#www.edxengine.com

What are we trying to do?

This is one question we ask ourselves day in, day out at EdXengine. The answer we come up with is “Providing a platform where one learns what he/she needs to attain his/her goals”. We know Learning is a continuos process, we understand it and that’s a reason our courses are digitized and available whenever you need at www.edxengine.com

So how do we validate what we say holds true? 

NUMBERS !! They never lie. We had the opportunity to work with 2 batches of Mechanical Engineers at St.Joseph’s College of Engineering, Chennai. One from 2014 and the other from 2015. 

We analyzed their course interaction vs outcomes, course completion rates and how the course helps them in achieving their career goals.

So lets see the numbers.

COURSE INTERACTION

One thing we noticed is

2014 Batch - We provided a discussion forum, Given a platform to engage, students ask more questions, interact with themselves and have a chance to clear their doubts. 

2015 Batch - We provided access to our digitized content. (i.e.) The student can revisit the course content whenever needed. Accessibility to these videos increased project completion by 40%. We engaged the alumni in the 2nd batch. Alumni inputs and suggestions motivated and helped the present batch.

One thing to note is the interaction level between instructors and students. Students interact as much as the instructor interacts. End result of all these is clear learning of concepts and a good learning curve.

Interaction over the coursework

The interaction is broadly categorized into 4 phases. 

Phase1: Initial Phase, there is considerable amount of inertia in the initial weeks.

Phase2: Understanding concepts and questioning the theory behind it.

Phase3: Implementing the concepts learnt in individual projects.

Phase 4: Collaborating as a team to execute course learnings into a final project. 

Once done they have a chance to showcase their projects to peers and folks from industry. This hones their presentation skills and provides the confidence to take on the real world.

Is there a correlation between the way we teach the course and students getting placed in core companies?

Looking at all these numbers, we wanted to learn one crucial thing about ourselves. Are we making the right impact? Is our course helping students achieve their short term goals? Hmmm... Let’s see what data suggests.

As the figure suggests, the student interaction during the course shows an impact in the way they have been placed in a core company. Talking numbers, 80 % of the course population where either placed in a core company or had been admitted into a reputed university.

A fact to note is everyone listed above performed at least one project during the coursework. This underlines the importance of practical applications of theoretical knowledge. 

We see the same trend with the 2015 batch as well, We are confident the students of our 2015 batch will be as successful as their seniors.

So what did we do right ?

Communicating the importance and reaching out. Yes these two words might look simple, but that is what we did. We kept the students engaged with our discussion forums, engaged them over social media, where available 24*7 over Whatsapp, Skype, Hangouts and our support team was available though phone anytime of the day (even night).

BY THE WAY WE DID ALL OF THESE THINGS ONLINE. YES WE WHERE ROUGHLY 8557 MILES AWAY FROM THE STUDENTS WE TAUGHT. CURIOUS, HOW WE ACHIEVED IT. SIMPLE, THE ANSWER IS TECHNOLOGY !!! 

EdXengine - Quality courses for you

Finally here are some pictures from our User Group Meeting 2015.

Did you ever know that India has 1652 languages? The number of languages being used in a country with over 1.25 Billion population is a shear example of diversity present in our nation. 

When you look into the education scenario, this diversity isn’t reflected. At least in the recent past and present we have been producing engineers, doctors and management grads at a very high rate. While we should be proud of the number of students taking up these fields, there is also a concern of sacrificing the quality of professionals graduating from these fields.

The concern here is that the average or poor grads graduating out of these fields might have been super awesome in some other field. Unfortunately they did not have the exposure or the right environment to pick and choose what they would have been good at.

Now with the advent and widespread availability of internet, opportunities present in other fields all over the world have been exposed and has let us compete with the world. While there are some folks who travel the path never taken, the number is very little. 

How often do we come across people who say they are working in sales, finance, logistics, customer support after an engineering degree or MBA from some college. Working in sales or finance or logistics is great, the only query is why on earth would you want to study something for 4 years, go through the numerous exams and then find no use for it in the rest of your life. You might as well have studied something relevant and accelerated your career graph.

