A REPUBLIC OF ACHIEVERS: GIVING THE POWER OF AI TO THE PEOPLE

Every year, on January 26, we celebrate Republic Day. For many of us, this day is more than just an emotion and we celebrate it in our own ways - by watching the Republic Day parade on Doordarshan, by listening to patriotic songs, hosting the national flag at home or attending a local celebration.?

But what exactly does this day signify? While growing up, many of us had this question - We celebrate Independence Day on August 15, what is Republic Day for then? Well, Independence Day is the day we achieved independence from British rule. Republic Day, on the other hand, is the day on which the Constitution of India came into effect and India became a secular, sovereign, socialist and democratic republic. But what is a republic? A republic is a state in which the supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives.

There is no denying to the fact that by virtue of being a citizen of a republic, we enjoy immense rights and freedoms. It is because we are a republic that every single one of us gets to vote and participate in the political procedure of electing a government and even formulating laws and policies through our elected representatives. Being a republic ensures we are equal in the eyes of the law, irrespective of our caste, creed, colour, religion and sex. We get to live our lives based on our terms, without harming anybody, because this is what our Constitution guarantees.?

Being a republic also comes with its own set of challenges. Especially for a country that has a population of more than 140 Crores, sometimes it becomes difficult for the benefits to trickle down to everyone.?

For example, India has 380 Million students and competitive exam aspirants, 25.5 Million of which are preparing for school-level and board exams. Being a republic means all of them should have complete control over what they want to become in life and how they get there. All of them should have the means to unleash their true potential.

But students in India face a huge range of challenges, in terms of both affordability and accessibility.?

• According to a report published by UNESCO in 2021, India faces an acute shortage of quality teachers, with the teacher-to-student ratio at 1:47 for senior secondary schools.?
• There is no quality learning material - books, mock tests, etc. for students studying in vernacular medium schools.
• Many schools do not have Science labs even though the curriculum includes practical works.
• Students appearing for competitive college entrance exams still have to join private coaching institutes and buy a wide range of learning materials which are expensive.
• Every student is different, they have different needs, strengths and weaknesses. And yet personalised attention is totally missing in the classroom, even for those who have joined private institutes or coaching classes.

How can a country reach its true potential if the diverse needs of our learners are not catered to??

At EMBIBE, we asked ourselves these questions and we asked some more. And we realised that to deliver a ‘no regret life’ to every learner and transform our nation to a true republic, in terms of education, we need to truly democratise and personalise education by leveraging technology, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to be precise. The past decade has seen how AI and ML are revolutionising every aspect of our lives by providing a personalised experience. Be it health services, shopping or travelling, AI dominates every aspect of our lives and it is high time we changed the face of education forever, with AI.

And in our decade-long journey towards this goal, everything we did only brought us closer to this dream.

AI FOR GOOD: DEMOCRATISING AND PERSONALISING EDUCATION

Democratisation and personalisation of education open a world of possibilities for every learner. With democratisation, every student has access to quality learning material irrespective of their background or exposure. Personalisation makes the learning journey unique for every student based on their learning needs, strengths and weaknesses. Personalisation happens only when you understand every student at a granular level and provide them with learning content that caters to their needs. This is what EMBIBE, as an education platform, focussed on for more than a decade. We know and understand students more than anyone else does. And that’s why we know what’s best for them.

Almost a decade back, we realised that the academic abilities or knowledge of a student forms only 61% of what constitutes learning outcomes or the scoring ability of the student. The remaining 39% is determined by the behavioural and test-taking skills of the student.

At EMBIBE, we leverage world-class content and Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning to deliver a holistic learning experience to every student that caters to both these factors contributing to the learning outcomes.

Let us elaborate on this with a few examples.

BOOKS WITH VIDEOS AND SOLUTIONS

To ace an exam, be it school and board exams or competitive exams for college admission or government jobs, students need access to a wide range of books. Now, books are expensive. And with the wide range of options available in the market, students and learners often get confused about what to pick up.

To solve this problem, EMBIBE has digitised more than 1,700 popular books - course books and other reference books for every exam students are preparing for. The digitised books provide 3D videos for all the topics covered in those books in the same sequence. All for free!

