With a vision to provide an academic networking platform, and enrich the user experience, EduLanche is scaling up to become the world’s largest academic network serving students, teachers, publishers, institutions and recruiters from around the globe, says Dr Nishanth B Singh, CEO, EduLanche

What prompted you to start EduLanche?

I completed medical school training successfully in 2012 at Government Medical College, Thrissur followed by a year of rural healthcare in India during 2013-14. Curiosity in e-learning led to development of free knowledge sharing website, www.lifehugger. com during medical school days. The intuitive idea of developing a network for academics, led to the launch of EduLanche Academic Network in 2014. Personally, I funded the initial phase of the project with funds received from publications.

What are the various difficulties encountered in doing business on ground level?

We believe it is important to anticipate and avoid hurdles as much as possible and have the conviction to face difficulties that may emerge in the course of the business.

What is the market size of the services offered by you in India at present?

EduLanche Academic Network has a global potential proven by the user base expanding in India and abroad. The market opportunity is substantial at $300 billion. India’s online education alone is predicted to reach $110 billion by 2015.

What are the major benefits for organisations adopting your solutions?

EduLanche offers an exclusive platform for academic networking. E-learning, e-commerce, recruitment solutions and advertising have been enabled to enrich the user experience. On EduLanche, students can seamlessly connect with teachers, academic institutions, recruiters and vice-versa.

What is the vision of your company for next two years?

EduLanche is scaling up to become the world’s largest academic network serving students, teachers, publishers, institutions and recruiters from around the globe in five years from now.

What are the various methods you are using to increase the visibility of your organisation?

EduLanche mostly depends on word of mouth publicity among students to inform teachers and institutions about the benefits of EduLanche Academic Network Online and direct marketing is being utilized.

How you can differentiate your services from competitors?

EduLanche is most awarded educational startup and has won five major awards within six months of launch for being the first to have integrated learning, networking and careers on a single platform.

Taking educational techniques to a next level through its easy and fun learning tools, Next Education shall give a tough edge to education solutions

Pledge to creating brighter future of students, Next Education empowers schools with technology-based K-12 solutions that are used by over 1,50,000 teachers and impacts 7,000,000 students across 7,000 schools.

To make learning and teaching easier, more fun, and more effective, Next Education has developed 10,000 learning modules that account for more than 1,000 hours of classroom teaching at school and junior college levels. The modules have been designed using contemporary learning design principles and undergone testing on and off the field. The company’s products are learner centric and make teaching easier and more effective for teachers.

The learning solutions cover the syllabi of CBSE, ICSE, Army and all State Boards and cover seven Indian languages. From Leh to Kanyakumari, Next Education service network is spread across the country. With its on-site service support, teacher training, and advisory services, Next Education is transforming the face of school education in India.

The Next learning architectural is an experiential education model designed as a blend of extensive research by the team of educators within the Indian market segment and contemporary international learning design principles. The products designed cater to both the teacher and the student. The teacher becomes a facilitator for the student’s journey in exploring each new concept. And during the journey the student is encouraged to collaborate with other students and together build new cognitive models of the concept being taught.

Next Education provides end-to-end service in education sector: Set up and Implementation

The dedicated team of technicians and trainers ensure a smooth set up and an effective implementation of the solution.

e-Learning Support Engineer/ Technical Support Engineer

The company has more than 400 personnel across the length and breadth of the country and ensures that they attend the clients’ problems within a week.

Customer Helpline

The customer helpline makes sure that every customer’s voice is heard and acted upon.

Regular Teacher Training

A product implementation is successful only if the customer uses it effectively. Our regular teacher training programmes ensure that schools are abreast with the latest features and additions in our products and continue using the solution effectively.

Exhaustive Upgrades

The company aims to build a relationship and not just a transaction. Our development team constantly upgrades our products with the latest in syllabi and teaching methodologies.

Products and Solutions

Teach Next: An interactive e-learning solution combining the best of new-age technology, creative and interactive tools.

