With the online education market expected to grow from 1.6 million users in 2016 to 9.6 million in 2021 (according to KPMG), the online test preparation platform is seeing the biggest boom ever. With the upcoming quarter going to be the busiest season for government and banking exams, conducted by the UPSC, SSC, CGL, and IBPS till February 2018, students are preparing better using such aids, which include latest changes in patterns as well mock tests, helping them familiarize concepts and question patterns better.

Here we take a look at some of the top performing online test portals in India.

1. EntrancePrime:

This Noida-based e-portal offers online test series for engineering, medical, IAS and other competitive exam preparations. After the completion of every chapter, the student completes an online assessment. After every test, the portal provides a detailed analysis of the performance and compares it at the national level. A self-funded venture, EntrancePrime has 1.5 lakh registered students. More than 14 crore questions have been attempted so far by the students.

2. Plancess:

Plancess specializes in the preparation of IIT-JEE. The Mumbai-based startup covers all formats of the test prep market – print, digital, online and mobile. Founded in August 2012, Plancess has more than 10,000 registered students.  Plancess offers comprehensive solutions for preparation in the form of high-definition video lectures, reference materials and rigorous test series for medical and engineering entrance examinations.

3. ExamEdge:

Exam Edge LLC was founded in 2006 with the aim of providing quality resources to help teachers do well in their certification exams. With a niche segment in focus, unlike other test preparation centers focused on IIT-JEE or NEET exams, ExamEdge offers self-timed online assessment tests for would-be teachers. Once the test is over, the user can check the results and explanations provided to understand the areas of improvement. With unlimited access to learning resources and assessment reviews, Exam Edge users can always track their own performance. Of late, Exam Edge has forayed into other subjects like Accounting, Healthcare, Nutrition, and Fitness.

4. Eduhat:

Eduhat provides a common platform to connect students, teachers, coaching institutes, colleges, schools, and book publishers. The registered users can solve free online test series being conducted by famous coaching institutes across India, evaluate their performance at national tournaments, and get a personalized assessment and detailed report. Also, Eduhat students have access to study materials prepared by premier coaching institutes across India.

5. Think Exam:

Think Exam, an online exam portal, by Ginger Webs Pvt provides online test modules for classroom and competitive exams. Over 1 million assessments are evaluated every month. With a strong network of 250 test centers associated in more than 100 cities, Think Exam gives you access to the study resources created by subject matter experts, now available on paper, web, mobile and tablet devices.

6. Toppr:

Toppr offers personalized learning programs and online mock tests for schools and competitive exams like JEE Main, NEET, and JEE Advanced. Toppr offers study resources and exam modules for school exams (classes V-XII) as well.  Students registering with Toppr have access to video lectures, concept sheets, detailed reports, and question sets for every subject. In addition, students can interact with teachers, request for personalized tests and previous papers.

7. PixelBenchmarks:

PixelBenchmarks is an online mock test platform for users aspiring to perform well at exams. Mapped to the updated syllabus and changed examination patterns, the mock test banks are available at an affordable rate. Users may enroll for basic, intermediate or advanced levels of one or more subjects. Registered users can take a free sample test to see for themselves.

In addition, PixelBenchmarks provides performance metrics with explanations, to help users prepare better. It operates on a pay-as-you-go model and generates revenue mainly through exam fees (to be paid by students) and registration fees (paid by resource providers), and advertisements.

PixelBenchmarks, an initiative by Pixel Solutionz, aims at competing with the big shots in online tutoring or classroom coaching, with its unique pay-as-you-go model and liberty to choose from academic resource providers.

8. Eklavya:

Eklavya offers free and paid online tests for the entrance exam, recruitment exam, university exam, as well as aptitude and personality tests. The online test portal addresses the needs of a good number of educational institutes, colleges, universities, training centers, and corporate houses spread across India. Its cutting-edge remote proctoring technology and systematic analytics set Eklavya apart from other online test platforms.

