UpGrad aims to increase student discussions on its online learning platform. It currently uses a discussion forum, but students prefer more interactive options like real-time chat. Based on user interviews, proposed new features include a chat feature for 1-on-1 and group messaging, the ability to ask questions of selective classmates privately, and an option to schedule online meetings with other students directly in the app. These changes aim to make discussions more personal and spontaneous to better engage students.

1. INDUSTRY PROJECT - UPGRAD
Tushar Sharma | tusharmps@gmail.com
Piyush Dudeja | piyushdudeja@outlook.com
UpGrad would like to increase discussions among the students of a
cohort in a program on their learning platform while they are going
through content.
Problem Statement
Student Names:
Product Management Program

2. Competition Analysis
Competitors
Direct Competitors In-Direct Competitors
Simplilearn Class-Room Coaching Institutes
Coursera Free YouTube videos
History
UpGrad
• Started in November 2015, by industry veteran Ronnie Screwvala in
collaboration with Mayank Kumar, UpGrad aims to provide online higher
education while providing industry relevant experience.
• The USP of UpGrad is that it’s programs are developed and delivered in
collaboration with the industry experts.
• UpGrad is still in a very nascent stage with just 5 streams of courses to
offer i.e. PG in Digital Marketing and communication, certification course
in Product Management, PG Diploma in Data Analytics and
Entrepreneurship Certification program and PG diploma in software
development.
Simplilearn
• Simplilearn is one of the more established players in the industry.
Founded in year 2009, the platform has trained more than 500,000
professionals till now and provides over 400 courses.
• It is founded by Krishna Kumar who started Simplilearn after his firm
TechUnified got acquired ORG informatics in the year 2007.
• Simplilearn had a very humble beginning and started off as a project
management blog.
Coursera
• Started in the year 2012 by two Stanford professors- Andew Ng and
Daphne Koller
• It offers more than 2000 courses with each course lasting somewhere 4
to 10 weeks
Target Market & Employee Strength
UpGrad • The target market for UpGrad is comparable to that of Simplilearn.
• UpGrad is targeting mostly working individuals between the age of 23-45
who are looking to upgrade their skills through online learning.
• UpGrad’s fees is higher as compared other similar online teaching
platforms so they are again primarily targeting individuals from Tier I and
Tier 2 cities.
Employees: 150 +
Simplilearn
• Simplilearn has a straight forward target market as compared to
Coursera.
• Simplilearn target market consists of individuals somewhere between the
age of 23-45, from the metros, consisting of a mix of young professionals,
middle managers and individuals who want to rejoin the workforce –

3. including women who have been on maternity leaves or breaks.
Employees: 1600 +
Coursera Coursera’s target market can be broadly into two categories:
• Content Providers It consists of: University Partners – Universities
that collaborate with Coursera to develop courses Company Partners
– Companies that work with Coursera’s partner universities to
produce online courses.
• Learners – This comprise of: Paying Individual learners – User who
opt for paid courses on Coursera Non Paying Individual learners –
Users who opt for free courses Institutional customers – Institutions
who collaborate with Coursera to offer courses to their staff
Employees: 1700 +
Mission
UpGrad
To provide opportunities to individuals to advance their professional journey
through rigorous online programs that offer personalized support, developed in
collaboration with best in class faculty and industry professionals.
Simplilearn Simplilearn mission is to help professionals around the world acquire the skills
they need to succeed in today’s digital economy
Coursera To provide universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top
universities and organizations to offer courses online.
Finances
UpGrad • Founders have cumulatively invested around $ 16 million into the startup
• UpGrad has begun discussions with potential investors to raise about $40
million (Rs 266.11 crore) which will be its first round of external funding.
Simplilearn
• Simplilearn has been able to raise $31 million till now in 4 rounds of
funding. It’s last round of Series D funding came in Sept 2016 when it
raised around $3 million
Coursera • Coursera has been able to raise $210 million till now in 8 rounds of
funding through 13 investors. It’s last round of Series D funding came in
Jan 2017 when it raised around $64 million. This gives Coursera a huge
advantage over its competitor’s as such massive amount of funding can
help to improve and expand faster than its competitors.
Product & Revenue Analysis
UpGrad
UpGrad currently offers 9 courses under 5 streams:
1. Data Sciences
2. Marketing and management
3.Product Management
4.Entrepeneurship
5.Technology

