Former Dem’s new Thai app hopes to be ‘Netflix for education’

>>The creators of the StartDee online education app, a project spearheaded by former Democrat Party politician Parit “Itim” Wacharasindhu, hope to see it become a “Netflix of education” which provides quality and affordable educational content to Thai students.

“Our vision is to use technology to provide a supplementary learning platform that could complement study at schools, Mr Parit said at the StartDee Education Forum 2020 held yesterday.

He said additional learning opportunities outside the school system are dominated by established tutorial players whose services are too costly for most students. “We hope our service can help narrow the education gap through easy access, quality content and affordable prices,” Mr Parit said.

At present, the app offers content in seven subjects for students in Grades 4-12 with a subscription fee of 250-300 baht per month. The cost is 10-15 times cheaper than other education methods, he said, adding the platform embraces interactive content and gamification to appeal to Generation Z students.

“Our platform now has more than 2,000 video clips and 2,500 exercises for users to learn from. The app has also been downloaded on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store over 150,000 times since its launch in mid-May,” Mr Parit said.

To increase its user base even more, Mr Parit said the platform is developing artificial intelligence technology that will suggest content to match individual preferences.

“We also plan to create new content such as health literacy, financial literacy and digital literacy to improve the 21st century skills of Thai students,” he said.

Mr Parit said the app is partnering with mobile operator Advanced Info Service Plc to distribute SIM cards, known as ZEED SIMs, which give free data for use with the app.

The app has also received sponsorship from private companies who want to buy subscriptions to provide to students,” Mr Parit said.