India's Most Creative
E-LEARNING
Companies to watch
2020 |Volume- 09 | Issue- 01
Editor’s Note TEACHERS, THE FULCRUM OF E-LEARNING Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important
Bill Gates
I
f you think being a parent is tough, try being a teacher. Managing tiny tots or teenagers or adolescents, trying to make them listen to you and making sure that they learn from each interaction is, well, tough. To teach, a teacher must keep learning as well and keep themselves updated with the latest in not just their ďŹ eld of specialization but the educational sector as well. When E-learning made a splash in the educational sector, many people thought, including teachers themselves, it will dispel the needs of a real-teacher. Maybe that is why many were hesitant to give it a shot, go online and try e-learning methods to teach. And then came the pandemic. So, the summer breaks in India turned into an online teaching workshop for teachers across the nation and outside it too. Teachers of all age and experience were now trying to adapt to technology to reach the students. But does this mean technology had overpowered traditional classroom learning? Does this mean technology and e-learning alone are enough for students?
Sneha Sinha
Certainly not. A teacher, as always, is required to guide the students. They are needed to help students filter and navigate through the immense sea of information at their fingertip. They are required to help students make sense of the flashy images, the texts that scroll past in a hurry, and also how to use the tools that promise the learning process to be easy and fun. A teacher is required for all this and more. Technology and human intelligence, when come together, can create magic. This is what teachers can do on e-learning platforms. Their experience and human touch, combined with the quality and relevant curriculum that e-learning platforms can help students with not just studies, but life. In this edition, we present India’s Most Creative E-Learning Companies to Watch that are making the lives of teachers easier and of students, enriched. Combining the best of technology and teaching methodologies, these companies are making learning fun, interactive and experiential.
The edition features byteXL, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform which caters to a huge number of students on its platform, The Actuary Intern, which provides Virtual Actuarial Internship Program in Health Insurance and The Moonshot, a company that was started to reach out to lesser penetrated layers of the Indian education sector and offer them an opportunity to secure themselves financially through its proprietary programs. Through an insightful article, Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Learning Matters, shares her views on How Voice Technology with AI will Reshape Education. We hope you enjoy reading this edition as we did while curating it!
Ea
rly S
ala
ry
10
in
n tio
a
rm sfo
ran T l ita g i s s f D ding o e a c c Er y Len n u a e s in Mon s g t h rin and e g h i s h s U n Tec I n Fi th
i w w
e rvi
e
Int
d E e tur
Fu
20 In F oc
us
p
Ap ta
n Ye
30
Ho w AI Voic wil e T l Re ec sha hno pe log Ed y w uca ith tio n
CONTENTS Bytexl Preparing a New Generation of Coders
22
12
The Actuary Intern Jumpstart your Career
The Moonshot Better Learning, Better Possibilities
16
ARTICLES
28 24
Learning Made Fun
Learning Trends
GamiďŹ cation: The new Modus Operandi
Bringing E-Learning to Life through Interaction
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal
sales@insightssuccess.com
Managing Editor Sneha Sinha
September, 2020
Quality Assurance Team Abhishaj Sajeev Shruti Jambhale Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Asha Bange Art & Picture Editor Karan Gaikwad Co-designer Priyanka Rajage Sr. Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Manager Nandan Deshpande Business Development Lead Tejaswini Whaval Sr. Business Development Executive Kirti Vidhate Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant
Corporate OfďŹ ces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off. No. 22 & 510, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
Digital Marketing Manager Amol Wadekar SME-SMO Executive Atul Dhoran Circulation Manager Tanaji
Cover Price : RS. 150/Follow us on :
www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/
https://twitter.com/insightssuccess
We are also available on Copyright Š 2020 Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd., All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success. Printed and Published by Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. RNI NUMBER: MAHENG/2018/75953
Subscribe Today Stay in touch.
Subscribe to Insightssuccess Get Insightssuccess Magazine in print, & digital on www.insightssuccess.in
www.insightssuccess.in
Cheque should be drawn in favour of : INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA AND TECH PVT. LTD.
