Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 9:15 PM on Sunday, January 19th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
How Edtech became personalised in the 2010s
The internet is being used to reach this diverse population in the remotest corners, and advanced tech is being used to create new learning experiences
If we look at the new technology accessible to teachers and students today, then we would agree that the accepted way to teach and learn has changed
The integration of technology started with improving classroom
experiences and reached adaptive learning platforms that students can
personalise, says Toppr’s Zishaan Hayath
We are in an era where unprecedented ideas are unfolding in education, driven by technology. Digitising learning content has been imperative, keeping in mind affordability, accessibility and inclusiveness of the large trainable youth population. The internet is being used to reach this diverse population in the remotest corners, and advanced tech is being used to create new learning experiences. If we look at the new technology accessible to teachers and students today, then we would agree that the accepted way to teach and learn has changed. It is undeniable that education has evolved so much, and technology has opened up the world a lot for both students and teachers. In this article, we explore the journey of edtech through this decade that saw it evolve from smart classes to personalised learning apps on smartphones.
EDTECH SOLUTIONS WERE DESIGNED AROUND IMPROVING THE CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE AND HELPING TEACHERS
Integration of technology in the learning and education system is
evidently the greatest change in education in the past decade. The
earliest technology innovations for schools were created around
providing software and hardware to make the classroom experience better.
More emphasis was put on the use of rich multimedia content as a
teaching tool inside classrooms. We saw more and more teachers making
use of overhead projectors and videos during their lessons. This was
then considered to be a revolutionary in-classroom technology,
leveraging a large repository of digital content across virtually all
subjects from kindergarten to Class 12. This new technology helped
schools with better educational resource planning and helped teachers
with better lecture delivery. Performance management and tracking
systems enabled teachers to measure the progress of students
systematically. Such classrooms were called “smart classesâ€. Progress in
technology, however, has led to much more.
INTERNET SHIFTED FOCUS FROM CLASSROOMS TO VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS WITH DIGITISED CONTENT.
Smart class solutions faced challenges like high set-up cost,
hardware maintenance and non-payments by institutions. As a result,
edtech companies started moving to asset-light models. Digitisation of
learning material and availability on platforms, including YouTube,
followed the wave of smart classes. Internet penetration made everything
easier and faster, enabling students to access digital study material
that was informational and interactive and could be accessed anytime,
anywhere. The gap in the ability to access high quality learning
material was shrinking. This boom in digitisation of content helped
scale the concept of pre-recorded online classes in India. The
availability of fast internet connections and easy access allowed
students to be more informed and open to new avenues. ‘In jobs, expertise from experience is no longer critical’
Students were able to take on-demand classes without having to attend
any physical classes. For students, this improved affordability, while
reduced travel time allowed them to study at their own pace and time.
EDTECH STARTED GROWING EXPONENTIALLY WITH LEARNING APPS
As students started accessing learning material over the internet, it
gave rise to a new opportunity. Newly introduced learning apps started
providing content at one place, which was otherwise scattered. The
content was now organised and designed around a teacher’s pedagogy.
Online courses developed by proficient tutors gave students the
experience of real-time learning while sitting in the comfort of their
homes. Edtech saw growth in many disciplines, including primary and
supplementary education, test preparation, reskilling and online
certifications, and language learning. Global institutions started
running online certification courses powered by edtech that helped in
course delivery, examinations and assessments. Indian entrepreneurs made
an impressive effort in following and customising the global trend of
digitisation of the education system. Increasing awareness and higher
disposable income boosted the edtech market and it attracted significant
investments from Indian and global investors.
PERSONALISED LEARNING MARKED THE NEW AGE OF EDTECH
The second half of the last decade saw the use of advanced
technology. Cutting edge tech, including artificial intelligence (AI)
and machine learning (ML), gave rise to education platforms that
addressed the basic problem of the education system of India—the
one-size-fits-all-approach. With a typical classroom having a
teacher-to-student ratio of 1:50, the quality is often compromised and
that’s where technology is useful. Adaptive learning platforms using AI
and ML create personalised learning paths helping students study in the
way they best understand, thus enabling them to learn as per their
needs. Gamification in learning has helped engage students in a
meaningful way, making them genuinely interested in their subject
matter. Why companies will have to fill digital skill gaps soon: Wipro’s Saurabh Govil
Cloud-based learning is fast emerging as the medium to make
personalised and high quality learning available to all students. Live
classes with teachers can be conducted on such platforms, along with
pre-recorded video classes, where the students can access the material
on their own time. Students can now reach out for academic help 24×7.
This is quickly changing the possibilities of delivery mediums when it
comes to affordable access to high-quality learning.
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND RETENTION WOULD BE KEY CHALLENGES TO FURTHER GROWTH
Availability and access to the internet are important for all of
these technologies to become relevant to end-users, i.e. students and
teachers. The number of people accessing the internet has grown manifold
over the last decade. However, for a society like India where the
culture of coaching classes is deep-rooted, it is challenging to drive
the adoption of edtech platforms as an alternative. Students, parents
and teachers need to be better informed of the benefits of edtech.
Startups are trying various business models, including free, freemium
and premium subscriptions to drive usage and trial. However, there is a
lot of ground to be covered. As this decade ends, we recognise that the
Indian education system has evolved fast, along with global trends.
Technology has also enabled streamlining of the learning experience,
improved accessibility and offered new resources to students. And there
is only more to come. With one of the largest populations in the world,
stronger implementation of AI and ML will help bring truly adaptive and
personalised platforms addressing the real learning needs of students
and professionals. Edtech is all set to give more accessible,
high-quality and personalised learning and prepare the leaders of
tomorrow.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 4:03 PM on Thursday, January 16th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
2020 vision: edtech in 2020 with John Ingram
Thursday 16th January 2020
Q. What should schools, colleges and universities be focusing on for 2020?
Certainly, from our experience working with schools, they need
to be supported more when it comes to training teachers to use
technology. We find that teachers are usually keen on the idea of using
new technologies in the classroom, but that implementation needs to be
handled with greater care. Tech in UK classrooms often goes unused,
which ultimately means that millions of pounds are potentially going to
waste. Colleges and universities are making better progress on training
teachers to use technology, so I’d like to see more improvement at
school level.
Q. What, if any, policy changes would you like to see in education this year?
It was encouraging to hear the government announce new measures
to help boost the nation’s skills and transform technical education,
such as providing up to £120m to establish up to eight more Institutes
of Technology. However, many of the measures aimed at boosting the UK’s
productivity and building a skilled workforce are targeted towards
further education, so it would be great to see some more focus given to
schools.
