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Cloud-based education platform <keyword id="1928389" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ">WizIQ</keyword>, which offers a collaborative and multilingual interface for delivering online courses, has launched new apps for <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and <keyword id="693128" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Android-tablets">Android tablets</keyword> that enable <keyword id="6356089" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Teachers">teachers</keyword> to <keyword id="1974534" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Conduct-live-online-classes">conduct live online classes</keyword> using these devices. 
 Earlier, only students had access to these apps so that they could attend online classes from anywhere and from any device (<keyword id="6365259" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="PC">PC</keyword>, <keyword id="101239" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="iPad">iPad</keyword> and <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> <keyword id="6361927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tablets">tablets</keyword>). However, teachers had to conduct classes either from their <keyword id="168469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="desktops">desktops</keyword> or <keyword id="6367615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="laptops">laptops</keyword>. With the upgraded apps in place, teachers can now access the <keyword id="1974537" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ-Virtual-Classroom">WizIQ Virtual Classroom</keyword> through their <keyword id="996019" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="tablet-devices">tablet devices</keyword> and stay connected with students while on the go. The new versions also include a number of teacher-centric features that will add value to the <keyword id="675888" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="learning-experience">learning experience</keyword>. The <keyword id="1974542" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ-App">WizIQ App</keyword> is free and can be downloaded from Apple’s <keyword id="95161" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="itunes">iTunes</keyword> Store or <keyword id="963171" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google-Play">Google Play</keyword>. 
 The new versions of the WizIQ App allow teachers to conduct online classes, anytime and anywhere; use all whiteboard tools; upload and share audio/video files; <keyword id="1974545" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Extend-class-duration">extend class duration</keyword> and <keyword id="1974547" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Record-live-classes">record live classes</keyword>. 
 Commenting on the launch, WizIQ <keyword id="5645" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="CEO">CEO</keyword> <keyword id="222685" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harman-Singh">Harman Singh</keyword> said, “The upgraded WizIQ (tablet) App promises to take teaching experience to a whole new dimension by enabling instructors to teach their students live, through their own devices.” 
 Mohali-headquartered WizIQ successfully operates a marketplace where teachers can sell their courses to its 3-million-strong student community. Nearly 250,000 teachers, <keyword id="180251" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="trainers">trainers</keyword> and <keyword id="1974553" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Teaching-organisations">teaching organisations</keyword> are currently registered on WizIQ. Besides <keyword id="13178" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mohali">Mohali</keyword>, the company has offices in <keyword id="6355033" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bangalore">Bangalore</keyword>, <keyword id="6354552" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="hyderabad">Hyderabad</keyword> and <keyword id="6397385" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="North-Carolina">North Carolina</keyword>. For more information on this <keyword id="1974551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Edu-tech-firm">edu-tech firm</keyword>, read our earlier <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/From-IITs-To-Universities-Abroad-This-Virtual-Classroom-Is-Going-Places/articleshow/25305478.cms">coverage</a>.

Edutech Firm WizIQ Launches iPad & Android Apps For Teachers

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 <keyword id="1928389" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ">WizIQ</keyword>, a <keyword id="406113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Virtual-classroom">virtual classroom</keyword> 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 <keyword id="59489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-School-of-Mines">Indian School of Mines</keyword> (Dhanbad) are tying up with this Mohali-headquartered firm for certificate courses and distance learning programmes. Overseas organisations using the solution include <keyword id="1928396" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Atlantic-University-in-Virginia-Beach">Atlantic University in Virginia Beach</keyword> and Des Moines Area Community Colleges in Iowa, among others. The SaaS-based (<keyword id="753967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="software-as-a-service">Software-as-a-Service</keyword>) 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 <keyword id="1928409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="edu-tech">edu-tech</keyword> 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 <keyword id="1071995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Massive-Open-Online-Courses">Massive Open Online Courses</keyword> (<keyword id="1539483" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="MOOCs">MOOCs</keyword>). Best of all, WizIQ’s Virtual Classroom software works cross-platform – on PCs, <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> devices. It can also be integrated with <keyword id="1928395" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="learning-management-systems">learning management systems</keyword> 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 <keyword id="13178" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mohali">Mohali</keyword> start-up gone global. 
 
Who runs WizIQ: The venture was started by <keyword id="222685" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harman-Singh">Harman Singh</keyword> (CEO) in 2007. The parent company is <keyword id="1696366" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Authorgen-Technologies">authorGEN Technologies</keyword>, which was founded in 2002 by Harman and late Harbir Khurana. Harman holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from <keyword id="283601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Carolina-State-University">North Carolina State University</keyword>. 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 <keyword id="255607" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="education-technology">education technology</keyword> 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 <keyword id="342246" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kaizen">Kaizen</keyword> 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.