CORPORATE OFFICE Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off No. 22 & 510, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017. Phone - India: 020- 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85 USA: 302-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription : www.insightssuccess.in
Ushering in an Era of Digital Transformation in Fin-Tech and Money Lending
E
arlySalary is an innovative lending platform that aims to change the way loans are taken in India. Being a new age online brand, the company brings together new credit scoring systems for superior customer profiling. In an interview with Insights Success, Akshay Mehrotra, the Co-founder and CEO of EarlySalary shares his opinions about the company, the various services it offers, various organizational policies, and its future plans. 1. Kindly tell us how your company is revolutionizing the digital money lending and fin-tech industry in India? EarlySalary is leading the digital salary advance and instant loans space and has gone on to become India’s largest mobile first consumer lending platform for salaried individuals. Currently, disbursing over 80,000 loans a month worth Rs.125 Cr, the company has already disbursed 900,000 loans. EarlySalary aims to achieve full stack credit product portfolio to cater to all customer’s need. They are also focusing on achieving customer engagement from the start of customer’s credit life cycle & growing with their needs. The company also focuses on gaining a highly scalable, tech-enabled automated underwriting & risk management system. EarlySalary successfully went on to become the preferred credit line which grows with their customer to cater to his/her life’s every need by providing: - Instant loan with tenure starting form 1 month to 3 years - Shopping loans on Amazon, Flipkart & Big Bazaar - Present in across 40+ Big Bazaar stores through feet-on-street personnel - Salary card for universal payments - Education fees payments in EMI -100+ tie-ups across the country with education institutes 2. What are the employee benefit programs initiated by your company and what steps are you taking towards employee development of client organizations? EarlySalary started with a team of around 8 people in 2015 and has reached 250 employees today. The company works towards creating a company culture that encourages a healthy work-life balance while giving creative freedom to their
10 | September 2020
www.insightssuccess.in
Interview with Insights Success workforce. Creating a strong, positive corporate culture helps their employees feel and perform their best at work. The success of an early stage company can be measured with their ability to attract talent from all over the world to build a next level organization. EarlySalary is one of those few companies who have been successful in attracting the best in class talent. Moreover, EarlySalary’s participation in corporate programs, where they have now collaborated with around 350 corporates encourages financial wellness at workplace and offers salary-advances to their employees. Along with the millennials, they also aim to benefit the blue-collared and entry-level skilled workers working with the corporates. 3. Please tell us about yourself. As a leader, what steps are you taking to spearhead the company towards development and prominence? I completed my Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. Now I am spearheading EarlySalary along with the Co-Founder Ashish Goyal. Prior to this, I gathered 16 years of experience with brands like Future Retail Ltd, PolicyBazaar.com, Big Bazaar, and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd. My business acumen and attention to detail has assisted me to achieve the “Most Talented CMO of the Year” award in 2013 – 2014 in the retail space, by CMO Asia. In the last few years, I have led EarlySalary through various phases where funding cycles were critical, and came out with flying colors with marquee investors like EightRoads (Fidelity) Ventures, Chirate (IDG) Ventures & DHFL backing large funding rounds. Today EarlySalary has raised not only $23 Million in equity but also raised more than $50 Million in debt to build and over Rs.1500Cr have been disbursed. Growth cannot happen without building a strong team and hence at EarlySalary we have built a team of nearly 250 people comprising of data scientists, core technology developers, risk & underwriting, collections, product and marketing units which has helped them grow in a highly automated manner. Large customer acceptance is critical to any early stage business and today EarlySalary has over 9 Million app downloads, disbursed over 900,000 loans and tied-up with over 400+ large corporates along with 100+ education institutes to help kick start hyper growth. 4. What are the various loan facilities offered by your company, and what is the eligibility criteria for availing the same? The various loans are: Shopping Loans–Instant credit facility of EarlySalary made it easier to shop on EMIs and get vouchers for both Amazon and Flipkart. Whether its electronic appliances or household items - everything is accessible and affordable with our buy now pay later options. www.insightssuccess.in
Travel Loans–EarlySalary doesn’t limit your travel plans with it’s no cost EMIs and partnerships with India’s leading travel agencies - Yatra and MakeMyTrip. Education Loans–EarlySalary shares the same sentiment you do for education - which is why we’re making it easier than ever to cover the cost of fees. Our program called FeEs, is designed to take the financial burden off your shoulders and allow you to provide the quality education you need, uninhibited, and uninterrupted. Eligibility – 1. Should be an Indian Resident 2. Should be a working professional/salaried person 3. Salary should be above Rs 18,000 5. In addition to instant cash loan, what additional benefits does your company provide? EarlySalary is a customer focused organization and our mission is to provide financial assistance to the underserved classes. Consumer lending is fueled by an immense rise in the young working population. Our ability to lend to young first time customers gives us a unique opportunity to create a strong niche and cater to a large underserved market potential. We believe that advisory efforts are required to help the young adults to take control of their finances, and make smart monetary decisions to ensure a prosperous and stable future. With its various product features like free monthly credit score report and providing knowledge through campaigns and on-ground activities, we try to encourage to understand their financial health and setting them on the right path towards making better financial decisions. EarlySalary believes such initiatives will go a long way to help people understand the intricacies of managing their credit well, and also pay a useful role in influencing their financial wellness. 6. Please tell us how your company is promoting a healthy work-life balance and positive work culture. EarlySalary employees can explore various opportunities where they can upskill themselves through various learning platforms and share their best practices at work. Thus creating a strong, positive corporate culture that helps the employees feel and perform their best at work. EarlySalary as an organization is committed to work towards diversity and inclusivity and encourages its employees to contribute towards it in various forms. 7. Kindly enlighten us about the future plans of your company. Our TG of young working professionals is the fastest growing segment in the country and hence we would like to build EarlySalary as a market leader in this category. And in next 3 years, we aim to build a billion dollar balance sheet.
