Piyush Agarwal was pursuing higher education at Standford University when he realised that there was a greater need for technological innovation and research in the education sphere in India. So, he dropped out of his course, packed his bags and returned home to apply technology to solve problems in education. Piyush then started Aurus Network in 2010 and their flagship product, www.superprofs.com came out in 2014.
SuperProfs gives students the liberty to attend online classes attended by their favourite professors in the comfort of their homes and at their own time, for competitive exams like IIT- JEE, GATE, CA, CS and CMA. “The most pressing issue at hand in Indian education system is the quality of teaching and training methodology. The pedagogy in tier II and tier III city schools and colleges is not uniform, and teachers lack a personal connect with the students. Forty or fifty students are clubbed together in a class and often taught by one instructor. For this reason, many opt for coaching classes. But it’s the same issue there as well,” says Piyush, CEO, SuperProfs.com. So far, 25,000 students have registered on their site.
Here, they not only get access to classroom sessions but can also get study materials that are delivered to their homes within three-four working days of subscribing to a class. “We also facilitate interaction sessions between students and teachers so that students can get their queries resolved. SuperProfs.com has already partnered with more than 50 popular professors and institutes for GATE, CA and CS preparation from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata,” adds Piyush.
Competitive baseCompetitive exams are a good target because of the level of demand and the competition. “For instance the level of competition in IPCC (chartered accountancy course) is huge and this year, only 9.49 per cent of the 66,625 candidates cleared it,” he explains, adding, “The number of students appearing for IIT- JEE is increasing every year, but the intake is just about 10,000 for every five million students who appear for the exam.”
Over the years, several institutes have mastered the art of coaching students for these exams and consistently produce toppers. SuperProfs takes these masters and connects them to students across the country. This way, the information is shared better, and everyone has access to good training. “Delhi is known to have the best coaching for IAS, CA and similar exams whereas Kota (Rajasthan) is popular for IIT-JEE coaching. But not everybody has access to this information. We bridge the gap,” adds Piyush.
All one has to do is visit the site, choose the exam they need material for and select from a list of coaching material by different professors. They can then register to attend HD quality classes even without dedicated Internet connectivity.
“On SuperProfs.com, we have free content such as e-books, exam tips, study material etc and complete course packages — with printed textbooks and quizzes, for which we charge a nominal fee. Those attending the lectures can watch them as many times as they want to and also get the material delivered home,” says Piyush.
Super professorsSome of the classes that students will be signing up for will be by The GATE Academy, Bengaluru offering GATE online coaching; Mumbai-based Siddharth Academy, offering CS online coaching and Sinhal classes for IIT- JEE; Delhi-based professor, Rajiv Singh, for Strategic Financial Management; Sudhir Sachdeva for law and so on. The classes work on very low internet speeds (100 Kbps), apart from being playable on most mobile devices. “Each professor at SuperProfs.com has taught more than 10,000 students so far and has produced rank holders. We adopt a video compression technique that can capture the recording and compress the feed obtained from the HD camera and microphone. So, the videos are available at low speeds, too. We are also planning to launch an easy-to-use mobile app in another three months, so that students can carry their study materials in their pockets,” he says.
The website also allows for weekly live interactive sessions and answer forums where students can pose questions. They can also compare different professors based on their teaching styles, previous year results, verified ratings and reviews provided by other students. “We will add more course options for each subject and sign up with more institutes and individuals for each segment,” says Piyush, about SuperProfs’ future plans.
