How LearnCube thinks outside the classroom to innovate online education

Using Twilio video technology, LearnCube has built and distributed an award-winning virtual classroom software improving the quality, effectiveness, and fun of online education, particularly for those learning languages or needing extra help at school.

As another school year begins and the world stands divided on the value of and access to online education, LearnCube looks up from its virtual desk, sharpens its pencil… and gets back to work.

For the past five years, LearnCube has brought award-winning virtual classroom software to everyone from independent language teachers and online tutors to the most well-known language education and tutoring companies on the planet.

And in a time where access to virtual education is more top of mind than ever, they specialize in pushing the boundaries of WebRTC to improve the quality, effectiveness and fun of online education, particularly for those learning languages or needing extra help at school.

It’s no surprise that this strapping edtech company is a star student in the online educational video software space—or that they succeed with some help from Twilio.

Old school < new school

As the world changes and technology improves, the traditional classroom has laid relatively stagnant, a relic of how things have always been done despite statistics suggesting in-person education is ripe for disruption.

The company saw an opportunity to partner with educational organizations and individual educators to help their students feel understood, represented, and connected in a way that wasn’t available in the market. They wanted to create a software program that offered a reliable and straightforward space for creating a fun and friendly educational environment.

LearnCube was born.

As LearnCube’s CEO, Alex Asher, puts it, “Our vision is to change lives by empowering high-quality online tuition to every corner of the globe. This vision and focus on quality cascades into every part of LearnCube, including the customer experience.”

Finding a solution

In determining a programmable video partner to create their white-labeled virtual classroom product, quality—but also affordability—was imperative to success, Asher said.

“We’re a smaller company so results and price were big determinants. Other factors included a clear API, implementing our own style and format and working across multiple browsers.”

Twilio emerged quickly as a natural choice, he said.

Using Twilio Programmable Video, LearnCube was able to build out and scale their software globally while also reducing deployment time and cost, allowing them to really focus on delivering a quality product.

It also allowed the company to focus on their customer experience priorities and brand values, including simplicity, reliability, and being human-centric, Asher added.

“Twilio has really helped us forge an exceptional experience,” he said. “It also provided a base from which to innovate, letting us create a number of different classroom formats, like conversation mode, audio-only mode, broadcast mode, and now, breakout rooms.”

Making the grade

LearnCube’s Virtual Classroom is a professional environment for real-time language learning and teaching.

“We provide our customers with a reliable, white-label virtual classroom solution at a far lower cost of ownership than building something similar themselves, get them to market extremely quickly, and allow them to ride on our constant innovation,” Asher explained.

It’s working. Between their award-winning API and overall growth of the platform (between 15 million and 20 million minutes every month), their customers are resolutely satisfied with LearnCube’s product.

Twilio helps LearnCube respond to its customers better thanks to the data Twilio provides. They gather data related to network connection to ensure consistent audio service; latency of the audio track to measure audio quality, and more. The information and insight provided by Twilio lets the company prevent issues from becoming problematic and resolve disruptions quickly, Asher said.

Continuing education

LearnCube is making waves in the online educational industry, especially as it prepares to broadly release a broadcast and breakout classroom format, inspired by how a physical classroom operates.

In this upcoming feature, teachers will be able to introduce the class and break the students into groups or individuals to complete their own work all while facilitating and supervising in a way that is more effective than ever before online.

“We have made significant improvements in our reliability over the last few years using Twilio,” Asher said. “We’ve also been able to rely on the service during our dramatic growth, particularly felt during March and April as COVID-19 has ramped up demand for online tutoring and language teaching. We’ve found Twilio to be a reliable, scalable, and very supportive partner.”

Education opens doors, and LearnCube is ushering in a warm welcome and a brighter future for those who don’t have access to a physical classroom.

“We’re excited about the future of WebRTC and look forward to the day where only the only difference between learning online or in-person, is a handshake,” Asher said.