2020 September | 11
byteXL Preparing a New Generation of Coders
e
Learning was introduced to the world at the turn of the century in 1999. While the field was progressing steadily, the turn of this decade has suddenly made it imperative. This year, as we redefine our ways of living and learning, online learning platforms and EdTech Companies have entered a fast-track mode facilitating the changing needs of the current education system.
US-based byteXL, a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform caters to a huge number of students on its platform. One of the advantages that this platform offers is that it can reach to any nook and corner of the country where there is access to the internet and students have a mobile device.
Services industry, byteXL seeks to open the larger canvas of product-based ideology through Learning/Skilling and Upskilling which are integral for both service and Product based companies. byteXL also creates awareness of the IT Career path for students who are interested in careers at Corporate and as Entrepreneurs.” Along with Pavan, at byteXL, he was able to formulate a plan and created a structured learning course for IT programming languages along with steps to create a career path by understanding the skill set of the students. They later partnered with Mr. Raman (Executive director) who has been in the industry for 30+ years helping most of the engineering institutions in India to set up their labs. Byte-sized Solutions
The platform is capable of online self-guided learning and has reading materials, Videos, Hands-on labs, assessments, and discussion boards. Currently, there are 20+ programming languages and the platform also offer instructor-led expert programming in Career tracks like Cloud/DevOps, AI/ML, Full stack Developers, QA Automation, UI and Backend Developers. Bridging the Gap The Founders, Karun Tadepalli (Co-founder & CEO) and Pavan Gorakavi (co-founder & CTO), while working as technology leaders often saw a huge gap in the academic world and IT industry needs. The duo spent a couple of years before starting the company, brainstorming ideas on how they can contribute to improving the productivity and efficiency of early entrants into the IT field. Karun visualized the need for practical and structured learning to reduce the skill gap of the newly hired college grads. He says, “Along with India’s focus area of IT 12 | September 2020
byteXL’s solutions fall under the following categories: Explore – A completely online and self-guided learning platform offering 20+ programming languages. Learning is achieved through reading materials, Videos, Hands-on labs, assessments, and discussion boards. BCAP – A 2-3 years comprehensive program for all engineering students to get trained in Foundation, advanced level courses and Expert track in the chosen career track. The trained students are also provided with Placement support, Resume preparation, Soft Skills prep, CRT and Coding challenges. Entrepreneurship Program – It is a six-month comprehensive Academic Incubation program for 3rd/4th year engineering students from CSE/IT/ECE branches. It offers skill training and product forming guidance in emerging technologies. Workshops are conducted on business basics, and writing business plans, leadership skills, presentation skills, business etiquette and more. www.insightssuccess.in
IA'S MOS T
e
IND
CREATIVE
LEARNING COMPANIES TO WATCH
“
byteXL is an experiential IT skilling platform with learning and skilling as primary focus which helps students to plan his career by choice rather than by chance
“
Karun Tadepalli Co-founder & CEO
Key Differentiators
Renovate and Reinvent
byteXL’s 2-3 years program is augmented to the engineering curriculum, focused on a career path like AI/ML, Cloud/DevOps and Full stack development and more tailor-made to the needs of the IT industry. This is a big differentiator as most existing competitors offer in time training for 2-4 months which might be helpful for job placement but not complete landscape to build a real project or capable to build a product from the ground up.
One of the main challenges ailing the industry is the need to inculcate the idea of continuous learning to the students as their only focus in the early career is to get a job. In the current world where technologies are evolving very rapidly, upskilling is crucial. There’s a need to create awareness in the tier2 and tier3 colleges or rural India about the in-demand skills rather than just focusing on the hype technologies.
Besides, the platform has an in-built editor that can support 20+ programming languages which can be leveraged in any browser and any device. It provides indepth analytics on the platform to both the faculty and students of the engineering colleges to track their progress and learning path. It also has the capability to choose a career path based on the AI skills assessment and access to an in-person career counsellor. It has also partnered with Leading India AI (an initiative to promote and teach Artificial intelligence) and various companies to help students with placements to start a career based on their skills and interests.
