The Parishkar Group of Colleges based in Rajasthan, India launched their online learning platform, Parishkar World, in 2017 as a way to extend education to disadvantaged students who either live in rural areas or have limited mobility. Parishkar World’s curriculum is designed to help their students pass different standardized licensing exams so they can pursue careers in science, civil service, education, accountancy, and other related fields.

Parishkar World has an official learning app as well as a dedicated YouTube channel where students can access their expansive library of recorded lessons. Each of these videos are recorded inside Parishkar World’s studios, which they have equipped with the latest teaching technologies.

The main concern for Parishkar World was the setup of their learning spaces. Traditionally, they would have used a whiteboard and projector for teaching, but they found that, in front of a camera, these tools were inadequate for a number of reasons.

For starters, due to their courses being online, the teachers needed to jot down all their notes on the whiteboard prior to recording in order to give themselves more time to explain the concepts during the actual lesson. And in the event that they needed to annotate additional information while recording, they had to erase parts of the board to make space.

Lighting was also another tricky element. Their teaching rooms needed to be bright enough so that the subjects would register well on camera. Unfortunately, this caused two issues. The glare from the studio lights made it hard to read the whiteboard notes when captured on video. And in terms of projectors, the images would often look faint because their rooms weren’t dim enough.

The staff at Parishkar World needed an edtech solution that would allow them to annotate freely, use prepared lesson content, and would register well on video even under harsh lighting conditions.

“It was very clear in our minds that we must use the latest technology,” says Dr. Savita Paiwal, Director of Parishkar International College. During their deliberation period, she and her staff discovered the BenQ Board.

Parishkar World purchased a number of edtech solutions for testing and comparison. Although they were initially keen on going for more low-cost options, they found that these displays were too complicated to either operate or manage. The school administration ultimately decided on acquiring BenQ Boards for three main reasons: functionality, ease of use, and overall value.

The BenQ Board combines the functionality of both whiteboards and projectors. Teachers can use slides, PDFs, and even load animated content. They can annotate freely without worrying about running out of space. The BenQ Board also has a bright, high contrast, flicker-free 4K screen that makes it ideal when shooting videos.

Compared to the other solutions they tried out, the BenQ Board also stood out for how easy it is to operate. 

“At our institute, we have a lot of senior teachers,” explains Ritu Choudhary, English teacher at Parishkar World. According to her, these lecturers are very used to traditional modes of teaching, such as writing on whiteboards. Whichever edtech solution they went with had to offer an experience that was familiar enough to them, something that did not require a lot of time to learn. They found that the BenQ Board, particularly its EZWrite whiteboarding software, offered these veteran educators the most natural teaching experience.

Over all, the Parishkar staff felt like they were getting their money’s worth in terms of features and convenience.

Dr. Paiwal notes the positive impact their BenQ Boards have had on their school. She acknowledges, in particular, how the boards have expedited lesson preparation. “Teachers now save a lot of time that they used to spend writing everything down on the board. Now, they can prepare their presentations beforehand, use videos, and add a lot of visuals,” she says.

Simpal Garg, a Chemistry teacher at the school notes how her lessons have become richer now that they can use moving images for lectures. “We can show the creation of chemical bonds using animation,” she says, explaining how complex topics like chemical bonding were previously tougher to teach with just static diagrams.

“Its dynamic nature and the way we can change the content so smoothly in seconds is wonderful,” says Dr. Manoj Kumar Saini, Geography teacher. Having to work with different maps and landscapes, he is able to import and resize these images on EZWrite, annotate over them, and then keep adding new pages as his lesson progresses.

Beyond the responses from the teaching staff, Choudhary also points out the positive feedback they’ve been getting from their students online. “They don’t feel bored at all,” she says, noting how the interactive nature of using the BenQ Board breaks the otherwise monotonous nature of recorded lessons.