Q- Tell us about your brand.Out-Class® (www.out-class.org) is an EdTech platform that provides a high-quality alternative to tuition academies. We want to be the “Netflix of educational and professional courses”.
We’re solving every parent’s pain points – the ongoing month-on-month expense of tuition academies, arranging transport and drivers, and anxiously awaiting waitlist results for “branded” academy teachers. We have removed all that noise and brought the best faculty possible in Pakistan to the comfort of students’ homes. Our courses are 1/3rd the price, you get year-long access, and parents can always see how well their child is doing.
Q- Did you face any hurdles on the path towards your career growth?
The three of us were mid-career professionals, before we became edu-preneurs! So thanks to our own savings and our professional experiences, we aren’t in a bootstrapping phase like most startups. However, we’ve had (and are still having) our fair share of challenges.
Selecting the perfect faculty for example. Our faculty has credentials and experience that money can’t buy. Getting them on board wasn’t a question of payment or incentives, but of mission alignment and the social capital the founders have built over 2 decades.
A constant challenge for us is consistency in quality when it comes to our content creation and teacher selection. We don’t sign up tutors or teachers, we find partners, because they are building a legacy with us.
Q- From your perceptive, why do you think Out-Class is a better choice as compared to tuitions?
To start with, we’re not anti-tuitions. Even the best universities in the world (Harvard, MIT, Yale) having the brightest minds, offer their students additional help (or tuitions) in the form of assigned tutors.
The problem is that currently, in Pakistan, there is a ‘tuition mindset’ where students feel they’ll be left behind if they don’t join academies (major FOMO). We want to change this mindset and make students feel they are not reliant on a few “branded” academy teachers who charge a fortune every month for their crash courses, where students don’t even get individual attention or conceptual learning.
Our courses are creatively designed and engaging, taught by the best teachers of Pakistan and can help students complete their exam prep in under 25 hours, from the comfort of their homes. At one-third the price, you get a full year of access. Parents don’t have to worry about paying every month or chaperoning their children to academies. Students can be more in control of their learning schedules – what’s better than to play a video and be able to prepare for your exam the next day?”
Q- Do you think online education will be active after COVID19?
YES! Some look at online education as a band-aid solution to a problem that arose for everyone around the globe, thanks to the Pandemic.
Amidst this chaos, and frustration, we overlooked the role EdTech has played in other countries – Pandemic or no Pandemic. The fact is, if we are to expand educational reach in Pakistan, we cannot rely on brick-and-mortar schools alone – online education is the ONLY solution. The rest of the world is already headed that way – Pakistan has to follow.
Q- What makes your brand so unique?
Our Digital platform is designed for engaging learning, is infinitely scalable and can contribute to Pakistan’s educational growth through pre-recorded, purpose-built, high-quality lessons.
The content is creative, it has animations and images, you can see the teacher teaching – everything that will help a student retain concepts.
Our faculty has credentials and experience that money can’t buy. We have been able to add Harvard, Yale and Oxford graduates to our faculty, who are top income earners outside Pakistan but share our vision.
Currently, Out-Class is the first to offer high quality Crash Course videos for O Level & SAT students in Pakistan, at one-third the market price.
We, as founders, have a diverse set of experiences between us, unheard of in startups or even established companies. Ali (M.Ed., Harvard) brings with him 15 years of global educational experience, Aiman (MBA, LUMS) is the CEO and enterprising force behind Out-Class and Oosman (MBA, Harvard & BA, Yale) brings with him financial and tech expertise.
Out-Class will become a one-stop shop for students’ development, across the world.
Q- Do you think that online courses are effective? If yes, what are the key factors for making it effective?
The latest neuroscience research tells us that an average student has an attention span of 6 minutes before he/she zones out. Other inputs like visual aids, sounds, on-screen pen usage, help retain the concepts being taught. Online courses can be very effective when planned out properly. They have the potential to become a great additional resource for schools in their class-room teaching. Students can prepare for a lesson before going to class, or revise a chapter afterwards, whenever they want.
Q- How do you ensure the quality of online courses?
We develop our course content entirely in-house, in close coordination with our expert teachers. All our lessons are designed using the latest neuroscience research.
Q- What are the challenges students face due to distance learning amid the coronavirus pandemic? What do you think is necessary to overcome these problems?
Distance learning has been challenging not only for students but teachers, parents and schools as well. Nobody had the luxury of time to prepare for a shift to Zoom lessons. Teachers and parents had to struggle with technology, students had to settle for unplanned and rather boring Zoom lessons, and schools had to bear the brunt of this confusion from both ends.
Schools have started investing in teacher trainings however students have to understand how to become more self-reliant by using online resources. We’re trying our best to help students during this time by offering our courses for free to some of the leading schools of Pakistan.
Q- What challenges did you face during covid-19?
There’s a general aversion that has developed towards online learning because most of it has been unplanned and uncoordinated. It has been challenging to show a different, more refined side of online lessons that we offer. When we say we offer recorded lessons, people equate it to the existing ineffective online lessons in the market and form opinions on it, whereas we’re completely different.
Q- Do you think that online education is more conducive to cheating?
No, it’s not when it’s administered properly by the institute.
Q- From your own point of view, do online education offer the same student support services as traditional teaching methods?
Online education can offer more student support than traditional teaching methods. Online teaching, at least with Out-Class, means a student in Baluchistan can have access to the top teachers of our country. Time and place don’t become a hinderance, and help is more accessible, anywhere and anytime.
Q- A message for youth?
The pandemic is a challenge for many, but it’s also an equalizer. Everyone is in the same boat now. Take ownership and control over your own learning – nothing can stop you from excelling if you set your mind to it!