The team suggests that colleges should work with companies like byteXL to emphasize on the aspect of learning and reduce the gap from academia to real-world, create a centre of excellence, allow students to contribute on open source technologies rather than just focusing on the curriculum.
www.insightssuccess.in
byteXL wants to develop itself as a one-stop-shop for IT learning/skilling/upskilling and innovation. “Our vision is to make the youth of India to be an invaluable part of the world workforce with required specializations, be able to develop products and empower individual goals,” concludes Karun. 2020 September | 13
Gamific W
ork has been pretty much the antonym of fun as far as most people are concerned, and work-related training has been no exception to this. There has been a natural element of fear associated with training and a sense that it has been something that is merely supposed to be suffered through. This not only makes for a gloomy experience, but is also counterproductive since most people can’t retain information very well when taught this way.
There have been a few things harder than trying to apply the knowledge you gained by passively sitting through it. Gamification’s major benefit has been that it minimizes this very traditional, outdated style of learning by arousing challenging conditions for the participant at exactly the right level. This happens so that when learners feel challenged, they are constantly motivated to keep going and come back for more. Most of the people have been naturally wired to enjoy the whole process of conquering obstacles and winning to move up to the next level.
16 | September 2020
www.insightssuccess.in
Learning made Fun
cation The new Modus Operandi
www.insightssuccess.in
2020 September | 17
Standing up to the Challenge The prolonged use of gamification to aid in cognitive development would allow an increase in the activity of the regions of the brain to be able to allow for adequate development. Games that have been produced specifically for enhancing cognitive development are often known as brain games. Brain games have been quickly and effectivelybecoming popular and are based on various questions and problems that the user has to answer or solve. Brain games could hold the ability to improve the rate in which the brain processes and maintains the information. Exercising your mind with interactive games is just as effective as normal exercise. This technique of exercise would be very beneficial in adolescents that have been enjoying playing video games but are not currently physically active. Active gamification has not just been limited to the classroom but can be used in learning outside the classroom. For example, when teaching your kids, perhaps you break up your child's math homework into sections. Your child could then level up after completing each section to get hints that will solve a riddle. The other tactic being that maybe you can have your child create their very own study patterns and habits to make them feel involved. All this just proves that gamification at home is a very good way to get involved in your child's education. The Techniques The initial and main priority for being able to create an effective education-based game should be on the design of the learning dimensions first, and the entertainment value second. This entire process needs to ensure its focus on the core learning objective, and the gamification aspect
18 | September 2020
should support that goal. Anyhow, an intelligentlystructured game could serve up some of the information, identifying comprehension and difficulties, and knowing how and when to proceed so that students are actually learning the material, rather than just filling time. Another technique could be collaborative game experiences. According to sources at the Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation, it has been shown that collaborative learning not only helps promote understanding of diverse perspectives but also serves as preparation for future social and employment situations. On the other hand, games that are based solely on speed tend to favor a small percentage of students that are good at answering questions quickly, leaving the rest of the student body out of the loop and unmotivated. This sort of unruly speed doesn’t directly equate to knowledge or success. To say that it’s not a bad idea that speed is part of the gameplay, attention should be given to balancing for all players to feel they are part of the journey. To sum up, the role of ‘gamification’ has made an impact on learning that will be permanent. Teachers have been able to reach out to every student in one-go. This has become a constructive addition to the way of lesson presentation and experimentation and every learner is given a chance to express his/her creativity. Students have been able to learn new software, that could help them to apply the same for every subject. The variety of ICT tools for collaboration like Skype and social networking enhances the impact of the project and has provided students with new scopes and horizons. - Vedika Mansukhe
www.insightssuccess.in
Yenta App Bridging the Talent Gap J
apan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae just rolled out a professional ‘matching’ app in India offering jobs in India after Japan
Japan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae brings their professional job ‘matching’ app in India • The Yenta app will allow professionals and employers to ‘swipe right’ to the profiles of their interest. • Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data scientists from around the world for an online competition — ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their optimization models for the app. • Starting today, the competition will be accepting the optimisation algorithms for the next 69 days — until October 31, 2020. • The top five submissions will be rewarded with cash prizes totalling US$10,000 ( nearly ₹7.4 lakh). Global data science platform bitgrit has collaborated with Atrae, a Japanese internet company, to launch their professional job ‘matching’ and networking application — Yenta app — to bridge the talent gap in India. The joint initiative will allow professionals to connect and engage with hiring managers for jobs in India as well as Japan.
About Atrae - Atrae is a Tokyobased People Tech Company that was formulated in 2003 with a vision to create businesses that expand people's possibilities through technology.