4. The course fee ranges from Rs. 32500 to Rs.285000(excluding taxes).
As these are high-end courses and require significant investment from student both
in time and money, UpGrad’s strategy revolves around building a brand through
student success stories & tying up with deemed universities like MICA, IIM Bangalore,
SPJIMR etc.
UpGrad’s estimated annual revenue is $1.2 M
Simplilearn
Simplilearn offers over 400 courses under 13 course categories.
With 400 training courses designed and updated by world-class industry experts,
Simplilearn blended learning approach combines self-paced online courses and
instructor-led live virtual classroom training, applied learning projects, and 24/7
teaching assistance.
The pricing of the course ranges from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 1 Lac
Companies can also choose for Corporate trainings from Simplilearn, prices of which
have not been disclosed.
Simplilearn estimated annual revenue is $48.3 M
Coursera
Coursera develops its courses in collaboration with the top universities across the
world. It currently offers more than 2000 courses. Also, recently Coursera started
something called Global Skills initiative where it plans to rope in some really well-
known companies to collaborate with the universities and produce online courses
together.
Different streams of Coursera courses:
Certification Courses: These courses include recorded video lectures, auto-graded
and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums. When a user
completes a course, he/she receive a sharable electronic Course Certificate.
Price: $29-$99
Duration: 4-6 weeks
Specializations: These require users to tackle hands-on projects based on real
business challenges and allows them to earn a Specialization Certificate that they can
share with their professional network and potential employers.
Price: $39-79
Duration: 4-6 months
Online Degree: Developed in collaboration with university partners, degrees offer
flexible, affordable online degree programs in business, computer science, and data
science. After successful completion, user is awarded an accredited Master’s degree.
Price: $15 - $25,000
Duration: 1-3 Years
Apart from this, Coursera also provides options to Companies to pick a plan and help
their team to learn from the various course options that Coursera has to offer. These
plans range from $100 USD per person (allows each person to take one course) to
$400 USD per person (where each person can choose from 6 courses)

5. Strengths & Weakness Analysis
UpGrad
Strengths:
• The company provides academic and hands-on support for all its
students by providing them with live projects, case studies, group
assignments, access to live lectures, mentorship programs and
interactive content team.
• Ronnie Screwvala as the co-founder provides thrust to UpGrad’s brand
value
• Extremely high course completion rate of 90-95% in the industry where
average course completion rate of MOOCs is less than 7% Content
developed and delivered in collaboration with industry leaders
• Strong offline experience provided to the students - including
workshops, meetups, webinars etc. One of the very few companies in
the online ed tech sector to offer placement assistance to its students
Weakness
• High investment required from working professionals in terms of time
and money
• Very few courses to offer currently
• Still lags in terms of brand value of its certification program compared to
established players like coursera and simplilearn
Opportunity
• Opportunity to diversify and add more courses
• Opportunity to add more specialized courses that will lure more working
professionals/students to enroll
Threat:
• UpGrad’s courses start from Rs. 32500 and go up to Rs. 2,85,000 and it
is a major threat since many MOOCs offer the course for free
• Generic courses like entrepreneurship, Digital Marketing suffer heavy
threat from competitors due to more established brand names & also
due to large no. of alternatives available
• Organizations with heavy financial backing, more course offering and a
wider reach already in the market.
Simplilearn
Strengths:
• Industry-leading course completion rate of 72%
• Global network of renowned industry experts creating the courses.
Professional certification offered by Simplilearn like: Project
Management Professional, Cisco Certified Network Associate. It is a
niche market and has no distinct leader in the online space
• One of the very few Edtech companies to provide placement assistance
Weaknesses:
• Less no. of specialized courses & a wide variety of generic courses
• Major concentration on IT courses

