By Noor Fathima WarsiaFacebook made a significant investment in educating the industry, including key stakeholders such as marketers, agency professionals, SMBs (small and medium businesses) and Facebook partners, when it launched initiatives such as Blueprint. In less than six months since its launch in March 2015, Blueprint has crossed 200,000 course enrolments and 73,000 total unique users. The sheer number indicates the need for a systematic step such as this that moves beyond masterclass formats or assigning client leads or similar positions that handhold marketers and agencies in understanding and leveraging marketing solutions that social media platforms provide.Blueprint offers two key ways in educating industry professionals - Blueprint eLearning and Blueprint Live. The former features more than 35 online courses in various tracks. Blueprint Live is a full day interactive in-person program that teaches application of the principles of Facebook marketing, and builds upon the basic learning framework provided within Blueprint eLearning."Blueprint eLearning is solution oriented. Participants are focused on learning how to better leverage Facebook's advertising platform as a whole with a focus on building successful campaigns. The initial statistics show us that advertisers are keen to learn how to appropriately leverage Facebook's platforms targeting capabilities along with creative insights to drive better business results. Two of the more popular courses within Blueprint were Targeting and Creative Best Practices," explained Patrick Harris, Facebook's Head of Global Agency Team in a conversation with DMA.Expanding The Blueprint OfferEnhancing its current roster of 35 online courses, Blueprint eLearning has a roadmap of new courses that will provide tailored curriculum for various verticals, direct response advertisers, SMBs and Instagram. Mr Harris informed that in the 73,000 total unique users for the courses, the composition was led by three groups - the first is the agency partners, marketing partners and SMBs. "Agencies make up the largest group in Blueprint eLearning," he said.In October 2015, a new gaming specific eLearning course will be released, focusing on teaching participants how game publishers/developers leverage the Facebook marketing platform to engage their most avid players and reach new players. Also, Blueprint eLearning courses are currently available in English. By the end of September 2015, the courses will be available in Korean and Simplified Chinese. In October, courses will be translated in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.Given the global opening up of Instagram advertising, Blueprint eLearning will also include Instagram courses to help advertisers learn about new offerings such as Landscape photo and video ads, 30-second video ads, Call-to-Action buttons available for video ads, New Ad types in Self Serve: Link Ads and Mobile App Install Ads for DR objectives and Introducing Marquee: Photo, Video, Carousel, and Link Ads.India, Vietnam Amongst Top 10 MarketsIt is interesting to note that from Asia, apart from markets such as India, Vietnam is amongst one of the top 10 markets. "We are delighted with the level of adoption across the globe and especially in APAC. We were pleasantly surprised by the participation rate from Vietnam. It demonstrates that there is a deep need in the marketplace for foundational trainings on the platform. As we launch in additional languages we expect the numbers from markets like Japan to jump substantially, and in other parts of Europe and Latin America," Mr Harris observed, adding, "The large enrolment numbers for the Blueprint eLearning shows us that there is both a need and want in the marketplace for training related to the Facebook platform. For countries such as India and Vietnam, it really showcases that Facebook is an increasingly important platform for businesses."The other markets in the top 10 include United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Egypt, Mexico and Romania.Of Investing In The Foundation"The Blueprint eLearning beta test made it clear that Facebook designed education to help PHD not only manage our current global talent, but to also scale on-boarding for future PHD employees. This will equip our employees with the best skills to know how to leverage Facebook for our clients effectively," said Mike Cooper, CEO, PHD Worldwide in a prepared statement.Blueprint top five courses by enrolments are 'Facebook Terminology', 'Welcome to Marketing on Facebook', 'Successful Campaigns', 'Brand Best Practices' and 'Creative Best Practices', indicating the kind of subjects that are interesting industry professionals."Blueprint as a program is always evolving. As we always say, 'the journey is 1 per cent complete', and we will constantly plan and adjust our roadmap based on the needs of business plus the developments in our ads products. Our roadmap is developed not only in response to new ads product launches and updates to those ads products, but also takes market demands and growth trends into consideration. Current courses on the roadmap include courses for specific Verticals, courses that address the specific needs of SMEs, more courses for Instagram, and more courses for DR Advertisers," informed Mr Harris.He also admitted that Facebook is experiencing a direct correlation between the enrolments and the activity seen from the companies that have enrolled. "However, it is important to understand that what we are doing with Blueprint is not a tactical, short term money generating approach. This is a strategic, long term investment for Facebook that is essentially been done to strengthen the foundation on which people leverage Facebook marketing," he summed up.
