With coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, a huge space for digital education has been created.
One example of people’s growing interest in digital education is how Mind Wars, a multi-platform knowledge programme, received a massive increase of 1,400 schools during the first six weeks of lockdown.
Within a year of its inception, the platform has received a participation of 7,000 plus schools across India, making it one of the largest school outreach programs in the country.
The brand has even started a slew of initiatives in this pandemic to increase alertness among its users. Umesh Kr Bansal, Senior Vice President – MD & CEO Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, tells us more. Excerpts:
Genesis of Mind Wars and how it works
“Mind Wars was launched in April 2019 with an aim to create India’s largest knowledge database for school kids. It gamifies knowledge by combining current affairs, GK and curriculum with the playful element. The ultimate aim is to make kids smarter in a fun, entertaining manner by reaching out to digitally active audiences.”
Pandemic: A catalyst for digital education for kids
“The initial phase of the lockdown was difficult for schools, teachers and students. As everyone started to understand and use technology, we started seeing increased acceptance for a digital product that complements the efforts being put in by the teachers and parents in ensuring that learning continues. I believe that a medium, digital in this case, once understood and accepted will continue to retain the user mindshare even after we are past the necessity. There are a lot of cases where teachers or parents have discovered how the digital channel can be used productively and positively, without being fearful of addiction or other effects on impressionable kids.”.
Participation
“Mind Wars is integrated on the Zee5 platform and can be accessed through its ‘Kids’ section. Parents can register on the app for free and enroll up to two children by filling pertinent details. You can also join us on social media pages, both Facebook and Instagram, where we continuously put out content and run quizzes.”.
Initiatives since the outbreak of the COVID-19
“We started by putting out a quiz on COVID-19 with the aim of increasing awareness about the disease. Thereafter, we increased our presence on social media by starting a daily live quiz on FB and Insta for audiences to have intellectually stimulating fun while at home. The daily quizzes are open to all. We have a topic-based quiz on weekdays and on weekends state specific quizzes, where we pit one state against the rest of India. Interestingly, in April 2020, we got the maximum engagement on our quiz on Ramayana, and it beat our preconceived notion that kids of today are not aware of Indian mythology.”.
Future plans
“Our aim is to reach maximum students. We are translating our content into seven major Indian regional languages, so all our content will be available to the vernacular audiences as well. We will continue to scale our presence on social media and will soon start a quiz channel on YouTube. The content expansion will continue, covering more age groups as we grow.”