Online Coding Platform – Dutch Uncles

Tinkerly: Now Learn Coding the Hybrid Way

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 06:48:40 +0000

The word ‘coding’ when it strikes our ears, we associate it with the computer engineering students who remain glued to their blue screens for several hours until the compiler returns with a satisfying ‘no error’ comment. In pandemic, several edtech companies in the pandemic have grabbed immense attention as they have launched online coding programmes for the kids.

However, school kids learning to code in the formative years of their education have received mixed reactions from parents and education scholars since they are invariable believers of the screen or online learning hampering a child’s concentration.

Learning to code at an early age also makes parents think that the child will ignore the basics of maths and science for weak fundamentals.

But, with the emergence of advanced technologies like AI and ML and their inclusion in business processes, the nature of jobs in the future will demand coding as a must acquired skill. According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.

The online coding learning brought in by the edtech companies in India has been a bit monotonous as kids glare at the screens to understand and follow their trainers. In short, there is a lack of practicality along with lectures and tutorials. To this, a Jaipur-based edtech startup Tinkerly is disrupting online coding courses for the kids by introducing a blend of fun and hands-on learning experience that allows them to explore their love towards building robots and smart gadgets.

Tinkerly’s humble beginnings

What dreams would usually a fresh graduate from IIT have? A high-paying job in an MNC? or climbing the corporate ladder to become the next CEO? Surprisingly, these aspirations were not a part of Sharad Bansal’s dreams.

What made his entrepreneurial ship sail in the edtech space was the absence of practical sessions in the school pedagogy. The academics in IIT followed an LPT structure i.e. Lecture, Practical, and Tutorial, which is a balanced combination of theory, practical, and practice of the lessons learnt.

Putting the LPT structure in Indian schools we can witness that there is lecture happening in the schools and tutorials happening from external classes but the practical part is lacking. Also, due to limited infrastructure, it is not feasible and possible for a school student to go to the laboratory now and then and come back to their classes.

This led Sharad to think of effective pedagogy to add a twist to the mundane online coding programmes with a ‘learning by doing approach by incorporating STEM educational kits.

These STEM portable labs or educational kits cover the basic science concepts based on the 5-D methodology comprising of see, touch, feel, understand, and perform with a focus on covering the essential 21st-century skills such as IoT, rapid prototype,3-D printing, computational and design thinking.

As we near towards a technologically advanced era, the majority of the jobs be it engineering, fashion designing, or humanities would be demanding STEM skills i.e. science technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Standing true to its name Tinkerly- build-out of English words‘ tinkering’ and the suffix ‘ly’ meaning the habit of improvisation has indeed brought a revolutionary change in the field of STEM education that has benefitted over 150 thousand students across India, the Middle East and North America.

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According to the LinkedIn’s emerging jobs report of the last decade for the role of coding experts the demand of data scientists will rise by 650 percent and demand for coding is said to increase by 37 percent y-o-y.

Let’s tinker with the kid’s learning

Tinkerly’s innovative online coding learning solutions are not just to code but to build things with coding that enables students to design, build and deploy their code to make real-life tech projects. Tinkerly’s products are divided into three-

Online Coding courses
STEM kits
Lets Tinker App

The online coding courses blended with STEM toys are designed for the students for grades 1-12. The kids here get to build next-generation solutions and projects that solve real-world problems. Inculcating these into the early stages of education might seem a bit overwhelming for the child already managing the school curriculum but it is a future-ready skill set that enhances cognitive skills and improves analytical and problem-solving skills.

The online coding courses with STEM toys are segregated into three stages for every grade i.e. explorer, learner, and achiever. The classes can either take place in the 1:1 or 1: 5 teaching model.

Tinkerly’s STEM kits consist of DIY kits appropriate for the 8-12+ age group. The specialised DIY STEM kits consist of equipment belonging to electronics,3-D printing automobile, Agritech, Biotech, Biomedical, Robotics that comes along with a concise instruction manual.

Over the years, India’s education system has demanded students to score well in the examinations forcing students to blindly memorise concepts rather than questioning them and somewhere curbing a child’s curiosity in the process. Tinkerly’s lets tinker app fosters curiosity among the students by allowing them to learn about the latest education trends from subject matter experts and top teachers. The learnings include real-life scenario activities grooming sessions and enhancing the problem-solving skills with its organised tests on class-wise content.