Read More
In India, the e-learning space is still at a nascent stage. Premier education company Talentedge's CEO and MD Aditya Malik talks about the learning company's plan to provide the cutting-edge technology in education system. Talentedge works with both students and professionals offering quality education through innovative approaches. Speaking to BW | Businessworld's Haider Ali Khan, Malik says online education players have a critical role to play as far as realisation of the Digital India dream is concerned. Excerpts from the interview: On Indian Education SystemIndia is an important educational hub for the global education industry. Currently, it boasts of more than 1.4 million schools and more than 35,000 higher education institutes making it one of the largest higher education centre in the world. It is estimated to be worth Rs 5.9 trillion in 2014-15, with nearly half the population of India below the age of 25.The education sector encompasses three domains — primary, higher education and vocational education and operated under a highly regulated policy regime. Each of these are growing and receiving a lot of governmental impetus to sustain the momentum of growth. The scope of growth is huge and the government emphasis should remain on building infrastructure, upping scalability, enhancing the teacher student ratio in the bigger scheme of things. Digital education is going to play a key role in changing the status quo of education in India, allowing people to learn from anywhere at any time. Addressing some of the key loopholes in the education system of India such as flexibility, affordability, scalability, student teacher ratio, I can see education moving towards digital and being more accepting of it as a format. Digital education cannot replace brick and motor format of learning. Both can complement each other. Talentedge's PositionTalentedge was incubated by Lumis Partners in 2012 with the objective of changing the way of learning. We realised the potential of the learning market in India, which lacked technology interventions. Flexibility to learn while you earn was also a hindrance as new age professionals are constantly seeking ways to enhance their skills.Thus we brourht the idea of Talentedge, which is an innovative learning solutions provider that creates tangible impact in an individual’s life. Our products and services are targeted at individuals and corporates to enable learning with a purpose and instill a sense of self-belief, while showcasing a direct link to career progression and job effectiveness. For the individual learners, we offer learning solutions via – premium executive programmes and degree programme and for the corporate world we have solutions like industry programmes, product modules and end user learning. On Capital We are running at an annualised run rate of $8 million. My aim is to grow it by 20 per cent this year and we are also avidly looking at enhancing our footprint further. On Technology Technology is restricted in a certain section of society. However, I see it also the only medium that can help us overcome the bigger barriers that the society and education face today. Hence, as a nation, our focus should be on: a) Building a digital ecosystem that is scalable, low-cost and reusable.b) Generating multiple avenues for learners to adapt to the technology and its usage. A clear mission that popularises this medium in tier 2 and 3 cities.c) Proactively creating awareness regarding the digital learning culture across the nation and government impetus from time to time.d) Empowering an e-learning system that goes beyond the traditional e-learning mechanism of recorded lectures, is highly interactive, engaging and measures learning effectiveness. On Learning PatternTechnology is the harbinger of transformation in every industry. It has changed us into a digitized nation. The resilient focus of the Modi government on technology via – Digital India, Skill India, and Make in India is a testimony to that. Technology has positively progressed the education landscape of India. While e-learning has begun to stand out, there are challenges that continue to obstruct its full potential. Indians are inclined towards the brick and mortar format of leaning, and the e-learning industry is still gaining acceptance. Technology has providing scalable solution to the education industry meet the challenge of accessibility, flexibility and affordability. It empowered the audience to learn at their own pace anytime and anywhere. As we see it at Talentedge – our technology direct to device is all about changing the way India learns. We are enabling an interactive and social collaborative learning experience in the digital space.