20 | September 2020
Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data scientists from around the world for an online competition — ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their optimization models for the app. The idea is to build a model to predict the level of compatibility of a pair of users based on their profiles — and ensure that the app recommends the most linked and suitable profiles to the users. “We are pleased to announce the launch of yenta in India as our first base for global expansion in collaboration with bitgrit. India’s data science community is inevitably going to grow in the future. With this competition, we aim to tap
www.insightssuccess.in
In Focus the potential of data scientists and expand the services provided by the Yenta app across India,” said the CTO of Atrae Corporation, Toshiyuki Oka. The competition will kickstart on Monday (August 24) and will be accepting optimisation algorithms for the next 69 days (till October 31, 2020). The top five submissions will be rewarded with cash prizes totalling USD10,000 ( nearly ₹7.4 lakh). Commenting on the launch, Tetsuro Masunaga, Cofounder & CEO of bitgrit said “We are pleased to partner with Atrae for the expansion of their yenta app to India and this online AI competition to improve the app’s profile-matching algorithm. This partnership will strengthen bitgrit’s data science community and provide a platform to showcase their domain skills in emerging technologies.” The mobile application, which was first launched in Japan in 2016, aims to connect professionals in the IT space. It currently has users from over 20,000 companies where professionals can network, get a job, engage with industry experts and founders for partnerships. The cross -industry platform will enable employers to spot and hire skilled talent and also interact with other business owners. The professionals and employers registered on the Yenta app can ‘swipe right’ on a suitable match and chat with them, if the other user also likes the profile. “You swipe right on profiles you're interested in, and if the other person is also interested and swipes right on your profile, you can message, meet up, and submit a review for each other,” Oka explained. The ongoing pandemic has created a massive job loss as businesses came to a grinding halt. As per the data by the Centre for Monitoring indian Economy (CMIE), the urban unemployment rate in India stood at 9.15% in June — higher than rural unemployment. “This initiative is even more relevant now with the coronavirus-induced economic crisis that has severely impacted businesses, thereby triggering unemployment on a large scale,” Masunaga added. The application is available for both iOS and Android users. The details of the competition can be viewed here.
www.insightssuccess.in
About bitgrit - Founded in 2017, bitgrit is a global data science community based in Tokyo with over 29,000 data scientists. The AIdriven platform aims to develop data driven solutions across industries like hospitality, tech and financial services. The startup has campus ambassadors and partnerships with over 30 universities in India including the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
2020 September | 21
The Actuary Intern Jumpstart your Career
exposure, we end up detesting it? And what if we do not get an internship at all? Is it an end to our dreams or a start to something new? When we asked Trishla Doshi about her professional beginnings, she confided that it took her 7 months to bag her 1st internship. Her only disadvantage? She was an undergraduate. Over a hundred messages on LinkedIn, she received only ten replies and just one asking for her CV. It did get her an internship, but it only lasted 1 month as they wanted fulltime interns and she could not commit full time due to college. So, she started something new. She started posting her struggles, motivation, and actuarial facts on LinkedIn daily. She created the #actuarialfact on LinkedIn, which now has 820 followers where she researches and posts short, simple but impactful facts to increase knowledge of actuarial, insurance and mathematics field. Today, Trishla owns a start-up, The Actuary Intern, which is focused on the problem and the desire to minimize, and eventually eliminate the problem that she had to face. Through her firm, she wants to enable the next generation with skills that matter to them without the need to spend full time and months on applying to competitive programs.
Trishla Doshi
T
o reach one’s destination, one must start somewhere. As we near the last leg of our education and start dreaming about the new professional life that we are to begin, we look forward to our internship period. As an intern, we familiarize ourselves with the industry we desire to step-in and receive a hands-on education. This internship period is often described as the launchpad to a successful career ahead. However, what if the internship does not turn out the way we imagined? What if instead of enjoying the industry-
22 | September 2020
“Instead, gain knowledge from people who have worked at top Companies, take practical knowledge and then apply, except this time, you are Tough and Prepared,” says Trishla. The Start-Up The Actuary Intern provides Virtual Actuarial Internship Program in Health Insurance designed by Trishla. The current program is motivated by her learnings from her internship at HDFC Ergo General Insurance. The Actuarial Virtual Internship Program in Health Insurance gives information and knowledge of Insurance products using knowledge videos, quiz and final three projects to test that knowledge. The projects test Insurance
www.insightssuccess.in
IA'S MOS T
e
IND
CREATIVE
LEARNING COMPANIES TO WATCH
“
I believe my first internship was the reason for my later successes, and I want to make the same for everyone. Everyone deserves their first big break
“
