terms
Numbers in brackets show the number of records returned by searches, followed by the number of records which were included following screening.
Source: Google Scholar
- “Personalised Adaptive Learning” (132, 2)
- “Personalized Adaptive Learning” (619, 3)
- “Personalised technology-enhanced learning” (34, 4)
- “Personalized technology-enhanced learning” (76, 12)
- “Technology-enhanced personalised learning” (18, 6)
- “Technology-enhanced personalized learning” (30, 18)
- “Personalised TEL” (13, 5)
- “Personalized TEL” (11, 3)
- “Personalised learning environment” (593, 20)
- “Personalized learning environment” (3490, 5)
- “Teaching at the right level” (266, 5)
- “Combined Activities for Maximized Learning” (15, 1)
… (“Edtech” OR “Education technology” OR “digital learning” OR “eLearning” OR school) AND (“africa” OR “LMIC” OR “developing world” OR “developing country*” OR “ICT4D” OR “global south”) [combined with terms below]
- “Personalised education” AND (160, 6)
- “Personalized education” AND (626, 6)
- “Personalised learning” AND (1810, 6)
- “Personalized learning” AND (3660, 5)
- “adaptive learning” AND (6910, 1)
- “adapting learning” AND (396, 5)
- “Differentiated learning” AND (1310, 8)
- “Computer-assisted instruction” AND (6160, 27)
- “Computer-assisted learning” AND (8130, 10)
- “Computer-aided learning” AND (1530, 3)
- “Intelligent tutoring system” AND (765, 5)
- “Exploratory learning environments” AND (33, 0)
- “Adaptive Educational Hypermedia” AND (112, 2)
- “Adaptive hypermedia” AND (414, 1)
- “Personalised Adaptive Learning” AND (7, 3)
- “Personalized Adaptive Learning” AND (43, 3)
Source: SPUD
- Teaching at the Right Level (2, 2)
- TARL (43, 0)
- personalised (534, 4)
- personalized (255, 2)
- adaptive learning (42, 3)
- intelligent tutoring system (76, 8)
- computer assisted learning (20, 4)
A total of 38,335 records were identified through searches, which was reduced to 198 after screening.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion type | Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria |
| Population | Involving elementary and/or secondary school students (ranging from 5 to 19 years old) based in LMICs | Involving learners in higher or tertiary education only |
| Intervention | Falling under the broad ‘umbrella’ of technology-supported personalised learning | Studies focusing on access to technology with little consideration for how this is personalised to the needs of learners, or personalised learning with no use of technology |
| Outcomes | Reporting effects on academic performance (e.g. measured by grades or performance on tests) or relating to student needs/preferences (e.g. motivation to learn) | Focusing on the development and testing of software with no learner data |
| Study design | Describing primary empirical research (i.e., acquired by means of observation, experimentation or survey), both quantitative and qualitative | Reviews and meta-analyses or providing a ‘lessons learned’ account without presenting any empirical evidence |
| Date | Published 2006–2020 | |
| Language | English-language only |
Screening process
Total studies found through searches: 38,335
Studies screened on title and abstract: 198 (excluded: 136)
Studies screened on full text [including snowballed]: 62 (excluded: 38)
Studies included for thematic analysis: 24
The full data description spreadsheet is available here.
Accelerated learning
Search terms
The following search string was used for initial literature searches:
(accelerated adaptive learning; accelerated curriculum; accelerated e-learning; accelerated education programme; accelerated instruction; accelerated learning; accelerated learning; accelerated learning children; accelerated learning children; accelerated learning programme; catch-up learning; complementary education; intensified learning; intensive learning; rapid learning children; Rehabilitation education children; remedial education technology; speed school; speed up learning using technology; technology for accelerated education; accelerated teaching children)
| Source | Search terms | Records returned | Studies screened | After title and abstract screening* |
| GS | accelerated learning | 930000 | 500 | 98 |
| GS | accelerated learning children | 141000 | 500 | 76 |
| GS | catch-up learning | 257 | 257 | 18 |
| GS | complementary education | 3400 | 500 | 18 |
| GS | speed school | 2090 | 500 | 6 |
| GS | technology for accelerated education | 767000 | 500 | 45 |
| Source | Search terms | Records returned | Studies screened | After title and abstract screening* |
| SCOPUS | accelerated adaptive learning | 34 | 34 | 2 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated curriculum | 314 | 314 | 15 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated e-learning | 40 | 40 | 3 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated education programme | 265 | 265 | 62 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated instruction | 167 | 167 | 11 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated learning | 5068 | 500 | 36 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated learning children | 113 | 113 | 15 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated learning programme | 284 | 284 | 45 |
| SCOPUS | intensified learning | 304 | 304 | 4 |
| SCOPUS | intensive learning | 4195 | 500 | 36 |
| SCOPUS | rapid learning children | 705 | 500 | 13 |
