From IITs To Universities Abroad, This Virtual Classroom Is Going Places

If you are sceptic about run-of-the-mill online courses or can’t decode the learning materials on your own, it’s time to go for the best of both worlds. How about WizIQ, a virtual classroom that can be accessed from anywhere, from any device, while teachers handhold students just like they do in a physical institution? But there’s more to it. Even premier institutions such as IIT-Delhi, Vellore Institute of Technology and Indian School of Mines (Dhanbad) are tying up with this Mohali-headquartered firm for certificate courses and distance learning programmes. Overseas organisations using the solution include Atlantic University in Virginia Beach and Des Moines Area Community Colleges in Iowa, among others. The SaaS-based (Software-as-a-Service) education platform is hosted on the Cloud and successfully operates a marketplace where teachers can sell their courses to its 3-million-strong student community.

WizIQ offers a collaborative and flexible platform for delivering and enhancing any online course – be it high school maths, hybrid courses for university students or employee training programmes. What sets it apart from other edu-tech companies is its focus on teacher-and-learner-centred methods instead of just providing gigabytes and gigabytes of content. It is also an excellent interface for conducting Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Best of all, WizIQ’s Virtual Classroom software works cross-platform – on PCs, iOS and Android devices. It can also be integrated with learning management systems like Moodle or Blackboard or with an organisation’s own website.

True to its global stature, the platform has a multilingual interface and supports 19 languages. The company also opened an office in Bangalore yesterday in a bid to expand further. WizIQ has other offices in Hyderabad and North Carolina as well. Here is a snapshot that captures the vision and viability of the Mohali start-up gone global.

Who runs WizIQ: The venture was started by Harman Singh (CEO) in 2007. The parent company is authorGEN Technologies, which was founded in 2002 by Harman and late Harbir Khurana. Harman holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. Prior to WizIQ, he had also founded authorSTREAM, an online PowerPoint sharing platform.

What inspired the venture: The concept of making quality education accessible to all at reasonable charges. Harman came up with the idea during his graduation years and the goal was to make teaching and learning easier for everyone.

What’s the pitch: Do more than stand and deliver – engage your students. Content might be the king but at WizIQ, teachers are back where they belong and replicates the classroom experience online. That creates a distinctive style and ensures a great engagement model.

How it works: WizIQ enables teachers and trainers to hold ‘live’ classes and share tutorials in all possible formats – PowerPoint presentation, PDF, Word document, virtual whiteboards, voice and video. Learners only need an Internet connection to ‘attend’ those classes and don’t require to download anything or pre-install cumbersome client software. An integrated chat is there as well to make each session interactive.

Technology: The platform leverages Microsoft technologies. For real-time communication between students and teachers, it uses Flash Media Server (FMS) and Flex at front-end. Amazon S3 is used for data storage and wherever heavy computation power is needed, Amazon EC2 service is used. To optimise the ‘live class’ experience, servers are placed at multiple locations like the US, Singapore, Sao Paulo and Ireland.

Claim to fame: Traction and awards. WizIQ claims that over 250,000 teachers and 3 million learners are using the platform across 100-plus countries. The company also says it has the largest collection of paid courses created by educators on the Internet and hosts more than 2,500 live classes daily via WizIQ Virtual Classroom. Teachers and organisations are also using WizIQ to conduct successful MOOCs.

Show me the money: It is essentially a paid platform for teachers looking to conduct online classes. Fee starts at $19 per month (or $190 a year) and can go up to $69 per month (or $690 annually). WizIQ offers a freemium model and some features on this platform are free. For instance, teachers can hold 2 classes per month free of cost and there’s a 30-day free trial for those who want to try out its advanced features. Around 8,000 of the total 250,000 teachers are paid members, the company claims.

Unlike many other start-ups, this one has been well funded all along. Educomp, India’s largest education technology company, invested an undisclosed amount in the very first year. In January 2013, WizIQ also raised a Series B round of $4 million from education-focused PE firm Kaizen and German media major Bertelsmann.

Biggest challenge: Poor Internet penetration and stiff competition from those in the same space. But the toughest one is positioning. Web-enabled distance learning is definitely looking up in India, but it is yet to catch up with mainstream courses administered offline. Until that happens, scaling up will remain a major problem.