Next Books: An award-winning and engaging series of comprehensive curriculum books for pre-primary and primary schools.

Next Deeksha: Training, accreditation services, and consultancy solutions for schools by experienced and dedicated in house educators.

Next Lab: An experiential learning approach for schools enabling students to use hands-on activities to understand English, Maths, Science and Robotics better.

Learn Next: An independent, engaging and intelligent platform which fosters self-learning, and helps students grasp complex topics easily.

Next ERP: An integrated school management system which streamlines all processes, departments and functions of a school.

Next Gurukul: An online K-12 community which facilitates collaboration among students, teachers, parents and principals. Next Learning Platform: An adaptive technology solution to provide teachers and students a platform to envision, explore and create individualised learning materials.

The vision of Impartus is to aid students with the video technologies while providing some innovative solutions in learning. The Lecture capture technology enables students to virtually re-wind their classroom experience on an anytime, anywhere basis

Founded in 2011 by a group of IIT and IIM alumnus, Impartus has developed products for the education sector. Having been one of the ed-tech companies, Impartus provide video solutions for teaching learning enhancement and taking learning beyond classrooms.

With a team of more than 20 professionals across various organisational functions, the team is dedicated to bring innovations in the video solutions for the effective, fun learning for students and teachers.

The comprehensive solution has “lecture capture technology” (automatic video recording of live classroom lectures) as its core feature. The access to recorded lectures and other study material through Impartus enables students to virtually re-live their classroom experience on anytime anywhere basis. It also assists the teacher in self-improvement.

Impartus is an amalgamation of hardware and software which is provided as a turnkey solution to its customers. The end-user apps are available for all popular devices (laptops, tablets, mobiles) and platforms (Android, iOS, Windows). It is available in both cloud as well as onpremise installation and has robust Live Streaming functionality.

The recorded videos are not just raw videos, they are fitted with numerous tools, making them interactive and engaging. The recordings are done intelligently in multi-view mode (teacher, student, blackboard and presentation).

Interactive features include: Searchable Videos

The captured videos can be tagged by teachers and students alike. Also, the system auto-tags the lecture using intelligent algorithms. This makes the video searchable and discoverable. The student can search by a keyword and all the videos and other content related to that keyword appear on the user screen.

Tap-To-Toggle

The captured lectures are available in multiple views. To simulate the real classroom environment we have left it on the user’s choice to select the view he wants to view. The user can switch from one view to another just by clicking and tapping on the screen.

Video Bookmarks

While viewing a lecture, the user can mark a segment and keep it as separate bookmark for future reference. All this can be done with few button clicks and the user can also create a playlist of such bookmarks.

Notes

The user can create notes on the recorded videos which can be shared among fellow students as well. The lecturer can also choose to create a note at some point during the lecture and share it to all the students. This feature can be used to provide the students with some extra information after the lecture.

Hand-Raiser

Many a times, students have doubts when they are reviewing the lecture. The system facilitates the student with the ability to ask questions whenever she wants. These questions are then pushed onto the teacher’s working space. The teacher will have an option to either revert back on the platform itself with the answer or he may choose to discuss the same in the next scheduled lecture.

Post Editing

Post-editing is an optional feature in this system. If enabled, all the recorded videos can be edited manually by the teacher to remove unwanted content post lecture. The lectures are distributed to students only after the lecturer confirms that the editing has been completed.

Impartus is working on global innovations in the field of lecture capture, flipped classroom, and video intelligence. It has built a formidable education technology team pan India and abroad and has offices in Bangalore, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Kenya. Its e-learning channel partner is Pearson India and financial investor is Kaizen Private Equity.

