Online learning in the pandemic era…

India’s leading online bookstore and complete education portal Central Books has entered into a strategic partnership with EduBrisk, the industry-leading Edtech Digital Platform for K-12 Segment.

Central Books have a vast experience in serving schools in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and this partnership will help empower these schools and school teachers to easily provide online learning to their students during the ongoing pandemic and thereafter. The partnership aims to touch the lives of 1 million students this academic year in this region.

The EduBrisk tech platform comes pre-loaded with content and testing capabilities for all major curriculum – CBSE, ICSE & State Board curriculum – and easily integrates online with offline teaching & learning. The platform has on-board 50 schools since Lockdown.

Here, Abhishek Ganguly, Head of Business Unit, Central Digital Learning, shares more about this partnership.

AABP: In your opinion, what is the current situation of digital learning?

Abhishek: Every indicator says that we need to take digital learning as a platform very seriously. The first E-Book (in the form of CDs) in 1985 was The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia which gave birth to digital learning, not taking away the credit from the Gutenberg Project in the 1970s. In 1991 when Internet got commercially available, it gave rise to the idea that books can be distributed online and in 1995 Amazon sold its first book over the world wide web. With the turn of the millenia with new advancements in technology, e-books started to get popular and in 2007 Kindle become the first commercially available e-book reader. There has been accelerated advancements in this field which also brought about making the cost of ownership of the technology available to the common man. Over the years the concept evolved, but this once in a century event has accelerated the adoption due to the need of the populace to continue learning.

This dramatic change would change both the teaching and learning habits of the students and teachers. We are confident that although the physical schools will not be replaced completely but an era of blended learning has begun wherein even after the lockdown co-curricular and extracurricular activities would surely require a physical school but for the regular classes both the school management and parents would be comfortable with schools that adopt digital learning now.

AABP: Tell us something about your partnership with EduBrisk/Central Books?

Abhishek: EduBrisk and Central Books have entered a strategic partnership. This partnership will help empower schools & teachers to easily provide online learning to their students during the ongoing pandemic and thereafter. The Edubrisk tech platform comes pre-loaded with content & testing capabilities for all major curricula – CBSE, ICSE & State Board – thus easily integrates online with offline teaching & learning. This partnership will assist with holistic development on inclusive education by integrating teaching-learning in the School Partners ecosystem.

AABP: How is it going to help EduBrisk/Central Books in expanding its reach?

Abhishek: We are confident that partnership between Central Digital Learning and EduBrisk is a partnership made in heaven with the young energy of EduBrisk and the legacy of Central Books Group makes us well equipped to not just address the need of all the stakeholders in the education space but more importantly to enable students to continue their learning in these difficult times.

AABP: How will this pandemic to change the way students are learning?

Abhishek: We believe that this event has uniquely started a chain reaction which would change both the teaching and learning habits of the students and teachers.

AABP: What is the future of digital learning in India, given the infrastructure and connectivity problems?

Abhishek: The current infrastructure and connectivity problems are a challenge now, but we are more than sure that with the current investments flowing into the telecom sector this problem would largely be solved. Secondly with the advancements and investments in digital learning accelerating there would be solutions that would be presented by organizations involved in this space.

As a matter of fact, Central Digital Learning and EduBrisk are working relentlessly to address these issues and are coming up with features within the next quarter that would remedy these issues to a great extent.

AABP: Where do you see this partnership 5 years from now?

Abhishek: This partnership will blossom and evolve, but we would not like to get ahead of ourselves now and stay focused in building the organization and serving the customers.