Edtech Startup Journey Story Fostering Critical Thinking

Zenius is one of the pioneers of the platform EdTech in Indonesia which until now still exists. This startup has always emphasized its ambition to revolutionize the way of learning in schools by instilling critical and logical thinking. So that students in the future will not become a generation of memorizers, but are able to implement this knowledge when facing problems in everyday life.

In carrying out this mission, Zenius continues to evolve to provide content and adapt it to the times. To explore this, #TuesdayStartup this week's edition (16/6) invited Zenius Sabda PS's Chief Education Officer as a speaker. He gives various insight starting from the experience of pioneering Zenius, an outlook on the industry, and plans for the future.

Early trip

Sabda said that he started Zenius in 2004, his operational funds were obtained from swiping his own credit card. There are no investors, for example from venture capitalists, who are interested in funding. The first business model taken is to make tutoring offline. There the business cycle in this realm is very clear.

There is a regular payment received in advance and he can directly teach students. He uses this income to recruit additional teachers and makes recordings when the teachers are not teaching. “We create content in the beginning and sell the CD. The internet hasn't come to mind at all," he said.

The following year, the team became more and more active in producing CDs containing discussion of questions. Even until 2008, the variety of CDs sold was getting more complete. Some are in the form of complete CD packages, so there is no need to buy units. In the same year they began to use the internet, but only limited to selling CDs.

“This is the moment historical On April 4 2008, we launched at the first exhibition in Jakarta and we website launch just to sell CDs."

First year selling online, Zenius claimed to have checked the profit. He was determined in the following year to develop Zenius' business independently online because there are still many Indonesian children who do not know Zenius, even though at that time internet access tended to be limited.

"Zenius can survive because we have elements, not only the important thing is to sell, but impact correct. When they buy content, it really makes them smart or not. As long as we deliver it can change the mindset, I think Zenius' lifespan can be guaranteed [longer].”

Innovation and drastic change during the pandemic

Sabda continued, pandemics and quarantines make business EdTech soaring high. This condition is also experienced by Zenius, and there are many lessons that can be learned from this incident. Usually, Zenius's traffic only increases in the evening when students start studying. But now it's crowded all day long, used not only by students, but also teachers and parents.

“There are many problems from us, but most [of their nature] nice to have. [For example] from the beginning of the school year, the number user we went up 12x. Server suddenly jump, which was only busy at night, suddenly from morning full. This is so problem because we have to fix the capacity, but so Opportunity because the enthusiasm was high.”

Apart from that, Zenius is also eliminating its services for free so that more and more Indonesian children are “addicted” to learning. Sabda said, actually this strategy has been sticking out since 2013. However, the supporting "facilities" (re: the presence of an application Gojek, etc.) does not yet exist, so now it has just been realized.

According to him, so far, many Zenius users have been affected by the way they are taught. As a result, their paradigm of learning changes, they become addicted. The impact has not been widely felt by non-users. "When his brain isupgrade, the more "addicted" to learning, right? That's our way."

The momentum of this pandemic, he continued, is proof that it is time for the world of education to hybrid. No longer relying on education in schools because information can now be obtained from anywhere. By staying at home, you can still be productive. All assessments can be done digitally.

However, Sabda also emphasized that it does not mean that there is no need for schools because humans must continue to socialize. He put the school as a place to discuss, brainstorming, debating, and other activities that require direct interaction offline.

"Setting Such activities are still more effective when carried out offline. But the source of knowledge can be obtained from anywhere.”

New service

Since operating almost 16 years ago, Zenius has only focused on school children from elementary to high school levels. Sabda revealed that his party is preparing non-academic content that functions to improve professional skills. "We will go there, which problem comes first is a matter of strategy."

He gave an example, training coding is one that is needed to improve skills. According to him, coding is a very helpful tool in honing critical thinking skills. coding not only to make the application, also to make the logic more honed. When to look for bugs, people need the scientific method, which can be helped through ability coding.

In terms of technology, Zenius is still preparing to use technology machine learning and artificial intelligence to help companies distribute content according to user profiles.