9. Testbook:

While other online test platforms offer mock tests or publish previous years’ questions (with solutions), Testbook offers a tournament –like atmosphere. Students across India can appear for an online test at the same time. Once the live test is submitted, students can share the link on social media. Students can also check their performance analysis from the dashboard. Testbook employs Machine Learning models to deliver useful analytics both at the topic level and at the question-level. Over 25 lakh students have registered with Testbook and more than 80 lakh tests have been attempted so far.

10. Oliveboard:

Oliveboard specializes in offering online test modules for banking, post office, CA, and MBA exams. Its features include Mock Tests, Sectional Tests, Adaptive Tests, Group Study Games along with Conceptual Videos & Lessons, created by toppers and renowned faculty across India. Oliveboard provides remedial material on weak areas to improve faster thereby reducing study cycles. Also, Oliveboard users have unlimited access to free online reference matter and take part in discussions.

Here we have chosen five EdTech start-ups in the online test preparation space. Many more e-learning brands, are working at the national and regional level, and have quality content to offer. The EdTech industry, unlike other industries, gets healthier returns; more competition equals better content.  The end result is general upliftment in the standard of education. More students have access to academic resources, irrespective of time or place. Quality education will be available to the mass, 24X7.

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The Indian education market is expected to almost double to $180 billion by 2020, according to another report by management consulting firm Technopak. The later report states that India’s education market is valued at $100 billion currently while the digital learning market is estimated at $2 billion.

Digital Education – The Future of Education in India

The digital learning market is expected to reach $5.7 billion by 2020 as the number of internet users is increasing. India’s internet user base is estimated to reach 550 million by 2020 with an approximately 40% penetration, a significant increase from the 35% currently, the report compiled in partnership with as per Simplilearn research.

Digital education market so hot? Increased penetration of the Internet and smartphones in India are the primary drivers of growth. High-speed Internet has led to the creation of a richer and more loyal customer base for companies operating in the e-learning market to acquire and monetize this opportunity.

The traditional education system in India is unable to offer services to all the segments of the education and skill development market. Students lack the time and resources to avail of library resources.

India E-Learning Market Share, By Technology

Coaching classes are often too expensive and time-bound. Today’s learners are look for alternative sources of education, one of the primary reasons that have contributed to the growth of the online education market in India.

Digital learning in the K-12 space comprises segments such as smart class solutions, online tutoring, online preparation for exams, simulation and virtual reality, STEM learning, AR and robotics, and assessment. Online education providers like Edureka, Coursera, and Edurite are using this as a great opportunity.

They are ready with interactive study resources and educational programmes at all levels, making up a sizeable chunk of the alternative or supplementary education market in India.

Do we have enough digital resources? As per the ASSOCHAM’s survey, a whopping number of close to 87% of primary school children and up to 95% of the higher secondary attend private coaching classes. More than 86% of parents lack time or knowledge to teach their children on their own, explaining the pressing need for classroom coaching or online tutoring.

The supplementary education market in India for school students is estimated to be close to $25 billion and is expected to touch $30 billion by 2020. Currently, in the K-12 segment, there are 1.5 million schools with 260 million students. Of the 1.5 million schools, 1.1 million are run by the government. As per the University Grants Commission report published in 2016, India is to host to 751 universities and over 35,539 colleges.

Digital Education Market Size to Grow

The distance education system contributed a quarter of student enrolments in the higher education system, with over 29 million students enrolled in higher education systems. The demand for quality education exists at both levels: student and teacher. The education sector in India is still striving to meet the demand for good teachers. It is estimated that India currently has a shortage of 1.4 million trained teachers.

Renowned education providers such as Educomp, Tata Class Edge, Pearson, and TeachNext are coming up with interactive software to aid teachers in classroom teaching. However, usage of digital technologies in institutes of higher education is still in its nascent stages and efforts are being made to fine-tune these technologies to adapt to the needs of University students.

In short, content development is yet to mature in colleges and universities across India. Looking at the current trends, it is expected that online higher education market will witness considerable growth in the next five years and aid in distance learning programmes. However, since these courses are limited to theoretical content currently, adoption of virtual classroom concepts could bring a practical component in the online medium.

