BYJU’S The Learning App is now a Harvard case study
The journey of brand BYJU’S, which started off with classroom sessions for test prep to becoming India’s largest education technology company today, is now a Harvard Business School case study. The case study focuses on how brand BYJU’S is changing the way children learn across grades and geographies and how it has used technology along with a unique combination of content, media and technology to enable students across the globe. BYJU’s is one of the few Indian startups to make it to the reputed Harvard business publishing platform, others include Flipkart and Paytm.
Titled as “BYJU’S The Learning App,” this case study will be available for teaching purposes within and outside Harvard. Authored by John Jong-Hyun Kim, a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, and Rachna Tahilyani, Associate Director, Harvard Business School India Research Center, the case studies the growth of the app, its impact on students and how this K-12 app can be used by students globally.
Talking about brand BYJU’S being a Harvard Case study, Byju said, “It is very humbling to have our brand story as a Harvard Business School case study. This further encourages us to innovate and build learning programs to revolutionize education and create a whole new segment of self-paced learners globally. We believe that education is still the best way to make it big for millions of people across the globe. Our efforts are to help children learn better, realize their potential and chart their own life journeys based on their education.”
Byju Raveendran was also invited to take a class at the prestigious Harvard Business School, where he interacted with the class to discuss how learning can be personalized with the help of technology.
Byju Raveendran likens current crisis to war on multiple fronts, says true entrepreneur is a war leader
In a leadership huddle, CEO Arjun Mohan unveiled Byju’s 3.0, where he stressed the need to sell the right products to the right people without maximizing sales
Byju Raveendran, the founder of the embattled edtech unicorn Byju’s, rallied close to 50 of the firm’s top leaders, assuring them that this was a war on multiple fronts that they would ultimately win.
The meeting came amid a precarious liquidity crisis for the once-feted edtech, as it tries to raise money via multiple channels to keep operations going.
“A true entrepreneur is a war leader. What Byju’s is going through can only be seen as a war on multiple fronts against all odds,” he is said to have mentioned during the meeting. Further, he apologized for not being able to give much face time to the team lately.
“My regret is that I am letting down a wonderful team by not providing adequate capital,” he said.
He concluded by assuring that in a few months, Byju’s would begin the journey back to “the heights where it belongs.” He also gave updates on all the key issues that Byju’s has been embroiled in, from the term loan B issue to the ED notice, asset sales, and the current liquidity position.
Byju’s 3.0
While Byju’s has faced flak in the last few years for aggressively pushing its learning products to parents, its CEO Arjun Mohan emphasized the need to sell the right products to the right people without maximizing sales, an approach that he described as Byju’s 3.0
“Byju’s 1.0 was offline, while 2.0 was about tech-delivered context. Byju’s 3.0 will be about deep tech-driven personalization with the right approach and accountability to sales”, he said.
Byju’s challenges
Byju discussed five challenges that the company faced in 2023.
The first challenge is the litigation surrounding Term Loan B (TLB). He said this challenge should be resolved after the sale of Epic, which is a subsidiary of Byju’s in the US. That sale will also help manage the liquidity crunch the company faces now.
The second challenge is an ED noticereceived from the Enforcement Directorate. Byju clarified that the notice is related to procedural deficiencies under FEMA and that most of these issues have already been addressed.
The third challenge, according to Byju, is the closure of the ongoing FY23 statutory audit, which is on track to be completed soon.
The fourth challenge was the litigation surrounding the Davidson Kempner (DK) loan raised against Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), which has now been resolved with Ranjan Pai taking over the loan. He also said that Aakash is now set for a promising admissions season.
Finally, he spoke about the importance of finding ways to mitigate the impactof these cuts on the business and called on each team member to play a vital role in maintaining business momentum.
Byju’s needs Rs 500-600 crore in cash by March to settle outstanding employee dues, vendor payments, tax department obligations, and BCCI dues. The company is confident in raising this amount through asset sales or by pledging its holdings in Aakash or Think and Learn, a person familiar with the development said.
A second person added that Byju’s has been borrowing from family, friends, and other entrepreneurs in recent months to pay salaries and vendors. The company is falling short of Rs 60-70 crore every month, even as it has brought its costs down. For instance, its wage bill was higher than Rs 300 crore a year ago, and is currently Rs 130 crore now.
At the height of the funding and pandemic-led EdTech boom in 2020-2021, Byju’s aggressively raised funds and acquired companies. It made a record 22 acquisitions both in India and overseas, as it sought to expand from K-12 (kg to class 12) to categories such as test prep, higher learning, and coding. Byju is now counting on selling some of these assets to raise money and keep operations going at its core India EdTech business.
While Raveendran has been keeping investors informed about the company’s financial situation, Money control has learned that he is confident in weathering the liquidity crisis without their help. “There is no term sheet at this point and no question of Byju stepping aside. He has been putting in money in the last 8-9 months for the company to stay afloat,” a third person said.