The paradigms of learning are changing rapidly. As the world is becoming digital, students are fast embracing technology into their personal lives, therefore, necessitating interactive learning environments in education too

The concepts of learning are rapidly changing. With every component tuning into digital mode, the students are imbibing technological advancement into their personal space. This change has seeped in the need to have an interactive learning environments in learning as well. The growing demands of the educational institutes are immense, ranging from infrastructure upgradation and technological adoption to staffing issues and providing engaging learning experiences. Having a vast experience in IT services, Ricoh is able to address the concerns of the stakeholders to a great extent.

To aid institutions with a better result, Ricoh provides customized solutions for the educational institutions, be it schools or those of higher learning. The solutions help optimize and reduce cost to maximize return on investment. It also offers security for institution administrative work like student data and other sensitive information.

The futuristic vision helps in reducing the chances of technology and multimedia content becoming obsolete. Ricoh solutions help in enhancing the productivity of both the faculty and the institute. The company provides end-to-end business solution for every department like computer center, printing center, classrooms, and institutional buildings.

Some of the other offerings by Ricoh are:

• ClassTech- an interactive learning solution for schools
• Document and print management services- These are designed to meet the academic and administrative requirements of K-12 and higher education institutes
• Visual Communication solutions- Enables collaborative and interactive learning in classrooms, thus, not only enriching the learning experience for students but also enhancing retention and making the entire process more productive for the students and teachers
• IT Products & Services- Ricoh has the technical expertise and resources to build while own and operate large scale ICT projects for educational institutes. The company has partnered with global leaders to provide the best in class offerings across diverse applications.

Ricoh specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services has a distinct focus to cater to the growing demands of the education sector.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in about 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ending March 2015, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,231 billion yen (approx. 18.5 billion USD) and operates in about 200 countries and regions.

What sets us apart is that we deliver not only a wide array of products, but consistent service levels across the globe, with a single point of contact and central coordination. In India, Ricoh operates through a robust network of 24 offices, and over 2500 dealers and business associates spread across the country.

We are known for the quality of our technology, the exceptional standard of our customer service and our sustainability initiatives. Ricoh India Limited has been an ISO certified organisation since 1994, and is currently certified under ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004 and ISO 27001:2005 standards. The company also holds CMMI Level 4 certification.

Under its corporate tagline, imagine. change., Ricoh helps companies transform the way they work and harness the collective imagination of their employees.

Working on the model of one-to-two education and providing an online tutoring platform for children, Vedantu is a breather for many students, who can also prepare for competitive exams with the teachers online in due course of time

Passionately driven with a thought that education needs to be more personalised, four childhood friends Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena and Anand Prakash, after graduating from IIT, decided to bring a positive change in this sector and conceptualized Vedantu (www.vedantu.com) in 2014. The name Vedantu is influenced by Sanskrit words Veda (Knowledge) + Tantu (Network), signifying a ‘Knowledge Network.’

A live online tutoring platform, Vedantu aims to personalise and democratise learning with primary focus on 6th to 10th tuition sector in CBSE & ICSE curriculum. Students also have an option to prepare for tougher competitive exams like NTSE, PSA etc. or simply get their doubts cleared anytime, anywhere. The company spot and create quality teachers and ensure the quality education spreads without boundaries. Vedantu has completely re-imagined 1-to-1 teaching learning and created in-house WAVE technology (Whiteboard, Audio and Video Environment). It makes online learning a pleasure and enables teaching sessions even at a low bandwidth.

A first of its kind ‘Marketplace for Teachers’ model, which has already been proven in other countries, Vedantu is on a mission to make it a game changer in India too. Here a student/parent can come and browse through a list of teachers based on ratings/reviews, communicate with them (chat/talk), choose a teacher and learn Live online with him/her. No other platform in India gives this end-toend integrated experience.

This model addresses the basic problem of generalization and one-size-fits-all in education today. Vedantu is the only initiative in the EdTech space that uses data analytics and algorithms to connect the most relevant teachers to the students as per their requirements and monitors the sessions. This is the most unbiased educational practice. We have so far catered to over 19K students and have successfully conducted over 10k hours of learning sessions.

