As part of our endeavour to share some of the unique and compelling startup stories from the ecosystem, we spoke to Team Opendoor Education to understand more about their vision and the way forward. Open Door was initiated by two alumni of IIT Madras who wanted to improve the learning habits of children. It started off by teaching children at their learning centres in Bangalore and Pune with the method of questioning in 2013. It is being widely used across the education sector. Let’s read more!
Excerpts from our conversation with Team Opendoor Education:
First of all, please share the background behind choosing this name. Any specific reason?
The first thing we had done when we started the company was to establish our vision and the second thing was to name our company ‘Open Door’. We decided that our vision would be to help children become self-learners. To help children become self-learners, we wanted to help children develop habits of questioning and thinking repeatedly.
We need a name that explained our vision — not literally — but metaphorically. For sure, we did not want an ‘edu’ or ‘education’ or any word of the same family in our name. We also wanted a name that would sound positive, make everyone think slightly and will remain interesting for a long time. It’s been over five years, and we still love the name ‘Open Door’.
You are working with over 1 lakh students and 200 schools across India. What problems does your venture resolve? Tell us about your product?
We are unboxing the beauty of Math and Science concepts that are taught in schools and helping children explore the depths of concepts. This should not be confused with making the subjects fun and the concepts easy to learn. Oversimplification of concepts and the idea of making learning fun have placed the basic mathematics and science theories at the back burner.
We need to give students time to think and let them ask so-called weird questions, whose answers are not simple, and then in the process learn about it.
Currently, we have two products, ‘Mastery Assessments’ and ‘Thinking Classrooms’ for grades 3 to 10. ‘Mastery Assessments’ helps teachers use a series of thought-provoking questions to take corrective action before moving on to the next topic and make sure that students master every difficult topic taught in the class. This program allows students and teachers a second chance to demonstrate success, thereby keeping both teachers and students naturally motivated to show an improvement in learning.
Every statement that we make as a teacher in a class is the answer to a question that we do not ask. For example – ‘If we did not eat fruits, we would fall ill regularly’ is the answer to the question ‘What if we did not eat fruits for a year?’. ‘Thinking Classrooms’ replaces our declarative statements with questions in our classrooms. Thinking Classrooms is a set of interesting discussions and questions that blend easily with the teaching.
Do you believe that creativity and today’s educational practices don’t go hand in hand? What makes creative people different?
A lot of people think that creative people are a completely different breed and that they think of only fresh ideas. But, research shows otherwise. Research shows that anyone can be creative. Anyone who can think of several ideas and different approaches to solve a problem is a creative person. What makes creative people different is that they evaluate each idea and modify them repeatedly. And the more this skill is honed, the more creative we become.
Creativity is most easily developed at a young age, in the years that we spend in schools. Students can develop questioning skills and creativity while learning many concepts in schools. What is the purpose of teaching ‘Algebra’? To learn Algebra? Not really. Children develop strong problem-solving a growth mindset through the study of Mathematics. What’s the use of studying about ‘Light’ for most people? Not much. But the study of science develops questioning skills and metacognition. The study of Mathematics and Science (and this is true for aspects of other subjects as well) is an opportunity for educators to not just teach about the content but also to develop skills that make anyone creative.
The many years that we spend in schools is a wonderful opportunity to develop creativity in children. However, in most of the schools, we limit concepts like Light to some paragraphs and diagrams. By allowing children to accept information as it is and not making them explore the concept from different angles, we inhibit the creativity of the students.
Share the idea or story behind the venture. How did it come to existence? What motivated you to start your venture?
We began by starting up learning centres, one each, in Pune and Bengaluru, where we taught children in small groups after school hours, mainly by questioning them. We realized that by questioning children repeatedly and letting them understand on their own, they develop the habits of critical thinking and self-learning. This idea was accepted by many parents, but we eventually realised that it was not very scalable.
In late 2013, a school in Pune approached us and gave us the freedom to implement any innovative idea in their school. This provided us with an opportunity to experiment and think of a way to make a change to the school system. Since students spend a lot of their time in schools, we knew that if we wanted to change the learning habits of students, we had to enter the school system. We spent a few months thinking and developed the Mastery Assessments Program for the school. This program is currently loved by 200+ schools.
Would you say the Open Door is something out of the box?
Open Door is the most disruptive and innovative start-up in the country. While all other companies are making incremental changes to the education system, Open Door is trying to transform the education system. While all other companies are trying to achieve short term goals such as to make a subject interesting or help children learn a particular subject better, Open Door is trying to make children lifelong learners. While most other companies are looking for funding, Open Door is focused on building a self-sustained company.
Even in the school system, Open Door is the only company that:
It does not solely focus on students or teachers. While it improves students, it also makes sure that teachers improve on important skills such as question design, critical reading and concept appreciation.
Shows clear data on improvement in student learning to the school management throughout the year.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, Stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