It would also be great to see some progress around the UK Youth Parliament’s campaign for A Curriculum for Life.
Young people are calling for the education system to do more to prepare
them for life after school and college – a critically important area
that often flies under the radar – and it’s important that they are
heard.
Q. If you could pinpoint one area of improvement for the education sector during 2020, what would it be?
If I had to choose one area, it would be improving the way we
treat and support teachers, addressing serious problem areas such as
excessive workloads and teacher retention.
There are many tools on the market that can help with
onerous non-teaching tasks such as marking, assessment and lesson
planning. The challenge is to ensure that schools are made aware of the
best of these, so that they can spend their tight budgets wisely.
Schools are often tasked with helping reduce teacher workload
and ensuring staff retention, but this can be difficult against a
backdrop of increasing budget cuts and Ofsted pressures.
I believe edtech can play a role here. There are many tools on
the market that can help with onerous non-teaching tasks such as
marking, assessment and lesson planning. The challenge is to ensure that
schools are made aware of the best of these, so that they can spend
their tight budgets wisely.
Q. Is there a particular area within edtech that you think should be the main focus for 2020?
I think adaptive learning and targeted education are set to
feature prominently in 2020 – there are many platforms out there making
big strides, but there’s still a long way to go. The end goal is for
classrooms to have adaptive learning platforms that retain the benefits
of learning in a group (social skills, motivation, etc) and combine this
with fully personalised instruction. We’re making progress towards
this, but fully moving away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ learning, and
inflexible learning pathways, will take time.
Separately, I’d also like to see more of a push towards
technology being used at earlier ages in schools, so that comfort and
familiarity with using tech amongst students and teachers is embedded
early on. Nevertheless, no matter what technologies are introduced, we
must bear in mind that not everyone is a technophile. For edtech
adoption to take off, schools and universities must work to adjust
internal cultures so that they are open to advancements.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, January 15th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Matrix Partners backs edtech startup Toddle
Educational technology startup Toddle has raised its first institutional funding round, led by Matrix Partners India.
Better Capital and angel investors such as Swiggy co-founder Rahul Jaimini also participated in the capital raising, Deepanshu Arora, cofounder of Toddle told ET, without disclosing the funding amount.
Educational technology startup Toddle has raised its first institutional funding round, led by Matrix Partners India.
Better Capital and angel investors such as Swiggy co-founder Rahul Jaimini also participated in the capital raising, Deepanshu Arora, cofounder of Toddle told ET, without disclosing the funding amount.
Bengaluru-based Toddle, which helps teachers streamline curriculum planning, documentation, parent communication and analytics, was founded last year by Arora and Parita Parekh.
Arora and Parekh earlier ran a network of pre-schools in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Toddle says it has more than 10,000 teachers on its platform.
“Today’s teachers are very tech-savvy and use technology for a variety of needs. The struggle is that they have to juggle between multiple tools to solve for these needs. Our goal is to simplify the entire teaching and learning cycle with one seamless and intuitive solution,†Arora said.
The company plans to use the money to cater to more educational segments.
“Having been educators themselves, the Toddle team has built a product that is revolutionizing the way teachers plan, interact and collaborate with other teachers, students and parents,†said Rajat Agarwal, Director, Matrix India.
The Indian ed-tech market is expected to reach $2 billion by 2021, according to a report by KPMG and Google.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:54 AM on Tuesday, January 14th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Top edtech trends to rule India’s virtual learning space in 2020
Today’s educators are completely aware of the fact that the 21st-century student is no longer receptive to the practice of offline learning, which limits them to textbooks and classrooms
Rather, they prefer online channels that are easily accessible and give them a much wider choice of self-learning. According to a recent KPMG report, the online education industry is anticipated to gain a user base of 9.6 million by 2021 as compared to 1.6 million in 2016
By Akhand Swaroop Pandit, Founder and CEO, Catalyst Group, Online Learning Platform.
Since time immemorial, we have been acclimatised to attain our
educational goals through classroom-based learning, which is majorly
based on a theoretical exam-driven system. From the very childhood, this
archaic system pushes us to focus on scoring well, instead of
practically understanding the concepts. However, now that this belief is
changing with the advent of various online learning tools, educators
are rapidly adopting online learning pedagogies, which involve the right
mix of offline as well as online learning techniques.
Today’s educators are completely aware of the fact that the
21st-century student is no longer receptive to the practice of offline
learning, which limits them to textbooks and classrooms. Rather, they
prefer online channels that are easily accessible and give them a much
wider choice of self-learning. According to a recent KPMG report, the online education industry is anticipated to gain a user base of 9.6 million by 2021 as compared to 1.6 million in 2016.
In fact, the scope of online learning is not only limited to school
and competitive exams but has gone beyond these boundaries. A large
number of online players have forayed into upskilling – helping job
seekers acquire new skills and prepare for today’s evolving job market.
That said, the education system in India is surely reshaping by leaps
and bounds and is turning into a student-friendly ecosystem that
focusses mainly on fostering effective learning.
On the back of
this transformation, the education industry is witnessing several
trends, and this is just the beginning! Here’s an outlook on the top
trends that India is likely to witness in 2020:
Personalised learning
For ages, it has remained a challenge for educators to assess each
and every student in the classroom. Even the practice of parent-teacher
meeting has not been much of a success. However, players in the online
learning space are highly focused on addressing this challenge. With the
kinds of online tests these players conduct and the way they leverage
the digital footprints of users, it has become both easy and efficient
to cater to the needs of students as emphasising on their strengths and
weaknesses that they would need to work upon.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Although not every new to the human ears, AI is certainly redesigning
the path of online education by automating and making the process more
engaging than ever. The integration of AR and VR in the online space
significantly adds an audio-visual factor to the overall learning
process with elements such as 3D designs, animations, and sign
languages, among others – making learning fun for both students and
educators. It is clear how education has come out of the textbooks and
is leaving digital imprints on the minds of learners, which was not the
case a few years ago.
Gamification
While video games were one of the major causes why children once got
scolded by parents, gamification has emerged as a new kind of learning
technique that is widely being adopted and accepted by educators. A
large number of players in this space are gamifying different concepts
that can help students enhance their problem-solving power, retain
information and improve their overall performance in a very engaging and
fun-learning manner. Even in schools, this technique has been adopted
by educators to teach valuable skills that they will need to fit into
future job roles.
