[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Spark Studio (YC S21) - Live online extra...
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Launch HN: Spark Studio (YC S21) - Live online extracurricular
courses for kids
Hi HN, we're Spark Studio (https://www.sparkstudio.co/) and we
provide live, online extracurricular classes for children across
the world, starting in India and the Middle East. Children can
learn music, visual arts and communication skills through our live
online classes in small groups with expert teachers. We're based
in India. All the attention here tends to go to academic learning
and grades, but a large part of development (brain and personality)
actually happens outside it. Parents have started to desire
extracurricular and holistic learning for their children, but
access, quality, and convenience remain big unsolved problems. Most
people end up having to choose among neighbourhood options. There
is no standard curriculum, and definitely none designed for kids,
so these classes tend to end up just being a pastime and/or kids
become disinterested. Kaustubh, Namita and Jyothika have built
Product and Curriculum at India's leading ed-tech companies (BYJU'S
and Lead School) and have over 20 years of experience in education.
Anushree has a consumer tech background and is an artist. We all
felt the itch to work on extracurricular learning because it's so
poorly served. We're building a full-stack model. We design the
learning experience end-to-end--the curriculum, lesson plans for
each class, video content and tech. We train teachers (who are gig
workers) to deliver this in small-group live classes. We ensure
classes are interactive and each child gets personal attention.
This sets it apart from the available online options such as
YouTube for kids. We are also able to drive learning outcomes such
as improved confidence, or understanding of the technical aspects
of photography for example, beyond just engaging kids with
something fun. Parents are happy when their child is having a good
time, doesn't need active involvement from parents (at least for a
little while), and is learning at the same time! One interesting
challenge here is that the customer (parent) is different from the
user (child), and managing the experience across both needs careful
thinking. Nudges and engagement points have to be built differently
for each. For example, parent communication is largely outside the
live class, and we're building "showcase" properties for them to
see and feel pride in their child's achievement. But for children,
we need to build most things in the class experience itself, even
taking their feedback. Another very interesting insight has been
that Children do not want to be treated like children! We've had
children tell us that the teacher spoke to them as if they were
children, and they didn't like it. So our teachers are trained not
to oversimplify or spoon feed the kids; something that is
appreciated by both the children and their parents, and we've seen
children grasp more complex concepts when they're given a chance
to. We sell courses that are typically 12-15 sessions in duration.
We are currently using Zoom to deliver these. We will soon have our
own live class environment built on top of a third party video
calling solution. And we're building our own Learning Management
System. We'd love for you to give us your thoughts and feedback on
teaching extracurriculars or insights into our target audience.
We're live in India and the Middle East right now, so if you're a
parent to a child between the ages of 5 and 15, do come by
https://www.sparkstudio.co and check out our 15 courses! We also do
a free trial class.
Author : anushreegoenka
Score : 30 points
Date : 2021-07-24 05:09 UTC (17 hours ago)
| ryloric wrote:
| > We train teachers (who are gig workers) to deliver this in
| small-group live classes
|
| Isn't this what WhiteHatJr is doing too? This sounds like a
| horrible idea.
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| Our teachers are performers, experts or teachers who engage
| kids in meaningful class activities that stress on children
| building / creating in class. For e.g. our Western Vocals is
| taught by an actual singer. A lot of good teachers are looking
| to supplement their income since the pandemic has made learning
| online, and we vet, train and enable them to teach our
| curriculum. That's what we referred to as gig-workers.
| anushreegoenka wrote:
| They work on a flexible employment arrangement with us (earning
| by number of classes they do with us), but with totally the
| right type of skills and experience. We have a fairly strict
| selection process, and our teachers are typically much better
| than what children have access to in their neighbourhoods. Also
| class ratings are very high, averaging 4.5 on 5, so students /
| parents are also seeing the quality.
|
| We're also paying our teachers about 2.7-3 X what WHJ does, and
| that's what it takes to get good teachers.
| endisneigh wrote:
| Congrats on the launch!
|
| Question about pricing. I picked a random course (guitar) and it
| said it was $15 for a course with a ratio of 1:6 for 60 minutes.
| So from the kid's perspective their parent is paying $15 for 10
| minutes (assuming 1 on 1 time is distributed equally). This gives
| us a 1 on 1 time hourly rate of $90 / hour. In NYC a high quality
| piano teacher (for example) is $100 an hour for 1:1. An average
| can be had as cheaply as $50.
|
| Can you explain how the value-add is higher here compared to my
| example? Seems pretty expensive IMHO.
|
| There was actually another startup introduced today in the other
| thread that did something similar for therapy, but in that case
| it was actually slightly cheaper than therapy with insurance,
| albeit their therapists weren't as qualified and the group sizes
| were larger.
|
| I'd either increase the group size and decrease the price or
| demonstrate on your site that it's worth more than in an person
| experience somehow.
|
| Edit: oh not all the classes are the same ratio. Most seem to be
| 1:6 so I'll leave my comment as is. Guitar specifically is 1:3
| namanyayg wrote:
| (Not affiliated) I think you misread -- it says Guitar
| Intermediate for $7 for 60 minutes at 1:3 ratio.
|
| I was paying $7 for 60 minutes 1:1 some 10y ago so it seems
| fair enough.
|
| Of course tho they're pricing it higher than what local Indian
| teachers would charge; I think they can get away with that due
| to the affluent target audience.
| endisneigh wrote:
| Ah yeah you're right - I clicked a few and saw that the price
| per session and ratios were the same. Didn't realize that
| some had smaller ratios. Though I'd say my feedback is still
| the same.
|
| I'd be interested in seeing a recording of how it works from
| the kids point of view (only seeing the instructor).
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| Music ratios are being experimented on. Smaller classes
| here definitely work better. But for debate or public
| speaking or event photography, kids are learning a lot from
| (and teaching) one another.
| mherrmann wrote:
| Not affiliated with the product but you are discounting the
| value of the remaining 50 minutes to zero.
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| Right. The fact is that kids learn a lot from being in a
| class with our kids as well. Music is a format we're still
| experimenting with ratios, but our communications courses
| benefit from there being more kids in a class.
| anushreegoenka wrote:
| For instruments, we keep class sizes to smaller ratios (upto
| 3). The class time isn't just divided across each student to
| get 20 mins of learning per student (in a 1 hour class of 3
| kids). It would equate closer to 40 mins of learning time (with
| about 20 mins of time when other children are playing and one
| is only watching, instead of practicing by themselves.
| Instruments are a very different case, a lot of practice also
| needs to be done by the students themselves, and we enable that
| with supporting recordings and instructions. In other courses
| such as art or debate etc., the entire 60 mins is learning for
| the student, and the group actually adds to the learning
| experience.
|
| But fair point that consumers may perceive it in this way, and
| we can improve our communication around it. Thanks for pointing
| out!
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| The ratios really depend on the course. In our debate classes,
| having more kids = more points of views / approaches. Kids
| benefit exponentially from exposure to other kids. That being
| said, we're working on finding the right ratios for all our
| courses.
| achow wrote:
| "Course Fee: 180 (15/class)"
|
| Is it in $ or Rs.? If former, why not mention it?
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| Is the currency not visible? Checking it.
| achow wrote:
| This is what I see: https://ibb.co/s9sNrdV
|
| (image link would auto delete after a week)
| kaustubhkhade wrote:
| Thanks a bunch. I'm looking into it.
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(page generated 2021-07-24 23:02 UTC)