Product Research, Insurance Product Comparison and Research skills. The program experience can be added to the candidates’ CV. The firm plans to introduce more programs by Experienced and Qualified Actuaries in Life, Pension, Employee Benefits, etc. The Actuarial Difference The Actuary Intern gives importance to content. It seeks experienced Instructors who can share their knowledge from working in different companies in different positions. The firm gives them full creative freedom to design their Programs with only 3 conditionsŸ the content should be a simulation of actual work in that role, Ÿ candidates should have a greater working knowledge after completing the program, and Ÿ their chances of being selected at Competitive programs must increase. The firm emphasizes Individual learnings and experiences because each person who becomes an Instructor on the platform has started at the entry-level, climbed the corporate ladder in different Companies in varied departments and roles and they are unique in terms of their life experiences and knowledge. The Actuary Intern simply trains candidates for a particular requirement from a job perspective. A Blessing in Disguise While most of us went cribbing about how the current pandemic has severed our lives, Trishla chose to start her venture in April 2020. Lockdown, she says, was the main
www.insightssuccess.in
limitation as well as the main motivation. It was difficult to have a work and a personal space due to lockdown. She faced problems with Website Development and had to solve many problems that came as a result of the communication gap. The GST registration during lockdown was further delayed and payment problems were difficult to solve due to limited customer service. She had to learn how to enable screen recording, search for good website developers on LinkedIn, negotiate a good deal, self-study and implement adding subtitles, marketing, etc. But, with each problem she solved, she gained experience. “My main clientele base came from LinkedIn, actuarial students in India knew me from my #actuarialfact and networking with them before helped in growing my business. I went out of my way to solve students’ doubts 24/7. I took the criticism in stride and I plan to implement suggestions that the participants provided me for my future programs,” shares Trishla. The lockdown also made her understand that technology here is the key enabler. So, The Actuary Intern has taken measures to ensure that the student experience is as flawless as possible. To save candidates' time, the website has been designed to be simple and effective. “You log in, make the payment, and start watching the videos, attempt quiz and submit projects. We have submission portals for each of the projects where word and excel formats are supported,” explains Trishla. After uploading their projects, students can access Model projects, created by the Instructor to compare their work. Once completing all videos, quiz and projects, a Certificate is generated automatically, so that students can instantly add them to their LinkedIn profile and CV. Plans of Expansion The Actuary Intern is expected to add more programs to its portfolio ranging from Life, Pension, Employee Benefits, etc to Pricing, Reserving, Modelling, etc from Experienced Instructors in those domains. The firm also plans to have another venture with Internship Programs in Investment Banking, Accountancy, Software Engineering, and a lot of different professions from Experts in those fields. For those interested in being an Instructor, feel free to message Trishla on LinkedIn Check out the website www.theactuaryintern.com for more details.
2020 September | 23
BRING
E-LEAR
TO LIFE THROUG
24 | September 2020
www.insightssuccess.in
Learning Trends
GING
RNING
GH INTERACTION www.insightssuccess.in
2020 September | 25
O
nline classes have become the need of the hour in this pandemic situation. E-learning has been on the peak since the past few months. Interaction and communication are the key elements in learning. Without these two things it is not possible for students to understand and learn easily. Mutual communication is the key element to interactive communication. Exchange of ideas, question answer sessions, etc. are helpful in learning sessions. The teachers are confident of what they teach when they know the students are gaining the knowledge. It is difficult to know what the students understand over elearning platforms. To avoid this confusion, teachers must hold interactive sessions, which are easier said than executed. Here are some tips to improve interactivity during online courses:
students. It is easier to analyze students live in class rather than online classes. The teacher can also lead the discussion and encourage the learners to solve problems collectively via group chats. This way, the teacher can keep an eye on the students. Human interaction gives an opportunity to learn from each other. Question Answer Session Online lectures can be bit boring if the participants are not able to ask questions. Involving the learners is important to enhance their activeness. This Q&A round will allow interaction. If it is okay with the teacher, the students can also be allowed to ask questions during the session instead of a separate round. This involves the students in the ongoing topic even better. The other way round, even teachers can take questions every now and then in between the lecture. Quizzes and Tests
Set Clear Learning Objectives At the beginning of every course, setting clear objectives helps both, learners and teachers, to understand where the course leads to. It helps the learners understand the benefits of the course and they will be focused. Setting learning goals adds value to the course. It also significantly helps teachers to create a clear course structure.
Getting or generating any kind of response from the student or the teacher is a form of interactivity. Including tests and quizzes increases the involvement of the learners. This quiz factor makes the students concentrate and ask any doubts that they have. It is also a fun way to learn for the students and the teachers can also get immediate feedback. It will also show the participants their performance and any need to cope.
Know the Learners
Keep Learning Modules Short
Connecting with the audience is the main goal of any learning program, be it offline or online. However, it is difficult to connect with them if they are unknown people. It would be helpful if a small test or quiz regarding the learners is conducted. It will help the teacher know about their backgrounds, behavior, learning habits and needs. This helps curating a good and customized to some extent type of e-learning program.
