“Yeh bachon ke padhayi ke level ko samajhne mein bohot zabardast hai aur woh bhi fataak se” (This device is too good at helping us understand student learning levels, and that too at lightning speed)
Mrs Meena, a Grade 5 math teacher in a Government School, Bhopal tells us even before presented with a question.
And this is precisely why we built Class Saathi. To enable existing teachers, who do not lack pedagogical knowledge, instead the hours lost in doing the administrative work.
Class Saathi gives these teachers that one smart tool, with no need for electricity or internet, that enables them to take well-informed data-backed decisions to increase student learning levels, engagement and attendance.
Classroom engagement increased after using Class Saathi clickers
With more than 7 million students dropping out of the Indian education system and the context of public schools in India, it’s impossible for conventional smart school systems to reduce the learning gaps.
There is a dire need for a paradigm shift for teachers: from being Sage on the Stage, burdened by administrative tasks, to a side free from administrative tasks that allow strategic focus on learning outcomes.
Students and teachers benefit from Class Saathi
Class Saathi instantly connects all stakeholders and enables multiple feedback loops assisted by features using the power of AI. Enabled with a Learning Outcome Management System and Student Reports, students in a classroom learn effectively and increase teachers’ productivity.
In one of the early pilot tests with over 1000 students in the experimental group and over 500 students in the control group, we found that attendance and learning outcomes increased with Class Saathi in action by 10% and 8%, respectively, in just 30 days.
School girl using Class Saathi for formative assessment
Motivated by the early success, Pankaj Agarwal (HBS Class of 2021) and his team at TagHive (a Samsung funded spin-off) have been doing multiple iterations while adding more features to empower teachers in transforming their role from “a sage on the stage” to that of “a guide on the side”.
Currently, in India, there is a gap of more than 20% between the literacy rates of folks from the tribal region, and the rest of the country. And with the context of public schools, it’s impossible for conventional smart school systems to reduce these learning gaps.
Class Saathi was created to do just this, to provide personalized education to students, irrespective of their demographics. It is a combination of a clicker for each student and a mobile app for teachers, parents and administrators.
Morning assembly at Haite Memorial Friendship School in Mualdam, Assam
Case in point, one of the tribal schools (Haite Memorial Friendship School) in Mualdam, Assam, serves 198 students from nearby ten villages, including a village of a rare and small tribe called Biate tribe.
Run by The Sunbird Trust, an organization that empowers schools in conflict regions in the Northeastern region of India; this is a school that we wanted to explore working with since it is situated in one of the most remote regions in the country.
TagHive demonstrated the ability of Class Saathi to take attendance and quizzes in the classroom that had no internet or electricity, with teachers of Maths and Science from the school.
Class Saathi orientation in a remote school
As teachers and students solved questions together, we saw teachers find the existing learning gaps and think about how they can plan their upcoming classes and strategies. While this happened, we noticed something beautiful happen parallelly. Students who were earlier shy to respond in a regular classroom were responding to questions by pressing the clicker.
In a way, Class Saathi created a safe space for them to feel heard and understood. It will build more confidence in the students to express their opinions, and just like that, the engagement within the classroom would increase.
Pankaj Agarwal (HBS Class of 2012) and his team at TagHive (a Samsung funded spin-off) are now excited about upcoming collaborations with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha state governments.
These collaborations will allow them to build this confidence in over 5 million students while enabling over 100,000 teachers and administrators to analyse and execute student-centric education.
TagHive is also keen to continue exploring collaboration with even more schools in need with Sunbird Trust, and we’re very excited to hear from teachers in that school:
Hudson Ngamlai (Science teacher) –
Class Saathi has helped me prepare homework and check prior knowledge of the class.
The AI-powered quizzes and concept notes allow us to understand a particular subject better.
Class Saathi works without internet or electricity, which will, in turn, help our students a lot.
Ruby Sam (Lead Teacher) –
I’m excited to use Class Saathi in our school. It enables us to find each student’s learning gaps & progress in no time.
It brings an inclusive learning environment for all students and provides an equal opportunity for students to respond.
Our school is located in a highly remote location, but since Class Saathi works seamlessly in such sites, I’m excited to use it.
Artificial Intelligence is all about what makes life easy. To use it is a privilege and the world over technocrats are rallying to make AI an everyday part of our lives. This holds true, especially in the field of education and nowhere is AI more useful than here. Here are the top five ways in which AI builds frameworks that help students learn simpler.
1. Everything is data driven – AI does not know how to operate on bias. This is the first major advantage as it prevents students from feeling bias that can otherwise originate in a classroom.
AI tracks, scores, and records every single activity on any learning platform almost instantly, heavily basing learning recommendations on evidence. This makes for a transparent and transformational learning experience.
2. AI can break things down to their simplest form – If AI can quickly identify learning gaps in each student, it can also present information in a digestible manner based on their grasping power.
AI has evolved to such a degree that it can also cater to students who struggle with learning disabilities and give them information in ways that they can consume it the best! What an absolutely remarkable achievement!
