Eduora: A 22 Year Old Attempts to Revamp 'LearningManagementSystems'

In India, one doesn’t generally hear about kids starting to code while yet in Grade 6 and coming up with a product of their own in their early twenties. Decoding the complex web of Learning Management Systems used by large schools, colleges and universities, 22 year old Nagarjun Palavalli wants to simplify and facilitate education.” These systems were designed to be used by IT professionals hired by colleges and not students and teachers - people who can derive the most value from it.” says Nagarjun.With Eduora, the aim is to bring all the important features of an LMS without its extra baggage and make a social network around it, enabling students and teachers to engage with ease.

Having won numerous competitions on the international front, and having a self-belief, Nagarjun felt the need to shake up the current education system. “I went to schools that used technology actively and I built a prototype for Eduora, a solution I wanted myself as a student and turned it into a business.” says Nagarjun about the idea. Along with Suraj Jaiswal, who also is fresh out of college, the compact team is working to improve the product with their feet on the throttle.

Initially codenamed ‘Classroom’, Eduora took its first leap when Nagarjun met Pallav Nadhani and Abhishek Rungta from Seeders Venture Capital at a conference. The first funding round was closed the very next day! The $25,000 seed round has been mainly used to pay for resources and servers.

“Our social network like structure allows us to build so many amazing things that traditional SaaS LMS systems simply cannot create” says Nagrajun excitedly. So what are the key features that Eduora banks on?

• Network
• Cloud
• Simplicity
• Communications

Built out of passion, money is not something which is at the very top on the priority list. Eduora is likely to be priced significantly lower than the current LMS systems which cost more than a whopping $50,000! This pricing advantage will definitely convince many institutes to give it a shot. The current beta which was launched over a month ago has about 700 users and close to 100 courses.

Nagarjun's views on the use of technology in education (especially in India):

Whatever the situation may be, education is what our future society depends on. Also, education technology is slowly gaining importance. It isn't as mature as in the West and students don't use technology for learning very often here in India. My firm belief is that its growth is inversely proportional to the cost of personal computers / smartphones. If we can get cheaper devices onto the hands of more students, we'll see a great improvement in this space. A typical computer lab environment isn't a feasible learning solution. We'll need devices that students can carry around everywhere. And I’d be playing a part to the best of my ability in making this happen.