Beginning of the trouble
Byju’s, which is India’s most-valued startup, has been under fire since the start of 2022 for a range of issues, including accounting irregularities, alleged mis-selling of courses, and mass layoffs.
The company has laid off thousands of employees in the last 12 months as it was hit by a double whammy of drying venture capital funding and slowing demand for online learning services. Since then, its investor board members have left too, citing differences with founder Byju Raveendran.
It has tried to recoup since then. Its early investor Ranjan Pai plowed in capital, set up an advisory council with veterans such as Mohandas Pai and Rajnish Kumar and elevated Arjun Mohan as CEO. It is also in talks to divest assets such as Great Learning and Epic.
The best ways to incorporate Brainscape’s adaptive flashcards into your remote teaching strategies to help students learn even more effectively than in the classroom.
Believe it or not, strong remote teaching strategies can often actually help your students learn even more effectivelythan they do in a physical classroom. But it’s important to make sure you do it properly and with the right tools.
Brainscape would like to highlight certain free features of our own web & mobile flashcards study app for teachers that may be helpful in furthering your students’ learning progress!
Use these 4 tips to take remote teaching to the next level.
Brainscape’s flashcards can be the perfect complement or replacement of the typical study guides or lecture slides you may be posting online.
If you haven’t already, start by creating your class on Brainscape: Simply click the “+” on the My Classes list on the main dashboard, and name it (e.g. Biology 101). Then you can start creating individual Decks (e.g. Unit 1) as needed. You (or your T.A.) can easily invite other students to your class once you are ready for them to study or collaborate.
If you prefer more collaborative remote teaching strategies, you can use flashcards to construct a collaborative editing environment. Brainscape allows you to easily delegate “Edit” permissions to your T.A. or to the students. Just click the Learners tab in your class, and choose which class members you’d like to appoint as Editors.
Many educators even prefer to delegate editing assignments one lesson at-a-time, where one or more students are assigned to a single deck of flashcards representing that lesson or chapter. (Learn more about using Brainscape for collaborative classroom activities).
Either way, by the end of the semester, you’ll have a complete student-generated study guide ready for the final exam!
3. Enabling students’ critical thinking
Even if you had authored the initial flashcards yourself (without giving students Edit permissions), you can still encourage a deeper level of knowledge processing by training students to use the Edit button while studying.
Whenever a student without “Edit” access clicks the Edit pencil icon in the corner of a flashcard, Brainscape displays a short form asking the user to “suggest an edit”, which will send you an email each time the form is submitted. Students can use this both to suggest edits to your flashcards (e.g. to make them clearer) and/or to ask you questions about concepts they don’t fully understand.
This feature has been shown to create an even more constructive environment for one-on-one educator/student dialog than many live classroom environments.
4. Monitoring students’ study progress
To see how much each student has been studying, you can easily click the Learners tab and analyze to your heart’s content. Our stats reflect not only the number of flashcards that have been studied but also each student’s self-assessed % Mastery. You can even click a student to see his/her detailed Mastery of each Deck.
Many educators use this class-wide visibility to make studying in Brainscape a part of students’ Participation grade. Studying X flashcards every Y weeks may be required in order for a student to receive full credit for that particular Participation requirement.
There are, of course, many more remote teaching strategies. But these four will already help you gain a lot more from teaching away from the classroom, especially by using a tool like Brainscape.
Double your student’s retention knowledge with Brainscape
It doesn’t matter if you’re teaching remotely or in the classroom, the goal remains the same: improve the learning capabilities of students. That’s not always an easy task when students struggle to focus or perhaps lack an interest in learning at all.
Brainscape’s scientists have collected invaluable insights for teachers over the years while managing our adaptive flashcard platform. We’ve collected these insights to help you retain students’ knowledge. This won’t only help your students become better learners but will help you become an even greater educator!
EdTech is a new term used to describe educational tools and resources companies. It’s an educational technology company that develops and promotes various educational products, services, and software.
EdTech companies are changing how students learn at all levels, from K-12 to higher education. With their innovative tools and resources, EdTech companies are helping students learn more efficiently and effectively.
Edtech companies can range from software and content providers to provide professional development for educators and consulting services for schools that want to integrate technology into instruction better. Edtech companies are also more likely to offer professional development for teachers since many don’t have extensive training in using educational technology effectively in the classroom.
What is Byju’s?
Byjus is one of the most prominent education startups in India. Byju’s is an EdTech startup that makes adaptive, engaging, and effective learning programs for students in LKG, UKG, classes 1–12 (K-12), and competitive exams like JEE, NEET, and IAS.
In 2015, BYJU’s launched its flagship product, BYJU’S — The Learning App, for classes 4–12. The app has registered over 100 million students and over 6.5 million pay subscriptions annually. Students spend 71 minutes per day using the app from 1700+ cities worldwide.
