E-learning is a new reality of education. Traditional educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities, and even corporate training departments are adopting digital reality from using online platforms to leveraging VR/AR for training.

The first step towards building an effective virtual platform is Design Thinking. It is a problem-solving approach, used in many industries to develop creative solutions.

Creative optimism is well-needed in the education industry, so it requires new mindsets, new tools, and new approaches to come up with a better solution.

(16-point capability framework)

(Source: HolonIQ)

Here are the steps to follow the Design Thinking, so by the time you launch your solution, it will be AMAZING : 

Step #1: Spend enough time to know about  your potential users

At first, define for whom you want to design a platform, and then get to know them by: 

• Observe: 

How they are living, working, and what they value, etc. How they respond, in the setting you want to design for as well as in other similar and different situations. 

• Plunge: 

Walk-in your users’ shoes until you experience the firsthand challenges that they face. 

• Interview them: 

Listen to their stories and figure out how they experience the challenges and opportunities. Focus on feelings in addition to facts, and listen beyond what you hear directly

Step #2: Define and analyze the user problem

• Define the problem from the users’ perspective. 
• Identify the underlying cause of a problem and try to solve that. If you come up with the solution, without understanding the true nature of the problem, it is less likely to matter.

Step #3: Analyze the similar platforms

• Study the similar platforms that are the most popular among e-learners and try to find out their strengths and weakness.
• Analyze what kind of content they are offering and what they lacking in deliver the users.

Step 4: Prototype & Test

• Ignore feasibility at this stage as the best way to get a good idea is to generate a lot of ideas.
• To come up with Wide-ranging ideas, embrace radical collaboration. Unleash your creativity.
• The perfect way to get feedback on your idea is to let someone experience your solution. 

Different types of Ed-tech system: 

Ed-tech is not a new-born concept. Earlier, we used to deliver it through the computers, FDs, multimedia CD-ROMs, or interactive video-disks. Most recently, web technology and m-learning are trending in ed-tech. 

Ed-tech has many types of learning systems. Each of them can be helpful for certain groups of people, so choose wisely according to your userbase. Let’s understand about each system in-depth: 

Learning web-sites:

• This platform offers courses from various providers, just like the virtual storefront. 
• An author can submit their courses on it, and registered users will get access to courses available. Examples of this type of platform are edX, Udemy, Coursera, etc.
• It is also possible to make a specialized learning site relevant to your business niche.

Learning Management System:

• It allows users to develop and host online courses. It also helps you manage (create, change, assign students and grades them, etc.) online courses. 
• Today, most of the LMS providers aim at corporate learning and development. Commercial systems are mostly for internal training, except for a few, which have extended features for external audiences. 
• However, open-source learning management systems are easy to set up and are customizable. Examples are Open edX, Moodle, Sakai, etc.

Student Information System: 

• New EdTech solutions automate many administrative functions of schools/colleges. 
• SIS makes it easy to manage day-to-day activities of the classroom, such as student admissions, attendance records, and keep the record of student’s academic progress. 
• Examples of SIS are PowerSchool and Banner. 

Web conferencing software:

• It is the best solution for online meetings, web-conferencing, e-training -particularly on TCP/IP connections, one to one tutoring, and online lectures.

Custom-built learning platform:

• You can build a system from scratch, meeting the requirements of your business. 
• You will have full control over the system and its customization.
• An example of such a system is HBX, a custom system built for Harvard Business School, which delivers high-end business certificate courses.

Thank you to invest your time reading this step, we respect your ed-tech app idea and you must know that research is the most important task for you and that covers in our Step 3 Create a Minimum Viable Product by the time you have a complete understanding of your target audience. 

We are active right now to give you a live project demo in case you want to skip step 3. Click ?? below and request a demo.

The post An ultimate guide to developing a successful ed-tech website/app step #2: Identify the potential user base and build a system accordingly appeared first on Coruscate Solutions.