Vedantu offers services for students throughout India and in some special cases students abroad. The company is currently focusing on tier 1 cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, but it is getting traction from over 92 cities already. Vedantu has recently raised $5million in a Series A round of funding from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management.

The first venture by these friends in education, Lakshya, was founded in 2006 which later got acquired by a listed company called MT Educare (Mahesh Tutorials) in 2012. As part of Lakshya the founders taught and mentored more than 10,000 students and trained more than 200 teachers.

Key Differentiators

Generalisation – Vedantu is solving the basic issue of one size fits all mentality in education today. Apart from 1-to-1 learning, the company realized that best learning happens when a teacher sits with a student to discuss and teach him/her on a notebook shared between them. The shared Whiteboard on Vedantu replicates this for student and teacher sitting thousands of kilometers away.

Passionate Teachers–

Vedantu is inducting and creating a pool of high quality teachers/mentors who really love what they do and who are ‘Teachers by Choice’. In the process, company is creating employment for Women/Housewives who previously had limitations in going out to teach.

Last mile problem – Making quality learning accessible anytime-anywhere with absolutely no boundaries. The new app for teachers, ‘Tapp’ connects them to students in no time. The content library is available at a click of a button. One can sort content, check documents, view videos, and attempt tests and assignments – all at one place. The company has integrated ‘Click to Call’ model.

The objective of VMukti is to bring transformation in the lives of the people through innovations in video communication technology. The firm strives for innovations in webcasting, live video streaming and surveillance especially in the education sector

VMukti stands as one of the pioneer forces when it comes to Cloud based video streaming, surveillance and meeting. Constant focus on research and development since inception with the highest qualified and skilled talent in this industry has created a brand from a company called VMukti. The company provides expertise in balanced, cost effective delivery of live streaming and webcasting media across multiple platforms throughout the world. VMukti is thoroughly committed to provide reliable and quality services with unique fail-safe streaming solutions viz. cloud based video surveillance, webcam surveillance and meeting.

The company’s easy to manage portal, streaming knowledge base and skilled technical support team have made sure that VMukti provides services and products par excellence.

Through the unique global network of unfailing distribution servers, VMukti ensure the delivery of the highest quality content with high speed and performance regardless of the audience size and geographic location of the end user. The webinar software developed by experts is a quintessential example of the live event webcasting needs of the businesses worldwide.

VMukti Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and its interactive live video streaming solutions are certified by Intel and have bagged numerous awards from reputed international organisations like NASSCOM, Red Herring & ISBA.

The firm has 80 per cent of market share in India. The objective of VMukti is to bring out transformation in the lives of people through innovation in video communication technology. The company is a provider of monitoring and surveillance services in various verticals like education, media, government institutions, insurance, retail, finance, and banking and finance.

Purple Squirrel Eduventures collaborates with colleges across the country as Knowledge Partners to design programmes that align with curriculum and evolving industry expectations

Purple Squirrel Eduventures believes the world’s largest youth population needs industry-driven experiential learning to shape its future. The Mumbaibased, SINE IIT-Bombay incubated startup designs industry exposure programmes that combine industry visits, workshops and projects for students across streams.

Founded in September 2013, Purple Squirrel has already partnered with more than 450 companies and worked with 10,000 students across 80 colleges in 12 cities. It was funded by India Quotient in August 2014 and Matrix Partners India in April 2015.

Programmes

Eduventures

For a student, an industry visit is their first real encounter with the professional world, and it is likely to leave a lasting impact. PSQ’s Eduventures are curriculum-mapped industry visits designed to help students understand their career options better. Our Eduventures combine learning modules industry visits, skill development workshops, projects and unique local experiences – that can be customised for students. Colleges can choose from eight industry hubs across the country.

Live Projects

Students work on live projects with companies across sectors. While projects train students, they also help companies shortlist talent and nurture employees into mentorship roles.

Skill-development Workshops

Workshops impart field-specific skills that focus on hands-on training, making students more employable. The workshop format is flexible – ranging from half a day to three days.

