Harish Malladi, CEO, EdVIE talks to Elets News Network (ENN) about how concepts of STEM subjects can be instilled through innovative learning online
What are the primary reasons behind starting the venture?
EdVIE is a product of Enlume Technologies Pvt Ltd, an IT services company. It is the fruition of a longstanding dream of a group of engineers who knew first hand the importance of a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects for a successful career.
Our journey from small towns of Andhra to Silicon Valley, is credited to the education we received in our schools and colleges. As is the case with most lower and middle class families in India, we also got success primarily because of education.
We started EdVIE, because of our passion for and emotional bonding with education. By leveraging power of Internet and technology, we want to bring effectiveness and efficiency in the field of education.
What is the market size of the services offered by you in India at present?
The market size of online education in India is $20 billion which is expected to touch $40 billion in 2017. Families, especially in tier II cities have high propensity to spend on education, as it is believed to hold the passport for a successful future and good life. A major driver for online education is penetration of Internet and increasing network speeds. In coming years, the market will grow at a much faster rate.
How your solutions are beneficial for organisations/individuals?
Most of us might have heard about students who did exceedingly well upto 10th grade but started scoring low in 11th and 12th grades, resulting in increased stress and low confidence. This is because of the disparity between the difficulty level in lower grades and in 11th and 12th grades. The difficulty level and bandwidth of the syllabus covered in higher grades increase upto 10-15 times, creating a situation of shock and stress for students.
When students join EdVIE courses, we equip them to handle the increased difficulty with the help of our curriculum, live classes, online testing and mentorship. Our online live classes are conducted by experienced, qualified and well-trained teachers, who take students from basic to advanced level in a gradual way.
Within short period of time, students start feeling confident and start scoring better in their school exams. In the long run, our students achieve highest success in competitive exams.
What are your plans for the next two years?
We want to establish ourselves as a dominant player in online STEM education in India. We will be expanding our course offerings in STEM subjects and will enter into different markets and market segments. We are working on making our courses available on multiple devices and platforms. We want to do all that but our prime focus will remain on making students fall in love with Math and Science so that they handle the future competition and challenges better and go on to solve world’s problems.
What are the various methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation?
Apart from usual online and offline marketing activities, we extensively conduct educational events in housing societies, corporates and schools, which provide learning opportunity to participating students and parents.
All our educational events create huge brand equity and word-ofmouth for us.
How you can differentiate your services from your competitors?
Our core of strong, well-researched and comprehensive content and course structures differentiate us from others. We understand the importance of live exchange between students and teachers. Hence, all our classes are conducted live so that students can actively engage for a permanent learning. Our classes are conducted in a group creating an atmosphere of collaborative learning. Further, small batch sizes enable us to give personalised attention to each student.
Our students go on a journey of holistic learning through live classes, structured online tests, performance insights, mentorship and peer exchange.
What are the major stakeholders and sectors you are focusing on?
We focus on STEM Subjects in online education sector. For us, students, parents and schools are the major stakeholders.
