Remember those long and laborious lectures utilised by teachers to simply dictate notes? Ayush Agrawal had been through his fair share of these classes and upon asking teachers why they did it, he realised that these dictation classes are not all fun and games for them either. "Imagine if a teacher has three classes, she needs to dictate the same notes in all of them. They also know that a lot of time is exhausted in this process," says the 27-year-old.
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Which is why the Kalahandi-born entrepreneur registered LectureNotes Technologies in July 2017 and first, offered it to the teachers of his own alma mater, Silicon Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. The website serves as a platform for teachers to upload their notes no matter what format it is in — presentations, hand-written notes or otherwise, and save time while students can directly download them. It is a perfect win-win. For now, because of the lockdown, they are offering their live classes option for free.
Unlike other EdTech platforms, LectureNotes approaches the teachers directly. This way, they have had about 28,000 teachers, mostly from Engineering, uploading their notes on the platform. Teachers from classes VIII, XI and X and those from IAS coaching classes are also opting to use this platform. But how did they manage to get so many teachers on board? "Because their peers were opting for it, it was easy for other teachers to see the merits of the platform," answers Ayush.
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So looking at Silicon Institute of Technology, teachers from Gandhi Institute of Technological Advancement, Trident Academy of Technology and others chose the platform. Though most of the teachers registered are from Odisha and from the Southern states, a few teachers from the North too are making the most of the platform. A team of 36 employees, with about 20 members dedicated to taking care of the technical side of the things alone, ensure that all operations run smoothly. And apart from the portal, they also manage the app, available both on Android and iOS. Other teams include marketing, content management, customer support and so on.
Though it is a challenge to charge students for accessing these notes, to keep revenue flowing, they started a premium subscription for students. These students get access to solved exam papers, a huge question bank of about three lakh questions covering 90 per cent of the subjects and more. Teachers get a royalty if the team in charge of selecting content for premium students includes their notes in the premium category. Simply put, If the content team selects an upload, the teacher receives a royalty for their notes.
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"We wish to expand to Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines and other countries and hope to help out students in the Arts stream as well," shares Ayush. One of the most exciting things they are working on is a virtual assistant named Joey. "It will track the progress of students, notify them when they are going too slow or have skipped any chapter, advise them on what they should be focussing on and more," he shares.
The two ways in which teachers can upload notes:
- In the public domain: This way, any student from anywhere can access and benefit from their notes
- Closed classrooms: Through this, the content is accessible for only those students teachers select. Links can be sent through WhatsApp or email
For more on them, check out lecturenotes.in