3. AI can record pace and help students widen their knowledge base – AI can also record the pace at which a student learns. It can do this for each individual student even if a learning platform caters to over 10 million students.
It can identify the pace at which a student learns and formulate an intelligent framework that can help students increase their pace so that they can retain more information as time goes on!
4. A diagnostic tool – We have built AI to support effective learning for all students. There is not a more diverse or inclusive learning environment you will find anywhere in the world.
We use and leverage AI as a diagnostic tool for student learning in various ways, such as checking for learning disabilities.
5. Global access to resources – The world has become a smaller place with technology and this means that students can access resources from anywhere in the world. With AI, students can access learning resources from anywhere in the world at any time.
It is okay to be suspicious of technology but allow that fear and suspicion to stem from an educated space. Earlier, technology was considered a distraction from tasks and goals. Now, however, it is recommended as a system that allows students to learn most optimally. Now check out our app Class Saathi which enables students to learn most optimally!
In today’s world, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are what drive innovation in various sectors. Earlier, AI and ML were seen as independent of the field of education. However, since the pandemic, most educators are of the opinion that technology is what should drive education.
In the field of education, innovators face a more conservative playing field as disrupting a standardized field can be challenging.
But, innovation in education technology has boomed across the world and what schools and academia are relying on these days are all tools and instruments that have artificial intelligence at its core. Now that we have established that premise, let us see the 5 ways in which AI is used in education these days.
1. Personalised Learning –
This word has been flying around in the ed-tech space for quite some time now. What is it about personalised learning that drives the core of innovation in companies across the field?
To begin, there is a competition to harness the full potential of artificial intelligence in creating a unique learning experience for each student through digital platforms.
Companies have built frameworks not just to record the learning levels of students but it is also possible now to predict scores and the time taken by each student to answer a question!
2. The Power of Now –
Everything driven by technology is powered to save time. That is the principle that most AI-based tools use to drive learning across the field. Students no longer have to wait for days to receive answers to their questions.
There are apps that can use AI to record a student’s aptitude based on which it gives them revision content and practices questions to take them to the next level. Students do not have to wait till an examination to see their learning gaps. They have a system that publishes information about it in a matter of seconds and students can use this to tutor themselves!
3. Diagnostic Tool –
Students need not wait months to understand and rectify their learning gaps. Today, they can download AI-powered learning apps like Class Saathi and take quizzes. Once a student starts responding to questions, the app makes notes to track their progress and identify their learning gaps. Once the test is over, the app will make recommendations on where the student needs to improve and what concepts they need to especially focus on to close the knowledge gap!
4. Key Automation Technology –
The recent shift to technology-based education has shown educators across the globe that it is important to move to this method to save time. What teachers lacked during the global pandemic was a reserve of time and they relied on digital resources to guide them through.
Complicated and time-consuming things like report generation for each individual student can be compiled in seconds. What’s even better is that there are different ways in which teachers can automate their daily redundant tasks like attendance for that matter or even conducting pop quizzes with only a minute taken to create it.
5. 24×7 and 365 days –
Technology-based learning offers global accessibility, allowing leverage anytime and anywhere. The world of education is a smaller place because of technology and we must all be more thankful for it.
Gone are the days when students had to spend long hours in libraries for research or attend tuition classes for revision. Everything that is to do with education is instant these days and AI has made that possible!
Are you as excited about Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning? Download the Class Saathi app and let us know what you think about the different AI frameworks that govern the app!
AI stands for artificial intelligence. Computers demonstrate artificial experience in this domain, showcasing intelligence. TechTarget describes AI as “a simulation of human intelligence by machines”.
What does AI stand to achieve?
The agenda behind enlisting AI is simple. Companies use it to replace human intelligence for tasks like diagnosing problems, making decisions, predicting situations, and driving outcomes using user-generated data.
Class Saathi’s AI-Powered Technology:
If you have been following our journey, you already know that Class Saathi is a digital learning platform that solves a multitude of problems emerging from the education sector with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
Tech companies around the world use the term Artificial Intelligence broadly, leading to a misconception that all AI used in different domains is the same.
To help us establish some distinction, we spoke to AI developers at TagHive Inc., to understand how the AI technology they use for Class Saathi stands apart from their competitors. These are our findings.
Firstly, we need to understand AI in the simplest terms. Human solutions cannot address certain human problems. It could be a problem that has many dynamic facets or the volume of engagement may be too high for humans to compute and process it fully. In such cases, AI captures the problem and drives subsequent solutions.
While machines and computers are doing this activity, it is the human brain that programs artificial intelligence to function accordingly. For this reason, AI has a lot of potentials to surmount many plaguing challenges across the globe in a variety of fields.
Having set the aforementioned tone, it is now imperative that we understand how Class Saathi deploys its artificial intelligence in the field of education.
