The “new normal” has demanded a lot of changes from everyone. But the education industry had to move faster than most, there is no stopping for education and development after all. As schools, universities and other educational institutions shut down due to the lockdowns imposed to control the Covid-19 pandemic, online education became all the rage.
Although between 2014 and 2019, more than 4450 EdTech start-ups were launched in India, it was during the lockdowns that they rose to the prominence of being the primary mode of education in the country. One such visionary start-up is Learning Matters Pvt. Ltd. which came into existence with the singular goal of empowering educators to educate their students more efficiently and thus transforming schools.
Founded in the year 2016, Learning Matters is dedicated to transforming teaching and improving the student learning experience. They do this by using artificial intelligence for equipping teachers and students with pedagogically designed digital and non-digital tools and skill development.
To gain insights into the journey of Learning Matters Pvt. Ltd. and understand the scope of online education in the future of India, we conducted an interview with Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, the Co-founder of this innovative educational institution.
Saraswathy completed M.S. Child Development and M.S. Special Education from Purdue University, and is responsible for all things marketing and brand building at Learning Matters.
So, without further ado, let us dive right into the interview and relish the wisdom we are about to receive.
Brief our readers about your journey into the educational services space and how you came up with the idea for this company.
I have worked exclusively and extensively in the education domain for 20+ years. My forte is early childhood education and child development. I started my career managing preschool classrooms and training ECCE (early childhood care and education) teachers.
My early years of work in this space taught me the importance of keeping the learner’s developmental stage and abilities at the forefront while designing educational programmes. I also understood how important it is to train teachers to understand best practices in teaching and to equip and enable them to teach such that their students can learn effectively.
I then moved into working in print curriculum development and production at KinderCare Education, a leading education company in the USA, as well as in digital content development at Pearson, India.
When Ramamoorthy G, Gowri Mahesh, and I came together to co-found Learning Matters, we were very certain that we wanted to address the foundational challenges in the Indian education space – lack of quality teacher training and the lack of access to affordable but pedagogically-sound, digital tools due to the cost factor and the stark urban-rural divide. We designed learning solutions keeping in mind these two vital challenges and created our innovative products – the StarTeacher teacher-training programme and Tara – a virtual voice teacher powered by AI.
Please highlight a few of your distance learning services. Do you customize services as per the need and eligibility of your clients?
Our educational products and solutions are designed to improve teacher competency and student learning outcomes. Each of our solutions fulfils a specific need in schools, as outlined below.
Tara – a virtual voice teacher
There is a severe shortage of qualified teachers in tier2/tier3 schools. Many are single-teacher schools, leading to a highly stressed education system. Even in schools that have a satisfactory number of teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is very high, with one teacher managing almost 45 students in a class, on average. This brings down the efficacy in the whole teaching and learning process. This is the pain point that we are solving with Tara who is an efficient teaching assistant.
Additionally, teachers do not speak in English even in English medium schools because of their own lack of exposure to the language. This affects the students’ ability to comprehend other core subjects, leading to an overall downward spiral in learning outcomes. Tara addresses this specific pain point with the communicative English course that she delivers to both students and teachers. “She” is an intelligent and powerful combination of a voice-enabled device (such as Amazon Alexa®) with content created by experts in Learning Matters. Tara teaches learners how to effectively communicate in English through a combination of lessons that include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Schools need only the device, internet, and our books to get started. Tara does the rest.
StarTeacher
Lack of well-trained teachers is a debilitating problem in India. StarTeacher is a teacher-training programme that uses a blended delivery model to render it effective. Teachers are trained through video conferencing sessions, one-on-one personalised calls with a master trainer, and also receive customised videos and information of interest through WhatsApp groups. This personalises the training and makes it meaningful to each teacher. We also conduct webinars for educators and education leaders on a wide range of topics ranging from online teaching to incorporating digital tools in teaching. These webinars fulfil a huge need for ongoing professional development on current, relevant topics for teachers.
Are there any popular courses that are high in demand? What makes them so popular?
Two of our learning solutions that are highly in demand are StarTeacher and Tara. There is a great need for customised, comprehensive, and holistic teacher training and upskilling, and StarTeacher fulfills these needs. Hundreds of students across India have started conversing in English within a month after learning from Tara. Our interactive English voice teacher has been an instant hit among both teachers and students as we have content specially designed for these diverse age groups. Moreover, the content is aligned to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and teaches learners through a conversational mode that is natural, engaging, and fun. To top it all, learners learn in a judgement-free environment that is totally free of intimidation and fear.
Because Tara is extremely light on hardware, requires minimum bandwidth for usage when compared to videobased learning, and does not intimidate learners who are not as tech-savvy as others, Tara is a very practical and attractive choice for schools all over the country.
How do you help in overall student learning like doubt clearance? Also, do you assist in placements? If yes, how?
Our StarTeacher programmes teach teachers the best practices in teaching and pedagogy, classroom management, assessment and remediation. It is holistic and comprehensive for up-skilling of teachers designed to enable them to teach better, thereby enabling students to learn better and more effectively.
Being an accomplished leader, what is your opinion on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the distance learning services sector?
Covid-19 has reshaped education and distance learning and has demonstrated that learners of all ages can indeed learn remotely provided they have access to good internet, basic infrastructure, and the curriculum is pedagogically based and makes use of effective teaching-learning techniques and strategies. Distance learning has become synonymous with online learning now.
The pandemic has helped us realise the true potential and scope of distance learning, but it has also demonstrated the severe inequity in access to the internet and basic infrastructure without which distance learning will remain a dream for many. If these can be taken care of by thoughtful implementation and collaboration between the government, private organisations in EdTech (Education Technology), and the big daddies of telecommunication and internet services, distance learning can truly be impactful in our country.
What is your opinion on the future of the distance learning market, in terms of technological improvements, increase in demand, or the sorts?
It is clear that virtual distance learning will be central to learning in some form or the other in the future. Distance learning has a lot to offer than just being a temporary alternative. It is important to recognize that distance learning is capable of a much more long-term impact than what students experienced during 2020, which was just the beginning.
Online and virtual learning is already evolving quickly and constantly to meet the requirements of the users and adaptability in this sector is much faster than the traditional learning method. Even though not a complete distance learning model, a hybrid or blended virtual programme will definitely be a big part of the future which will let students engage in a mix of in-person and online learning.
What have you envisioned for the organisation for the near future?
Artificial Intelligence is already gaining prominence in education, and voice technology will play a big role very soon. Tara, which harnesses AI and voice technology, will play a huge and impactful role in teaching students not just communicative English but other academic subjects. Tara will start to train teachers on best practices in teaching. We envision a revolutionary and sustainable shift in being able to impact teacher proficiency and student learning outcomes that will be both scalable and impactful.
