Reading Across Canada: An interactive road to learning

Determined to bring the fun back into reading, Isabelle Baril, the founder of Mind Growth Education, partnered with Array to create an online version of her paper-based home reading program, Read Across Canada. As the reading program grew more and more successful in her classes, Isabelle needed a solution to reduce the time and energy required to run the program. She also wanted to solve some of the current problems with paper reading logs, such as lost paperwork going to and from classes, and parent fatigue with filling out and returning paper forms. Isabelle set out to establish a brand and interactive website to launch her program online not only for her own classes, but for all teachers & parents across Canada.

Ready to digitize the program, we worked with Isabelle to establish the foundation of her program, the brand identity. We wanted to build a brand that not only supported the first iteration of her digital program but one that would grow with her as her service platform evolved and grew. Like any entrepreneur, Isabelle had many ideas on how to grow her educational resources.

We created a corporate brand identity for Mind Growth Education, along with a custom set of hand drawn illustrations geared towards her first digital program, “Read Across Canada”. This set of custom illustrations includes a wise owl, deer, fox, and rabbit to help guide you on your reading journey.

To help kids learn about Canada, the program takes students on a journey across the country via an interactive map. As a student logs their reading time, their minutes are converted into KM’s, moving them along their path. Students can then unlock fun facts about Canadian provinces and earn printable badges for the accomplishments.

To get kids excited about signing into their online profiles, we included the option to select from the fun avatar characters to represent them on the journey. The interactive map boasts a youthful design and a touch friendly user interface.

The final gamified digital website made students feel a sense of excitement and accomplishment when reading, and gave parents a new way to motivate their children to read on a daily basis.

The secondary goal was to build a website that would support the online sales of educational resources, curriculum that paired with the program, and support tools. We incorporated an online store with Paypal payment processing highlighted with playful lettering and language, colorful graphics and user friendly functionality.

Read Across Canada launched on July 1, 2019. Within a month after its launch, the website received overwhelming positive feedback and results. Reluctant and discouraged students became happy, eager readers. One student in particular, a former student with autism, struggled with her reading for over 3 years. She was the first to sign-up for the online reading program and after just one month logged 842 reading minutes. Not only that, her academic skill level advanced 2-3 levels in every category! The results of the program were simply amazing.

Mind Growth Education gives kids the tools to thrive, turning them into successful readers one book at a time. Take a look for yourself!