According to EdTechXGlobal, EdTech is growing at a rate of 17% annually and will become a $252 billion industry by the year 2020. Besides that, the giant tech players like Apple, Google, Microsoft have joined the bout to monetize educational software. 

Benefits of developing an e-learning platform or tutor app?

• A survey shows that more than 60% of American teachers believe that EdTech is a motivating factor for students and allows teachers to expand learning content.
• It establishes better communication and can increase personal engagement between students, teachers, and parents.
• Classrooms can be available 24/7. Students will have an option to continue their studies after academic timings through learning platforms or mobile apps. 
• Online learning solutions are crucial for students in rural areas or students having a poor financial background.  
• Features like gamification, VR/AR, smartboards allow teachers to keep their classes engaged and maintain constant interaction with study materials.
• More personalized teaching can be possible. It enables students who would otherwise fail to keep up with the class and help them succeed.
• EdTech reduces the need for printed materials such as handouts, worksheets, tests,  or even textbooks. 

Step-by-step draft to develop e-learning app:

Identify the market and potential userbase:

Ed-tech is not just about teachers and students, but there are many stakeholders involved too. Let’s say, for example, you are planning to develop it for children, their parents will be your primary stakeholders because they will be the ones to purchase it.

Building an empathy map and a stakeholder map will help you to concentrate on the people influenced by your project.

Understand the user’s requirements:  

Education is a very dynamic industry, so marketing research is still requisite. Talk to your potential userbase, understand their need, research their problems, interview them, create user personas to deliver a better solution.

You need to target the primary benefits your project can provide to users as against the lead competitors. 

Creating storyboards or Elevator pitching based on target personas would definitely help the initial design efforts.

Create a Minimum Viable Product: 

You need to develop a minimum viable product in the form of a crude application, mockup, or a landing page. Because your ideas might seem incredible in your mind or even on paper, but only a real-life test can validate them. It will also help you gauge the size of the potential users.

Choose the right software development company: 

Although it is a very tedious and time-taking process of prioritizing requirements, researching and shortlisting prospective partners, interviewing each company, this step is crucial to your project’s success.

Features of an ed-tech app:

The features of an EdTech app depends on the targeted users and their needs. But there are some must-have features for all EdTech startups. 

Secure cloud storage:

• For updating daily schedule
• To create new assignments for students, evaluate results, and keep track of their progress and grades. 
• To avail group lecture or discussion mode and collaboration options. 
• To view/share/edit the same files at the same time, so that students can study simultaneously using one screen.

Simple authentication procedures:

• To ensure data security, it is required to set strong passwords that are difficult to remember, but you can provide the facility to sign up with Facebook or Google to save time and to avoid the need for making another password.

Seamless integration:

• • The teacher’s dashboard should be compatible with other software such as word or excel to speeds up everyday processes of uploading files or arranging test papers. 

Digital space communication and interaction features:

• Users should have a direct line of communication with teachers or other users through in-app messaging/call, forum boards, video/audio-conference, etc. 

How coruscate can help you to develop “Uber For Tutor” app or on-demand tutor app? 

Software solutions are changing the landscape of the education industry entirely. Although there are many great EdTech solutions available in the market, still many problems are there that need to address. 

Coruscate can help identify and validate the great idea and help develop an ed-tech solution from scratch. With our experience in the ed-tech industry and expertise in developing app solutions that fulfill your business goals, we aim to deliver you a robust solution for your business. 

If you have any queries regarding ed-tech solutions, feel free to contact us. A free app demo and a personalized quote are also available.

The post Upend your educational enterprises with an interactive ed-tech platform: a guide for your own ‘uber for tutor’ app development appeared first on Coruscate Solutions.

Virtual AI-powered cartoon character – Buddy the robot, is making spoken English courses affordable for about 500M children around the world by automating 80% of tutoring work at 2% of the cost. The company nominated for “best educational experience” at the 2019 Voice Summit and also won the Global Ed-tech Startups award (GESAwards 2020) for the most innovative product in the world. 