Mobile-based learning
With smartphones becoming an all-time tool for students to gain and
collect information from the internet, edtech players are rapidly
developing mobile-based content and online study materials that are
easily accessible, anytime and anywhere. By leveraging tech advances,
these new-age educators are able to expand their reach even to the rural
geographies, where imparting education has majorly been an age-long
challenge.
Video-based learning
Gone are the days when coaching classes were only seen as offline
tutoring sessions. With mentors and educators coming online, students
are now enabled to access the same offline sessions through online
platforms, on their smartphones. The best part about video-based
learning is that it can be replayed an infinite number of times, which
naturally eliminates the probability of missing anything associated with
the subject. Not only do students get access to live online lectures,
but they also have the choice of watching a wide variety of rich and
well-researched videos related to their respective subjects.
With the rise of technology disruptions, the future of online
learning seems promising and filled with a barrage of opportunities for
edtech players to innovate further. Not only are these new-age platforms
ensuring quality education to student masses, but also making sure that
learning reaches to every corner of the country. The aforementioned
trends are gaining wider adoption and are already being implemented by
several educational institutions across the country. Besides, it is
anticipated that these advances will slowly but surely help India turn
into a digital-first nation and make its citizens smart enough to secure
future jobs, which would be largely driven by technology.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:00 PM on Monday, January 13th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
How Edtech Can Fill Gaps In Quality Education In Tier-3 Cities?
A majority of young Indians, mostly belonging to Tier-3 cities, are deprived of quality education due to a lack of accessible educational infrastructure and resources
Lack of committed educators, unavailability of textbooks, and a dearth of credible coaching centres are among a few of the problems underserved Indian students have to deal with on a daily basis
While there is some merit to heeding to
your relatives’ advice of devoting more time to “self-studyâ€, for a
large number of students across the country it happens to be a singular
necessity and unfortunate compulsion. A majority of young Indians,
mostly belonging to Tier-3 cities, are deprived of quality education due
to a lack of accessible educational infrastructure and resources. Lack
of committed educators, unavailability of textbooks, and a dearth of
credible coaching centres are among a few of the problems underserved
Indian students have to deal with on a daily basis.
The absence of quality coaching centres
in Tier-3 cities in India is a major reason why multiple youths
preparing for competitive examinations like UPSC choose to migrate to
Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities like Delhi, Nagpur, Pune, Jaipur,
Mumbai, etc., in search of better learning prospects. However, in
addition to offering greater learning resources and opportunities, and
an improved lifestyle overall, the expense of living in metro cities
also puts a magnified financial burden on to these students. Besides
paying the fees of the institution they join, the basic outlay of living
(surviving) alone, which includes food and rent of hostels or PGs,
becomes unmanageable for all youths not belonging to the affluent class.
Add to this the expenditure of buying study material and conveyance, at
the minimum. All of these expenses together end up causing the students
to go in debt.
The financial aspect aside, the teaching
institutes and coaching centres accommodate a very large number of
students and the curriculum in these places is designed to cater to
those who are either fast-learners or those who have already had a solid
academic foundation. A lack of individual teaching approach aimed at
educating each and every student based on their individual learning
abilities and sensibilities causes a majority of at-risk students to
struggle with mental health problems. Impersonal teaching methods of the
teachers bent upon drilling information into the students’ heads
further adding to the tribulations of most of these students who find it
difficult to cope with the vast and fast-paced nature of the syllabi.
It is here that EdTech presents itself as an impeccable solution to all of these problems.
By providing a personalised learning
experience to students, EdTech platforms enhance their methods of
self-study and self-assessment. Since most of the EdTech platforms
contain video lectures on the same topic by multiple instructors, a
student can choose to watch the video most agreeable to his or her
style. The most empowering featuring of video lectures when compared
with in-classroom lectures is that a video can be played, re-played, and
paused as many times and as per the convenience of the viewer. Thus, a
student can watch and re-watch a lecture until they get the wholesome
understanding of a concept, something that is not possible in real-time.
This feature comes as a boon for shy
students who find it difficult to engage in discussions during a
lecture. For most youths, the overcrowded classroom atmosphere can feel
overpowering and even suffocating. E-learning tools can solve their
problem by letting them hold one-on-one interactions with senior
students or subject experts over the cyberspace. In this way, online
engagement gives a student a way out of the limiting classroom
environment to get their queries resolved on their own terms as suits
them best without them having to follow rigid classroom schedules that
run on express speed.
In addition to these facilities, most
EdTech platforms also leverage advanced AI-based technologies like data
analytics, machine learning and deep learning to map a student’s
learning journey and produce recommendations accordingly. The e-learning
platforms can then use this data to come up with personalised test
series and assessment plans for individual students. Simultaneously,
students can also utilize this facility to make self-assessments and
accordingly work upon their weaknesses and strengths with respect to
each subject.
EdTech is already disrupting the
education sector the world over on the back of its exceptional
accessibility, efficiency, and unparalleled convenience. For students
belonging to a developing country like India, EdTech comes as both a
welcome extension and a much-needed alternative to the existing
educational infrastructure.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:30 AM on Thursday, January 9th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Edtech Unicorn Byju’s Gets $200 Mn From Tiger Global
Secondary transactions are expected to provide exit to early investors
Byju’s plans to launch Online Tutoring in next few months
Byju”s has reportedly been valued at $8 Bn with this investment
Bengaluru-based edtech company
Byju’s, on Thursday (January 9), announced that it has raised funding
from New York-based Tiger Global. The company didn’t share the funding
amount, but reports have said that Tiger Global has invested $200 Mn in
Byju’s.
The report further said that
secondary transactions, estimated at $100Mn-$200 Mn, are also expected
to provide exit to early investors. The round reportedly valued Byju’s
at $8 Bn. The company didn’t specify the same and also didn’t share
details of plans to use the funds.
Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO, Byju’s said, “We are happy to
partner with a strong investor like Tiger Global Management. They share
our sense of purpose and this partnership will advance our long term
vision of creating an impact by changing the way students learn. This
partnership is both a validation of the impact created by us so far and a
vote of confidence for our long term vision.â€
Byju’s Growth Plans
Founded in 2008 by Divya Gokulnath and Byju Raveendran, Byju’s offers
a learning app, which was launched in 2015 and has learning programmes
for students in classes IV-XII, along with courses to help students
prepare for competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS, GRE, and GMAT.
