The rise of chatbots in the edu-tech space
Prepathon’s
test platform helps students in taking professional exams
Over
the years, while start-ups have shut down or absorbed heavy losses across sectors,
the education sector, for the most part, seems to be facing ups and downs
squarely. A number of edu-tech players have also survived VC’s tightening purse
strings in the last year or so. What’s more, in the age of machine learning and
artificial intelligence, bots are mushrooming in many sectors – they’ll
increasingly take over some functions across a range of businesses. But if
Prepathon’s founder Allwin Agnel’s surmise turns out to be largely accurate,
while bots help keep his own start-up lean, they won’t replace teachers.
“We’ve
removed the coach function as the bots are now replacement for the coach
functions,” says Agnel. Prepathon is a test preparation platform that has over
two lakh active users who will sit professional examinations across banking,
defence, engineering, management and government sectors.
What bots do
Prepathon,
which was set up in the second half of 2015, had around five coaches on board
previously assisting course-takers. But bots now provide feedback to Prepathon
users, making announcements that are relevant to course-takers, offering every
user automatic suggestions for topics that may need revision, while suggesting
study plans and providing motivation on days users get sluggish on their
performance.
Agnel
says, “Currently, we are clear that the scope of bots is to reduce the
repetitive work that needs to be done. Over a period of time, bots will take on
more challenges and will provide functionalities that we currently cannot
imagine.”
While
Prepathon is the first company in the edu-tech space to employ bots, according
to Agnel, the company does have competition in the sector offering test
preparation courses for a range of professional examinations. This year will
see Prepathon add five additional preparatory courses on its platform.
Teacher’s role
Most
people of an earlier generation will be sentimental about the role of teachers
– this is a segment of people who couldn’t once imagine school or university
without teachers. But with online distance learning getting ever popular,
everyone will be used to seeing teachers online who deliver lessons through
videos while students take notes on mobile apps and devices.
However,
even as bots proliferate and make their presence felt across businesses, it’s
important to notice what they do rather than assume they cause job losses.
“Traditionally,
teachers have never had tools that allowed them to impact students beyond their
classrooms. Personal attention, for example, doesn’t scale well… now teachers
can increase their impact beyond the classroom. Bots help teachers save time by
automating activities like providing feedback and individual motivation,” says
Prepathon founder.
Note | Thanks to Dr. Malikarjun Angadi [Chairperson Centre for Library and Information Management Studies
(CLIMS)] as he introduce us with this innovative technology at TISS – PGDLIM Course
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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