The Panchtatva Model of Learning
We meet a lot of people (obviously!) and this includes investors, parents, mentors, industry experts etc. One thing which has surprised us in a lot of these conversations is how people have their own opinion of what is the X-factor in the business. Some people say its the personalisation element, some say small batch sizes, some think its just the pricing at play while others say its the packaging.
<aside> ?? In one of the meetings, an investor asked me what is the secret sauce (we are growing 40% m-o-m)
I quipped, our secret sauce is the mixed sauce :)
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From Day 1, we decided that we are not in the service of products - as unglamorous as it sounds - we are not a product first company - we are a customer first company.
<aside> ?? We have spoken to 3,500+ parents → not surveys, real conversations → more than 2,000 hours of conversation to understand the real pain-points of the parents. The result → The Panchtatva model of learning
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If you are short of time, here is the summary in two short bullet points
We designed the Panchtatva model, after all these discussions. Let's get to the specific elements:
Mentorship
You can't take teacher out of teaching - just not possible. Every parent wants a teacher who can pay attention to their kids
Koi mere bachche pe dhyan de
Mentorship goes a couple of steps beyond this and includes a good mentor in a rigorous learning environment. Yes, rigour is critical.
In online classes, an additional problem statement is "Killing The Distance" - the teacher and the students are in different cities → how does a teacher make a student feel that he or she is just across the table?
At DUX, in addition to the small batches and great teachers, we have introduced a live class work module (first in the industry!). We check the notebooks live in front of the students and give real-time feedback.
We do not follow an answer based approach but follow the approach based approach!
Exam Prep
Ask any parent and this would be unanimous - they want the kids to perform well in exams. Not getting into the debate around the structure of tests in schools - remember that good performance in tests is important for confidence as well. And exams don't just mean annual exams, this includes mid-terms and unit tests as well
Now if you have studies in India you would know that every single school has a different syllabus when it comes to these mid-term tests.
At DUX, we have solved for it with our state of the art syllabus engine - we are the only platform to come up with a fluid session engine which enables us to prepare every single student for their unit tests and mid-term exams
领英推荐
We take our role as your support system very seriously!
Content
Is content really important? In the offline world, there are minimal focus on content, right? Content is important for three different reasons
Now you may know the concepts, but putting that into words is a different art altogether. Until you go through multiple questions and answers and decrypt this, its a very difficult job. Textbook solutions and other important q&a to your rescue!
3. Concept booster videos - In and outside the class, audio-visual tools are very important. I could either tell you that white flame comes out when you burn a magnesium ribbon or I could show you that. No prizes for guessing which approach is more effective
At DUX, students get access to concept booster videos, adaptive tests, textbook solutions, other q&a's etc.
Content is not the hero but its a supporting actor you can't live without!
Feedback
Like I mentioned before, it is a collaborative journey - important for parents and teachers to be in touch regularly. A lot of people think that glossy charts and graphs is what feedback should be. Well they are important but more important is having an open line of communication.
At DUX, we have communities to manage that. Automated whatsapp channels to share feedback without actually talking to each other. On-demand PTMs (1:1 meetings) to discuss issues and chart out plan. We are doing a lot more in this area - if you have any thoughts, please write to me at [email protected]
Feedback goes beyond glossy charts and graphs!
Affordable
Oh! I can write a separate piece on this (and I probably will!) but to summarise, why does education need to be so expensive? The schools are already expensive, who wants another expensive solution? And what is it with annual plans and at times multi-year plans. Why can't you have simple monthly plans?
That wasn't us - that was parents asking these questions - and we agree!
At DUX, we launched India's first sensible monthly subscriptions starting at INR 750 per month. This is fixed (no negotiations - full transparency) and this is all inclusive.
A lot of people warned us of churn because of monthly packaging but we were very clear. For us -
<aside> ?? Retention and renewal should be a function of experience and not multi-year non-cancellable contracts
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And the parents love us - our churn stands at around 1% per month - 99% of the parents decide to renew every single month ??
Our agenda is to take engaging education at affordable rates to the nooks and corners of the country.
If you have any ideas, thoughts - please do write to me at [email protected]
If you have a kid and want to try out the platform (our trial classes are also different, but that's for another article!) - book your free trial class from here - https://bit.ly/2Z4isA4