Read More
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Credila, a subsidiary of HDFC, are offering a loan assistance programme for working professionals in India who want to pursue a Full- time or Executive MBA to meet the unique challenges of working professionals and supports Booth’s mission of educating future business leaders.Under the agreement, the programme provides educational loans without collaterals for up to Rs 25 lakh for an executive MBA and up to Rs 30 lakh for a full-time MBA.Loans of up to 100 per cent of the cost of education for both the programs will be available against relevant collaterals. With interest rates as low as 11.95 percent for Executive MBA and 13.25 percent for full-time MBA, the program offers flexible payment terms of up to ten to 14 years and 12 years respectively.“The number of professionals opting for an Executive Management Course is gaining popularity in India. After being admitted to a top university, the next big hurdle is getting a higher studies loan. The solution we offer will help bridge a gap in student lending” - says Bill Kooser, Associate Dean for Global Outreach at University of Chicago Booth School of Business.Chicago Booth’s EMBA curriculum is a 21-month, part-time program that exposes executives to the intellectual intensity and world-changing ideas. The objective of the program is to make executives become more confident and effective business professional. Booth’s Full-Time MBA Program is a two-year program with a highly flexible curriculum that offers endless opportunities to tailor students’ learning experience.(BW Online Bureau)
Read More
Cambridge English Language Assessment has chosen Flinnt, communication & sharing app for educational institutions to create its m-learning network for Language Teachers across India.English teachers from schools as well as colleges are members of this communication and sharing app where they can connect with each other, share their ideas and opinions. Already more than 700 educators from these institutions have joined the network and are accessing the resources curated by Cambridge English and they are also sharing their own teaching learning practices. Some of these educators are working in institutions that have already adopted Flinnt for their students and in these cases, the educators are able to easily forward the learning resources to the students preparing for the Qualifications offered by Cambridge English.Cambridge English Language Assessment has launched competition for English Teachers. To be accessed through the application both online or though mobile, the competition will target the teachers of Schools and Higher Education segment. Teachers are invited to register for the competition at www.cambridgeenglish.org/in/teachers-competition that will provide them access to the online/mobile network platform.The entries for the competition have to be submitted only through this application. The competition involves the teacher to develop an innovative and original classroom activity for any one of the four skills Listening, Reading, Writing & Speaking.(BW Online Bureau)
Read More
Primitive behavioral psychology is often utilised by management consultants to read the mind of CXOs, says Sandeep DasManagement consulting, in a nutshell, is about building trust based long lasting relationship with CXOs. Although problem solving or analytical rigor is often stressed upon as the key skill required to succeed in this industry; successful client interactions go a long way in establishing lucrative professional relationships. Leveraging primitive psychology, as a tool, can be extremely helpful in this exercise.The most talked about management research on behavioral communication, by researchers Mehrabian, Wiener and Ferris, concluded that 55 per cent of all communication is through body language. Only 7 per cent of all communication is through the actual words spoken while 38 per cent of communication occurs via tone of the voice. The article looks at some of the most extensive techniques leveraging behavioral psychology to garner initial and capture sustained share of mind. Building "cultural familiarity" and delivering "impact statements" are often used to garner initial share of mind!Garnering initial share of a CXO's mind is seen as a good starting point in any conversation. Conversation starters to build "cultural familiarity" with CXOs often revolve around conversing in a local dialect or engaging in a discussion of a sporting tournament or sporting heroes. Other techniques to build "familiarity" include talking about the stock price of the client or a latest news item featuring the client. Another technique recommended by management literature includes using an impact statement. The concept of an impact statement revolves around starting a conversation with a key fact or anecdote that can force an audience into thinking about what is coming next. For instance, "while you are doing well today, nearly 70 per cent of today's customers will no longer be with you in 3 years' time" is a classic case of using a "scare message" as an impact statement. Utilising social styles is one of the most effective management tools to capture sustained share of mind!While garnering initial share of mind is easy and achievable, generating a sustained share of mind is significantly more challenging. One of the key management tools that is universally applied by management consultants is the social styles behavioral model. Social styles, formulated by Merrill and Reid, is one of the premier behavioral style models to understand interpersonal behavior. Every