Byju’s was last valued at $ 5.7 Bn and has raised over $969.8 Mn funding from investors such as General Atlantic, Tencent, Naspers, Qatar Investment Authority, and Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) among others.
In January 2019, Byju’s also forayed into the US with the acquisition of Osmo,
a US-based learning platform. Over the last year, the company’s
fundraising has focused on international expansion. The expansion to the
Middle East, the US, the UK, South Africa, and other African and
Commonwealth markets have been on the cards.
Further, Byju’s has also tied up with Disney
to launch its edtech services for kids in classes 1st to 3rd. BYJU’S
Early Learn app for young children aged between 6 to 8 years old with
Disney’s stories and characters from Disney Princess, Frozen, Cars, Toy
Story franchises and more. This year, the company is planning to launch
Byju’s Online Tutoring, which will further help the company to
accelerate its growth and profitability.
In the past 12 months, Byju’s claims to have witnessed tremendous
growth with over 42 Mn registered users and 3 Mn paid subscribers from
both rural and urban areas in India. It claims that the average number
of minutes a student spends on the app has increased from 64 minutes to
71 minutes per day over the last year and the annual renewal rates are
as high as 85%.
The company had claimed to have tripled its revenue from INR 520 Cr
to INR 1480 Cr in FY 18-19 and turned profitable on a full-year basis.
The company also said it is on track to double revenues to INR 3000 Cr
in the current financial year.
“Byju’s has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech
sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning
for millions of school students in India. We are excited to support Byju
and the team,†said Scott Shleifer, Partner, Tiger Global.
Challenges In Edtech Amid Increasing Investor Interest
The impact Byju’s has created has been highlighted in Mary Meeker’s
Internet Trends 2019 report. The report said that Byju’s number of
paying students between the ages of 9-17, had crossed over 1.5 Mn in March 2019 from the 1 Mn mark in the last financial year.
Digital evolution and the boom in smartphone adoption are expected to
define the way Indian students learn. Real-time book updates, online
tutoring, edutainment, online test preparation, web-based research, and
gamification — technology has changed our traditional education system
in more ways than one. With more than 260 Mn enrolments, India has the world’s largest K-12 (primary and secondary) education system.
According to DataLabs by Inc42, there were 3,500 edtech startups in India in 2018. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of $1.802 Bn was raised by edtech startups across 303 deals.
Byju’s close competitors include Toppr and Unacademy, who are working towards dominating the Indian edtech segment, which is expected to be a $1.96 Bn market by 2021.
DataLabs noted that one of the reasons for
edtech startups being unable to go mainstream and attract investments is
lack of awareness about the latest education technology in the country.
To support the sector, the government is working on national education policy as well.
The draft policy has “proposed the revision and revamping of all
aspects of the education structure, its regulation and governance, to
create a new system that is aligned with the aspirational goals of
21st-century education, while remaining consistent with India’s
traditions and value systems.â€
The draft policy says that technology will play an important role in
the improvement of educational processes and outcomes. The draft policy
says that the relationship between technology and education at all
levels is bidirectional.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:03 PM on Tuesday, January 7th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
The Major Edtech Trends In 2020, According To VCs In India
India, being one of the youngest countries in the world and boasting a rapidly-growing startup ecosystem, offers a widely untapped opportunity for many sectors, both locally and globally.
Venture capitalists have gravitated to the Indian market in great numbers in the past decade to pour capital into this opportunity, pushing startups towards scalability in every sector.
Edtech startups need to take stock of the VC view of the ecosystem and keep pace with the trends they expect in the new year.
Venture capital is about capturing the value between the startup
phase and the public company phase. — Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union
Square Ventures
India, being one of the youngest countries in the world and boasting a
rapidly-growing startup ecosystem, offers a widely untapped opportunity
for many sectors, both locally and globally. Venture capitalists have
gravitated to the Indian market in great numbers in the past decade to
pour capital into this opportunity, pushing startups towards scalability
in every sector. Edtech is no different, and in recent years, this
sector has become one of the biggest opportunities for tech startups in
the Indian context.
As Unitus Ventures’ senior associate Sunitha Viswanathan told Inc42,
the large market of close to 250 Mn students in the K-12 segment and
over 10 Mn youth graduating every year mean that India is the land of
massive potential for edtech disruption.
“Given the huge lopsided teacher: student ratio, this can only be
solved by using tech. Hence, there is a necessity more than a choice.
And rightly so,†she added.
While we spoke to edtech startups about the trends
they expect to observe in 2020, we also wanted to take the VC view and
what they expect from the ecosystem in the new year. What will be the
factors that make or break edtech startups in 2020.
Factors For Success In Edtech
Indians spend tens of billions on education every year. With
disposable incomes continuing to rise, there is a massive prize for the
startups that achieve success in this space. According to Anirudh Damani,
managing partner, Artha Venture Fund, the key to success for an edtech
startup will be to sell directly, thereby keeping a short feedback loop.
“That will allow them to innovate faster, adapt, and cater to their
end-user requirements quicker. Therefore, in my opinion, selling
directly to end-users is the key to creating success in the edtech
space,†he added.
Sajith Pai,
director, Blume Ventures further said that the increased focus on
regional language learning and data analytics will play an important
role in the success of edtech startups in 2020, just like it did in
2019.
Edtech’s Focus On Increasing User Adoption In 2020
Omkar Kulkarni,
the head of GMC Calibrator (Gray Matters Capital’s Digital Accelerator
Program, suggests four areas that edtech startups in India need to focus
on in the near future:
Gain engagement by learning insights through user behaviour analytics
Highlighting common user patterns to improve product and monetisation at early stage
Cut reliance on digital marketing to reach out to users
Deliver content through a human-centric design process to increase engagement
Blume’s Pai further added that products that teach with a mix of
technology and human intervention will be able to generate faster
adoption while keeping costs low and scalability high.
“Also, college admissions and employability are becoming highly
competitive and thus big stress points for parents and students. Thus,
education platforms that can create FOMO among students (or parents) –
either by having a large number of students on board or by having the best students onboard, attract more customer adoption faster,†Pai told Inc42.
Pranjal Kumar,
CFO and head of Education Fund at Bertelsmann, believes that being
outcome focussed i.e. credentials, test results, job placements etc will
deliver a higher chance of success for edtech startups. “High-quality
product with high average-order-value and the right balance of online
and offline, depending on the target learner and segment of education
should be the focus in the near future for edtech startups.â€
7 Trends For Indian VCs In Edtech In 2020
Indian edtech startups are currently focussing on all fronts — B2B,
B2C, B2B-B2C and C2C. The most prominent sub-sectors have been test
preparation, online certification, skill development, online discovery,
STEAM kits, and enterprise solution among others.