In January 2020, MyBuddy.ai merged with the EdTech startup-Edwin that also focuses on English learning and its investors include General Catalyst, Y Combinator and Google Assistant Investments Program. Edwin offers a chatbot based on adaptive learning and language understanding AI and an on-demand tutoring service. The combined company kept the name MyBuddy.ai. 

The timing of the company’s seed investment round is striking as there is a growing demand for online education amidst the current pandemic situation all over the world. Let’s establish some common ground with regard to digital tutoring.

Why develop Uber for tutors app?

In USA online tutoring is $132M market and growing at average 6% annually. During a lockdown situation where major schools and colleges have shut down e-learning is the only option left to have uninterrupted education. Social distancing and quarantine are major practices that boost digital learning in the pandemic period. It’s like a win-win situation for everyone as students will not miss out on their studies, tutors will have a source of income during the lockdown and business owners will yield a profit.

How uber for tutors app work?

• Students can sign up for the app and search through the list of tutoring services that match their interests.

• Students then request tutors to avail of their service based on their availability status and reviews from their past students.

• Tutors will receive service requests through the app and as per their convenience they can either accept or reject the requests. 

• Students get notified if the request is accepted.

• Students and tutors can connect as per their schedule to avail of the services.

• Students can pay for the services to tutors through multiple payment modes integrated into the app.

• Students can rate and review the tutoring service they received.

Features to consider while developing uber for tutors app:

Student panel:

• Register with phone number
• Search for tutor/services
• Estimated service cost
• Book a tutor
• View/Edit/Delete bookings
• In-app calender
• Make payment
• Push notification
• Rate and review

Admin panel:

• Log in to the app
• Manage tutors
• Manage users
• Manage service categories
• Manage bookings
• Manage payments
• Push notifications
• In-app message/call

Tutor panel:

• Register with an app
• Accept/reject booking requests
• Manage bookings
• In-app calender
• Manage students
• In-app map
• In-app message/call
• Feedback and rate students

Advanced features:

• Make groups of the students with the same services
• Group chat
• Student performance records
• Multi-lingual support
• Multiple bookings
• Video conferencing
• In-app payment
• Support and query resolution

Innovative ideas to enhance your business:

• Chatbot API:

You can integrate a chatbot within the user interface to help app leverage the frequently asked questions in a unique way by providing a prompt response.

• Machine learning algorithms:

It gets much difficult to identify micro-trends throughout consumer behavior in the tremendous traffic on the app. But through intuitive machine learning algorithms, you can put predictive analytics and data analysis to the best user of identifying the consumer trends and leveraging them further.

• Heat-view feature:

With the help of this feature, the admin can identify a particular location that has high demand and extend the search radius. 

• Loyalty programs:

Students or tutors can refer anyone and if the new user joins using that referral link, the existing users will receive rewards or offers. This exercise may help you to get a wide userbase.

How to monetize the app?

• Set the unique price range for every course that you offer.

• Allow freelance tutors on your app and charge commission for that.

• Generate revenue by offering weekly/monthly/yearly subscription plans.

• Collaborate with organizations and companies and share their adverts on your app.

• Partner with publishers/certification providers/private schools/colleges to help them generate leads from your platform.

How Coruscate can help you to develop uber for tutors app:

The world seems to be on a halt to contain the covid-19 transmission, it is a very crucial time to support students to resume their learning. Coruscate is a top mobile app development company having an expert team of developers, business experts, legal advisers. We are here to assist you through the entire process of development and will be on standby for future supports. Contact us now to learn more about the tutor app. Get a personalized quotation and live app demo for your idea.

The post AI-based virtual tutor Buddy raised $1M seed funding: Build your own uber for tutors app with Coruscate appeared first on Coruscate Solutions.