Zhejiang students to benefit from new learning tools
Xiaoyuansouti, a subsidiary of online education startup Yuanfudao, has announced it will donate its test question search tools to schools in Yongkang in eastern Zhejiang province, as part of its broader efforts to use technology to advance local education.
The first five machines will be set up at Zhejiang Yongkang Second High School. The rest will be available for students from over 20 primary, middle and high schools in Yongkang.
Students can use the machines to scan questions from their test papers to learn how to work out the answers. Within seconds, the artificial intelligence-powered machine can offer answers and analysis, as well as video explanations for frequently asked questions.
“The launch of the machine makes sense, as students can look up answers to more basic questions after class, leaving more time to examine more difficult questions in class, which improves both teaching and learning efficiency,” said Li Bing, one of the developers of the machine and a teacher from Zhejiang Yongkang Second High School.
Li said students are often too shy to seek help from their teachers and classmates, and teachers have limited time and energy to answer questions from every student.
Launched in 2014, the Xiaoyuansouti app helps to answer 6.3 million questions from students every day.
Its parent company, Yuanfudao, has a total of five apps: Xiaoyuansouti, Yuantiku, Yuanfudao, Zebra English and Xiaoyuankousuan. Most focus on helping students search for answers to test questions. The apps have attracted 200 million users across China,
use a Xiaoyuansouti intelligent searching and answering machine at a high school in Yongkang, Zhejiang province.
according to the company.
Backed by its technologies, the startup is promoting highquality resources in cities across China, especially remote areas.
During summer this year, Xiaoyuansouti cooperated with the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to create three online physics classes taught by famous scientists from the CAS.
Among the 185,000 students who took the classes, more than 15,000 were from remote and impoverished areas in the Tibet autonomous region, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Qinghai province.
In addition to physics, the company has launched an array of online classes with renowned teachers for students across China.
In July last year, it invited Bai Xianyong, a well-known writer, to teach online classes on the Chinese classic The Dream of Red Mansions, which attracted 100,000 students in a single day.
“Online education can traverse time and space, and is an ideal way to promote highquality resources in remote places across China,” said Huang Minhui, director of the brand public relations department at Yuanfudao.
She said teachers and technologies are concentrated in major Chinese cities, while students from third and fourth-tier cities find it hard to access highquality education resources.
The online education company, as China’s first education unicorn, Yuanfudao raised $120 million in its latest round of financing from Warburg Pincus and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
“As an education technology company, we will continue to do related charity work to fill the educational resources gap between different areas through advanced technologies,” Huang said.