According to Datalabs by Inc42, in terms of
the number of unique edtech businesses funded between January 2014 and
September 2019, skill development-focused startups have been the most
preferred. However, capital inflows into the test preparation and online
certification segments are comparatively higher. Together, these two
sub-sectors make up for 91% of the total funding in edtech startups.
This shows an imbalance in terms of business models in the Indian edtech
ecosystem.
However, according to Bertelsmann’s Kumar, a few more models are
expected to see a lot of innovation in the near future. He said
bootcamps with or without job assurance, higher education, online
programme management models, K-12 tutoring will be huge markets and are
currently starved of quality teaching both in curricular as well as
co-curricular subject.
Here’s what VCs told us to expect in 2020.
Skilling Startups
The pace of change in technology continues to accelerate. Therefore,
education is no longer just the standard 12+4+2 experience. There’s a
need for continuous education that will re-skill or up-skill the workers
of today for the challenges of tomorrow. Startups that provide
platforms to teach, train, and engage the working population to improve
their skills will do very well.
AI Transformation
AI in edtech can help understand better how learning actually
happens. If we can understand how one learns the steps in quadratic
equations, then this can be used in classrooms by teachers to deliver it
more effectively. This will help define pedagogy more tightly
OTT Educators
Even though we hear a lot of buzzwords like artificial intelligence,
virtual reality and blockchain, it is the exponential increase in
viewership of the likes of TikTok, YouTube and other OTT platforms that
will see a trend of content creators delivering educational content on
OTT platforms to improve discoverability, reach and scale.
Parents To Invest More
Another challenge for edtech platforms is the cost aspect for
families. As far as high school education is concerned, VCs see parents
getting more accustomed to spending on tech products for cognitive
learning as well as a change in focus of parents from traditional
curriculum to 21st-century skills.
Unbundling Of Education
Don’t hope for an edtech superapp. Venture capitalists see startups
providing customers (students and teachers) specific standalone services
(test prep, counselling, professional and vocational training among
others) rather than a combined / bundled product which does it all.
Vernacular Learning
Just over 10% of India’s population can speak English. To build large
businesses that can capture greater value, incorporating vernacular
learning is key. As seen in the OTT, media and entertainment space,
regional language learning will be one of the biggest trends in 2020,
according to the VCs that Inc42 spoke to.
Learning for ‘Yearning’
Learning programmes that cater to non-professional interests, or
those that work with passion projects and hobbies will see an uptick
according to investors. These may or may not lead to employment-related
outcomes, but will be about holistic individual skill development, which
will be critical for the edtech ecosystem as well as startups at large.
Posted in betterU Education Corp | Comments Off on The Major #Edtech Trends In 2020, According To VCs In India SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:57 AM on Monday, January 6th, 2020
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
The Future Of Edtech And Learning In India From An AR/VR Lens
Educators around the globe today have realised that AR/VR are big breakthroughs when it comes to learning — for a method as well as outcomes.
As Ankur Aggarwal, founder of VR-based edtech startup Veative told us the enduring objective of edtech is to improve the yearning to learn and AR/VR helps implement it in a spectacular manner.
In the 21st century, technology is taking over education — be it
skill-building programmes in universities, real-world technical training
and learning of abstract concepts in schools. The shift from
conventional means to experiential methods of transacting learning has
seen new-age technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality
(VR) and mixed reality — a combination of AR/VR — have been playing a
key role in driving learning and edtech engagement.
Educators around the globe today have realised that AR/VR are big
breakthroughs when it comes to learning — for a method as well as
outcomes. As Ankur Aggarwal,
founder of VR-based edtech startup Veative told us the enduring
objective of edtech is to improve the yearning to learn and AR/VR helps
implement it in a spectacular manner.
“AR/VR has great potential in democratising the educational process
and making it a personalised learning experience for learners of all
stripes. AR/VR is not a gimmick when deployed correctly. They allow
learners to explore abstract concepts in a distraction-free environment
and allow them to connect with the concept,†Aggarwal added.
And that is not a lone opinion. Vivek Goyal, cofounder of AR edtech startup Playshifu, emphasises that learning today means much more than just remembering the facts. Anumukonda Ramesh,
country manager for the Indian subcontinent, Unity Technologies, one of
the biggest gaming engines in the world, also ascertains that the
Indian education system needs to leverage new technologies in order to
stay relevant in an ever-changing world.
What Is The Difference Between AR And VR?
While both are visual technologies that rely on non-traditional
interactions, AR and VR are fundamentally different. When used together,
it is often referred to as mixed reality. Reliance Jio is looking to
make mixed reality mainstream in India with the acquisition of deeptech startup Tesseract which has made an MR product called Holoboard.
Simply put, augmented reality or AR is a multi-sensory interactive
experience that involves real-world elements in a virtual environment.
It is known to offer perceptually-enriched experiences to users by using
real-world elements and adding a layer of information or visual aid on
top of it in a natural manner.
The most common examples of AR technology is seen in animated emojis
these days on smartphones such as Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxy series
and more. In the industrial context, AR applications can help with
on-the-go learning for maintenance and troubleshooting, systems
maintenance work and other computer-aided learning and training.
On the other hand, virtual reality is a simulated experience
that can either offer a very realistic virtual experience that mimics
the real world or fantastically new visual experiences that transcend
the boundaries of reality and surrealism. Currently, standard virtual
reality systems either use VR headsets or multi-projected environments
to generate images, sounds and other sensations. VR applications have
found use in healthtech, edtech and consumer services sectors.
What Future Does AR/VR Have In Edtech?
As PlayShifu’s Goyal explains, we can broadly divide formal education
into three segments — early, secondary and tertiary learning (higher
education). For early learners, playing is the way to learn and AR/VR
can make a significant impact as it enhances any play experience 10x.
Learning about core fundamental skills like alphabets, numbers, logical
reasoning can be made so much more fun and engaging with AR-enabled
gameplay.
“For more advanced ages, we are already seeing a lot of hardware
development being done in terms of AR glasses. These will enable
grasping and practicing concepts more profoundly with the help of
life-size 3D animated content that students can manipulate and observe
in their learning space,†Goyal added.
Here are the primary reasons why AR/VR are believed to be the future of learning and education.