ODIs

A first-of-its-kind initiative, One-Day Industry Visits directly connect students to companies and workshops in their city. Spanning 20 cities across the country, ODIs introduce students to world outside of their classrooms.

Designed for you

Our programmes cover all education streams

Media students can spend time learning the ropes at various media companies such as advertising agencies, production houses and PR firms. They can learn and improve on skills such as photography, video editing and copy writing. We tie up with companies such as Ogilvy, NDTV, Radio Mirchi etc to design our programmes.

B-school students and commerce students can explore various facets of management like finance, marketing, human resources and operations. Attending workshops and seminars at some of the biggest management firms in the country is definitely an experience to remember. We work with companies across sectors such as Amul, Just Dial, Coca Cola and Nielsen.

Engineering Eduventures span a wide range of interest areas, ranging from manufacturing to infrastructure and information technology to research. The programme also pays special attention to tech-oriented startups as they are the future. Our tie-ups feature companies such as P&G, UB Group, Siemens and Hyundai.

Entrepreneurship culture is highlighted with students getting a chance to visit in India’s most promising startups such as Myntra and Zomato. Students are also introduced to the social sector through NGOs such as CRY and Akanksha.

The PSQ Impact

Based on post-Eduventure feedback, 80.5% of the students said they had more clarity on their career options. Also, 55% of our partner companies are willing to offer internships and projects to our students.

Aiming to empower students with skills, MindBox programmes designed for students from grade 1to12 aid in developing their thinking process and creativity

MindBox is an initiative that aims to empower students with 21st century skills. The company develops creativity & life skills of students by an output method of expression using Visual Communication as language, design thinking and STEAM as a subject. The delivery happens using Technology as a tool inside the school’s campus through Project | Design Based Training Methodology for Class 1st-12th students.

MindBox provides curriculum, worksheet, software’s along with qualified faculty to conduct these sessions and a four way assessment system for school and students. They also provide national and international level competition for students to demonstrate and showcase their skills.

Programmes

Art2Robotics

The programme help students to learn to build robots and perform tasks with using pre-programmed, easy to use smart Cubo Kits. The programme help develops motor skills, improves creativity and imagination, and exposure to collaboration at a young age.

Art2Paint (Digital Painting)

This programme combines the power of software and hardware technology with traditional art skills in training students on creating digital paintings. It is a fun activity based programme, introduces students to handling of digital tools of art creation at an early stage of education.

Art2Animation

A fun based programme of claymation helps students learn to create models with plasticine clay and animate them with the help of HUE HD camera and Animation software. The Programme introduces students to the creative medium of claymation of expression of creativity and imagination. The programme helps improve the sense of colour, size and proportions, experience of creating different shapes and forms.

Art2Game (Game Maker)

The objective of this programme is to design and develop a simple 2D game for a PC using drag and drop based programming software Game Maker Lite. The programme is for students studying in grade 4-7. It helps in improving the number and shape recognition, grouping and counting, develops sense of video perception and colour recognition, improves hand-eye coordination and promoting creativity.

Art2Video (Videography)

Art2video will create, develop and frame your moments. Select a theme or a function, conceptualise and record the entire event, edit and add titles and digital effects and produce a final video output. Programme includes videography, storyboarding, shot composition, lighting techniques, importing video, edit, adding effects, audio and text and making a final DVD of the same.

Art2Animation

An objective oriented programme designed to help students use their own creativity and imagination in creating 3D animation content using industry standard software Auto-desk Maya. A programme that covers up the entire 3D animation pipeline. The programme is designed for students of grade 8-10.

CADD@School methodology helps students to develop balanced brain skills and to apply their knowledge to better their performance in studies and activities. CADD courses are designed to equip the kids to meet their daily challenges and help them transform from a kid to Kiddovator

CADD Center is the world’s largest CAD training organisation with 520 centers and presence in 24 countries having trained over 1 million college students and professionals for 27 years. CADD Center is keen on associating with schools to add value to students through the CADD@School initiative.

