Voice-Based Quizzes for Measuring Knowledge Retention in Under-Connected Populations

Information dissemination using automated phone calls allows reaching low-literate and tech-naive populations. Open challenges include rapid verification of expected knowledge gaps in the community, dissemination of specific information to address these gaps, and follow-up measurement of knowledge retention. We report Sawaal, a voice-based telephone service that uses audio-quizzes to address these challenges. Sawaal allows its open community of users to post and attempt multiple-choice questions and to vote and comment on them. Sawaal spreads virally as users challenge friends to quiz competitions. Administrator-posted questions allow confirming specific knowledge gaps, spreading correct information and measuring knowledge retention via rephrased, repeated questions. In 14 weeks and with no advertisement, Sawaal reached 3,433 users (120,119 calls) in Pakistan, who contributed 13,276 questions that were attempted 455,158 times by 2,027 users. Knowledge retention remained significant for up to two weeks. Surveys revealed that 71% of the mostly low-literate, young, male users were blind.