From a very tender age, most children’s parents decide that they must be parents to either engineers or doctors and nothing less. In some cases, it is mis-informed genuine anxiety about the future of their child because they feel no other profession is secure but in many cases, unfortunately societal status is the driving factor. As a result of producing engineers and doctors, children nowadays are like racehorses with blinders. They are allowed to see only what the adults around them want them to see. While the internet has empowered children with  a better picture of the options around them, their say in the final decision on what they want to become is limited.

What we have failed to realize for the past many generations are that children might be only 1/3rd of our population but they are ALL of our FUTURE. They shape the economy of a country. They are instrumental in deciding its rate of growth and development. 

Facebook, Microsoft and Apple are all at the pinnacle of their success, not because Zuckerberg, Gates and Jobs enrolled at an engineering college. Their venture became so successful because of their passion for their interest. Their creative genius and successful use of talent has landed them where they are; the world’s youngest billionaire, the world’s richest man, the ex-CEO of the world’s most valuable company.

Creativity and talent is undoubtedly a property of every individual. It is upto them and the folks around them to channel it and manifest it in the right way.

Become an engineer or doctor because you are passionate about, not because your parents or relatives are. There is a world of possibilities beyond B.E, MBBS and MBA. Whatever you decide to do, your dedication and motivation in being the best in what you do should be the driving factor. Identify your interest and work on equipping yourself with the skills required to master the game. Access and use some of the quality online educational resources you can get your hands on like www.EdXengine.com. And why shouldn’t you when most of it is free?

You don’t have to sacrifice an arm and a leg on the field of battle to prove your bravery. Every decision you make, every risk you take, every stereotype you break stands testimony to your courage.   

There is a lot of clamor in social media relating India and Women safety, especially after “India’s Daughter”. We noticed 2 sects of people, 

1. One sect was and is worried about safety and have expressed their views strongly on how unsafe India is, especially for women.

2. The other sect defending India are explaining that women safety is something that is common across the globe. They feel India is targeted by vested interests that have ulterior motives.

Even though both sects disagree with each other, everyone are on the same page when it comes to women safety. For that matter, every human being needs to be treated well. We need to give the required respect to each men and women. 

There has been lots of angry posts that want to bring stricter laws, etc to the ones who misbehave. Agreed fear is one of the aspects that curbs violence, but it isn’t a factor that curbs instincts especially animal instincts. 

So what is that we need to do? Is there a way we can make our world a better place to live ? Our answer to it is definitely yes. Education is one thing that distinguishes right from wrong. 

Educating doesn’t  mean people who have never gone to school are the ones more prone to misbehave. or cause pain on fellow human beings To be more clear educating is something where you teach a person what they are not aware of. You might be a CEO, but if you aren’t aware of certain concepts you need to be educated on that. 

Irrespective of one having a doctorate or being someone who has not seen school, if they do not know how to treat a fellow human then you should make sure to educate them in that aspect of it.

So the question is how are we going to educate half a billion people, the answer is what we are searching for too. While we see lots of  blog posts on how to and how not to treat people, it doesn’t reach the people it needs to reach. So is there an answer ? We think internet might be an answer for it.

What have we done ???. 

We for our part have created EdXengine, 

To all the people who care about their relatives, friends, loved ones and want to provide a safer place to live, we call upon you. Make a structured course on how to treat fellow humans, how to make India a better place for women, how to be sane when animal instincts take upon oneself. Educate your fellow people. Its upon you to make a change. 

On our part we will make sure your course reaches the nooks and corners of India. Do you have it in you to bring a change? Are you the one who wants to have a safer city. Then ping us, reach us at “https://www.facebook.com/edxengine?ref=hl” or shoot a mail to [email protected]

So its upon you, if you are someone who is interested in woman safety and have been voicing for it. You think you know what needs to be taught about to our general public, such that they understand. Take the plunge !!! 