CADD@School has identified certain skills needed for the students of age 12 to 17 like logical thinking, analytical ability and soft skills and will impart these skills through the specially designed and customized KIDOVATORS programme.

The KIDOVATORS programme aims to nurture balanced brain development in students of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 11th standards by training them on generic, specific and soft skills which will be of great value addition.

Classrooms ought to be a digital zone that will enable the students to enter the engineering mindset. This mindset develops when the students grasp complex scientific concepts of the school or college curriculum in a practical way.

CADD@School remains a value addition programme that seeks to widen the horizons of the student without becoming an obstacle to the regular curriculum. The training using our licensed software will take place on campus in a convenient manner for both the student and the institution.

CADD@School helps in enhancing brain development in kids. Childhood is all about learning. The brain and the learning connections within the brain are the heart of learning for kids to achieve their aspiration. For instance, when student learn the fundamentals of engineering drawing they learn the concept of arts, science and analytics that are taught at schools. This early initiation from Cadd@School helps the kid acquire experience, develop skills, and broaden their knowledge by increasing the control of materials, creativity and analytical skills.

The programme brings a host of creative and professional software courses to the students of higher secondary schools or technical and vocational training institutions. The programme opens the gate to the world of imagination and creativity. It helps students excel in higher studies and future career, harnessing the power of visual thinking.

With the focus of providing smart safety solutions for students, tech Smart has developed smart modules that make school infrastructure smart and helps teachers and parents to track the child’s activities with a single move

The vision of tech Smart, a solution division of Secureye, is to deliver education through innovation and technology. Focusing on the security of the students at schools, tech Smart is working on providing smart infrastructure to the schools.

A pioneer in providing security and surveillance hardware and dedicated solutions for institutions, tech Smart has created a niche in the market just by providing simple and innovative solutions to cut the operational hazards of the business. The integrated solutions developed by the team of experts make infrastructure smart.

The experts at tech Smart have developed comprehensive solutions for child safety, enquiry, school bus tracking, admission, fee, class timetable, assignments, and academics of any institution for multiple locations.

Modules at tech Smart

School Bus Tracking: To keep your children safe from the challenges of going missing, abduction, road accidents and other mishaps, the School Bus Tracking solution helps in keeping an eye on the students going to school from starting point to the doorstep. The solution makes sure that every student and his guardian are well informed about the schedule of the bus. Bus will be enabled with driver console which will make driver smart by providing detailed information about stoppages and students. Parents will get a notification of the bus reaching the stop before two stops on their mobile. Parents and school administration can do the real-time tracking of the bus.

Digital ID Card: The technology will help outdoor and indoor tracking of Student once he is out of house. It will capture attendance in Classroom, library, labs etc. and the parents can get the information about the movement of their child on the mobile. It will also empower students with real time daily activities and time table along with SOS button for emergency use. Digital ID Cards will also activate cashless management in school like a student can do cashless transactions in Canteen, Fee, Uniform etc

Live recording and broadcasting of lecture: This solution presents a complete automated end-to-end system that supports capturing, editing, packaging, broadcasting, viewing, and archiving. The system architecture minimizes the pre- and post-production time, and a fully automated lecture capture system that synchronously captures all the content of the lecture, including audio, video, and presentation material.

Teachers can edit the content they recorded in the classroom. The lecture can be made available for online streaming or podcast. With the help of content management system, the recorded lecture can be published online or on the digital library of the school.

Mobile APP: The application provides real-time updates to parents at the click of a button. The app sends a text to the parents after the teacher approves absence of the students. The teacher and parents can chat and discuss the progress and problems of the child on this platform. Besides, there are add-on cameras mounted in the school buses and the classes, which record all activities. With the help of mobile app, parents can also track the location of their children. In case of misbehavior by driver or conductor or by other students, parents can immediately get the information and help their child.