AI-Enabled Remote Proctoring Holds Tremendous Potential” Says Manish Mohta

Whenever a new academic year starts, there is a trove of expectations, dollops of excitement and a only one goal, to come out with flying colors. And the goals are not limited to only students because teachers and educational organizations too go through a similar roller-coaster ride to make it through the academic year improving on their performance with every succeeding year. Technology has always been their loyal companion and at times facilitator of successful ventures like online classes and holding public examinations. But now with cutting-edge technologies like Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence it is possible to deliver targeted ed-tech services just like Learning Spiral is doing. Learning Spiral, a SaaS based Ed-Tech company, says, AI-based remote proctoring can change the course of student lifecycle for good. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Manish Mohta, Founder 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 and 40% of University staff hours. In spite of 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 designed assessments fail to judge learning outcomes and 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 based on SaaS model to digitally transform the student lifecycle: admission – academics – assessment.

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 major challenges the company has faced till 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 totally 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 we have seen many takers.

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 a period of 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 Siliconindia

 Notable and valuable feedback for the company by our clients

    1.CLIENT: Tamilnadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC )

Feedback:  The smooth management of Group IV exams for around 24 Lakh candidates 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)

Feedback: This is to certify that M/s Learning Spiral Pvt. Ltd. had successfully completed online admission-related processes for all courses from primary to PhD. level for our University. Their services & IT solutions pertaining to entrance examinations and regular examinations are good.

4.CLIENT: Banaras Hindu University (BHU)

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

 5.CLIENT: Hidayatullah National Law University

 Feedback:  The firm had satisfactorily carried out the required tasks pertaining to pre-examination and post-examination works.

5.How are disruptive technologies like IoT/Big Data analytics/AI/Machine Learning/Cloud Computing impacting today's innovation?

•  Big Data opportunities we help capture are as follows:
• Create and manage a standardized question bank
• Map curriculum, skills & learning outcomes to question items
• Capture assessment scores across modes
• Digital evaluation of physical answer scripts
• Formative assessments in online mode
• End Semester assessments through AI proctored online process
• Deployed blended learning environment with categorized content
• Capture engagement scores across curriculum / time / skills

6.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 have 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 evaluation such as computer-based tests, online tests with AI-enabled remote/live proctoring.

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 Recognition deployed for face and 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.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.Successfully managed two devices for 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 and 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.

8. 9.Which achievements are you most proud of today?

We have worked in this challenging domain for nearly a decade now. Today our

solutions power the student and examination life cycle of more than 30% of the Central

Universities in our country and we process more than 10 million assessments a year.

10. Brief us about the proactive Founder/CEO of the company and his/her contributions towards the company and the industry.

Me as the Founder and MD of Learning Spiral hold key roles of managing overall strategy, product design, service offerings and business development. I got featured amongst India's youngest entrepreneurs by Business World, my focus lies in promoting new business ideas focusing on the Indian youth and their interaction with our education systems. I graduated as an Industrial and Systems Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, and an alumni from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and have more than 10 years of varied entrepreneurial experience. I have also been featured amongst India's youngest entrepreneurs by Business World. He had been at the fore front of the launch of India's first student portal

www.buckleyourshoe.com which is a single point for applying online using a state of

the art online application engine www.ucanapply.com