Universities have a vital role to play when it comes to providing the students with the best experience. Learning Spiral aims to be the trusted enabler to higher education institutions to help students achieve their aspirations. It provides a host of applications on a SaaS model to digitally transform the student lifecycle: Admission Academics & Assessments. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Manish Mohta, Managing Director of Learning Spiral.

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Universities in most growing economies struggle to handle their Applicants, Students, Examinations, and associated processes. These activities consume 30% of the Academic Calendar & 40% of University staff hours. Despite so much 'effort,' students remain dissatisfied and disgruntled. More than 30% of students submit grievances or request re-evaluation of evaluated scores. In our country itself, more than 4 months per year goes into just conducting examinations. During this period colleges /Universities do not hold any classes leading to a colossal loss of learning hours. Moreover, the design of assessments fails to judge either learning outcomes or job readiness.

Learning Spiral aims to be the trusted enabler to higher education institutions to help students achieve their aspirations. We provide a host of applications on a SaaS model to digitally transform the student lifecycle: Admission Academics & Assessments.

We are on a mission to: 

• Increase available learning hours by 40%
• Decrease the burden of stress associated with admissions & assessments by 50%
• Eliminate student grievances totally

2. Kindly mention some of the company's major challenges until now. 

Higher Education has been a traditional and conservative sector. Change and adoption rates had been slow for all forms of digital intervention. The last 3 years have changed that outlook and we have seen a huge upsurge in both adoption and acceptance. From Digital on-screen evaluation of handwritten answer scripts to Online Remote proctored examinations for admissions and semester examinations, many takers have seen.

3. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

We have been handling admissions, examinations, and assessments for nearly two decades now. Due to our deep domain knowledge and ability to handle all forms of processes we are the ideal partner for Universities in their digital transformation. This is because we can render services covering their entire journey from a mix of manual and digital to completely digital over say 2-3 years. This is a unique differentiator which hardly anyone can provide in this challenging domain.

4. Mention some of the awards, achievements, recognitions, and clients' feedback that you feel are notable and valuable for the company.

Awards:

1) Company of the year 2020 by CEO Magazine

2) Awarded as one of the most promising online assessment solution providers in India by Silicon India

Notable and valuable feedback for the company by some of our highly satisfied clients

1. CLIENT: Tamilnadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC)

Feedback:  The smooth management of aforesaid activities for around 24 Lakh candidates of Group four tests was satisfactorily performed by the agency. We wish the agency a bright future.

2. CLIENT: Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology

(MAKAUT)

Feedback: It is hereby declared that M/s. Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd. has been entrusted with the assignment of confidential work (Pre & Post examination work) for the regular semester examination for Even 2018 to Even 2019. They have performed their task as per the specification of the university for more than 1.40 lacs students per semester. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

3. CLIENT: Jamia Millia Islamia (Jamia University) 

Feedback: This is to certify that M/s Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd. has completed online admission-related processes for all courses from School levels to PhD. for our University.

Their services & IT solutions about Entrance Examinations & Regular Examinations are good.

4. CLIENT: Banaras Hindu University (BHU)

Feedback: The agency satisfactorily performs the smooth management of aforesaid activities for around 4.5 Lacs candidates of entrance tests and around 70 thousand regular students. We wish the agency a bright future.

5. CLIENT: Hidayatullah National Law University

Feedback:  The Firm had satisfactorily carried out the required tasks about pre-examination and post-examination works

5. AI is projected to be the next market. How is AI contributing to the making of your products and services?

Online Proctored Exams Using AI-powered Online Proctoring 

We gave a distinct focus on the use of AI in question creation, evaluation, and checking malpractices in online test conduction.

We provide AI-enabled solutions that cover the entire gamut of services and processes covering all phases of examination management from registration to conduction and evaluation. Besides this, we support all means of evaluations such as Computer Based Tests, Online Tests with AI-enabled remote/live proctoring,

Know how AI contributes to the making of your products and services?

AI Proctored assessments for Admission & Degrees

• More than 3 million AI proctored assessments delivered
• AWS Rekognition deployed for Face & Object detection at scale
• Face recognition used for touchless attendance in Physical tests
• Face recognition with liveliness detection used in Online proctored

Assessments

• Overall risk scores against candidates to help Human Supervisors
• Complete Audit trail & RTI compliance

AI-based question creation for basic topics

AI-based trend prediction: Trend prediction based on

• Academic records,
• Assessment scores and
• Past Admission / Job placements

Thus, AI-enabled remote proctoring is now a key focus area and we see tremendous potential in this sector for our solutions and services.

7. How have you seen the evolution of the industry? As you said that you have been here from the beginning, how has the growth been?

Over the last 3-4 years the entire Higher Education landscape has seen a rapid transformation. Our products for handling admissions, student life-cycle activities, management of examinations, and remote online proctored examinations have seen a huge upsurge in growth and adoption. The growth rates in the impact created [in terms of the number of students impacted] for the various products are as below for the last 3 years:

Products:                        Growth:

UCanApply                    50%+ growth

SmartExam                     90% + growth

UCanAssess                  2800% growth

8. Please share some major achievements of Learning Spiral under your leadership

• Some of the major achievements for the company are as follows:

1. MAKAUT AI-assisted online proctored examination: Successfully conducted India's Largest AI proctored Online Semester Examination for MAKAUT.  [Formerly West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata]

2. NIFT two devices online proctored examination: Successfully managed two devices Online Proctored Exams for NIFT

3. BHU complete student life cycle: Successfully conducted Banaras Hindu University's (BHU) online admission and examinations during the covid-19 pandemic and also transformed the entire student life cycle

4. 40+ Universities: Learning Spiral Joined Hands with 40 Universities PAN India to Conduct Online Examination & Assessment In 2021

5. Handling admissions processes for 9 IIMS across the country: Successfully managed online admission process for 9 IIMs through our online application engine: UCanApply.