We are not sure what needs to be taught, but we think you all know what you need to teach your sons, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. What would you like them to do and not do. Think about it and contact us. Or comment on our Facebook page or here. We will make sure it counts.

We are throwing you a challenge, come up with a course, EdXengine will sponsor the whole course and provide you with our facilities for you to host the video. We will market the video and bear the cost for it too.

Lets educate. 

“Ask what you have done for your country, not what your country can do for you”

In the last post, I asked you to ponder about how a small project that you do during your undergrad will help you in sculpting your future. So here is my point of view

A typical engineering student has 2 options in front of him; higher studies or a well set career. The 2 phrases which are synonymous with higher studies and a good career are painstaking application forms and grueling interview processes. As for myself, I was fortunate enough to get a shot at both.

For those pursuing higher studies, it must be a commonly known fact that, most countries especially USA and in Europe don’t have entrance exams like GATE, BARC and TANCET. The selection process is entirely at the discretion of the universities. They never reveal their criteria. They may set a lower limit so that a minimum requirement to apply is communicated to the interested students. But if you clear the minimum requirement, it never means you are guaranteed a seat.

The application process is  pretty energy sapping. Each application easily takes 2 hours or more, and that is just the filling up of the online form alone ( most of us are even ready to shell out Rs30,000 to a consultancy to fill out and take care of the application process). 

Besides that, you have Letters of Recommendations, essays and what not. While one may get all this information from their seniors/consultants/relatives. One thing that takes us by mild surprise is the academic achievements tab, which asks for details of the projects worked on, papers published and conferences attended. Most of us are just relieved that the boxes to be filled are optional fields and we can save our fingers the trouble of typing out 3 to 4 paragraphs because we have nothing to account for.

That is a big blunder, especially when you aim to get into some of the top universities in the world. Stats show that acceptance in top institutions are directly related to the time invested by the applicant in projects and research. Participating in a simple project or performing a good research study on common process/problem or principle gets you closer to a successful application and scholarship.

When it comes to the job interview scene, almost all freshers have a standard resume template which begins with a hard-to-memorize objective, a tabular column for their academic records, a mention of their personal skills a few other details about hobbies, religion etc. Fact of the matter is that the interviewer has 10 - 15 minutes to decide if he wants you in his company or not. It will hardly take him a minute to mentally register details about marks and awards. So what will set you apart from the other 999 folks on the other side of the door, of which at least 70% will have profile similar to yours? There may be many answers to that. A most certain answer is your Projects. It not only gives the interviewer scope for discussion, but also allows you to make the interviewer ask questions in areas you are familiar with.

If eyes are the mirror to the soul (Paulo Coelho) then I believe your tongue is the mirror to the brain and all that it holds. Assuming you have put your entire dedication and hard work into working on the project, then you are bound to describe it with a passion that is very hard to fake or duplicate. This will create a positive impression on the interviewer in terms of your capacity and work ethic. This theory holds good even more so when the interviewer and interviewee are from different domains. (For example: A mechanical student sitting in an IT company interview)

To wrap up things, a word of advice, involve yourselves in as many projects as you can. Seek proper guidance, approach your professors and industry contacts, do something worthwhile with your time. It is not going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it. Work with the motivation to make a difference and success will automatically follow. Though at the outset, everything seems to be discovered. That is far from the truth. The scope for research is like an intertwined web of endless possibilities. SO JUST FOLLOW YOUR HEART AND START FROM SIMPLE CONCEPTS. It might be how a car works, or how water flows through a pipe. Simple ideas have brought the best laws - A long time back a person wondered how the apple fell on his head and rest became history!!

And for you Mechies out there, check out the Simulation for Mechanical engineers and ANSYS APDL courses on www.EdXengine.com. Both of them start off with the basics and culminate with 2 unique projects which will make your resume stronger. Sign-up for the courses and enjoy 24/7 expert support wherever you are, whenever you want.    

By the way here is some free advice !! Take a look at it and make your  resume better. AND OBVIOUSLY its FREE :D