Mindspark
Mindspark is an adaptive-learning program (ITS) built by Educational Initiatives (EI), a private company based out of Ahmedabad, India. It is a cloud-based application .[2]
Founded | July 2009 |
---|---|
Founder | Sridhar Rajagopalan |
Location |
|
Services | E-learning, Education |
Method | Constructivism, Behaviourism, Misconception based remediation |
Official languages | English, Hindi, Gujarati |
Owner | Sridhar Rajagopalan, founder and Managing Director |
Parent organisation | Educational Initiatives |
Employees | 350+[1] |
Website | www |
Mindspark is currently available in Gujarati, Hindi and English languages. It is also available in an offline version. Mindspark has been used by children in India, and by a few students in the UAE and the United States.[3] Besides products for schools, Mindspark is also available for sale to individuals through its retail platform.
History
The development of Mindspark started in 2009. Bangalore, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad were the first major areas of product development. Mindspark during startup was sold to private schools. Later, Mindspark services were extended to Delhi in the slums as part of the Mindspark Centers Project.[4]
Philosophy
Mindspark was envisaged as a self-learning tool that would not require constant supervision of a teacher.[5] [6] It is based on the constructivism theory of learning, [7] [8] and strategies like gamification[9] and behaviourism.
Results
Mindspark currently has an annual usage of around 80,000 students across India (with around 172,000 students since 2009).[10][11] Mindspark remediates misconceptions identified through 10 years of ASSET tests with more than 2 million answer data points per day.[12] An independent impact evaluation of Mindspark by a third party (IDinsight) was done for two consecutive years (2012 and 2013), which showed an impact of 0.19 standard deviations.[13][14]
In a 2017 study over four and a half months, pupils in language and maths had achieved progress comparable or better compared to other similar education studies in poor countries, while also reducing cost.[7][15]
See also
- DreamBox (company)
- Khan Academy
- Cognitive Tutor
References
- "Educational Initiatives at Glassdoor".
- "MINDSPARK innovative computer based self-learning programme for Maths". India Infoline News Service, Mumbai. IIFL. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Indian Mindspark to help US students learn maths". The Economic Times. The Times of India. Apr 15, 2011. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- Kumar, Karan (June 4, 2013). "Mindspark Learning Centres – Blending Technology with Tradition to Remedy Learning Gaps". Central Square Foundation. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- Venkatraman, Shai (May 14, 2013). "From textbooks to tablets". live mint. HT Media Ltd. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- Gupta, Anika (7 May 2014). "How technology is set to transform India's fragmented education system". Computing. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Technology is transforming what happens when a child goes to school". The Economist. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
- "Principles in Mindspark | Educational Initiatives". Ei-india.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "MindSpark Website Review". Indianmomsconnect.com. 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Sparking a change: Mindspark | Tehelka". Tehelka. 2013-08-15. Archived from the original on 2017-07-28. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Sparking a change: Mindspark". YouTube. 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Making a difference in education through personalized learning". Livemint. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Software tailored to student learning". IDinsight. 2013-06-16. Archived from the original on 2017-01-07. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Impact Evaluation of Mindspark" (PDF). Ei-india.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- "Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-07-27.