Students also have the option to select a chapter and watch all the videos for that chapter in a sequential manner.

REAL HELP AT EVERY STEP

To succeed in an exam, a student must have a very high level of problem-solving skills. This is developed through practice, in terms of both quality and quantity. While practice happens both inside and outside the classroom, quality practice doesn’t really happen due to a multitude of problems. Due to time constraints, students can only solve a limited number of questions in the class, with teachers’ guidance. Outside the classroom, students solve questions but due to lack of support and guidance, they are not able to solve as many questions as they should. They end up skipping a lot of questions and there is no scope for them to resolve their doubts as it is humanly impossible for teachers to address the needs of every student and resolve their doubts.

At EMBIBE, this problem is solved with adaptive practice and book practice with real help at every step. EMBIBE has more than 16 Lakh questions for practice. Students can either select a book and practice all questions from the book in the same sequence as in the original book or they can select a chapter and solve all questions from all books for that chapter based on their strengths and weaknesses. All questions come with hints, step-wise guidance, full solutions and real-time speed vs. accuracy analysis.

MOCK TESTS FOR EVERY NEED

Taking mock tests plays a crucial role while preparing for any exam. Because at the end of the day, all that matters is a student’s performance in the final test. As mentioned earlier, a student’s scoring ability depends not only on their knowledge but also on their behavioural and test-taking skills, like the ability to regulate their emotions while taking the test - stress, nervousness and overconfidence, the ability to manage their time properly, the ability to select the right questions to answer, the ability to sit for long hours and stay focussed, etc. To develop these skills, one must take tests on a regular basis, right from the beginning of their preparation. Unfortunately, schools and coaching institutes do not have enough manpower to conduct mock tests regularly.?

To solve this problem, EMBIBE provides tests of every type for every stage of the preparation - chapter tests, full tests and previous year tests. Students can also create custom tests based on their requirements - they can select the portion of the syllabus they want to check their preparedness for and set difficulty level, time duration and marking scheme to create their own tests. With no dependency on teachers, students can create tests any time, any where.

PERSONALISED TEST FEEDBACK

Even in institutes where mock tests are conducted regularly, personalised feedback is completely missing. How can students identify and improve on their weak areas then? Identifying your correct and incorrect attempts alone is not enough. Students need to identify their strengths and weaknesses at a granular level so that they can fix their learning gaps while there is still time and convert their knowledge into marks.

EMBIBE’s AI powered test feedback is personalised for every student and pinpoints their academic, behavioural and test-taking gaps. Working as per the recommendations of the test feedback guarantees score improvement, without any teacher’s intervention, by up to 25% in just two tests.

PERSONALISED ACHIEVE JOURNEYS

Every child needs a personalised learning journey tailored to their strengths, weaknesses and their learning goals. This is impossible, especially when the teacher to student ratio is low. EMBIBE leverages the power of AI to achieve this. With ‘Achieve’, which is powered by our very own Knowledge Graph of 1 Lakh+ interconnected concepts, the learning gaps of every student, not only from their current grade but also from previous grades, are identified. Then our AI engine generates a hyper-personalised learning journey, consisting of learning videos, practice questions and timely nudges/instructions to address these gaps. With Achieve, every student has the advantage of having a thousand teachers.

INSTANT DOUBT RESOLUTION

Having doubts is a part of the learning process. But resolving every doubt of every student is a challenge. The most extroverted students get some of their doubts resolved in the class. But what about the other doubts? And what about the doubts of students who are not comfortable to raise their hands? To solve this, EMBIBE has its AI powered doubt resolution bot that’s available 24X7 for every student of every type. Just type in the question or upload an image of the question and Mb will get back to you within 3 seconds. Be it academic doubt or doubt of any other type, Mb is there to resolve it any time, every time.

THE MOST IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL LAB EXPERIMENTS

Practical work is a part of the curriculum. But unfortunately, not every school has practical labs. The ones that have, impose a bunch of restrictions on students so as to avoid breaking apparatus and over use of resources. These impositions curtail learning.?

