Digital Education in Schools and Online (Internet) in India

Nobody denies that education is the key to improve standard of living in a society. Not just talks but there is a lot of action around education ecosystem in India.

Right to education enactment is going to bring education to the poorer masses. Government, on their part, apart from running public schools, supports mid-day-meal schemes through public-private partnerships in many places.

Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are bringing enough change in society through positive contributions to education domain. Distribution of computers and volunteers from corporates teaching kids in rural areas, has brought smiles to many a people's faces.

Non-Government and Non-Profit Organizations are providing a helping hand to educate the folks in rural areas.

The emphasis is more on primary and secondary education as there is a huge school drop-out during school education. Private schools are able to apply the technology better and make a difference. Companies like Educomp and EveronnSystems have brought technology to the classrooms and re-inventing the way subjects are taught in the school. Extensive use of audio-visual aids, especially the animated content, helps student visualize and remember the concepts much better.

Tutions, which are meant to support certain students in their areas of weaknesses have become commonplace. They have become similar to schools in terms of operations and management. There is no comfort and convenience for students who attend these tuitions, as the work load has only increased. With this background, many websites have evolved for online learning- tutorvista, meritnation, extramarks and learningnext. These sites provide extensive study material and online assessment modules, which help students to prepare themselves in chosen subjects of their class, at their own pace. Most of these sites offer modules that are packaged and available for purchase online marking an era of e-commerce in education in India. There are sites which offer online tutoring service as well.

I happened to watch the meritnation advertisement in TV, which prompted me to write on this topic. Their site includes student material for both CBSE and ICSE boards and relate to the school curriculum of these boards. They seem to offer lot of personality improvement tests as well, which includes testing aptitude, skills and interests.

Personally, I prefer that students learn all fundamentals effectively at school and the rest throughout life from books, Internet, social interactions and travel. But the access to wonderful content through any means - TV, Radio or Internet (even through subscriptions like in case of meritnation) - can never be discounted.

With the evolution of personal gadgets (smartphones and tablets) and communication technologies, education in schools and on the Internet is going to change forever in not so distant future !

E-Commerce India : Learning Assessment Online with fun

Kids get introduced to quite a few topics in the school and outside. It is important for parents and teachers to ensure that what they learn is reinforced from time-to-time. Typical way of assessment in the schools is through exams at the end of month, quarter or year. What if there is an opportunity to quickly check their learning progress in fun way in between? Mybeehive provides a platform for such e-assessment.

There are courses in english and mathematics meant for nursery to grade 6 students. These modules reinforce the learning in academics and does not seem to substitute tuitions. Parents can buy specific modules and help their wards take the basic quiz in their chosen course. The results can be reviewed to check the progress of the individual student. Incremental progress would help the student advance to the next level with strong foundation. There are lots of other interesting elements in the site including games and stories. Parents can even buy worksheets, which they can download and print, to engage the kids in a meaningful way.

When I was doing my engineering, we had annual system and the exams were conducted only at the end of the year. I wish a system like mybeehive.in existed way back then !

Professional exams at a higher level are also going completely online these days. One such case is the Common Admission Test (CAT) for MBA aspirants. Obviously, there were hiccups in the beginning, but the sailing seems to be smooth now. Similarly, with the advent of e-assessment platforms like mybeehive, I guess the stage is getting set for any exam to be conducted online ! If kids can take these fun learning assessment online, why can't 10th class, PUC and degree students?

E-Commerce India - All School Stuff

School was fun (or so everyone realizes after completing school) ! At the beginning of the year, before going to school, buying all the things necessary was even more fun. We used to go to the shop, check-out only necessary items and buy a few among them which are mandatory. The stuff we buy, we used to keep them for years - like school bag, lunch box and water bottle. Father gets all the stationery either from office or from shop. Sports and games are played in school as well as in the colony in evenings and holidays. Toys are for toddlers but playing is all outside with other kids. Running around, inventing games, learning about relationships, shouting, negotiations, supporting under-dogs, team playing, was all part of playing with the kids around. I believe that is the genesis of leadership from that generation. Art and craft is typically restricted to Socially Useful and Productive Work (SUPW) class in the school.

Cut to 2012, kids love to have personalized gadgets, which can allow them to play a new game everyday. The Gen Y are born with Computers, Internet and iPhones around. The accessories required while going to a school have increased by leaps and bounds. This demand has obviously led to myriad suppliers of different items meant for school - books, art, craft, stationery, sports, furniture, gifts and toys. Some of those items are required at home, while others are required at parties and play. Add the dimension of brands to these items, and you would have a jungle of all the school stuff !

Online world is supporting purchase of all this school stuff. One such site I came across is http://www.allschoolstuff.com. I can buy even pencils, adhesives and erasers here ! But what annoyed me in some of the sections was the 'sold out' words splashed across certain items. If Nataraj pencils are sold out (I am sure he meant at that price), I would probably not visit him in the near future, until urgency demands otherwise.

The site seems to offer almost all the kids stuff for purchase with typical e-commerce capabilities - different payment mechanisms including CoD, easy returns, customer support numbers and loads of promotions.

I guess if parents start ordering online, kids would get an impression that it is easy to GET things online ! That's a challenge brought with the convenience of e-commerce :-)

Job connection between Academia and Industry in India

I always wonder about how the students in tier-2 and tier-3 colleges seek job opportunities and make a career. With government focusing on higher education, colleges have mushroomed in India and the order of students is 10 lakhs and 4 lakhs approximately per year in engineering and management streams! Would all those students who 'successfully' pass-out of these colleges get employed?

