Agoracom Blog Home

Archive for the ‘betterU Education Corp’ Category

How #Edtech became personalised in the 2010s SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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

By Zishaan Hayath

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 classes”. 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.

Source: http://www.forbesindia.com/article/vision-2020/how-edtech-became-personalised-in-the-2010s/57109/1

2020 vision: #Edtech in 2020 with John Ingram SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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.

Source: https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/vision-2020-edtech-in-2020-with-john-ingram/

Matrix Partners backs #Edtech startup #Toddle SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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.

By: Sanghamitra Kar

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.

Source: https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/matrix-partners-backs-edtech-startup-toddle/73257867

Top #edtech trends to rule India’s virtual learning space in 2020 SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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.

Source: https://www.how2shout.com/technology/top-edutech-trends-to-rule-indias-virtual-learning-space-in-2020.html

How #Edtech Can Fill Gaps In Quality Education In Tier-3 Cities? SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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

by Divya Jain

While there is some merit to heeding to your relatives’ advice of devoting more time to “self-study”, 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.

Source: http://www.businessworld.in/article/How-Edtech-Can-Fill-Gaps-In-Quality-Education-In-Tier-3-Cities-/11-01-2020-181523/

#Edtech Unicorn Byju’s Gets $200 Mn From Tiger Global SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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.”

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.

Related Article: Edtech Unicorn BYJU’S Revamps ESOPs Plan For Employees

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.”

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.

Source: https://inc42.com/buzz/edtech-unicorn-byjus-gets-200-mn-funding-from-tiger-global/

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 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.

By: Meha Agarwal

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.

Related Article: Gaja Capital Bets $25 Mn On Edtech Company Educational Initiatives

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.”

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.

Source: https://inc42.com/features/the-major-edtech-trends-in-2020-according-to-vcs-in-india/

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 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.

By: Meha Agarwal

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.

  1. Boosts Learning Retention
  2. Personalised Learning Experiences
  3. Increases Possibilities Of Experimentation
  4. Reduces Reliance On Learning By Rote
  5. Empowering Educators And Learners
  6. 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.

Related Article: Current Reality Of Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality In Indian Market

Highly Personalised Learning Experiences

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.”

Source: https://inc42.com/features/what-is-the-future-of-edtech-and-learning-in-india-from-an-ar-vr-lens/

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 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

By: Meha Agarwal

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.

Related Article: Gaja Capital Bets $25 Mn On Edtech Company Educational Initiatives

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.”

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.

Source: https://inc42.com/features/the-major-edtech-trends-in-2020-according-to-vcs-in-india/

Entrepreneurs experiment as #Edtech catches on in India SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

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

By: Malavika Velayanikal

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.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/