priorities for educational outcomes have changed. these changes impact learning experiences, professional development (badges & credentials) and even gaming. we hope that the end is near for dopamine-hunting and click-bait entertainment in lieu of the human motivations from learning and development. our team is eminently qualified in both theory and skills to provide high-quality skills assessment and monitoring. by using machine learning and AI, we take this work even further into its potential to support development through feedback that is both detailed and quick. informed by a holistic skills framework, we build skills monitoring systems that provide insights on both the impact on the person, but also feedback on the design capabilities of your products or interventions.

our team includes teachers, educational psychologists, and developmentalists to design learning experiences tailored to learners’ needs. we account for their contextual differences, developmental needs, while engaging in how they can share learning together. we think of the motivation to learn as stronger than those pitched by traditional gamification or edutainment approaches that leverage blunt applications of extrinsic motivators and neurochemical reactions (see dopamine). 

our approach to program evaluation uses monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) approach to support organizations or programmes to become learning organizations. we are keen on providing evidence and reporting that meets the messaging needs of stakeholders, such that policy-makers may prefer both narratives and quantitative methods for reporting impacts on behaviour.

our collective includes developmental psychologists who focus on the design of learning experiences that are within appropriate developmental windows. we see these as opportunities for learning to be inclusive, but also support the flow experience that learners can attain when the challenge pushes their skills with neither boredom nor overwhelm.

measurement can be our friend in supporting educators and learners to take risks and explore their curiosity during playful learning. we use cutting edge modeling techniques that leverage modern computational capacities to apply machine learning to rapidly process evidence and AI-enabled tools that allow measurement to be integrated into the learning experiences themselves albeit behind the scenes as support rather than as directors.

our team comes with years of experience advising on developmental implications of children’s play with toys. this play included designing experimental studies or focus groups to A:B test functions and attributes. We are also adept in scientifically rigorous methods for gathering evidence for impact on children’s holistic skills development.

we design and facilitate theory of change workshops inspired USAID’s theory of change workbook. we work with clients to systematically identify long-term goals, map elegant indicators of progress, name assumptions, and co-design interventions to drive impact. this approach generates evidence on effective pathways to achieve development goals, fills critical knowledge gaps, and also generates buy-in via insightful comms narratives. we engage with local stakeholders to ensure contextual relevance and ownership. the resulting theory of change articulates a testable logic model for how and why proposed activities will catalyze sustainable change, enabling monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation to strengthen programming.

learning occurs outside of school walls, and community centers like libraries and children’s & science museums. we conduct mixed methods research to help: museums to design for playful learning; children to engage and return to learning exhibits; and caregivers to better understand how these experiences help their children develop and thrive.

winded.vertigo not only includes members from its collective, but also the broad networks each of them brings along. a collective allows us to call on some members when their skills, experience, and network are appropriate. We design studies focused on specific learning questions, so that the impact of interventions is clear and actionable.

our team believes that sharing our process and evidence-based insights are opportunities to distill complex ideas into assets for comms teams. we think of outputs as opportunities for artistic expression.