| SCOPUS | Rehabilitation education children | 153 | 153 | 1 |
| SCOPUS | remedial education technology | 200 | 200 | 46 |
| SCOPUS | speed up learning using technology | 141 | 141 | 10 |
| SCOPUS | accelerated teaching children | 67 | 67 | 5 |
After the title and abstract screening, 99 studies were later removed after deduplication. This brought the total number of studies that were found through the above searches, that were screened on full text, to 416.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion type | Inclusion criteria |
| Age | Under 18 years |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2000–2020 |
| Topic | Studies exploring accelerated learning and intensified learning for disadvantaged, and average, learners. Notably, studies on accelerated learning for ‘gifted’ learners were excluded. |
Screening process
Total documents found through searches: 1,855,797
Documents screened on title and abstract: 6,339 (excluded: 5,824)
Deduplicated documents screened on full text (416) and documents found through snowballing (31) (excluded: 352)
Documents included for thematic analysis: 95
Radio
Search terms
- Radio
- Radio education
- Education radio
- Interactive radio
- Distance Education
- Interactive media
- Interactive radio instruction
- IRI
- Rural education radio
- Rural education
- Radio storytelling children
- Learning at home
- Interactive multimedia instruction
- School radio
- Public services radio access
- Educational broadcasting
- Educational broadcasting radio
- Community radio broadcasting
- Participatory communication education
- Out-of-school radio
- Teaching with radio
- Audio-based distance education
- Educational audio podcast
- Concomitant instruction
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion Type | Inclusion Criteria |
| Education | Under 18 years |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2000–2020 |
Screening process
Total studies found through searches: 3,346,320
Studies screened on title and abstract: 10,286 (excluded: 10,056)
Studies screened on full text: 230 (excluded: 164)
Documents included for thematic analysis: 66
Television
Search terms
Searches were conducted using combinations of the following terms:
Educational television, Learn, Attainment, Outcome, Gain, Intervention, Ability, Capacity, Capability, Impact, Effect, Co-viewing, Co-discussion, Sesame Street, KnowZone, Akili, Ubongo, marginalised, equity, rural, developing countries, Latin America, out-of-school, socio-emotion, SEL, Teacher, School, multimedia, platform, multiple platforms, transmedia. Psychosocial, executive function, problem solving, collaboration, self-regulation, RACER, MELQO
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Criterion type | Inclusion criteria |
| Age | 3–18 years |
| Geography | LMICs |
| Literature type | All |
| Date | 2000–2020 |
Screening process
Total studies found through searches: 586,107
Studies screened on title and abstract: 2,545 (excluded: 2,507)
Documents included for thematic analysis: 46
Messaging apps and SMS
Search terms
The following search string was used for initial literature searches:
(“skype” OR “telegram” OR “whatsapp” OR “social media” or “sms” or “text messag*” or “facebook”) AND (“education” OR “school”) AND (“africa” OR “LMIC” OR “developing world” OR “developing countr*” OR “ICT4D” OR “global south” OR “refugees”)
Number of records returned from database, and number included after first round screening.
| Total results | Included after title and abstract screening | |
| ERIC | 279 | 22 |
| Google Scholar | 2390* | 25 |
| Scopus | 662 | 98 |
| Web of Knowledge | 369 | 48 |
*The first 30 pages – 300 items – of results were screened. Not all of the results were screened because (a) Google Scholar includes a high proportion of non-peer reviewed and grey literature, and (b) records are returned in order of ‘relevance’.
Note that additional sources were found via snowball sampling from included studies, and recommendations.
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
| Inclusion criteria | Exclusion criteria | |
| Population | Involving elementary and/or secondary school students (ranging from five to 19 years old) based in LMICs. This can include out-of-school children (e.g. refugees), and perspectives of those involved in supporting school-aged pupils (e.g. teachers, parents, caregivers) | Exclude any studies focused on HICs
Exclude studies where the focus is on tertiary education, higher education, TVET, or other forms of adult education (exception: teacher training and professional development) |
| Intervention | Must be focused upon the use of WhatsApp, social media, SMS, or other forms of mobile-based messaging apps for educational purposes | Exclude studies which make only passing reference to this (e.g. levels of phone use/ownership by students), or do not have an explicit link to education (e.g. health interventions) |
| Study design | Studies must be empirically-based, presenting research findings and evidence | Exclude theoretical papers, position papers, review papers or opinion pieces |
| Date | Published between 2010 and the present day (mid 2020) | Published before 2010 |
Screening process
Studies screened on title and abstract: 1,610 (excluded: 1,417)
Studies deduplicated: 193 (excluded: 32)
Studies added from snowball sampling and recommendation: 16
Studies screened on full text: 177 (excluded: 132)
Studies included for thematic analysis: 45