Ajay Kumar, Founder, and CEO, Cognigix Digital Learning
During the last two decades, Ajay has closely witnessed the learning industry evolve and adopt changes.
Podcast
Overview
Gone are the days when we used to go to learn to a certain place authorized for learning, now the learning has come to us. The traditional approach of teaching and learning has taken a 360-degree turn, especially after the pandemic hit the country. Even before the introduction of COVID-19, the education system was going through a few changes. Today, we are delighted to introduce Mr. Ajay Kumar, who is one of the adapters and supporters of this change.
Ajay Kumar is the Founder and CEO of Cognigix Private Limited. He is a trustee with Drishyashakti Charitable Trust. He is also a recipient of an award from the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in recognition of his contribution to building police capability.
After being associated with learning space for some days, Ajay felt that the education industry is going through a change. He saw education to be moving rapidly towards digital learning. In 2018, he founded Cognigix, to support that change. Ajay feels blessed to have a good set of people that joined him in this project and helped him all his way. Ajay tells us that he and the others have come together to use their experiences and connect education to technology and make something that might impact the learning behavior. Cognigix is now expanding its boundaries to other countries as well.
Target Audience
Ajay claims to have four classes of audience in view, they are; the education system, the professional training, the publisher, and the non-profit class.
Ajay suggests that school education, bifurcated into primary and secondary, and higher education have a huge requirement of technology-based learning today. By professional training, he means corporate coaching. He also believes that there are just a few individuals that prefer the traditional way of reading the hard copies of books; a huge population is moving towards e-books. By including e-books in their program, they are targeting published learner classes as their audience. Last, he is also working for those in need without the motive of earning profit.
Use of technology in transforming education
Ajay details us about how technology has transformed learning. In his opinion, technology is making learning accessible to everyone. He recalls how they used to go to the library at a defined time to learn, and how they used to go to the classroom to learn. Now the learning has come to us, that too, at the time and place we are comfortable in. He suggests that people who need to travel for more than an hour on one side daily can use that time to learn because of technology. So, according to him, technology has made learning accessible anytime, anywhere, and at any device. Secondly, technology has allowed us to convert the content in an easily understandable manner with the help of tools like augmented reality, graphics, virtual reality and other devices. He adds that the lower cost of this conversion is also something we should thank technology for. There are a lot of tools present that are allowing content to be converted digitally in an engaging and interactive manner very easily. Due to this lower cost of conversion, the digital content is accessible to everyone who can or cannot afford expensive education.
Changing cost of education
Ajay mentions that the cost of education has dropped down to almost nothing. If you want to learn you have all that it takes at no cost. To give us an idea, he tells us that his teacher taught him about the famous theory of ‘Michael Porter’s five forces, now, we have Micheal Porter himself on youtube sharing for free, what the five forces are and how he came up with this theory. He adds that if you need certificates and degrees, you can opt for distance and digital learning and obtain the same degree paying lesser fees.
Learner-centric learning architecture and changes in the pattern of education
Ajay tells us that earlier, the education used to revolve around the content to be taught, now the center has been shifted to the learners. Now the learners do not adjust themselves to the content, it is the content that is being adjusted according to the learners. To illustrate, he says that if he is teaching small kids about the solar system, he would include more music and voice-over, he might not use real pictures from space and he would focus on making it more colorful and beautiful. On the other hand, if he is teaching middle schoolers about the solar system, he would add real pictures from the galaxy and allow them to explore, and if he is teaching the same topic to corporate people, content would be less applicable would be more. It will convert to scenario-based learning. Giving different treatment to the same content while focusing on behavior changes through learning is what he calls learning architecture.
Drishyashakti Charitable Trust
Talking about Drishyashkti Charitable Trust, he says that it works towards building the capability of differently-abled people. He believes that they all are immensely talented and only their true potential needs to be discovered. To give us an idea, he tells us that he has seen mentally challenged kids, who can’t even tell their full names, singing the whole song without missing any syllable or beat. Drishyahskti focuses on bringing out their artistic skills, trains them, and makes them put to use by giving them the platform to showcase their talent.
Profile
Ajay is a learning professional and an entrepreneur. During the last two decades, Ajay has closely witnessed the learning industry evolve and adopt changes. He actively participated in it through his engagements with over one hundred organizations from across the industries – earlier as the Director of Par Excellence and currently, as the Founder & CEO of Cognigix. Ajay is passionate about exploring ways in which technology can impact the space of learning and the immense potential it has to transform the way masses learn today. He has been driving innovations in eLearning, content digitization, and learning platforms to make organizations digitally future-ready. One of Ajay’s significant achievements has been the introduction of digital learning and cutting-edge courses in Law Enforcement Agencies. He received an award from the CM of Maharashtra in recognition of his contribution to police capability building in the state. Other than technology and learning, Ajay is associated with the cause of differently-abled people. As a Trustee of Drzyashakti Charitable Trust, he along with the team has driven several initiatives towards inclusivity, capacity building, and creating opportunities for differently-abled talents.
