Research starts from here for Co-Learn app

Starting the research with 5W 1H Process-

Our main focus was to identify the root problem first, for that we did brainstorm through 5W 1H Process-

Who: Students, professionals, or anyone seeking help & their desire to learn & interact with other peers effectively & efficiently to share knowledge/ask doubts.

What is the problem: When upskilling/preparing for competitive exams & due to abundance of online materials, that leads to demotivation, low level of focus and productivity in students & professionals, as they're not able to find & communicate with the right peers.

When the problem arise: When a peers starts preparing for a competitive exams/upskilling and he/she gets confused like from where to start and from whom to get help.

Where: When they start finding out peers in other apps/social media, they actually waste more time in it, because they don't get the right peers according to their needs and preferences.

How should we solve the problem: By creating a platform where peers feel safe, able to connect with other peers without wasting any time & energy, encourage participation & to be able to share knowledge/discuss and ask doubts, and stay motivated, focused, can discuss with peers about upskilling/competitive exams.

Secondary Research

Desk Research:

Desk Research-

To Understand about at what age students starts preparing for competitive exams or even upskilling.

Googled Questions-

1) At what right age does students start preparing for competitive exams

2) Articles on what is the age of students when they starts preparing for competitive age or start to upskill in India .

3) What is the age of students when they starts preparing for competitive age or start to upskill in India?

4) what are the major problems students have while preparing for competitive exams?

Insights-

Summary:

  • The ideal time to start preparing for competitive exams is in high school.

  • Once in classes 11 and 12, students can start practicing for specific exams.

  • The ideal age to begin preparing for the UPSC exam is 18.

  • Students can begin preparing for the JEE in earnest when they enter class 11.

Summary:

  • The ideal time to start preparing for competitive exams is in high school.

  • Once in classes 11 and 12, students can start practicing for specific exams.

  • The ideal age to begin preparing for the UPSC exam is 18.

  • Students can begin preparing for the JEE in earnest when they enter class 11.

Summary:

  • The ideal time to start preparing for competitive exams is in high school.

  • Once in classes 11 and 12, students can start practicing for specific exams.

  • The ideal age to begin preparing for the UPSC exam is 18.

  • Students can begin preparing for the JEE in earnest when they enter class 11.

Desk Research:

Desk Research-

To Understand about what are the major problems students face while preparing for competitive exams and why & how peers can be helpful for them?

Googled Questions-

1) What are the major problems students have while preparing for competitive exams?

Summary-

  • How to start, Every subsequent attempt requires revising the same syllabus, which gets tedious and boring.

  • Loved ones sometimes adding pressure unknowingly (career, relationships, exams!). Talk to supportive folks for focused advice to stay calm and study-focused

  • Students appearing for competitive exams in India face pressure from parents, media, and themselves. This pressure can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicidal thoughts.

Googled Questions-

1) How & Why Peers can be helpful while preparing for competitive exams/upskilling?

2) How peers can make you more efficient while preparing for competitive exams/upskilling?

Summary-

  • Students can learn from each other's coping mechanisms and strategies for dealing with exam pressure and those seniors who have already been through exams can provide valuable advice and support. Talking to peers can help students sort through their emotions and gain perspective, reducing feelings of isolation and anxiety.

  • Friends helps in maintaining a balance- They can help you take breaks and prioritize activities that ensure good physical and mental health, leading to better focus.

  • Support system during stress- They can be your sounding board during stressful times, offering a listening ear and encouragement. This emotional support helps you bounce back from setbacks.

  • Mutual Support and Accountability: A study buddy can motivate you to stay on track, and you can do the same for them. This creates a system of accountability that helps both parties achieve academic success.

  • Peer-to-peer learning is a collaborative teaching approach where students learn from each other. This can lead to improved learning outcomes, increased engagement, and enhanced soft skills development.

So after 4hours+ extensive desk research, we finally found that our target audience comes under this age bracket: 18-30 years (who are upskilling while still being in school or have started preparing for competitive exams, like- JEE, UPSC, etc) and their problems while preparing for competitive exams & how peers can be helpful for them as well.

Competitive Analysis

As we had got the idea from secondary desk research, now we wanted to see if any app is actually helping users to connect with peers (so that they can discuss, connect, help each other).

I searched for keywords like this- study buddy, peer learnings or peer-to-peer learning apps and then analyzed 5+ apps from google play store (their onboarding, apps features, and how they are helping peers in what ways or if not then how actually we can do it more better to improve the overall experience as well as give peers what they want.

Apps names are- Flipd, Quizlet, Buddysco, Brainly, Hellotalk and StudyStream

Insights from Competitive Analysis

After analyzing 5+ apps I discovered that these apps actually don't align at all with the Study Buddy or Peer-to-peer learning, How?

I will brief points over here-

• Only 1 app had focus timer, means a helpful feature while studying alone or with someone that feature helps a lot to be focused all time

• 1 App even followed them to fill a form to find peers, that is just not a good experience to keep them awaiting untill when you don't know that.

• Hellotalk is only aligned with learning languages together and that's it.

• In Quizzlet, there is no option at all to talk peers or ask doubts like that, feels like a school class.
More or less every other website which I analyzed through web or app they don't work like that way as it was supposed to according to what they stated as peer-to-peer learning.

So Now, After analyzing apps I understood I've to talk to my target audience as well to understand their main problem when they are preparing for competitive exams/upskilling.

Primary Research

Main Goal-

To understand the real pain points of my target audience, for that I did Preliminary Qualitative Test in which I've had 9 Questions.

Here are the Questions-

Insights from the Interview

After Getting Insights, I worked on affinity mapping to look for patterns and sort those insights into themes.

After Getting Insights,
I worked on affinity mapping to look for patterns and sort those insights into themes.

Affinity mapping helped us to sort user data into clear groups and themes, making it easier to build focused user personas for Co-Learn.

For a better picture, we put our problem statement and some insights from research as an Input in a website, we got the clear picture of Value Proposition of Co-Learn.

And with every research findings and leveraging Bard (Google AI) , we came to the main point that- User On-boarding has be to be streamlined, because of that only peers can get recommendations of peer according to their learning goals and preferences, because that's gonna be the first main problem for the peers to find other peers.