Kathmandu: Here is an opportunity for learners and students who are not able to make their lockdown academically productive. Scholars Space – an e-learning platform has come up with free online classes and courses. It provides free courses in areas like graphic designing, app development, animal science, and many more. Similarly, it also provides courses for secondary level students on various subjects such as mathematics, social studies, Nepali, and a few others.
In 2017, Rohit Senchuri, the CEO of Scholars Space was in the first year of Civil Engineering in Eastern Regional Campus, Dharan. The unavailability of notes and learning materials was one of the major challenges he faced during his university days. It made him think about a solution and one day, out of the blue, he conceptualized the idea of a learning platform that is now Scholars Space.
Senchuri then shared his idea about starting an e-learning platform with his brother Rahul Senchuri, who is now the Chief Operating Officer at Scholars Space. For four years, the duo of brothers along with some acquaintances researched the possibilities, and in August 2020, they officially launched the platform.
Scholars Space provides free courses in areas like graphic designing, app development, animal science, and many more.
Senchuri said, “Before us, there were a few e-learning platforms in Nepal but none of them proved to be effective. In those four years, we researched about them and on different areas of e-learning which includes its courses, teaching methodology and among others”. According to him, most of those e-learning platforms failed because of ineffective courses and following the wrong teaching methodology and marketing strategy.
At present, a team of eight youths from different educational backgrounds ranging from engineering to journalism and veterinary science is running Scholars Space. The Senchuri brothers took an entire year to form the team. The courses available in the Scholars Space are designed by the team itself, and they’re constantly working to further expand it.
Talking about the features of Scholars space, it has four major categories. The first one is Learnspace which includes instructors and learning materials for learners. The learning materials are available in print, audio, and video format. Secondly, there is Blogspace where learners can express their thoughts and ideas about the course, and they can also create a blog on topics of their choice. The third one is Entrancespace which is dedicated to aspirants vying for entrance exams such as MBBS and Engineering among others. It includes model questions prepared by reputed institutions and experts. And lastly, there is Slidespace which consists of notices and information regarding the courses, and learners can also share their insights here too.
“Scholars Space is doing pretty well and is receiving gratifying comments from the users, within less than a year, we have enrolled around 50,000 learners. The lockdown has also favored us to grow our business. From beginners to professionals, everyone is taking classes from us,” said Senchri. The site has been able to make lockdown productive for a large number of people.
According to Senchuri, as the concept of e-learning is quite new, there are some challenges for it to grow. “One of the major challenges is that people are still not familiar with it, they are not being able to explore the features available in such platforms,” said he. In near future, Scholars Space aims to come up with more attractive courses and features. Live Chat is one of such features that is being implemented very soon. In the long run, Scholars Space dreams of going global by garnering a large number of learners from foreign countries
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