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

When election fever hits India, <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword>, too, must have its say. Even before the horrex thrill of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/movies/Box-Office-RaginiMMS-2-Thrills-All-Gang-Of-Ghosts-Lacks-Finesse/articleshow/32673836.cms">Ragini MMS 2</a> could be well purged out of our system, cine-goers had to face a ‘thoughtful’ <keyword id="2179860" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Political-movie">political movie</keyword> in the form of <keyword id="499327" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="youngistaan">Youngistaan</keyword>, starring <keyword id="37379" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jackky-Bhagnani">Jackky Bhagnani</keyword>, <keyword id="21114" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Neha-Sharma">Neha Sharma</keyword> and the late <keyword id="27989" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Farooque-Sheikh">Farooque Sheikh</keyword>. The other two releases on Friday the 28th included <keyword id="2179863" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Underworld-action-flick">underworld action flick</keyword> <keyword id="2025912" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dishkiyaoon">Dishkiyaoon</keyword> and the comedy movie <keyword id="1669247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="O-Teri">O Teri</keyword>. Although the themes and the genres vary widely, there’s one thing in common about these Bollywood flicks – all three had a <keyword id="2179866" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Poor-opening-day">poor opening day</keyword> at home, with low occupancies ranging from 5-10%. And the <keyword id="25892" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="box-office">box office</keyword> numbers did not look up even after Day 5. 
 Directed by debutant <keyword id="2071198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Syed-Ahmad-Afzal">Syed Ahmad Afzal</keyword>, Youngistaan is still the best as far as content and <keyword id="1996031" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Box-office-performance">box office performance</keyword> go. The movie netted Rs 3.79 crore at the <keyword id="827271" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Domestic-Box-Office">domestic box office</keyword> during the opening weekend while Dishkiyaoon netted Rs 3.45 crore in the first three days and O Teri just managed to nett Rs 2.45 crore, according to trade figures. 
 
Youngistaan, however, saw a sharp fall in revenues on the crucial Day 4 (Monday, March 31), netting around Rs 75 lakh, while Day 5 (April 1) collections were estimated to be a little over Rs 50 lakh, according to some industry sources. Going by the current trend, the movie may turn out to be a huge flop as it has been made on a budget of Rs 22-23 crore and opened across 1,000 theatres in India. 
 
The storyline of Youngistaan is intriguing enough, though. Here, you have a young <keyword id="1043723" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Game-developer">game developer</keyword> <keyword id="2179870" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Abhimanyu-Kaul">Abhimanyu Kaul</keyword> (Jackky Bhagnani) living in <keyword id="6355311" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Japan">Japan</keyword> with his girlfriend <keyword id="2179850" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anwita-Chauhan">Anwita Chauhan</keyword> (Neha Sharma). But things turn topsy-turvy when Dad <keyword id="2179873" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dashrath-Kaul">Dashrath Kaul</keyword> (he is also the <keyword id="71" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Prime-Minister">prime minister</keyword> of India) suddenly dies and Abhimanyu is forced to step into his shoes. The rest could have been mayhem, but the <keyword id="2179851" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="young-PM">young PM</keyword> seems to be handling it all (except his love life) with incredible efficiency. We do believe that is the weakest part of the movie – the incredible ease of things. However, one can’t help admiring Farooque Sheikh who handholds the <keyword id="2179854" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="novice-politician">novice politician</keyword> throughout the twists and turns. It is definitely worth a watch but tends to get too predictable at the end. As Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid-Day says, “While the film has a very interesting premise, it is totally diluted by lazy scriptwriting and sketchy direction.” 
 
 
 
As for Dishkiyaoon, starring the likes of <keyword id="9271" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sunny-Deol">Sunny Deol</keyword>, <keyword id="13128" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harman-Baweja">Harman Baweja</keyword> and newcomer <keyword id="322563" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ayesha-Khanna">Ayesha Khanna</keyword>, the first Monday collections were equally dismal and stood in the range of Rs 70 lakh, according to Koimoi (Day 5 collections are not available yet). Directed by Sanamjit Singh Talwar, this one was made on an all-inclusive budget of Rs 35 crore and released across 1,500 screens all over India. Interestingly, <keyword id="6358615" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Shilpa-Shetty">Shilpa Shetty</keyword> Kundra and <keyword id="217320" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sunil-Lulla">Sunil Lulla</keyword> are the producers here but in spite of the big names all around, the action flick has failed to gain much traction. And not without reasons. The movie could have portrayed the rise of the young aspirant, <keyword id="2179853" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Viki-Kartoos">Viki Kartoos</keyword> (Harman Baweja), to ‘gangsterhood’ with a lot more depth and understanding. Instead, we simply get some stereotype script, some superb action scenes and nothing more. 
 
Finally, there is the Umesh ​B​isht-directed comedy flick O Teri, narrated by <keyword id="6354583" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Salman-Khan">Salman Khan</keyword>. This one, too, has opened across 1,000 screens, but totally fails to impress (weekday numbers are yet to come in). Here are two <keyword id="69943" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="TV-journalists">TV journalists</keyword> – <keyword id="2179878" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Prantabh-Pratab">Prantabh Pratab</keyword> or <keyword id="2179879" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="P-P-">P.P.</keyword> (<keyword id="76825" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pulkit-Samrat">Pulkit Samrat</keyword>) and <keyword id="2179849" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anand-Ishwaram-Devdutt-Subramanium">Anand Ishwaram Devdutt Subramanium</keyword> or <keyword id="19472" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="aids">AIDS</keyword> (<keyword id="946726" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bilal-Amrohi">Bilal Amrohi</keyword>) – trying to unravel a <keyword id="41357" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Scam">scam</keyword> and going through many improbable adventures in the process. In a way, it would remind you of the dark, corrupt world of Youngistaan and Dishkiyaoon, but all three flicks fail to deliver the ruthless reality on paper. And consequently, they fail miserable at the box office. 
 
Image: Indiatimes, Wikipedia

You Searched For "Harman Singh" and got 3 results

Edutech Firm WizIQ Launches iPad & Android Apps For Teachers

Sanghamitra Mandal

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

Sanghamitra Mandal

Box Office: Youngistaan Falls Flat; Dishkiyaoon, O Teri Are Clear Flops

Sanghamitra Mandal

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