It provides a superior learning experience to children through its learning app. The app helps students learn at their own pace, thus allowing them to tackle complex topics excitingly. The app comprises a library of +5000 video lessons and more than 30000 practice questions. It offers classes for Mathematics, Science, English, History, Geography, Economics, Current Affairs, and other subjects.
In June 2019, BYJU’s launched an Early Learn app for students in grades 1–3 featuring Disney’s timeliness characters. In 2019, BYJU acquired Osmo, a Palo Alto-based educational games maker, to transform the whole offline to the online learning experience. BYJU’s acquired White Hat Jr in 2020 and is a Mumbai-based programming startup focused on empowering children with coding skills. In early 2021, BYJU’S received the market leader and one of India’s most trusted test-prep service providers — Aakash Educational Services Limited(ASEL).
How does ed-tech company Byjus help students achieve their best?
Byju has created a platform that connects students with teachers and classes at their doorstep. It is like having your tutor or a study buddy who comes to your place and helps you learn from the comfort of your home.
Byju’s, on the other hand, has made learning easy for every other student out there. It helps you understand concepts in a way you can connect them to real life. You don’t have to sit and memorize many things that you can never use in your life. The topics will help you understand how things work in the real world.
Byjus has been helping thousands of students to build confidence in their learning abilities. It motivates students to study through gamification of the app, which runs in competition with each other and keeps students engaged in the app for long periods.
The best thing about Byju’s is that even if you don’t have time to study at home, you can save videos on your mobile phone and go through the concepts later during your free time.
What is the offering provided by Byju’s?
Interactive learning
Byju’s creates interactive content to help students learn better. Their philosophy is to make learning fun and engaging to encourage the students to learn and withhold the information for a more extended period. The interactive content and gamification have helped students improve their grades and get better SAT scores.
Workshops
Byju’s also offers exclusive workshops to help students get ahead. Experts present the workshops from various fields. It has explicitly designed keeping in mind the needs of students preparing for tests or simply looking to get ahead in their studies.
Study Groups
Another interesting feature provided by BYJUs is study groups. These groups permit students to connect with other students online and help each other with their homework and assignments. Parents have loved this feature, allowing their children to communicate with other students for help instead of relying on tutors or teachers.
Tutor Assistance
The student can raise questions about any topic, and the app will provide explanations and guidance by using animations, videos, and interactive content. If students face problems while solving the given situations, they can call the tutor assistance provided inside the app. The app also allows students to connect, socialize and share their experiences through quizzes and discussions.
Review sessions
The review sessions conducted by our experts help students improve their concepts and prepare them for exams effectively.
Practical Guidance
The curriculum at Byju does not only focus on practical learning but also equips the students with skills required for a successful career, such as communication, group discussion, presentation, etc. Students are encouraged to participate in live projects or competitions held by institutions like NIIT or Microsoft. The students can apply theoretical concepts learned in class and polish their overall communication skills through these projects.
Who are the competitors of Byju’s?
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is the world’s first free, nonprofit online school. Helping to educate over 3 million students and professionals of all ages in over 250 countries worldwide, Khan Academy offers free lecture videos, practice exercises, and assessment tools in various subjects, including math, science, computer programming, and history.
Vedantu
Vedantu is India’s leading educational network that provides a software platform that connects tutors and students, providing real-time one-to-one teaching to students online. Today, Vedantu serves more than 50 million learners.
Toppr
Toppr is the world’s largest online platform for students to prepare for competitive exams. It is a highly curated repository of video lectures, study notes, and past-year question papers from prominent educational institutions all over India. It allows students to practice over 2000 questions from 200 test prep books. Toppr’s test bank has over 1300+ tests from various entrance exams like JEE Main, NEET, AIIMS, CAT, and XAT. Over 2+ lakh students have trusted Toppr to get their desired ranks in the toughest examinations in India.
Unacademy
Unacademy was founded in 2010 via a YouTube channel and officially launched in 2015. Unacademy is a learning platform that provides content for competitive exams and offers short lectures in videos on different subjects. It is a platform to teach and learn almost everything for free. 10,000+ users uploaded more than 80,000 video tutorials on various topics.
Simplilearn
Simplilearn was founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar to help professionals gain skills and advance their careers through a variety of online learning programs. It is a global leader in education, offering the most significant IT and business certification courses. It trains over 2,00,000 professionals globally in high-demand fields, including data science, cloud computing, big data, business analytics, digital marketing, and much more.
Conclusion
The future of learning has already arrived. Byju’s is an ed-tech company that uses technology to create personalized and relevant education for students. It wants children to learn what they need to succeed in life. Byju has been creating content with the sole intention of helping teachers and students learn and grow in a playful environment. It seeks to remove the stress of learning by using interactive content and innovative platforms that stimulate social learning and collaboration.
