Onkar Parmar, Founder and Managing Director, EduLabs, speaks to Elets News Network (ENN) on the contribution of EduLabs in education space, its unique proposition, future plans and the role of technology in education and much more

What exactly does EduLabs do in the Education space?

EduLabs is an education consulting fi rm that helps schools adopt ‘Technologies and Methods’ for supporting their differentiated, learning needs. We have engineered a stunningly effective educational support model that wins over the apparently insurmountable challenges related to ICT implementation and its optimal use value.

There are several learning solutions available in the market. What sets you apart from the rest?

Our fl agship solution, known as iTOP, is unique in many ways. It is a rich blend of best practices in Education and Cognitive Psychology. The existing school curriculum is remodelled as per ‘Reconstructed Bloom’s Taxonomy’ and is delivered in the form of ‘interactive digital assessments’. We use a unique technological model that allows us to deliver ‘an episode of content’ at school, followed by highly connected episodes at home, in the form of assignments. By virtue of its unique artifi cial intellect, iTOP also measures cognitive development in every student separately and builds a learning environment that is highly differentiated and personalised.

Use of technology in teaching and learning has had its own downside. How well do you think you’re placed from that perspective?

Probably, the biggest change in education over the last few decades has been the introduction of new technologies. Our schools, teachers and students have witnessed regular induction and presence of various ICT solutions in various ways. The technology is there to stay.

From the perspective of EduLabs, I strongly believe that technology should be adopted only when it increases the effi ciency and effectiveness in teachinglearning. It is essential to investigate the real impact of technology on an improved learning state. Having seen the initial phase of pilot studies and rigorous market testing, our technological model now fi nds home in 100+ Indian schools and proves to be nothing less than a major pedagogical breakthrough. National and international, urban and rural, rich and community, or large and small — this model has proved reliable, valid and consistent at schools in diverse environments. Through its unique nature, it has circumvented the effects of limited infrastructural and network resources, lack of usage, and also conquered the technical challenges of volume requirement at schools.

What is the ‘one major change’ that EduLabs would like to bring in the education space that can really transform the learning-teaching experience?

To help establish a strong connect between the ‘imparted knowledge’ and ‘cognitive development’ of every single learner… We follow a simple mantra: make learning experience highly personalised with effective cognitive development metrics.

What are company’s future plans? Any new products or solutions in the pipeline?

I think there is a lot of ground that we’d like to cover through this business vertical (iTOP). New and more enhanced versions of iTOP will be released with time. Apart from expansion in Indian metropolitan cities and in the UAE, we plan to start operations in farther parts of the globe within next two to three years.

Within the Education LOB (Line of Business), we’re also operating on another vertical (LiveOlympiad), which happens to be the only ‘Tablet-driven Olympiad’ in India. Another innovative platform is where we use our ‘tablet-lab on wheels’ to conduct Math, Science and Technology Olympiads within school premises. From a student base of 50,000 last year, we intend to scale the size of student base to 3 lakh by year 2017 and 10 lakh by the end of 2018 (within India).

In addition to the education domain, we also plan to expand our business with Corporates. Currently partnered with MNCs like BT (British Telecom) and NSN, we use our ‘Tablet-lab on wheels’ to meet their testing needs in hiring process. We’ll be increasing the client-base. We also look forward to enhance this product portfolio and make additional contribution to address regular training needs of employees.