Endless study material is the fastest way to disengage the audience. Keeping modules short and crisp will make them interested and respect the study material too. It is easier to connect as well as digest small chunks of information. With people leading busy lives like today, it makes people want to learn. They make it a priority when things work out according to their way.
Encourage Group Collaboration
- Shreevarshita Gupta
Group discussions on the online classes are starters to encourage interactive sessions. Participants can be given topics to discuss or projects to work on. It is possible that even teachers can be included in these group discussions. It helps teachers analyze the understanding level of the 26 | September 2020
www.insightssuccess.in
The Moonshot Better Learning, Better Possibilities
such, many talented stories are cut short before they could even write the first chapter. However, with the emergence of technological assistance, e-learning has proven to be of great help in such situations. With the growing penetration of the internet, e-learning is now reaching even the remotest areas and delivering education at comparatively nominal costs. With such thoughts, The Moonshot was started to reach out to lesser penetrated layers of the Indian education sector and offer them an opportunity to secure themselves financially through its proprietary programs. A product of Whooping Crane Ventures, Moonshot is the world’s first Human Equity Company. By investing in the untapped high-potential young intellectuals, the company is helping to build a secure financial future for graduates, while helping organizations tap into a bigger pool of skilled & ready to deploy graduates.
Puja Joshi Founder & CEO
E
ducation, in many countries, has been declared a fundamental right. Whether or not this right is exercised by everyone, is another matter of concern. More often than not, getting a formal education requires an infrastructural set-up and a host of other resources. To access and maintain this entire set-up, finances are required, which is often a big hurdle in small towns and villages.. It has been observed that a weak financial condition is one of the top-most reason why many youngsters are unable to finish their high school and proceed for further studies. As
28 | September 2020
The Right Path: Fate v/s Will Life, they say, is the most rigorous teacher and strange are its ways of teaching. A Computer Science Engineer by education, when Puja Joshi started her professional journey, it was as an HR Coordinator in one of the Big 4. This, in spite of having a good hand at coding and development. Even after her first professional assignment, she would not have much success in getting interview shortlists in a career path of her choice. It was then that she realised that her degree from a small town engineering college was turning out to be a roadblock. Tenacious by nature, Puja decided to address this issue of preference of “brand name colleges” on the resume over the individuals or their capabilities. And with that, she embarked on the mission which is now The Moonshot. With her business acumen, perception, vision and impeccable execution strategy, Puja has already made Moonshot a big name in the market.
www.insightssuccess.in
IA'S MOS T
e
IND
CREATIVE
LEARNING COMPANIES TO WATCH
“
We open up a larger pool of qualified, welltrained and ready-to-deploy students for the companies
Enhancing Reach with Technology Moonshot’s business strategy is a simple 3 step model: Spot - Fix - Deploy. It employs advanced technologies to drive operations in all three stages for the best efficiency. For example: in the “Spot” stage it uses machine learning to assess the subjective answers to its assessment questions which reduces manual intervention and the biases that come with it. Today it is at capacity where even 10k students can appear for the Moonshot assessment test at a time. In the “Fix” stage it uses video analysis tools that can alert talent partners on 15 traits of the talent including a drop in the level of attentiveness. This helps talent partners to continually monitor non-technical aspects of the personality of the talent as well. In the “Deploy” stage it is working on algorithms that aim to assess the candidate for a given role as easy as an assessment for lending.
“
Lessons from the Pandemic Moonshot was in a growth stage just before the pandemic. For the company, the current pandemic has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Since it has an intensive screening and on-boarding process, it has had to spend significantly more time than usual to on-board the talents. It has had several technological interventions to the platform, which has ramped up its testing capabilities manifold. Exhibiting Excellence Moonshot is a career incubation program which believes quality education does not have to be financed with decades of debt unaligned with student outcomes. In India, elearning penetration is at its best and continuing to grow, but the opportunity penetration is not yet resolved. Moonshot gives not only upskilling opportunity but also complete profile upliftment to its students. “The way we have designed it, Moonshot is not just a program, but becomes a learning habit for life. On the other end, to our employers we provide well-groomed, ready to deploy professionals,” adds Puja. Moonshot aims to be ‘top of mind’ for college graduates’ placements, and the best hiring partner for employers to hire fresh graduates. Other platforms are simply upskilling platforms, but Moonshot is a unified solution for all the hiring needs at entry-level. It differs from some of the players on crucial pointers like: • AI-enabled detailed screening of the students for selection into the program. • Active training program where the talents are mapped to a talent manager who acts as an external motivator to ensure performance milestones are achieved timely; and • Most importantly, it invests in the talent upfront unlike any other program in the market.