person's interpersonal style, when evaluated on two key parameters of "Assertiveness" and "Emotional Responsiveness" can be categorized in 4 categories; Expressive, Driver, Analytical and Amiable. People with an Expressive social style tend to look at the "feeling based" big picture with a slight aversion to excessive detail. People with a Driver social style are result oriented with low emotional display. People with an Analytical social style are process oriented, thorough and fact obsessed. People with an Amiable social style are primarily people focused. CXOs belonging to a certain social style prefer a particular style of communication. For instance, different strategies can be employed to present a detailed market entry strategy to CXOs. An Analytical social style might be shown a detailed number heavy presentation with the focus on key assumptions and underlying numerical logic. A Driver social style might be shown a detailed implementation plan and the date by which she or he can start realizing profits. An Amiable social style might be presented the people impacted and the softer aspects of business. An Expressive social style might be presented one slide with the key findings. One of the perennial rumors in consulting are about how an Expressive CXO was once a shown the output of a market entry strategy by showing a tree with fruits where each fruit indicated a different segment and the diameter of the fruit the size of the segment. Some of the segments which were immediate priority were shown as low hanging fruits. While it is difficult to generalize, there are some behavioral aspects that are characteristic of certain social styles. Expressive and Amiable tend to be emotionally open rather that Analytical and Driver. Expressive and Amiable tend to be great motivators for the people who work for them. Analytical and Driver tend to be more structured, pragmatic and thorough with what they do. With consistent training, it is possible to assess the social style of a person in less than a minute. Over a period of time, some management consultants become experts at understanding behavioral psychology!Basic psychology suggests that non-verbal or behavioral aspects emerge from the "unconscious" or the temporal lobes of the human brain. These aspects manifest itself in individuals, all individuals behaving in either "freeze, flight or fight modes". With sustained training, experience and exposure; some consultants become experts at behavioral psychology. They become experts at understanding nuances about human behavior and understanding the root mode behind the "sub-conscious communication". Sample examples include closely following eye movement, noticing the direction of the feet on the floor, twitching of fingers, inclination of posture, etc. Some even try and leverage on graphology or critically evaluating the hand writing of the client stakeholder to get a better idea about their state of mind. In fact, a CXO's signature speaks volumes of his mental makeup whether he is stingy, flamboyant, meticulous, etc. In conclusion, in any client facing business, building relationships based on trust leads to lasting professional success. Effective interactions based on behavioral psychology can go a long way in succeeding in such a client context. Although it is easy to understand the nuances of some of the management frameworks, building expertise is a matter of specialized coaching and experience. (The author, Sandeep Das, is an MBA from IIM Bangalore, a management consultant, the author of “Yours Sarcastically” and a columnist)
Read More
Wincourse will be looking at acquiring more companies in the edu-tech space this year, reports Sonal Khetarpal Delhi-based education technology firm Wincourse has acquired an 85 per cent stake in Mappr, a networking platform for schools, for an undisclosed amount. Wincourse, an online location-based tutor aggregator platform, was founded by Dheeraj Jain, Ashwani Duggal and Kay Bhagavatheeswaran to organise the tutoring market in India. The portal allows former and present students to grade and provide feedback to their tuition teachers on the basis of their experience. The company currently has around 8,00,000 tutors on their platform from Delhi NCR and Bangalore, informs Jain. “We wanted to expand our educational services to schools and Mappr is a great networking platform that acts like a combination of Facebook and LinkedIn for schools,” says Jain. Mappr was founded in March 2015 by two IIT alumni, Soham Chokshi and his partner who requested anonymity for professional reasons. The online platform connects school administration, teachers, students and parents within and across schools. It allows teachers to give feedback on students’ progress, helps schools go digital by facilitating online uploading of assignments, and connecting parents through social groups. The portal has onboarded few schools and private tutors in Delhi NCR and Mumbai as its clients and are targeting to reach over two lakh users by this year end. One of the key differentiator of Mappr is that it gives visibility to students not only for their academic performance but also for their behaviour and extra-curricular achievements to not only to school administration but also to parents in real time, informs Chokshi. “We got Wincourse on board as we were running the company part time and their manpower and resources will help to accelerate the scaling process for Mappr,” he adds. Choksi is the co-founder of another logistics start-up Shipsy. Wincourse will be looking at acquiring more companies in the edu-tech space this year.
