Business

It’s Classic! A Class At A Click!

The internet was always expected to foster learning. The Age of the Autodidact is here.

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It’s Classic! A Class At A Click!
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Time: 2:17 a.m. Sunday morning

Q: Hello, I’m Vibhu, student ID 16748. I’m having trouble getting around differential equations.

A: Hello. Please find a list of instructors available for the subject and confirm. They will be with you shortly.

This has become a commonplace interaction happening in India on online education platforms, which have mushroomed in the last couple of years. Round the clock, students are tapping online platforms for solutions, courses and to seek clarity on problems. There are no limits as far as age, interests, reason for learning are concerned: there are junior schoolers, high-schoolers, pre-collegers, college goers and even working professionals, either taking full courses or logging on for short-term ones. And a vast variety of e-education companies is changing how, when, what, and even why, we learn. The student may be in Meghalaya and her tutor in Bangalore, the internet has shrunk distances and help is available 24/7.

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E-education firms are looking to change the typical institutional model of learning—it’s all interactive, and tutors have become far more responsive; so called “silly doubts” can be solved even without a teacher. The advantages of the new model of learning are so many that even schools and colleges are adopting elements of this model to rei­nforce traditional lectures and labwork.

Education is a sector ripe for reform. The biggest difference, of course, is being made by massive online open courses (MOOCs). Some of the best universities, including MIT, have put up their entire courses, inc­luding videographed lectures, online for anyone to access. And indeed, people across the world are accessing them—from students who need to clear exams and oldies looking to learn and keep their minds sharp. As Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX, one of the largest MOOCs says, “There’s more demand for these online courses than what traditional classrooms offer.”

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“The modern classroom hasn’t changed significantly since it came into being some 400 years ago,” says Samir Bhattacharjee, general manager at Vidyanext, a seven-year-old outfit offering personalised coac­hing for board exams and school-going children. He makes a comparison­-cum-claim, saying their “combination of tools, process, data and content can potentially disrupt the massive after-school tuition market at a similar, if not larger, scale than Uber’s disruption of the taxi market.”

Claims aside, numbers point to a piechart share growing larger by the day. Online market research firm Technavio predicts a combined annual growth rate of 22.05 per cent during 2016-20 for the Indian e-education market. There are a lot of vendors working with students across age-brackets. Coursera, one of the largest online education markets, pegs India as the third largest market, behind the US and China.

Another player in this space is UpGrad, run by Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, who are looking to bridge the ind­ustry-academia divide with practical app­lications of theories catering to working professionals. They offer courses that help someone like, say 24-year-old Shashi Singh, who finished a course in online marketing after a regular BBA degree. “It brings you up to speed with the industry,” says Singh. Even with 80 per cent of its clients with more than three years of work experience, Mayank believes that we are just “scratching the surface” of online education. He says there are only 25 million Indians currently pursuing higher education, as against the desirable 160 million.

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There are others too who believe that rea­ltime interaction is equally important and have a hybrid model in place. Launched in 2013, GeNext provides notes to students for board examinations while also connecting students and tutors. Says Ali Asgar Kagzi, a co-founder of GeNext, “The aim is to help parents search for and connect with the best tutor in their vicinity.”

Another platform is Testbook, which aims to help those sweating over the Bank PO or IBPS examinations, both for those seeking employment in banks. Started by six IIT grads, it appeals more to Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Ashutosh, a co-founder, says that while some of their target towns have “low internet penetration and lack of infrastructure”, Testbook take education to them, venturing into “murkier offline trenches” via offline centres and cash cards to add accessibility for consumers.

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There is some learning that’s necessitated by change or travel and there is also the growing need for non-academic learning. When Nishant Patni found it difficult to order food in China, he realised that many such knowledge vacuums existed and were a business opportunity. His Culture Alley, born in 2012, aims to capitalise on this. One of their apps, Hello English, helps learn the language from 16 base languages, including Malay, Indonesian, Arabic, Hindi and Tamil. The app, he says, went viral in 2014 and now has 15 million subscribers.

Embibe, a start-up with content for 18 competitive examinations, including the JEE and AIPMT, seeks to eliminate problems that aspirants face. Its co-founder, 33-year-old Aditi Avasthi, believes that “personalised education gets you more”. While everyone has put their content out for a price, Embibe encourages students to solve more puzzles. Students earn ‘Embibe currency’ for such extensive engagement and this unlocks exclusive content. The more hungry and impatient can pay for the content if needed and it’s what Embibe rel­ies on to sustain itself. It’s their little bit for democratising knowledge.

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That lofty goal, says Pramath Raj Sinha, Co-Founder & MD, Ashoka University, is still a work-in-progress. “People are still experimenting with it. More content is coming from India, on the kind of topics Indians relate to, and this has the potential to expand the industry manifold,” he says. He also points to the problem of low completion rates for some courses and says a new model might emerge that will address this problem.

Public intellectual Shiv Visvanathan still isn’t convinced. He believes that online is only a component of the learning process and should be used to “economise”, bec­ause a combination of oral, textual and digital learning, he thinks, is more desirable. “There’s still room for the classic and the smell of the book in the library,” he says.

Says edX’s Agarwal, “We do see MOOCs as enriching college courses through blended learning and hybrid courses.” While most agree that internet penetration is better now, some say that “changing consumer behaviour is difficult”. Bhatia, however, feels  quality and rigour will ens­ure that students return. GeNext’s Kagzi says people still are hesitant about paying online subscriptions. Despite all that, onl­ine learning is changing formal education and the learning process. As Sinha puts it, “And it’s not even bigtime yet.” 

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