We began by identifying the often overlooked challenges in the problem-solving domain due to their complexity. We then built frameworks that would address all these challenges with one perfect solution. Over time, we realized our solution could address many more challenges. This governing thought brought us the blueprint of our operation:
Lack of accountability emerged as a general problem in the education sector with large gaps of communication between the various stakeholders, namely parents, teachers and administrators.
Every student learns differently and at different paces. Catering to dynamic learning needs is a challenge that supersedes normal classroom instruction.
Due to the diversity in learning needs across the education sector, targeting learning lags is a huge challenge for educators.
Tracking student learning progress is often a challenge to address manually since it is not easy to conduct assessments frequently. The logistics involved are expensive and time consuming. Additionally, standard assessments lack reliability in measuring progress as they cater to specific, often small student demographics.
Public education systems around the world, often the most populated in the education sector, see a high number of drop-out rates.
Listing out these problems shows you how diverse they are in nature and it seems humanly impossible to address them all with one solution. However, the AI developers at TagHive put on their creative thinking hats to create a system that not only tackles all these problems but also builds on them. Let’s see how:
The Class Saathi developers created a single app for all stakeholders, establishing a transparent communication system for sharing, analyzing, and configuring reports seamlessly. What it also does is use AI diagnostic tools to key in on specific focus areas of the problem and offer it to the stakeholders for tracking and monitoring.
Class Saathi’s AI technology uses knowledge level diagnostics to accurately describe each child’s learning pace and level instantly. To top that, the personalised learning engine generates tests optimised for each level specifically catering to every student’s learning needs.
The Rapid Diagnostic technology that Class Saathi’s AI enables allows teachers to see where exactly each student’s learning lags are. This is otherwise impossible to do manually, even in a small class of 50 students.
Class Saathi allows for teachers to conduct assessments as and when they want to with no additional planning or cost. It saves time and money. What it also does more specifically is use knowledge tracing AI technology to analyse student reports based on assessments to predict potential progress for each student, based on their unique learning levels.
Lastly, Class Saathi’s AI developers are planning to tackle student attrition through an AI capability called study pattern prediction that can warn educators when a student is at a high risk of dropping out of the system
What does it mean to design a product that is sustainable? What is it about technology that brings an idea to life and grows with it? Or what it is like to deliver an idea that bypasses all other dynamics to emerge as one that is obviously the right solution?
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with Apple I Tony Avelar | Bloomberg | Getty Images
When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs built the first Apple product (Apple I) 45 years ago, did they imagine they were going to leave behind a legacy that outlives them? Did they ever think that they would have a customer base readily waiting for them to announce their next big gig, over so many years? What is it about these designs that have a preconceived need even before the product comes to life?
With the pandemic restructuring the way we consume technology; the globe is now an echo chamber that demands sustainability as the core component. Have we built a system that embodies all the aforementioned spirits?
At TagHive, we are constantly grappling with these questions. We want to provide tech solutions that will supersede all dynamic issues to emerge truly successful. Have we done that just yet? We believe we have and let us show you how!
1. TagHive made overcoming digital divide its mission in 2017:
We championed the need for digital interventions before the pandemic highlighted it as a global inequity. We founded our company on the premise that every child must have access to technology regardless of their socioeconomic status. (For a full story, watch this video!)
2. We offer diverse solutions:
Our product is robust and adapts very easily to any learning environment, be it at school or at home. It can be used by schools at large to standardize assessments, by teachers running tuition programs at home or parents looking for creative ways to engage their children.
Class Saathi is designed to be adaptable to any user type
3. We are a fully integrated learning environment:
Nobody needs to model a learning environment to use our product. Class Saathi, in itself, is a holistic learning environment with Formative Assessments driving learning interventions for children. Parents, teachers and administrators can monitor student progress remotely as well!
4. We innovate:
The pandemic may have given us food for thought. But, by and large, we have always prided ourselves on creating technology that survives the test of time. We not only think about the needs of the hour, but we also think about how to nurture innovative features that will leave a lasting creative legacy. For example, we now have a feature for teachers to assign homework to students remotely!
5. We don’t cater to one particular audience:
Sustainability is often confused for longevity. While it does go hand in hand, we believe that sustainability means to cater to problems at a micro level so the solutions can have a deep impact at a global level.
We do not identify with one customer base alone. We deliver our technology to the neediest segments of society while we also support students in private schools who want additional, fun learning experiences.
The pandemic truly did pave the way for most organisations to embody the spirit of sustainability. Need-based solutions, however important, are only short term.
We at TagHive, have made it our conscious MO to operate on the principles of creativity, sustainability and impact and through that, we have also chartered our growth.
We are moving forward with the aim to make our Class Saathi app a prime component in education. Alongside, we are attempting constantly surveying, re-evaluating and re-purposing our solutions to a customer base, in the desire that they are eagerly waiting for it.
200K+ app downloads later, we are happy to report that we are climbing steadily towards everything our customers desire and our company does too!
Click here for a product brochure with an overview of all Class Saathi solutions!
If you’d like to discuss how Class Saathi can help you, simply drop us an email at [email protected].
