Hackathons Boost Prison Education in England and Wales
A prison education program in England and Wales has found an unexpected way to improve learning outcomes: hackathons. The approach, developed by Coracle, a company founded in 2006 by EdTech CEO James Tweed, specializes in EdTech for high-need environments like prisons, maritime settings, and police custody suites. Tweed’s philosophy centers on giving teams maximum creative freedom—an approach that has yielded tools now embedded in the company’s Osprey-VLE platform, used across prisons and young offender institutions.
How Hackathons Unlock Innovation in Prisons
Coracle’s model differs from traditional software development. Instead of rigid project timelines, the company holds two or three hackathons per year, where developers pause regular work to experiment freely. Tweed describes these events as concentrated periods, often spanning a couple of days, where teams propose problems, test solutions, and adopt failure as part of the process. Many of the experiments fail, but this is essential; innovation typically emerges only after multiple unsuccessful attempts. Teams and individuals explore a range of problem statements, with no restrictions, allowing creativity to flourish. The CEO’s role, Tweed explains, is to create the conditions for this freedom rather than micromanaging the process.
The platform serves a population with stark educational gaps: many prisoners have been excluded from education, far more than the national average. About 60 percent of prisoners have been excluded and about 40 percent of those permanently. In the population as a whole, the figure is less than one percent. Neurodiversity and learning problems are also far higher in prisons than in society as a whole. These realities shaped the hackathon’s focus: how to make education accessible without overwhelming users. The team’s developers, who deeply enjoy coding and experimentation, approach these challenges with a mission-driven mindset, ensuring no one is left behind in learning opportunities.
One breakthrough emerged from a simple question: How can we tailor learning to individual needs? The team built an AI-powered tool, designed to observe a prisoner’s interactions with the platform and suggest personalized support, without requiring them to ask for help. The tool now uses visual storytelling and immersive tech to adapt content for those with speech, language, or communication needs, a common challenge in the criminal justice system. The AI operates in the background, building insights into how prisoners engage with education and offering tools that align with their learning styles.
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Another project, the Accessible Content Engine (ACE), transforms complex educational materials into low-literacy, neurodiversity-friendly formats. The software breaks down dense text into digestible visuals, reducing intimidation and capturing short attention spans. Both solutions originated from hackathon experiments, proving that even the simplest questions, like “how can we make things simpler for users?”, can lead to new innovations.
A Different Approach to Learning in Lockdown
Coracle’s work reflects a deliberate rejection of one-size-fits-all solutions. The company’s systems prioritize flexibility: users can engage offline, with periodic updates when connectivity allows. This adaptability is key in prisons, where internet access is restricted, and in maritime environments, where seafarers operate without reliable Wi-Fi. The platform’s design ensures that learning remains accessible regardless of infrastructure limitations.
The company also addresses psychological barriers. Many prisoners associate education with failure, so Coracle introduces learning gradually. A user’s first interaction might be playing chess or watching a video, low-stakes activities that build confidence before introducing academic content. Over time, the platform tracks progress and adjusts difficulty, reinforcing small wins. This “softly softly” approach helps users transition from skepticism to engagement, with many eventually progressing to accredited courses.