In addition, more students, especially from tier 2 and 3 cities are expected to adopt different online channels for competitive exams. Also, gamification, the approach of introducing fun elements like video game design in learning, is fast gaining acceptance, thanks to BYJU and Cuemath. Needless to say, all these online channels have opened up ways for teachers and trainers.

All they have to do is to upgrade them a bit to match up to the current digital education.   Like our blog? Let us know. Comment below.  

The supplementary education market in India for school students is estimated to be close to $25 billion and is expected to touch $30 billion by 2020. The KPMG 2017 research forecasts a CAGR of 64% for the online test preparation market in 2021.

However, most of the market share lies with premier EdTech brands that charge a high amount for online test packages and have very few centers, mostly in metros cities.

Digital marketing strategies for higher education

With the online education market expected to grow from 1.6 million users in 2016 to 9.6 million in 2021 (according to KPMG), the online test preparation platform is seeing the biggest boom ever.

With the upcoming quarter going to be the busiest season for government and banking exams, conducted by the UPSC, SSC, CGL, and IBPS till February 2018, students are preparing better using such aids, which include the latest changes in patterns as well as mock tests, helping them familiarize concepts and question patterns better.

The Indian educational market is a highly segmented one and it is interesting to note that almost all segments are high on demand.

Today parents want to download worksheets and practice pages for kindergarten kids.

Middle school students are becoming more reliant upon online resources (in the form of video tutorials, downloadable notes, question banks and more). For high school, college, and competitive exams, the demand was always high. Educational brands, now known as EdTech brands (the smart and trendy name for today’s students) are riding high on personal branding.

Why is digital marketing strategy for higher education important?

While one brand is offering video tutorials for solving complex Mathematics or Physics problems, another one is giving out ready-to-solve mock test sheets for practice.

While one EdTech brand is growing its subscriber base with flexible payment structure (for online and offline course packages), the other one is building an online platform for teacher-student interaction.

Gamification of academic modules has also gained immense importance in the recent past. Well-known brands like Edurite or Scoremore post quizzes or questions for users. Hourly prizes or quiz of week strategies very much at play.

EdTech brands have redefined the importance of time to the millennials. PixelBenchmarks, a leading online mock test platform for users aspiring to perform well at exams.

Mapped to the updated syllabus and changed examination patterns, mock test banks are available at an affordable rate. Users may enroll for basic, intermediate, or advanced levels of one or more subjects. Registered users can take a free sample test to see for themselves.

It operates on a pay-as-you-go model and generates revenue mainly through exam fees (to be paid by students) and registration fees (paid by resource providers), and advertisements.

Bigshots in West Bengal like BITJEE and Pathfinder put up special online study resources for students appearing for high school, engineering, and medical examinations.

They can enroll in both classroom or online courses by logging in through their social media accounts. This helps them access academic matters and also aids in the instant sharing of resources if required. Timely updates on social media on exam schedules and results help students.  

The coming years will see more interesting and attractive offerings in online learning. Gear up for more fun on the way.   Want to share your thoughts. Let us know how you feel. Comment below.    

What is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing may be explained as the practice of borrowing ideas, knowledge, information or services for business growth. The term “crowdsourcing” may also be explained as a combination of crowds and outsourcing and was coined in 2006 by Wired magazine author Jeff Howe in his article “The Rise of Crowdsourcing.”

Of late crowdsourcing is a term mostly used by enterprises, large or small, to

Crowdsourcing Types

Crowd Contest is a popular form of crowdsourcing. An organization may use a crowd contest to create a killer logo or design. The best one is chosen from among hundreds and thousands of designs and eventually qualifies as the top design. Usually, prize money is paid and the designer might also be offered a full-time contract with the organization.

Companies also use crowdsourcing to seek out an individual who can handle a specific project — a type of crowdsourcing called macro-tasking. Or the entity can seek out many respondents, assigning each one some task or a smaller part within a larger project. This is called micro-tasking.

Another subset of crowdsourcing is crowdfunding, where nonprofit organizations ask for money to cover the costs of an identified endeavor.  Entrepreneurs often make use of crowdfunding to raise funds for their businesses.

