Sep 7 2020
While the COVID-19 pandemic forced the entire coaching industry to consider hybrid models to stay relevant, most coaching centers were clueless about how to approach it.
Just at this juncture, TCYonline, an AI-driven edtech platform lent many such centers a helping hand by onboarding them to its platform. "Our moat is not just billions of data points captured on this journey; it's mainly our unique strength of integrating books, classroom tutorials and remedial assessments', says Viji Raj, Head of Academic Research and Data Science at TCY. (TCY Methodology)
"I thought it would be challenging to go online so fast without much preparation. Fast-forward three months, I am glad that I took the plunge and the sailing couldn't have been smoother", quipped Mariappan from Pride Tutorials.
Already running more than 1,000 third-party coaching centers in India and 50 abroad, the company plans to add over 20,000 centers in the next four years. TCY equips them all with three main pillars to run a successful coaching center:
- Integrated online and offline academic resources
- ERP for day to day operations
- Students (read business)
"While we scale up, it's important for us not to allow any non-serious participant which may ruin the experience of many learners", says Mukta Gogia from B2B sales team of TCY. The company hopes to add 30-40 centers daily soon after the government allows physical coaching centers to reopen.
Such a huge growth is possible only when there's a significant value for stakeholders underneath: teachers, learners and center owners.
Here's a look at the different stakeholders that TCY brings in with its common platform:
Teacher
Everything in the education game revolves around the teacher.
If a teacher knows the expected learning outcomes, knowledge gaps, remedial actions; if he/she has standardised classroom tutorials & books that are integrated with online assessments & mock tests; if he/she gets automatically-formed extra batches, personal trainer tools for students like Test Generator and multi-student competition tool like Challenge Zone, what else could he/she ask for. At all times, his/her dashboard shows 'at risk' & potential 'outliers' along with inputs to be offered.
Learner
TCY mobile app is the connecting link between the student, teacher, and curriculum resources. The AI systems working at the backend continuously monitor the learner's knowledge state and assign personalised practice on weak areas. While using the book, the learner can access additional practice & solutions through the embedded barcodes.
Study Planner, a popular AI tool, helps them practise in a personalised as well as adaptive environment. While the tool TCY Proficiency Index (TPI) (view sample) quietly captures competencies at the backend for both, the latter also experience better career mapping through a tool called Career Sense.
Coaching centre owner
"Our first center filled up so fast that it gave us the confidence to open six branches one after the other", says Veenu Garg of Competition Academy.
The company's English language teaching programs like PTE, IELTS and TOEFL have been embraced at centers in eight countries including Australia & New Zealand.
Seven centers that TCY owns are directly run by the company. Any innovation is first tried out in these centers - the research labs, under close supervision - and perfected before it is taken to partner coaching centers.
Algorithm captures skills to generate this 'Course end Certificate'
Coaching centers can integrate forward and backward across the entire spectrum of TCY offerings across K-12, language learning, college entrance, and placement tests. This significantly enhances customer Life Time Value.
The TCY Proficiency Index certificate provided to students gets added to their resume, social media profile & LinkedIn profile. Their language skills are measured on CEFR scale and certified through TELT (TCY English Language Test) as they prepare for their courses. So a student passing out of a TCY center has all captured skills certified. This itself becomes a crowd puller for the coaching centers. (See TELT Certifcate)
A center owner at TCY platform isn't worried as the complete health of the center - academics, operations and business with actionables - is always on the dashboard, thanks to AI.(View Sample Report)
Kamal Wadhera, the founder of TCY, says, "Teachers don't need more data; they just need deep insights. The education for a student is right only if it answers two questions for him/her at all times:
- Where do I stand?
- What next should I do to succeed?"
In addition to these insights from its captive labs to create such a huge network of centers, TCY also has some more that were exported to the platform from its past pipe model. Rajesh Wadhera, co-founder TCY, who personally oversees content operations, says, "The company did some projects with top US and Canadian publishers like McGraw Hill and Pearson in the past. Learning from such experiences, TCY perfected its own user generated content model. Catering today to 200 exam categories, the company arguably has the largest repository of test prep assessment content of around one million unique items with average rating of over 4.5/5, attempted by over five million unique learners. The company's recent partnership with Tata Class Edge would scale TCY assessment solutions to schools pan India."
According to Rakesh Kumar, who heads platform operations, "If we execute our plan of 20,000 centers in four years, it'd mean over 60,00,000 paying students, 100,000 teachers, 70,000 classrooms & 30,000 counselors. The ratings and reviews captured for all these assets would be an all-new world of choices."