Boosts Learning Retention
Personalised Learning Experiences
Increases Possibilities Of Experimentation
Reduces Reliance On Learning By Rote
Empowering Educators And Learners
Encouraging Active Learning
The founders we spoke to believe that AR and VR technology can have
an impact not just for young ages but also for reskilling, corporate
learning, industrial applications and more.
AR/VR Boosts Learning Retention
Veative’s Aggarwal adds example of the ‘Cone of Learning’, created in 1969 by US educator Edgar Dale.
Aggarwal explained that after two weeks, the human brain tends to
remember just 10% of what it has read, 20% of what it hears, 30% of what
it sees and up to 90% of the actions performed or simulated.
This means immersive and innovative digital tools will facilitate
experiential learning in more effective ways. This will enhance the
learning process and help learners connect multiple concepts, work at
their own pace and according to their level of proficiency.
This brings us to personalised learning. Interactivity is the key
reason why AR/VR is so attractive for education purposes and this
purpose get more value when AI is introduced with this technology. This
will provide highly personalised learning experiences based on learning
patterns and behaviour. The seamless integration of AR and VR in the
education landscape will help to personalise learning and upskill
learners.
Other entrepreneurs such as Simulanis founder Raman Talwar and Skillveri founder Sabarinath Nair
also agreed with this. “We are witnessing a transgression from
one-size-fits-all learning methodology to a personalised and
experiential one, where learners’ learn by doing,†Talwar told us.
Increases Possibilities Of Experimentation
Unity’s Ramesh added that AR/VR provide safe sandboxes for complex
learning exercises, like giving children their own virtual chemistry lab
to kindle experimentation.
To cite an example, Apple’s ARKit platform is an incredible leap
towards immersive learning. It helps teachers create AR experiences in
which students explore 3D models of the human body. With its advanced
detection feature, they can see a computer-generated, detailed
simulation of the male and female anatomy. And what’s more, they can
manually trigger motions between the different parts of the human body
in the virtual space.
“Not only does this enable learners to visualise and design different
scenarios, but it also improves their manual dexterity. Thus, it
ensures a higher level of motivation and engagement,†added Next
Education’s CEO and founder Beas Dev Ralhan.
Reducing Reliance On Learning By Rote
Next Education’s Ralhan further adds that the biggest advantage of
using AR in the classroom environment is that it offers
visually-impressive experiences. AR/VR-based immersive and experiential
learning environment creates chances for focus and attention on a topic
or idea, which should positively affect retention rates of the subject
matter.
“An open and enthusiastic mind, in a distraction-free environment,
means that there is a far greater chance to get to higher-order thinking
skills, which are always more difficult to learn and to teach,†added
Veative’s Aggarwal.
Empowering Educators And Learners
Educators too have a lot to benefit from leveraging AR/VR techniques
for teaching, paired with the right content. Regardless of the medium,
content is king, and always will be, edtech startups told us. Just like
textbooks, without the right content, VR headsets will only gather dust
on a shelf.
With virtual labs, social media learning, and gamification, learning
can be made more engaging for learners and students. We will see AR/VR
could open a wide range of simulations. Books in the future could be
digital, infused with AR technology and educators can place helpful
milestones in the real world for students to stumble upon for practical
and hands-on learning. Subjects and digital counterparts of real-world
objects will make delivery of lessons simpler. New games with AR-enabled
assistants and immersive VR experiences can revolutionise the learning
and coaching experience for students.
Encouraging Active Learning
The AR/VR is a uniquely personal experience and should be used as
such. If providing a distraction-free environment which promoted focused
concentration on a subject was the only benefit to VR, then that alone
might be enough to justify using this tool.
Veative’s Aggarwal added that learners have a natural curiosity about
VR. “We never have a problem getting them interested in using the VR.
This very simple fact means that a young learner is coming into the
device with an open and curious mind, which is the best starting point
for learning to happen.
What Is The Market Opportunity For AR/VR In Edtech Space?
The education sector is forecast to spend more than $6 Bn annually on
augmented and virtual reality technologies by 2023, said Simulanis’
Talwar. “Funding for the technologies remains a major hurdle to
adoption, but price points for equipment are dropping rapidly, according
to a new market forecast from ABI Research,†he added.
Another report, “Augmented and Virtual Reality in Education,†added
that the market for augmented reality in education will hit $5.3 Bn in
2023, with the market for virtual reality head-mounted displays trailing
at $640 Mn.
Further, as Playshifu’s Goyal highlighted, anything that comes at a
relatively low cost is a big win for the schools. “As AR/VR hardware and
experiences hit sub-$300 price point in the next five years, we
anticipate a wave of mass adoption,†he said.
Ralhan also indicates towards the role AR/VR will be playing in
building future workforce. The government plans on building the first
augmented-reality based skill training center in IIT (Banaras Hindu
University) in Varanasi. Furthermore, since AR applications can work on
most modern smartphones, students do not have to spend extra money on
devices.
“Such initiatives call for more active participation from AR solution
providers in India such as Simulanis, Hedgehog Lab, IndiaNIC Infotech
Limited, Hyperlink InfoSystem, Chetu, Plutomen, and Intellify,†added
Ralhan.
AR/VR Trends, According To Edtech Startups
Classrooms in the future will not look like they do today. Founders
believe that AR will see a prominent push in the next 3 to 5 years in
India, and most schools will have dedicated tools. Higher education will
see faster adoption for AR and VR tools, given that the technology is
already present in such institutions.
India being the second-largest consumer of mobile phones (nearly 800
million) AR/VR offers students the flexibility to access educational
content seamlessly across devices. It could also open an opportunity for
social collaboration and spatial communication in a room-scale
environment, where teachers can teach students remotely, and students
can collaborate on various interactive and immersive experiences.
As the saturation point for regular school content is reached, more
companies would start focussing on the vocational training using AR/VR
content and simulations, in addition to the regular K-12. While these
applications are at a nascent stage currently, the central government is
working on promoting digital learning and improving teaching standards.
The Existing Gaps In AR/VR Adoption In Education?
Skillveri’s Nair highlighted a crucial challenge for AR/VR startups here. “These
technologies have to be seen as a means to an end, instead of an end in
itself. A framework is to be used to decide if a particular content or
concept will be better delivered through AR/VR, instead of mindlessly
applying the technology for everything,†he told Inc42.
The biggest barrier is the lack of knowledge about AR/VR across the
education ecosystem. Additionally, the existing curriculum has a proven
record of its efficacy, whereas AR/VR, being a new technology, still
needs approval by the school management hierarchy involving teachers,
and principals.
