The Higher Education Review

Today, the rise in the adoption of technology enabled teaching and training techniques are driving the e-learning market growth. Among these platforms, some are amplifying school students’ learning paradigms while others are guiding professionals and graduates to the path of better career opportunities. Bridging the gap between knowledge seekers and knowledge providers through real-time online learning programs is Dronalaya Educare Solutions. A versatile e-learning platform, Dronalaya Educare Solutions has a unique approach that connects preachers and learners. Established in 2016,the platform is the brainchild of Ripal Doshi, an engineer and MBA graduate with over 20 years of experience in the consulting space along with Bijal Doshi and Adhar Samria. A unique initiative in today’s competitive world of e-learning platforms, Dronalaya Educare is an accessible-to-all space that connects beginners with experts who can preach any skill right from courses for competitive examinations, career enhancements, languages, arts and music to even cooking.

"The current edu-tech dynamics has given rise to various e-learning ventures focusing on academics, certification courses or ones which are curriculum oriented. However, one of the biggest constraints is all of them are video-based learning, which has its limitations – it prevents interactive and doubt-solving discussions. People want to learn at their convenient spaces at convenient time but there are times when knowledge seekers lack knowledge providers, especially for non-academic courses. We, at Dronalaya take away all the constraints related to time, space, language and all the inertias and excuses which are not directly from learning. Our mission is to bring together individuals and organizations keen to upgrade their skills with experts and share their knowledge, regardless of geographical boundaries. With Dronalaya, we want to make education or learning available at a very reasonable cost by providing a platform on a mechanism that eliminates factors limiting the growth of an individual", speaks Ripal Doshi, Founder, Dronalaya Educare Solutions.

Addressing Solutions to Foremost Learning Problems
A market-place for knowledge seekers and providers, Dronalaya platform emphasizes that there is a knowledge seeker and a knowledge provider in each one of us and it requires the right

medium to demonstrate the capabilities. Dronalaya fulfills the skill-needs of every individual by creating an environment that allows a person to learn and/or teach on topics that do not require ‘formal teaching qualification’. For illustration, there are Knowledge Providers who teach management topics and use the same platform to learn Guitar, Sanskrit, and more at odd hours like 11 in the night or 5 in the morning! Dronalaya is an online real-time collaboration platform, more specifically a virtual classroom in which about 16 participants attend in an interactive mode for a single session or multiple sessions spanning over months and years. With the entire learning theme focused on ‘live’ learning, it allows knowledge seekers to learn at their own pace and at a convenient time.

"Dronalaya platform emphasizes that there is a knowledge seeker and a knowledge provider in each one of us and it requires the right medium to demonstrate the capabilities"

"As a young firm, our vision is to combine the global reach of the internet with the preferred ‘in-classroom’ style of learning from anywhere, anytime. Keeping up with this, we have built a full-fledged ‘learning’ platform with live audio-video capabilities, white-boards, private chat rooms for discussions. The site also manages the financials such as invoicing, payments and other statutory requirements which allow people to focus on their real expertise, giving them more time to teach and learn. The unique ‘Talk to Me’ feature helps learners across the globe interact with the trainer and suggest the scope and coverage of the course, even before booking the sessions. Evidently, we are not a conventional How-To platform, instead we are a Revolutionary Online ‘Real Time’ Learning Platform that combines modern technology with a traditional way of teaching", shares Ripal.

Today, even corporates and training organizations from across the country have begun using the innovative Dronalaya Educare platform to conduct their in-house training across locations and to upgrade skill-levels of their resources. Some of them have also been sourcing trainers and booking workshops for their employees.

Making Dronalaya a Knowledge Seeker’s Primary Choice
This platform has segregated the academic courses according to age groups. For the age group of 14-21, the platform caters to the needs of courses on competitive examinations like NEET, IIT JEE, while for the age group of 21-41, there are management topics like ‘How Do We Look at Project Management Better’ or ‘How Do We Look At Operations Management Better’. Furthermore, Dronalaya Educare Solutions promotes skill augmentation courses on

Industrial Management, HR, Finance, Marketing, Taxation, Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Chartered Accountancy, Journalism, IT, Aviation and Logistics. While making courses seeker-centric, Dronalaya also aims to ensure that learning is affordable through charity and corporate social responsibility across all age groups by facilitating funding assistance and subsidizing the cost of learning.

Benefits are widespread for corporate users, as they can avail of subscription services wherein the charges are based on actual hours used unlike other service-provider who charge a fixed amount irrespective of whether the services are used or not. "One of the advantages experienced by our corporate users is that the sessions can run for extended hours without disconnection or impact of bad network as Dronalaya operates on an extremely low bandwidth of 512 kbps. We also have a mobile application for iOS and Android which allows users to remain connected even while traveling," adds Ripal.

Almost two years since incorporation, Dronalaya Educare Solutions has enabled training programs for corporate clients even in smaller towns and districts like Vapi, Umargaon, Vasai and even in cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad. Participants from US, UK, Denmark, Canada have also benefited by connecting with Knowledge Providers in the areas of Dance, Music, Yoga, Acupressure. At present, Dronalaya is entirely dedicated to connecting more academic and non-academic content for knowledge seekers at affordable rates from proficient knowledge providers. The platform ensures that even people who really can’t afford education get sponsored learning openings from Dronalaya Educare Solutions. Most importantly, with Dronalaya Educare, Ripal wants to ensure that technology in education is being leveraged in the right way so that there is no chance for passionate knowledge seekers to miss out on any learning opportunities.

Ripal is ably supported in the initiatives by a team spread across Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Rajkot and has a backing of professional investors in the company.

Ripal Doshi, Founder & Managing Director
Ripal started his career as a consultant at A.F. Fergusson and gradually gained a reputation as a specialist in his field. He has worked in several other firms like Siemens Information Systems Ltd. before becoming the director at Phoenix Consultants and Pistis Consultancy Solution LLP. Ripal co-founded Aspire Infinite and is leading the way as the founder and managing director of Dronalaya Educare Solutions.