1.What is the inspiration behind SpeEdLabs?
Vivek Varshney, the founder of SpeEdLabs, an IIT Kanpur and IIM Lucknow alumni wanted to make the idea of an effective learning method via re-designing of the curriculum a reality. Just as the world was in the cusp of transition from 100% offline to online mode of education, Vivek realised that pure online learning is not the future. And there brewed the idea for SpeEdLabs. He felt that the best way to use technology for education is through an AI-enabled learning platform that can not only benefit students from grades 7th to 12th and those preparing for competitive examinations like JEE and NEET, but also a platform that can be leveraged by tutors and teachers across the country, who are already in the system and helping students learn. Unlike other players in the EdTech space who are talking of edging out teachers and the offline mode, SpeEdLabs believes in the power of lectures and teaching, and aims to consolidate that by providing a robust learning and practice platform that takes this learning deeper and forward.
He has also published an international patent for Hybrid Pedagogy, a new teaching methodology, and is continuously working towards strengthening the pillars of education in the world with a motto “Personalized Education is the bridge between dreams and capabilities.”
2. What are the technologies that are used for your platform to offer personalised learning?
At SpeEdLabs, we have created an unparalleled content library that drills down to seven levels of hierarchy from course and subject down to individual concepts and questions. At the same time, we also track and monitor the learn, practice and test behaviours of each student through hundreds of unique data points. Combining our detailed content taxonomy with the data captured for each student, we then use advanced data analytics and statistical modelling techniques to benchmark the relative performance of each student at multiple content levels. For instance, we can accurately estimate the learning gaps that a student might have in a specific concept of a chapter if her performance during practice is below her average performance for that subject or course.
Once we extract detailed insights from each student’s learning journey, we use machine learning techniques such as clustering, classification and content-based recommender systems to provide personalized recommendations to each student. These include broad study planner recommendations such as how much time to allocate to a particular subject or which chapter to practice next as well as the most detailed personalizations where each question practiced by the student is adaptively selected by an algorithm to match their expertise level and the content’s difficulty.
3. How are these technologies assisting in the diversification of your product and platform?
The platform caters to both students and teachers in educational institutes. With a Tech + Content play, SpeEdLabs differentiates between its B2c and B2B model, and aims to empower more than 2+ lakh teachers and many more students across India in the next 12 months.
We started with JEE/ NEET, test prep but now we are offering classes 6th to 12th for CBSE, ICSE , State Boards, Hindi , CLAT , NDA, Foundation Etc. We have covered all the subjects – Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Social Studies and English. Adaptive Assignments and Tests can be created on a single click for every user as per his/her strength and weakness. Teachers can track students’ performance batch wise using detailed AI based reports and clear the weak concepts.
4. How do you intend to tap into the growing learner market in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities?
Currently more than 70% of clients are in tier 2-3 cities where more than 70k students have used our product in the last 2 years. We work very closely with our clients on a regular basis to give them a training to use all the functionalities and the analytics Dashboards In order to facilitate our penetration in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, we are partnering with 9 state boards and they include Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Bihar state boards. To tap into the Tier 2 and Tier 3, we have plans in the pipeline that we would roll out soon.
5. The year 2022 will be critical for hybrid learning models; technology and instructors will be essential drivers of growth; do you provide any training to your teachers?
SpeedLabs empowers teachers by taking teaching experience, knowledge, pedagogical expertise and local trust to the learners at affordable price with technology intervention in self-study stage and high-quality personalized education and analytics. Going beyond just trainings, we equip teachers with every student’s personalised report, their analytical graph that highlights students’ weaker areas and interests subject wise. Alongside, testing and monitoring is all made significantly dynamic and user friendly so that teachers with carrying levels of digital proficiency can work on the platform adeptly.
6. Instruction, Practice, and Feedback provide a conducive learning environment for students- how do you think this contributes to significant shift in understanding the subjects in much deeper level?
Student-teacher engagement plays such a larger role not only in a student’s perception of subjects but also in overall social development. Teacher-student relationship has been touted since ages and is a solid predictor of success in children’s learning, specifically for younger kids.
However, since most students had little or no contact with their teachers in the pandemic after the schools closed, the trajectory of students’ progress showed a downward trend.
Parents of students and the others around them end up thinking that children are not interested in studies. However, the reality is that most of the students want to improve, take tuition, but because they do not get proper support and personalised feedback, they lose motivation.
In such scenarios, technologies like Artificial intelligence, automated student insight reports, and video lectures help fix the challenges. But these online tools cannot be viewed in isolation. Peer learning, personalised attention and one-on-one feedback backed with freedom for teachers elevate a child’s social development. Besides learning subjects, they learn about appropriate behaviours, body language, tones and cultivate habits that help them in the long run.
8. Many EdTech platforms have been collaborating with FinTechs to give convenient financial solutions to parents. Do you have any FinTech partners with whom you provide speedy payment solutions?
We have multiple fintech partners like Finacepeer , BharatX , Razorpay etc to provide payment flexibility. We are also working with a few more companies to design longer tenure and more longer solutions