“The decision-making process should be streamlined in such a way that
relevant information about new tools are collected, experimented and
finally deployed to provide unprecedented learning opportunities to the
students,†said Talwar.
Here are some other existing challenges in the sector, according to entrepreneurs:
Cultural Diversity: For a country as diverse as
India — in terms of social, economic, linguistic, and cultural
conditions—like India, making a uniform and standardised AR-enabled
school curriculum is difficult. Unless private firms bring the costs
down and make content more region-specific, state governments will not
give adequate subsidy in the purchase and distribution of learning
material, or bring AR support to schools.
Learning Capacity Variance: Despite the fact that AR
is made to be self-learning with comprehensive guidelines for
first-time learners, not all students have the same learning capacity or
grasping potential. Therefore, adequate educator training is also very
important in AR.
Financial Constraints: State-run schools far
outnumber private schools in India. The majority of these schools have
severe financial constraints, so public-private partnerships can help
these schools to re-establish themselves to become part of the new
revolution in the teaching-learning process.
Lack Of Technical Know-How: AR/VR isn’t simple or
intuitive for first timers. There are regions in India where computer
skills are missing among teachers and students. So VR developers should
keep in mind about tech illiterate population for VR to truly shine in
education circle.
Shallow or Inadequate Learning Content: While VR
content developers have more recently gained prominence, most learning
content is not deep enough to have an impact or borders on the
cartoonish or childish. It’s hard to create the diversity of content
required for all kinds of learners. And most founders believe it will
take a long time to bring relevant VR content for all use-cases.
The Evolution Of Edtech Innovation
India is on the brink of an evolution in its education ecosystem.
This is perhaps the most exciting and disruptive stage of this sector
and innovators are ready to redesign the future of learning.
2020 is expected to be the start of a new era in online learning,
with edtech creating big waves. Learning and schools will incorporate
concepts of global collaboration, personalised learning, simulations,
AI, real-world learning systems, mobile classrooms and immersive
learning experiences.
As Ajit K. Chauhan, chairman, Amity University Online and Amity
Future Academy told us with an influx of educational technologies it is
very likely that the future years will see further integration of
blockchain, cloud computing, AR/VR, collaborative learning and edge
computing.
“Artificial intelligence is emerging as an integral part of the
eLearning ecosystem. We see several AI educational solutions coming to
the fore. It is predicted that AI can fill the need-gaps in learning and
teaching. It is expected to broaden the purview of schools and
teachers.â€
Posted in betterU Education Corp | Comments Off on The Future Of #Edtech And Learning In India From An AR/VR Lens SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 10:56 AM on Tuesday, December 31st, 2019
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
The Major Edtech Trends In 2020, According To VCs In India
Indians spend tens of billions on education every year
With disposable incomes continuing to rise, there is a massive prize for the startups that achieve success in this space
According to Anirudh Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture Fund, the key to success for an edtech startup will be to sell directly, thereby keeping a short feedback loop
India, being one of the youngest countries in the world and boasting a
rapidly-growing startup ecosystem, offers a widely untapped opportunity
for many sectors, both locally and globally. Venture capitalists have
gravitated to the Indian market in great numbers in the past decade to
pour capital into this opportunity, pushing startups towards scalability
in every sector. Edtech is no different, and in recent years, this
sector has become one of the biggest opportunities for tech startups in
the Indian context.
As Unitus Ventures’ senior associate Sunitha Viswanathan told Inc42,
the large market of close to 250 Mn students in the K-12 segment and
over 10 Mn youth graduating every year mean that India is the land of
massive potential for edtech disruption.
“Given the huge lopsided teacher: student ratio, this can only be
solved by using tech. Hence, there is a necessity more than a choice.
And rightly so,†she added.
While we spoke to edtech startups about the trends
they expect to observe in 2020, we also wanted to take the VC view and
what they expect from the ecosystem in the new year. What will be the
factors that make or break edtech startups in 2020.
Factors For Success In Edtech
Indians spend tens of billions on education every year. With
disposable incomes continuing to rise, there is a massive prize for the
startups that achieve success in this space. According to Anirudh Damani,
managing partner, Artha Venture Fund, the key to success for an edtech
startup will be to sell directly, thereby keeping a short feedback loop.
“That will allow them to innovate faster, adapt, and cater to their
end-user requirements quicker. Therefore, in my opinion, selling
directly to end-users is the key to creating success in the edtech
space,†he added.
Sajith Pai,
director, Blume Ventures further said that the increased focus on
regional language learning and data analytics will play an important
role in the success of edtech startups in 2020, just like it did in
2019.
Edtech’s Focus On Increasing User Adoption In 2020
Omkar Kulkarni,
the head of GMC Calibrator (Gray Matters Capital’s Digital Accelerator
Program, suggests four areas that edtech startups in India need to focus
on in the near future:
Gain engagement by learning insights through user behaviour analytics
Highlighting common user patterns to improve product and monetisation at early stage
Cut reliance on digital marketing to reach out to users
Deliver content through a human-centric design process to increase engagement
Blume’s Pai further added that products that teach with a mix of
technology and human intervention will be able to generate faster
adoption while keeping costs low and scalability high.
“Also, college admissions and employability are becoming highly
competitive and thus big stress points for parents and students. Thus,
education platforms that can create FOMO among students (or parents) –
either by having a large number of students on board or by having the best students onboard, attract more customer adoption faster,†Pai told Inc42.
Pranjal Kumar,
CFO and head of Education Fund at Bertelsmann, believes that being
outcome focussed i.e. credentials, test results, job placements etc will
deliver a higher chance of success for edtech startups. “High-quality
product with high average-order-value and the right balance of online
and offline, depending on the target learner and segment of education
should be the focus in the near future for edtech startups.â€
7 Trends For Indian VCs In Edtech In 2020
Indian edtech startups are currently focussing on all fronts — B2B,
B2C, B2B-B2C and C2C. The most prominent sub-sectors have been test
preparation, online certification, skill development, online discovery,
STEAM kits, and enterprise solution among others.
According to Datalabs by Inc42, in terms of
the number of unique edtech businesses funded between January 2014 and
September 2019, skill development-focused startups have been the most
preferred. However, capital inflows into the test preparation and online
certification segments are comparatively higher. Together, these two
sub-sectors make up for 91% of the total funding in edtech startups.
This shows an imbalance in terms of business models in the Indian edtech
ecosystem.