The most important area of crowdsourcing is yet to be covered; borrowing of information or ideas. Larger organizations often build up a database with crowdsourced ideas or information. Many brands, especially online education brands owe their growth to intelligent crowdsourcing.

How is Crowdsourcing useful for Business?

Businesses of all kinds have used crowdsourcing to implore ideas and raise money as well as consolidate and promote information. This also allows them to engage with a broader spectrum of sources than they would if they had used employees, suppliers and other traditional sources of expertise via conventional routes of engagement.

• Faster results: The crowdsourcing approach helps businesses to go straight to the market with their design brief and invite a whole community of creative people to submit their unique ideas immediately. In fact, most customers receive their first designs within a couple of hours. This is an early indication of whether the brief is set up correctly and if you have directed the designers in the right way.
• More creative: Large business houses utilize crowdsourcing to tap into the knowledge, skills, and creativity of a massive network of potential brand advocates. Crowdsourcing opens up the design space to a readily available pool of talented creative genius, who is ready to contribute to your brand.
• More collaborative: Crowdsourcing enables you to enjoy a more streamlined process and present a brief that drills down on your key demands. Designers work faster and smarter when there are more competition and less pressure to deliver on a contract. You should provide feedback on the designs you like during the contest, but you are essentially left free to focus on developing your business while the creative elements flow in. What more, you can directly poll your friends, followers, colleagues, and customers online to help you choose the winner. You are also free to eliminate unsuitable designs and request changes from designers you feel are close to nailing it.

• More money-wise: Crowdsourcing utilizes a pool of qualified freelance designers for work, which significantly lowers the costs.

The process also comes with a lot more financial flexibly, as you can set your own budget. The competition between designers means the costs are kept down and you can choose additional features to ensure you get the most designs and best quality for the price.

Crowdsourcing Examples

Crowdsourcing platforms with global communities of filmmakers worldwide have offered attractive rewards for the best videos on a given brand brief, typically awarding cash or other brand relevant incentives. The WWF’s Earth Hour 2017 initiative was a classic instance of crowdsourcing for business advantage.

Celebrating Earth Hour’s 10th anniversary, WWF requested the global video crowd to produce engaging, emotional films about why and how people should act to #changeclimatechange. It provided the perfect formula for doubling organic reach and becoming a powerful vehicle for consumers, activists, and environmentalists to get their messages heard by a worldwide audience.

More than 40 videos were submitted from places like Namibia and Siberia, all with their own unique message.

For Nespresso, was another channel to convey messaging while building brand equity, by focusing on worldwide talent and the particularly the younger audience in the process. Since the younger generation is consuming more mobile content and, most of it is being watched vertically, it was easier to engage them in an online talent hunt.

Nespresso Talents was launched at the Berlinale Film Festival, amplified online with an exclusive content partner with the promise that the three winners’ efforts would be showcased at Cannes later in the year.

Nespresso recorded over 384 submissions from 38 different countries and all of these statistics was available even viewed the entries that the contest had been a success and the varied backgrounds and ideas behind the competitors made it a tough call to judge just three winners.

With 85 million impressions, 1,700 mentions and 99.7% positive sentiment towards the campaign, with no surprise that the press and bloggers fell for vertical format and at Cannes, attracting huge attention and giving the three winners a truly global showcase of their talents.

Nespresso enhanced credentials in film, building on innovation and engaging a wider audience beyond physical platforms. They also validated the emergence of vertical video as a credible medium, completely changing the snobbish attitude that had been prevalent for so long. The vertical films even won the gold medal for mobile content in France’s Online Video Awards.

PixelBenchmarks, for example, an initiative by Pixel Solutionz is an online mock test platform that is growing its question banks by accepting mock tests from teachers, trainers, tutors, tuition providers, and brilliant scholars. The resource providers submit their mock tests and are paid every time a purchase is made by a user.

EducationBengal.in, another initiative by Pixel Solutionz is building an online directory of city-based schools, colleges, academic institutions, coaching centers, and vocational centers. The institutions can list themselves for free and EducationBengal.in makes this information available for use.