Read More
Indian educational system calls for an urgent reform. But till now, little progress has been made by the central government. It is high time the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government should change its focus from building infrastructure such as buildings and class rooms to 'learning outcomes'. The National Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. Since then many changes have taken place that call for a revision of the policy. The Narendra Modi government promised to bring out a National Education Policy (NEP) to meet the changing dynamics of the population's requirement with regard to quality education. For the first time, the government is embarking on a time-bound grassroots consultative process, which will enable the Human Resources Development Ministry to reach out to individuals across the country through over 2.75 lakh direct consultations while also taking input from citizens online. In a country where access to education is still an issue and digital India is still to take off, the framework of NEP is yet to be structured. HRD minister Smriti Irani has, however, assured that the draft education policy shall be ready by the end of 2015. Earlier this year, the Centre said that it would also evaluate public-private partnerships (PPPs) to finance education, seek ways of upping India's spend on higher education to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from less than 1 per cent now, and emphasise on research and development (R&D). "We need to increase the budget for education significantly and keep 10 per cent of the allocation in improving teachers' competence and assessing learning outcomes and we must change the way we measure progress in this area," said Anil Sachdev, Founder & CEO of School Of Inspired Leadership (SOIL). However, it is a known fact that higher education cannot sustain only through public funding. While PPPs in higher education have been pursued as a strategy, not many have shown successful results. Hence, the PPP models need to be revisited so as to allow more meaningful collaborations. Education experts believe that the public and private sectors, along with the centre and state governments should have an integrated approach to education to create an environment of financing with incentive. "The government should facilitate engagement between academia, industry and research institutes in a better way including providing incentives on research so that it grows in leaps and bounds rather than create an incremental growth," says Sachdev. On August 20, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched a portal —www.vidyalakshmi.com— for students seeking education loans and five banks including SBI, IDBI Bank and Bank of India have integrated their systems with the website. This is aimed to ensure that no student misses out on higher education for lack of funds, and the launch of the portal is the first step towards achieving this objective. The government has also sought suggestions on ways to rework the examination system for better assessment of students, restructure education regulators such as the University Grants Commission and the All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as present regulatory systems tend to stymie quality and growth of our institutions. The Sarva Siksha Abhiyan ensures constitutional provisions for providing free and compulsory education to all the children between 6 to 14 years of age. Even after declaring education as a fundamental right, there are numerous hurdles that prohibit a girl child from actually getting education. The biggest hurdle is the prejudices that families have about girls-like girls are slow learners, they are not rational; they are to be confined inside the domestic household, and why bother educating them. For ensuring that girls get the right kind of education, the education experts believe that the government must develop role model female teachers and involve mothers of female students in running the schools as well as recognise them for encouraging their wards to study. Further, the schools must be equipped with basic facilities to make the female students safe and comfortable. They also believe that it is important to educate "Panchayats" and "city councils" about the benefit of educating the girl child and work with NGOs to remove biases against this cause. Although the government has big plans to reform the education sector, everything remains on the policy stage as of now. Even as the country's economy has nearly stabilised, the education industry which is largely seen as a social sector should now be perceived as an industry. Educationists believe that education is very much correlated with the economic development of a country, citing examples of countries like China, South Korea, Singapore, which, in a matter of decade and a half have transformed into developed economies because of the transformational changes they have brought about in the education sector. It is now imperative for India that is undergoing demographical, economical, and digital transformation to follow the path. As Sam Pitroda in his National Knowledge Commission paper had said in 2005 that "we need generational transformation in our education system to bring about change." But it has been a decade and we are still doing incremental changes therefore we do not see the impact. Modi's Reforms In A Logjam; Read Businessworld magazine 24 September Edition
Read More
Labeling and packaging solution provider Avery Dennison recently awarded scholarship worth Rs 9 lakh under its ‘Spirit of Invention’ (InvEnt) programme to 10 Indian students from five reputed institutes for innovation capabilities in science and technology. "We are pleased that the InvEnt Scholarship Programme has entered its fourth year in India,” said Alicia Procello Maddox, president of the Avery Dennison Foundation, CSR wing of the company. “As a company we are committed to improving the communities in which our employee operates and lives. We recognise the need for talent development to nurture effective leaders of the future. We are excited to play a part in the journey of these 10 students from India as they get ready to take on new opportunities in their future,” added Alicia. The participating Indian institutes this year included Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani; M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore; MIT, Manipal; Pune Vidhyarthi Griha's College of Engineering and Technology, Pune and St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi. The company provides them a tour in their plant to broaden their mind. Alicia said that there is a huge chance for retention of the best minds. Anil Sharma, MD of Material Group, South Asia said, “We at Avery Dennison support innovations and understand the need for that. We also support social causes, which is an integral part of our Foundation. Our foundation is involved in many activities along with Smile Foundation. We work towards women empowerment, their education and improvise the Indian community.” On asking about the investment the company will make in India, Sharma said, “Currently, the packaging and labeling industry in India is around Rs 60, 000 crore. So far we have invested $70 million in India. We are looking forward to invest $100 million in the next 6-7 years.” The US based company which has specialized in pressure sensitive labeling has around 1,300 employees in India in its two centers, Bengaluru and Pune. Since becoming operational in the country, they have been working with different NGOs to promote education, sustainability and women empowerment.
Read More
