Learning @EMBIBE: Without a Philosophy, a Product Is Just a Bunch of Mindless Features

Kamlesh Pant’s #Edtech poll, which edtech company has the best technology platform in India, got me thinking – what sets us apart from other edtech platforms? 

And I realized it’s our philosophy. 

In my almost four years in the edtech industry, I have done extensive research on various edtech platforms, what the other companies are offering, not just in terms of content but also in terms of the technology and product features. 

At the same time, I have seen how Embibe, as a product, has evolved over time. And I have seen how with each metamorphosis, with a bunch of new features added, our products have still been in sync with a certain philosophy. 

And I realized one thing: 

Without a philosophy, a product is just a bunch of mindless features. And that’s what it is with most of the edtech platforms.

It might seem biased but when it comes to technology, Embibe is truly far ahead of others. And this is what this post is about. 

Here, I want to talk about two key technological aspects that have acted as our pillars, the guiding principles for our product all through its evolution. 

But before that, let’s talk about the problems in the education system and industry in general and edtech in particular. 

The Fault In Our Stars

Back when I was in Class 11, a certain story was making rounds among the students of our small town. Apparently, two of the senior teachers in our town got into an intellectual duel. I do not remember the details but it was something like this: 

They decided on a topic, let’s say “Cell”. One of them picked up a certain cell organelle and the other one had to share his knowledge of the same. Once he was done, the first person asked him questions on the same. Then the same process repeated for the other person. This continued until they dived deep into the structure of a cell dealing with components that lesser mortals like us have never heard of. 

Now, one of the teachers taught Biology and the other one was a Chemistry teacher. But at a certain point, it was the Biology teacher who couldn’t answer a certain question. The Chemistry teacher won. 

The Biology teacher lost his mind. How could he not know the answer? He spent the next few weeks trying to figure out what went wrong. And he realized that he had somehow skipped a certain structural component of the cell that was not discussed and debated over in the duel but was related to whatever was discussed. 

I do not know if this story is true. But ‘learning gaps’ are indeed ignored and neglected in the process of imparting knowledge, be it at the educational institutes or online platforms, and even by personal guides. 

In a country like India, where the teacher-to-students ratio is extremely low and all that matters anyway is how much you score in the exam, focusing on ‘learning gaps’ is neither practical nor humanly possible at school/college level and even by personal guides. Needless to say that this approach to education has a disastrous impact on students.

But what makes it worse is the fact that despite having so many companies in the edtech sector, there is no effort to address this particular issue. 

(I remember interviewing a certain candidate for an academic content writer’s profile who happens to be a Chemistry teacher. I asked him, “What will happen if you collect and stack all the elements in the periodic table the way they are arranged in the periodic table?” He couldn’t answer it. Another teacher couldn’t tell me the product of 95 and 95 fast enough, even though he has experience in teaching Maths to school students. Why only CAT aspirants should be good at mental maths?) 

This is where Embibe comes into the picture. 

The Knowledge Graph

Embibe’s very own Knowledge Graph shows how various concepts are interrelated. When I had joined Embibe four years ago, the Knowledge Graph had around 15,000 concepts. Now, it is around 62,000. And these concepts are tagged with subjects, questions, exams, difficulty level, skills required to master them, and hundreds of other parameters. I can talk about the Knowledge Graph for hours. But let’s not get into the nitty-gritty of our technology. In a nutshell, the idea of the KG is to have the entire universe of concepts, their relationships, and the journey to master them in the truest sense of the word. 

While the core of the KG looks after the academic (knowledge-related) aspects of learning, fixing the learning gaps also needs the behavioral aspects of learning (and applying the knowledge) to be considered and catered to. And that’s where the second aspect of Embibe’s product comes into the picture. 

Behavior Is 39% Of Your Score

Like Aditi says, Embibe started gathering data when data science was still not sexy. Yes, it started in 2012, thereby, giving us an edge over others. In this process, we got unbelievable insights into the minds of students and the way they take tests. Did you know that in a three-hour test like JEE Main, an average Indian student spends around 38 minutes on questions that they do not answer in the end? 

Behavioral aspects, like nervousness and overconfidence, or the way you select questions and attempt the paper, can have a huge impact on the performance of a student in a test. In terms of numbers, it is 39%. This means fixing just behavior can improve the score by 39%. This was a remarkable discovery. 

Embibe’s products in general and technology, in particular, are built keeping in mind these two aspects – the learning gaps and the behavioral gaps. Powered by AI, our technology, at this point, has become so powerful that it can even predict the kind of mistakes students are likely to make and prepares them to avoid it in the actual exam, thereby, taking personalization of education to the next level and ensuring nobody has any regrets in terms of learning. 

Where Does It Come From?

We truly believe in the democratization of education. We believe every single student deserves the best, be it in terms of access to resources, infrastructure, or guidance. This guiding principle coupled with our technology, I believe, makes us the best edtech platform not just in India but throughout the world. The technology has the capability to cater to the learning needs of anyone, irrespective of their levels. 

New Product Alert!!!

By the way, our product has undergone another phase of metamorphosis. Needless to say, the coherent set of guiding principles that has powered us all these years are driving this particular face of Embibe too in a far better and superior manner.

Just digitizing content and hosting them on a server, with a few features here and there, is not enough for a company to be called an Edtech. You need to look at the overall problem in the process of education and leverage technology to address the issue too. I believe that’s what we are doing.

(This article was first published on LinkedIn. Opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.)