The online coding classes in Tinkerly are affordable that begin with as low as Rs 500 a month and is the first edtech company worldwide to offer coding courses in Hindi.

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Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL).

Tinkerly’s funding, revenues, and the road ahead

Recently in September 2021, Tinkerly has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publication and content provider, Navneet Education Limited(NEL). With this recent funding round, this edtech company has raised Rs 10 crore.

With the newly raised fresh capital, Tinkerly plans to utilise the same in product development, increase consumer awareness and expand into new geographies developing vernacular content. The company has ambitious plans to become a strong global brand.

The launch of Tinkerly’s learning platform Let’s Tinker in April has been beneficial just after 3 months of its launch. It witnessed its revenues surging up to 8 times with more than 50,000 online learners who have undergone more than 300K hours of learning.

Future Jobs will require STEM skills

According to a report by McKinsey & Company Global around 800 million jobs will be replaced by robotic automation in the future. Taking early steps to build analytical and cognitive skills among students the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has introduced coding from Class 6.

Besides coding, gamification with hands-on experience will be the most effective tool for the kids of today since they have a lesser attention span. Also, it has been observed that kids while engaged in games and learning use all of their senses, therefore Tinkerly’s hybrid learning solutions will offer hands-on experience to the mundane theory learning and will make studies interesting thus giving kids a controlled and active learning screen time.

The post Tinkerly: Now Learn Coding the Hybrid Way appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

This is what Edtech Start-Up Codeyoung has Done Right

Aakash Sharma — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 02:35:04 +0000

Bangalore-based coding education start-up Codeyoung is causing a stir in educational technology. Founded by IIT Delhi graduates in 2019, Codeyoung has already conducted 40,000 classes for K-12 segment students and has raised multiple funding rounds, most recently from the US-based Guild Capital.

Graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Shailendra Dhakkad and Rupika Taneja volunteered for training and education ventures for many years before moving a step further and founding their own education platform – Codeyoung. The company offers on-site programming classes to students from the K-12 segment and is committed to expanding the programming and coding space in India.

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The edtech industry is multilaterally booming with new players, and it is the right time to enter it when the tech-high is in place.

Codeyoung’s Working Model and Structure

The edtech start-up offers four coding and programming courses: Scratch, Application Development, Web Development and Python for students between the age groups of 5-9, 9-14 and 14-16. Each course consists of 48 classes and costs Rs 19,999.

Depending on the preferences of the students, two to three lessons are given per week. The company’s courses go beyond block-and-drop block programming to provide an actual coding environment where students can learn industrial languages such as Java and Python.

What do the classes look like at Codeyoung?

Unlike many other edtech and coding players in the industry who teach 1:1 programming, Codeyoung places particular emphasis on community and peer learning. Its live aspects of learning assist students in developing better relationships and a better understanding of the subject matter of coding and computer science as a whole.

Codeyoung’s Course Content

The content of Codeyoung’s coding courses complements the learning values of programming. The teachers at Codeyoung aim to improve children’s cognitive skills, creativity and thinking. At the end of the coding process, K-12 students can use Scratch to create simple games, animations, and websites.

Older students from grades 11 and 12 are introduced to the basics of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics. Python can be used to build responsive websites and applications.

The Development Path of the Coding Edtech Start-Up: What Can Others Learn?

To date, Codeyoung has organized over 40,000 on-site courses and has onboarded 120 teachers. The company adds 15 new teachers every month. Its teachers come from a variety of backgrounds, including top colleges like IITs and NITs.

Start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs, including college students, engineering graduates, computer science teachers, and even already working professionals, can apply their skills to this edtech segment and follow a similar path to begin their entrepreneurial journey.

With the goals of shortening students’ professional career paths, entrepreneurs and wannapreneurs can provide solutions like online learning and offline learning in the coding realm. So far, Codeyoung’s model is working successfully. It claims to have admitted more than 15,000 students from five countries, including India, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Malaysia and the United States, in just one year. And this is not just the case of one edtech start-up.

The industry is multilaterally booming with new players, and it is the right time to enter it when the tech-high is in place. Codeyoung’s success is apparent as it plans to bring over 100,000 students under its ambit by the end of 2021. The start-up also says its revenue is witnessing 20% growth per month.