With EMBIBE, every child has their own labs where they can play around, experiment and learn as they please.

MULTILINGUAL LEARNING CONTENT

Why are regional languages ignored when it comes to education? One possible explanation is that it is not a profitable segment. Education in English is expensive and hence, not affordable for everyone. But those who can afford it can afford expensive, supplementary learning resources too. Hence, their needs are catered to. In today's world where English is the language of trade, science, and international communication, nobody actively opts for studying in non-English medium schools unless there are financial constraints. Since many students who study in non-English medium schools face financial difficulties, it is not a profitable segment and hence, their needs are not catered to.

At EMBIBE, we believe that every student, irrespective of their mother tongue, has the right to access quality learning content. That’s why we have launched our app in 11 vernacular languages - Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada - so that students can learn in their own language, in the language they think in. This is going to help 60% of Indian learners who study in their own language.?

These are just a few examples of how EMBIBE empowers students to create their own destiny and become achievers in life. The all-new School App of EMBIBE empowers teachers as well to improve their teaching outcomes and bring out the best in every student.

CREATE WORLD-CLASS LESSONS AT PAR WITH YOUR IMAGINATION

Teachers often do not have enough time to create lessons. The ‘Create’ module of EMBIBE School App allows teachers to select a pre-built lesson or create their own lessons from scratch. A teacher can create world-class lessons with just a few clicks. Literally. Once the teacher selects the chapter and topics they want to create the lesson for, the app recommends 3D videos, images, models and questions that the teacher can add to the lesson. They can also upload their own content if they want to. The app also allows teachers to add interactive questions, formulae, equations, reactions, flashcards, etc. with the click of a button.?

GET THE BEST OUT OF EVERY STUDENT WITH INTERACTIVE CLASSES

Conducting classes that are engaging and interactive for students is a challenging task. Keeping the whole class engaged demands teachers to be innovative, which is not always possible. With EMBIBE School App’s ‘Teach’ module, teachers can truly get the best out of every student. The teacher can show 3D videos, images and models that students can interact with from their own screens. Teachers can also add interesting learning content on the go based on the needs of the class. All students can attempt 2D and 3D interactive questions and get noticed by the teachers. They can even get their doubts resolved through public and private chats.

ASSIGN PERSONALISED HOMEWORK AND TESTS

Every student learns in their own way, at their own pace. That’s why a ‘one-size-fits-all-’ approach doesn’t really fit when we are talking about education. This is especially important when it comes to homework and tests. But setting personalised assignments for every student is humanly impossible for any teacher, not just because of time constraints but also because it is not possible for the teacher to truly understand every student at a granular level.?

The ‘Assign’ module solves this problem. It allows teachers to assign homework and tests that are personalised for every student. Teachers can set adaptive practice as per the strengths and weaknesses of every student. They can also set Achieve journeys that provide a truly personalised learning journey for every student based on their learning gaps from current as well as previous grades.

GET ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS INTO THE EFFORT AND PROGRESS OF THE CLASS

With the ‘Track’ module of EMBIBE School App, teachers get detailed, actionable insights into the effort and performance of the whole class as well as individual students, in terms of syllabus coverage, behavioural improvement, class participation, homework and test analysis, strong and weak topics, etc.? This helps them identify where the class needs attention and plan the remedial sessions accordingly.?

It is to be noted that the School App is aligned to both National Education Policy and National Curriculum Framework. For example, it gives insights into the learning outcomes achieved by the class.

As you can see, EMBIBE with all its features and micro-features are developed keeping in mind the diverse needs of students and teachers. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, EMBIBE empowers every student and teacher irrespective of their access or exposure.?

Our Constitution too bestows upon us the freedom to determine our future. For example, it makes provision for equal or fair opportunities to everyone. At the same time, the success of this provision is solely dependent on how people use it. Likewise, EMBIBE too ensures the delivery of teaching, learning and life outcomes to every teacher and student, as long as they make the best use of the platform.

Now, every student has the supreme power to decide what they want to learn and how. They can decide their own destiny with complete control of their learning. If that’s not a true republic, then what is?