Closing thoughts:

While speaking on the future of crowdsourcing, an immense increase in the number of brands that use crowdsourcing across categories is forecasted. also, crowdsourcing will evolve from a ‘take-only’ approach into much more of a two-way communication between brands and consumers.

According to experts you might consider giving your consumers a say in the process, so as to make them feel more connected with the bran. Be transparent and honest with them. I am sure the end result will be better than you expected it to be. The companies that can find a way to do that will have a much more loyal base than the ones which are not.

Today’s brands know they need a library of cost-effectively produced content to keep fans engaged. Turning consumers and fans into passionate brand advocates has so much value, if you can do that while energizing your brand’s content marketing it opens up a whole new world with a lot of promise.

A lot of startups have come up in this space to address these pain points. While some have online courses, some others are providing career advice. While some startups are helping students prepare for competitive examinations, some are making learning a more enjoyable experience with Virtual Reality.

Let us have a look at the top five EdTech startups in India:

Gyan Labs

One of the primary reasons Indian students feel demotivated or lose interest in classroom education is because of its one-size-fits-all classroom education model. Both students and their parents are unhappy about this but found no help. Bengaluru-based Gyan Labs realized the criticality of the issue and came forward with its adaptive, mobile-friendly learning platform for K-10 students. Gyan Labs presents gamification- based learning that tests what a child already knows and helps them retain their learning. The B2C (to parents) platform comes with a monthly fee of Rs 199-349 per student.

Also, Gyan Labs allows parents to assess students and suggests remedial steps for addressing their learning gaps. Available in English and vernacular medium, the EdTech brand was launched in April 2016 and has more than 250 student accounts created who have solved over 3,000 questions.

Katalyst Eduserve

Quite often, employers have seen that despite coming out of premier institutions students are clueless about their true potential. This often leads to career mismatches. Even though India has the second largest and youngest workforce in the world with a median age of 25; only 0.01 percent of the population is skilled enough to qualify as ’employable’.

Chennai-based Katalyst Eduserve answers this business challenge by offering a competency-based assessment complementing credit-based education, to ensure better academic outcomes and a rewarding career. It offers you a ready-to-use package that includes assessment, academic comparison, personal counseling, parent and teacher interaction, career guidance and yearly engagement of a personal trainer and comes with a price between Rs 100 – Rs 6,000.

PixelBenchmarks:

PixelBenchmarks is an online mock test platform for users aspiring to perform well at exams. Mapped to the updated syllabus and changed examination patterns, the mock test banks are available at an affordable rate. Users may enroll for basic, intermediate or advanced levels of one or more subjects. Registered users can take a free sample test to see for themselves.

In addition, PixelBenchmarks provides performance metrics with explanations, to help users prepare better. It operates on a pay-as-you-go model and generates revenue mainly through exam fees (to be paid by students) and registration fees (paid by resource providers), and advertisements.

PixelBenchmarks, an initiative by Pixel Solutionz, aims at competing with the big shots in online tutoring or classroom coaching, with its unique pay-as-you-go model and liberty to choose from academic resource providers.

XPrep

Identifying a tutor with conducive practices and continually engage with them is a major challenge faced by parents today. Home tutors, who are marketing their practices in an over-crowded space, often fail to identify or assess remediation needs is a major challenge for students. Recent research has shown that formal education accounts for nearly 12% of expenditure on average Indian families and over 89% of parents depend on curriculum-based assistance for their children.

Delhi-based XPrep is addressing the visibility and engagement problem within the tutor-parent network by inviting home-based tutors under its sway. It empowers these tutors with technology to cater to the growing needs of their students. More than 80 tutors have partnered with XPrep and are serving over than 3,500 students across India.

Edudharma

Did you know that almost five percent of students drop out of higher education institutions because they fail to afford rising education expenses? What if there is a non-profit organization that disburses funds to needy children?

Well, someone heard our prayers it seems. Edudharma, a Chennai-based EdTech startup addresses this through an online crowdfunding platform for NGOs, corporates, individuals, and others to fund student needs. Within 100 days of launch, the company raised Rs 12,16,801.

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