So, if you are an entrepreneur aiming to introduce new coding courses, interactive modules, diagnostics and other participatory activities to fill the learning gap in the Indian education industry, now is the right time to contribute to the growth and take advantage of it simultaneously.

The post This is what Edtech Start-Up Codeyoung has Done Right appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

WhiteHat Junior: The Story After Acquisition

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 00:35:04 +0000

Schools shut, hobby classes closed, empty playgrounds, and meeting less with friends. This is what the entire year looked like for school children in the pandemic. However, if Covid-19 caused a slump to several businesses, it has also opened new avenues. In a pandemic-stricken year, some technology-based businesses, especially edtech, received tailwinds which helped them to grow. Founded in 2018, Whitehat Jr. is the brainchild of Karan Bajaj, a former CEO of Discovery India. He started this first-of-its-kind ed-tech startup to enable kids of age group 6-14 years to learn coding virtually. It aims to create the next generation of coders, app developers with its one-to-one video interaction class to learn coding. As schools and hobby classes quickly transitioned online, it became a golden opportunity for Whitehat Jr with its unique proposition to make children learn coding themselves from anywhere in the world. We are surrounded by a world of applications that are intended to make our lives easier. With schools closed and kids having enough spare time, parents considered that time perfect for kids to learn something new and stay ahead. Currently, WhiteHat Jr. enjoys a fan base of 150,000 students, over 400,000 projects, has over 500 teachers, and has gained maximum traction from Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

The game of acquisition

Online coding platforms for kids became a lucrative segment in the K-12 space in the ed-tech sector. 2020 saw several edtech platforms leaping forward to launch their coding learning platforms. Vedantu launched Super Coders in May and Coding Ninjas and Toppr launched Coding Ninjas Junior and Toppr Coder respectively in July. Seeing WhiteHat Jr.’s tremendous growth, edtech behemoth Byju’s too jumped into the online coding bandwagon by acquiring WhiteHat Jr. worth $300 million in an all-cash transaction in August.

The blitzkrieg of advertisements

After Byju’s acquired WhiteHat Jr, it wanted to get the word out to the masses and hence began its aggressive advertising on all social media platforms. It spent a whopping sum of Rs 10-15 crores on digital platforms. Its hi-decibel advertising was definitely noticed by the people, but unfortunately, it drew flak from social media users and soon became the troll stock. The ads were largely criticized as they popped out of nowhere to an audience that did not belong to its target group. Many social media users found the tone of the ads to be evoking emotions of ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ and push parents to enroll their children. The social media ads used the pictures and quotes of tech giants like Sundar Pichai, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. This was highly criticized by parents as they found the ads to be unethical and misleading. It demonstrated that school-goers should aspire to be like them and should learn coding from an early age to become tech moguls like them. This message creates unnecessary peer pressure at the back of a kid’s mind as well as parents who will feel that their child will lag if he/she does not know coding. However, a child needs a strong academic foundation and that is the only crucial necessity. One of the most misleading ads was a TV commercial where it showed how global investors are fighting tooth and nail to fund a coding project made by a child.

Wolf Gupta Vs Pradeep Poonia

The ads of WhiteHat Jr further got embroiled into controversies when it used the name ‘Wolf Gupta’ in its social media ads who has bagged a career in Google with a package worth 1.2 Crore or 150 Crore. His age varied in different social media posts from 9, 12 or sometimes 13 years. The ad has shamed kids who naturally play video games or cartoons at that age and has lauded Wolf Gupta who, being of the same age as the ‘video game player kids’, has received a job offer from Google. A 30-year-old engineer Pradeep Poonia claimed that Wolf Gupta is a fictional character used by WhiteHat Jr in its ad content and to give Wolf Gupta credibility, WhiteHat Jr. has created a fake LinkedIn profile. Pradeep Poonia, later on, leveraged all his social media handles and highlighted this to educate people about the trap behind the ad. It led WhiteHat Jr. to file a defamation case against Pradeep Poonia.

ASCI and WhiteHat Jr.

The WhiteHat Jr ads soon came under the scanner of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) that found five of its advertisements to be violating the ASCI code. Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General of ASCI quoted that the advertisements violated The Emblems and Name (Prevention of Improper Use) Act and has asked the advertiser to withdraw the ads from social media.

It is evident here that if the brand is a digital-first brand, the trick is to listen to what people are saying about you on social media. Hounding to the wrong audience with irrelevant ads becomes a nuisance that erodes the brand image.

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