There are so many job portals in India now. The number of resumes available in any of these portals at any point in time would only be in multiple millions. But who are these members applying for jobs? Does everyone in this repository really get placed through them? I guess not. If that is the case, how would so many offline Human Resource (HR) Agencies survive? Anyways, the opportunities showcased to colleges in either case are nothing special. There are always umpteen restrictions from companies during the placement - should have secured more than 70% throughout the career, should have passed-out only in last one year and must be fluent in at least one non-Indian language (yes, I made this up :-). The process with these online or offline touch-points does not prepare students enough to enter the Industry.

CoCubes (derived from 'Connecting Colleges Companies') precisely fulfills this need - http://www.cocubes.com. It provides a technology platform to help placement cell in a college (and apparently students in these colleges) find suitable jobs with companies. It enables companies to register on one side and students from registered colleges follow these companies. The companies can showcase their potential in the form of news, articles and photo gallery. The platform helps conduct online tests also to screen the students for an organization. The system clearly brings the students (especially in tier-3) closer to the Industry and helps the companies to seek authentic and high potential candidates easily. I wish CoCubes also offers Internships like in case of LetsIntern, which would provide opportunities for students from a broader perspective.

In the current ecosystem, all the participants in the platform - colleges, companies and students - benefit extensively. Should this collaboration between academia and industry exist only in terms of 'job opportunities'? I believe there must be strong ties between these entities to foster continued Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the two pillars of a thriving economy ! What do you think?

Looking for a tutor or trainer in India?

Kids are enthusiastic to pursue extra-curricular activities outside the school these days in India. Parents are also encouraging them to get involved in meaningful activities during vacations. Typical activities include learning dance, a musical instrument or even swimming. Kids attending summer camps in April-June time-frame is commonplace in tier-1 and tier-2 cities in India. It is always a challenge to find a tutor for these activities in a given location.

Thanks to Thinkvidya team (http://thinkvidya.com), this search is made easy with technology now. One can find tutors or trainers supporting dance, music, swimming, languages, sports and many other activities across multiple locations in India. It is not just for kids, students can look for help with respect to competitive exam preparation (IIT-JEE, CAT etc) and elders can seek trainers for Yoga, Languages and Photography. One can look for a tutor based on age, gender, experience, hourly rate and other relevant parameters.

If you are a trainer / tutor, you can even register for free and seek students.

Now I can find a trainer to teach me keyboard instrument and at the same time register as a mentor for Entrepreneurship :-)

Online Tutoring from India

I had less tensions in my childhood as I never had any tuitions outside the classroom. But I think regular studies can be supplemented with these tuitions to enrich education. Even Jawaharlal Nehru had private tutoring instead of regular classes only to grow as a statesman !

With the help of technology, education is reaching far and wide across the globe. TutorVista - http://tutorvista.com - is one such service online, provided from India. The specialists in the fields of Maths, Science and English are able to teach students in advanced countries like USA and UK over the Internet. The teachers in India work on part-time basis and just need a computer with Internet connection and headset / microphone on his / her side. The online software supports whiteboard with digital pen, using which the teacher and student can write and view the same on screens on either end. There is a chat window for quick text based communication also. The entire setup mimics the class-room session except that the teacher and student are not face to face.

If you are interested to work part-time and have a post-graduate degree in one of the required areas, you can apply for online tutor role.

I wonder what it takes to provide a similar education service in India to supplement the right-to-education act. After all, the policies need to be supported with pragmatic programs on ground.

It's interesting to note that Mr. Ganesh who started Tutorvista sold it to Pearson Education for Rs.1000 crore (yes, one thousand crores and I heard it from the horse's mouth). He is also one of the key investors in online groceries business through bigbasket.com (http://bigbasket.com).

Students and Internships

Way back in 90's, when I was in college, 'Internship' was not a well-known term. Especially in engineering colleges in tier-3 cities, this was unheard of. The break between years / semesters was used mainly to catch-up on movies along with friends or eat more mangoes if it is summer. There were very few options that could help students get industry experience. The final year projects done were more academic in nature subjected to the experience and exposure of the 'guide' during that period.

In the modern times, technology (IT) brings students closer to the Industry. http://letsintern.com is one such site, where students can register and look-out for Internships. On the other hand, companies can post their Intern requirements and also chose Interns. The students can even get paid for the Internships. I could see Internships related to Marketing, Content Writing, Software Engineering, Social Media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the like. I wish this industry academia collaboration is taken to the next level.

I should soon be posting for Internships in my company on this site :-)

Engineering, Medical and Management Colleges in India

If I want to pursue engineering, what are the options I have to study in India? How do I know about colleges in my city-of-liking or in a particular region in India? How would I know about the faculty in that college, infrastructure and tuition fees to fulfill my dream?

Way back in 1990s, when there was brain-drain, people used to have better idea about the college education in USA, UK and Australia than in India. Thanks to technology and few persistent entrepreneurs, the situation is going to change in India forever. Check out http://indiacollegesearch.com. You would be amazed at the  information that is being put-up about each of the engineering, medical and management institutes in India. You can get all the latest information about these colleges (1000+ engineering, 300+ medical and 1400+ management colleges), shortlist them based on your preferences and even send your profiles to them.

Heard that they received enough venture capital recently and hopefully this should help them pursue their ambition to support dreams of youth in India.

Though government has setup so many committees to figure out ways to improve school / college education (who doled out mere statistics), the real innovation in terms of taking higher-education to the critical mass is coming from private industry.