www.insightssuccess.in
Moonshot has also expanded its team in the last couple of months to ensure that it maintains its committed talent manager to talent ratios. Adds Puja, “A remarkably simple approach of structured operations and technology interventions has allowed us to scale up our operations. It has also been a great lesson for us to find the right approach to cater to the talents, companies and our own goals as we continue to grow.” Being a Name to Reckon with Moonshot offers an opportunity for the talent to choose their own career path to start with. Curating courses for the numerous talents to bring out their individual best while estimating demand from the industry for the same is certainly challenging as it grows its talent pool and program offerings. And Moonshot’s ‘Proactive’ team is ready to face every hurdle. “Every team member is always trying to be ahead of the curve and with that in our company DNA, we are already working on our latest program offerings which promise to cater to latent demands that seem to go unnoticed. Our mission is to be the first name for college students looking for the first job that they desire,” assures Puja.
2020 September | 29
How Voice Technology with AI will Reshape Education
A
s the education system transitions from the classic blackboard classroom to the online classroom, thanks to the pandemic, teaching-and-learning tools must simultaneously evolve too. Digitization in the education sector has gone up exponentially in the last six months in order to keep pace with the sudden transition. However, equal access to online classes for all is still questionable, especially in semi-urban and rural India. Educationists are continuously striving to make the teaching and learning cycle as effective as possible in the new paradigm. The New Education Policy is also striving to pave the way for reforms in the Indian education sector. New teaching technologies are being experimented on incessantly by educators and ed-tech startups alike. Amidst all of this work, one technology that stands out as the way forward is voice technology. The term “voice technology” usually brings to mind Alexa, Siri, or everyone’s favourite Google Maps. But the potential of voice technology is not limited to these use cases alone. Augmenting Learning with Voice Technology and Artificial Intelligence Even though online learning is a viable option during this time of crisis, it is still not available to a major part of the nation due to accessibility and cost factors. The feasible solution to this problem would be adopting voice technology. 13 Reasons Why When compared to visual learning, voice-assisted technology is not only economical and easily accessible but also comes with its own set of unique benefits. 1. The devices used with voice-assisted technology are easily portable as they are very light on hardware. 2. Voice-enabled devices have very simple interfaces. This eliminates the fear of usage among non-tech savvy users. 30 | September 2020
3. Voice-enabled devices typically require a minimum of 512 Mbps to work efficiently. Compare this ask to the higher bandwidth required by visual learning platforms to function. A 3G connection is usually more than sufficient to run a voice-enabled device. 4. Voice-enabled devices are now available with battery back-up thus eliminating the need for consistent electricity supply. 5. Voice-assisted learning solutions utilize the most natural way in which human beings learn - through listening and speaking. Thus, using conversation-style learning, voice technology ensures learning that is natural and effective. 6. Voice technology is not a passive interface. Welldesigned, pedagogically-based solutions will not only tell learners that they are incorrect but will also explain why. 7. There is no fear of fatigue with voice technology. It can repeat lessons, exercises, and assessments as many times as the learners’ requests. 8. Voice technology helps learners to make mistakes and learn in a non-judgemental environment. This is a critical aspect of learning confidently. 9. Learning in a non-judgemental environment is particularly important for adult learners. Voice-assisted learning takes care of this as well. 10. Voice technology can support individualized learning as well as pair, small-group, and large-group learning. 11. Voice technology is extendable to any academic subject and any use case. 12. The ‘only audio' medium of voice technology minimizes exposure to screen time. 13. Voice technology is particularly beneficial for learning communicative English as it ensures that MTI (Mother Tongue Influence) is reduced while pronouncing English words. A classic challenge being faced by learners in semi-urban and rural areas is that they do not have access to good models of communicative English.
www.insightssuccess.in
Future Ed
About the Author Saraswathy Ramamoorthy is Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Learning Matters Pvt. Ltd.(www.learningmattes .xyz). Recipient of the Innovative Digital Education Award from India Mobile Congress and the UK Government TechHub partnership among other recognitions, Learning Matters designs technology-based educational solutions to enhance the quality of teachers and the quality of teaching in schools, thereby improving student learning outcomes. They focus on improving mainstream school education with a special focus on schools in rural and semi-urban India. By impacting students, they create measurable end-results. Saraswathy may be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraswathyramamoorthy-33923025/
The Way Ahead The education industry has already witnessed drastic changes due to the pandemic. Now with the focus on technology and an especial nod to artificial intelligence in the New Education Policy, technology is taking over the driver’s seat in the education sector. Increasing exposure to technology from a young age will go a long way in helping future generations lead the way to a new world of innovation and creativity. While we take a leap ahead to transform teaching and learning for all, the main concern is to ensure that no one is left out of the loop. No learner should be deprived of learning due to accessibility to accessible and affordable technology. So, let’s make some noise for voice - the way forward.
www.insightssuccess.in
2020 September | 31