6. Opportunity
• Opportunity to add new courses diversify into new sectors like retail,
pharma, hospitality etc.
• First mover advantage in the online EDtech & placement assistance
services in many countries. Needs to focus aggressively on more
corporate tie-ups Opportunity to explore markets other than US and
India
Threat
• Threat from established players with greater reach like Coursera and
Udemy
• Threat from a large no. of companies offering the same generic courses
at a lower price
Coursera
Strengths:
• High Brand Reputation
• High funding from Venture Capitalists and working monetization
channels
• High Certificate recognition across the industry
• One of the highest number of courses to offer
• Access to the best technology in the field
• Team consists of visionary leaders who have high level of expertise in
their respective areas
Weakness
• Low revenue orientation – All the courses offered on the platform can
be taken for free with a certificate cost of $40-110
• Low course completion rate as compared to Simplilearn and UpGrad
Opportunity
• Coursera has the opportunity to reach out globally for partners and
customers, with a moderately successful model in place
• Large no. of free courses gives a great competitive edge to Coursera to
gain market share in new markets before it’s competitors
Threat
• Since MOOC is still in nascent stage, many companies still don’t
acknowledge the certificates that Coursera publishes
Feature Analysis (User Engagement)
UpGrad • Has a forum where a user can post queries and carry out a
discussion.
• Forums are moderated by TAs 1-1 chat feature not available on the
platform
• UpGrad has a 'Q&A' section for a particular session. This is a unique
feature that is not available on either Simplilearn or Coursera.
• As per the user research conducted by us, we believe this feature
would be highly beneficial for the students UpGrad provides live
mentoring session to its students as well.

7. • UpGrad makes sure that every class they conduct has a whatsapp
group that allows the students to clarify their doubts and discuss
the issues
• Apart from the features mentioned above UpGrad has a very
unique feature that none of the other two platforms provide and
that is city based meetups.
• UpGrad conducts workshops and encourages students to get
together in UpGrad's facility to collaborate and discuss together.
Simplilearn
• Has a forum where a user can post the queries and carry out a
discussion.
• These discussion forums are moderated by TA's 1-1 chat feature is
not available on the platform
• Simplilearn doesn't allow to pause the video and ask a question
• Simplilearn has live mentoring session that allows the students to
clear their doubts with the mentors
• In case a student still faces any issue, Simplilearn has a functionality
that allows a student to raise a ticket and get your doubts cleared
using help and support but will not be a real time.
• Does not allow a student to ask a question within the video
• WhatsApp group to allow students to clear their doubts
Coursera • Coursera has one of the least engagment features as compared to
UpGrad and Simplilearn.
• Mentioned below are the features/functionalities that allow the
users to engage with each other:
o Discussion Forum: Students have a discussion forum that
allows them to post their query and get it answered by a
community mentor or a peer 1-1 Chat feature is not
available
o One of the unique engagement feature that Coursera
offers is peer-peer review. Coursera does this primarily
because of two reasons. 1. Due to low teacher-student
ratio. 2. To increase student's involvement in a course.
o A student who fails to grade his classmates can't be graded
himself so this feature actually makes sure that students do
go through the material and know their subject well.
o Unlike Simplilearn and UpGrad, Coursera doesn't have a
Whatsapp group or live mentoring sessions. Due to lack of
engaging features on Coursera, it tends to have a really low
completion rate as compared to Simplilearn and UpGrad.
Sources:
https://directory.trainingindustry.com/training-supplier/simplilearn/
https://www.owler.com/company/simplilearn
https://www.owler.com/company/UpGrad

8. https://www.simplilearn.com/
https://www.owler.com/reports/UpGrad/UpGrad--UpGrad-ties-up-with-sp-jain-management-
ins/1523249162091
https://www.owler.com/reports/UpGrad/UpGrad--ronnie-screwvala-s-promoted-edtech-firm-
up/1519042563007
User Research
Objective
To understand the pain points of the current discussion platform available to the UpGrad
students and identify ways which could improve the same.
Hypothesis
Students prefer to discuss queries with selective group members rather than the whole
cohort
Students find it easier to discuss over a real-time chat feature rather than using the
discussion forum.
Introducing a call to action for schedule a meeting/discussion will increase the user
discussions on the platform.
User Insights
• We interviewed 20 students from current and previous UpGrad batches
• Gender %: 20% Female, 80% Male
• Age: 25-32
• Course Taken: 80% Product management Certification, 20% Digital Marketing certification
Interview questions:
• When to do you most feel a need to initiate a discussion with other students in your cohort?
• What’s the preferred mode of learning through the online content: Website/Mobile app?
• What are the pain points with the current mode of discussion on the platform?
• What would motivate you to discuss more on the platform instead of other discussion
mediums?
• What modes of communication you use for discussions with other students apart from the
discussion forum
• What are the main topics you discuss with other students