However, according to Bertelsmann’s Kumar, a few more models are
expected to see a lot of innovation in the near future. He said
bootcamps with or without job assurance, higher education, online
programme management models, K-12 tutoring will be huge markets and are
currently starved of quality teaching both in curricular as well as
co-curricular subject.
Here’s what VCs told us to expect in 2020.
Skilling Startups
The pace of change in technology continues to accelerate. Therefore,
education is no longer just the standard 12+4+2 experience. There’s a
need for continuous education that will re-skill or up-skill the workers
of today for the challenges of tomorrow. Startups that provide
platforms to teach, train, and engage the working population to improve
their skills will do very well.
AI Transformation
AI in edtech can help understand better how learning actually
happens. If we can understand how one learns the steps in quadratic
equations, then this can be used in classrooms by teachers to deliver it
more effectively. This will help define pedagogy more tightly
OTT Educators
Even though we hear a lot of buzzwords like artificial intelligence,
virtual reality and blockchain, it is the exponential increase in
viewership of the likes of TikTok, YouTube and other OTT platforms that
will see a trend of content creators delivering educational content on
OTT platforms to improve discoverability, reach and scale.
Parents To Invest More
Another challenge for edtech platforms is the cost aspect for
families. As far as high school education is concerned, VCs see parents
getting more accustomed to spending on tech products for cognitive
learning as well as a change in focus of parents from traditional
curriculum to 21st-century skills.
Unbundling Of Education
Don’t hope for an edtech superapp. Venture capitalists see startups
providing customers (students and teachers) specific standalone services
(test prep, counselling, professional and vocational training among
others) rather than a combined / bundled product which does it all.
Vernacular Learning
Just over 10% of India’s population can speak English. To build large
businesses that can capture greater value, incorporating vernacular
learning is key. As seen in the OTT, media and entertainment space,
regional language learning will be one of the biggest trends in 2020,
according to the VCs that Inc42 spoke to.
Learning for ‘Yearning’
Learning programmes that cater to non-professional interests, or those that work with passion projects and hobbies will see an uptick according to investors. These may or may not lead to employment-related outcomes, but will be about holistic individual skill development, which will be critical for the edtech ecosystem as well as startups at large.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 12:30 PM on Monday, December 30th, 2019
SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp.
aims to provide access to quality education from around the world.
The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job
industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing
an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.
Entrepreneurs experiment as edtech catches on in India
The need for online intervention has existed for a long time in India, but it’s in the last two years that edtech has scaled up
Edtech has proved to be a slippery slope for entrepreneurs in the past, but 2020 may offer a vision of new horizons
BENGALURU : Chirag Arya comes from a family of
teachers. Now the Georgia Tech graduate is building a “digital
classroom” called PaperVideo, which he launched a few months back.
There are big players in this space, including the unicorn Byju’s
that offers courses from kindergarten to class XII as well as for
competitive exams. Another Bengaluru-based startup Vedantu, catering to
middle and high school students, raised $42 million in a funding round
led by Tiger Global in August. Unacademy, which is also based in
Bengaluru and focuses on competitive exams, had a $50 million funding
round in June.
But Arya feels there remains huge scope for entrepreneurs to
experiment with new technology and design to make online learning more
engaging and effective in such a massive, underserved market.
India has the largest population in the age group of five to 24, with
250 million school-going students, according to the India Brand Equity
Foundation, a government trust.
The poor standard of school education, with a scarcity of good
teachers, also makes a case for online resources. The Annual Status of
Education report for 2018 found that three out of five eighth-graders in
India struggle with simple math, such as subtraction.
One of the ways PaperVideo hopes to make a difference is by using
machine learning to track a student’s activity on the portal.
“Technology can give actionable insights to students and teachers on
skill gaps they need to close,” explains Arya. “We can then create
question sets, explanations and videos very quickly for concept-based
learning.”
DIFFERENTIATION IS KEY
Apart from adaptive learning, a key area for differentiation is the
way that content is delivered to raise the engagement level of students,
doing away with the force-feeding usually associated with study. “The
concepts remain the same, but we’ve done a lot of A/B testing to see how
to present them in a way that students can relate to and retain,” says
Arya.
The need for online intervention has existed for a long time in
India, but it’s in the last two years that edtech has scaled up. This is
reflected in the $1.1 billion that edtech startups in India raised in
2018 and 2019, compared to a little over half a billion dollars in the
previous three years, according to data from Tracxn. One of the main
reasons for the uptick is internet penetration.
“Due to the Jio effect, a large number of people are now on the
internet. That has made it more feasible for edtech companies to scale
than in the past,” says Rutvik Doshi, managing director of VC firm
Inventus. An Inventus portfolio startup, Funtoot, which provides online
tutorials for personalised learning in science and maths, recently got
acquired by Mumbai-based Embibe, which was itself acquired last year by
Reliance. The Mukesh Ambani conglomerate had committed an investment of
$180 million to scale up Embibe, and its acquisitions are a part of that
effort.
Most of the edtech tools in India are outcome-oriented to improve
grades, crack exams or get certifications. Doshi sees that as a natural
offshoot of the market.
“Your marks in school determine where you will do college, and your
marks in college decide what kind of job you end up doing. That part of
India is unlikely to change in the near future. So the primary focus of
any kind of intervention has to be outcome-driven for mass-scale
adoption,” says Doshi.
Where the differentiation comes is in the nature of intervention.
Polish edtech startup Brainly, for example, claims that 20 million of
its 150 million users are in India within a year of its launch in this
country. It’s a crowd-sourced platform where students and teachers post
questions and get answers. Like many other edtech startups, it uses a
freemium model where paying users get special features or freedom from
ads.
FINDING TAKERS ABROAD
The reverse is also happening, where Indian startups find takers
abroad for edtech tools in tune with holistic learning. Bengaluru-based
Quizizz, for example, finds that the largest number of adopters of its
multiplayer quiz game is in US middle schools.
Gurugram-based Studypath has a game-based learning product called
Splash Math for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. It claims to be the
fastest-growing elementary math programme in the US with a presence in
77,000 schools.
Another emerging area is corporate training. MindTickle, which had a
$40 million funding round in July, doubled its revenue this year by
notching up clients like Ola, Cloudera, and MongoDB. Its platform
coaches sales reps with simulated scenarios and gamified lessons.
Edtech has proved to be a slippery slope for entrepreneurs in the past, but 2020 may offer a vision of new horizons.