9. Interview insights:
• 70% of the users felt the need for discussion with other students right after the scores of an
assignment are published on the portal. Other situations for a discussion varied from catching
up on course progress, discussing course content to talking about job opportunities
• 100% of the users preferred website as the mode for online learning
• 80% of the users felt current mode of discussion only allows the questions to be addressed to
the whole cohort and there’s no option to ask questions to an individual/specific set of students
• Other paint points included current mode of discussion is Q&A based and limits the option of an
informal discussion
• Other media for communication used by students: WhatsApp, Email, FB Messenger
• 70% of the users feel option to chat with other online students will motivate them more to
discuss on the platform. Other responses included enabling video conferencing on the portal &
scheduling discussion times with other students
• Main topics of discussion with other students:
o Discuss marks on assignments
o Discuss individual answers once the assignment scores are published
o Discuss approaches to answer questions in an assignment
o Check on overall course progress with other students
o Discuss doubts in course content
Proposed functionalities & its specifications in brief
1. Chat Feature: A new message screen would be introduced where user would be able to chat
with the fellow learners. There would also be a chat widget on each screen for quick messages.
a. 1:1 Chatting
b. Group Chatting
c. Share Files
d. Audio & Video Conferencing
2. Option to post a question to selective people in the cohort.
a. From the user research, we got an insight that people often fear to ask question in the
discussion forum because the complete cohort can see it. The idea is to add an option
for the users to ask question only to some selected fellow learners.
b. For this we’ll add an additional option in “add a question screen” where we’ll ask the
user if he wants to ask this question to all or some selected users. If he selects the latter,
we’ll give him the option to select the from the list of users we have in the current
cohort.
c. Once the question is posted, only the users who were added in that question would get
a notification and would be able to see that question in their discussion forum.
d. TAs can still see all the questions.
3. Option to schedule meetings/discussions with fellow learners (The discussions would happen
on the message screen)
a. Once the assignment result is out, from the same page, users can schedule a
meeting/discussion with some selected fellow learners to discus about the assignment
details.

10. b. Allowing users to schedule meetings from the calendar screen. The scheduled meetings
would happen on the message interface.
4. Sending emails to user if someone has replied to their question: This would notify the user if
he/she is not on the portal and don’t have a mobile app. Getting an email would keep him/her
engaged with the ongoing discussion.
Paper Prototypes
Screen 1: Dashboard
Paper Prototype:
Details:
• User would now be able to initiate a chat with the fellow students who are online.
• A chat widget would be displayed at the bottom right of each screen.
Feedback Received:
• Option to initiate a group chat, audio/video call is missing in the chat widget.
• There should be a visual indication that the person is online.
• There should be a counter on the widget to inform the user if there are any unread messages.

11. Wireframe

12. Screen 2: Add a question pop up screen
Paper Prototype

13. Details:
• User would now be able to ask a question to selected set of people.
• If the above is true, only the users who are tagged in the question would see the question in
their discussion forum.
• User would also be able set up a meeting/discussion for any module. The discussion would
happen on the message screen where user can chat with each other.

14. Feedback Received:
• It would be good to have an option to add a question anonymously. This is for those people who
wants to an answer from the complete cohort but don’t want to reveal his/her identity.
• We can reduce the number of field by combining the date & time field. As most of the
application now have a single picker for date & time.
• The name of the module should be by default become the meeting subject.
Wireframe

15. Screen 3: Performance Scorecard Screen
Paper Prototype

16. Details
1. Once the assignment result is out, user would now be able to schedule a discussion for the
same.
2. The users who are part of the discussion would receive a notification and they can initiate the
discussion from the message screen.
Feedback Received:
1. We can reduce the number of field by combining the date & time field. As most of the
application now have a single picker for date & time.
2. When we are clicking on the schedule discussion for an assignment, the name of the assignment
should be by default become the discussion title.
3. There should be a success message and a call to action to tell the user where the discussion
would happen.

17. Wireframe

18. Screen 3: Message Screen
Paper Prototype

19. Details:
• All the chats can be viewed in this message screen.
• Whenever a meeting/discussion is scheduled, a new group with the discussion members will be
created here.
Feedback Received:
• Show unread message counter for each chat thread which has unread messages.
Wireframe