Attention is key before learning can happen.
It sounds obvious, but we don’t always act like it — in offline classrooms or online ones. Every time a student misses a class, that day’s learning outcome would likely be zero for that day lesson. This matters especially in STEM subjects, where CoLearn specializes: students are constantly building on what they already know, and each new concept depends on the one before it. Showing up consistently and paying attention has a compounding effect on learning outcomes — and the sense of progress that comes with it, in turn, motivates students to invest even more time and attention in the subject.
Since we chose cohort-based live courses as our core teaching model, attendance rate has become something of an obsession for us — it’s the baseline we have to hit before we can even start optimizing learning outcomes further. It also helps that attendance rate reliably predicts semester-to-semester retention, and therefore customer lifetime value (LTV)!
Not Quite the Tiger Parents
It’s tempting to assume that whatever makes edtech succeed in one Asian country will work the same way in another — but that assumption doesn’t hold up. Societies like South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, and India — home to edtech success stories like Byju’s and Zuoyebang — carry unusually high societal pressure for children to perform academically. The “tiger parent” stereotype often attached to Asian culture largely comes from these societies. There, falling behind academically can genuinely affect a family’s social standing, and that fear alone is enough to keep students’ attention on their studies.
Indonesia, where CoLearn primarily serves students today, doesn’t carry that same pressure. Indonesians broadly do see education as important for their children’s future, but racing to get ahead of the curve isn’t treated as a priority, and it doesn’t significantly affect one’s perceived social standing. So students have real freedom to opt in — or out — of a learning program, even when the need for it is obvious.
Given that, we have to work harder to earn students’ attention and make learning genuinely engaging. In practice, that means competing with their favorite YouTubers, video games, and everything else vying for their time. Learning has to feel relevant to their lives and their future, as far as they’re able to see it.
Tracking attendance provides near real-time feedback
From early on, it was clear that traditional MOOCs — pre-recorded, on-demand courses with completion rates averaging below 10% globally — wouldn’t be effective for us. Our strategy of cohort-based live classes, where students learn from the same familiar teachers and peers with high interactivity throughout a semester, has consistently seen attendance rates over 70% every semester — with primary and middle schoolers leading the pack at 75–80%!
Tracking attendance closely and chasing feedback relentlessly shortens our build-measure-learn cycle, so we can catch what isn’t working and turn early missteps into eventual wins within the same semester. Because our classes are live and cohort-based, we can constantly adjust pace, teaching strategy, and session length to meet what students actually need.
Every product change we make comes out of plenty of healthy debate — among teachers, instructional designers, and product and engineering leaders — but everyone at CoLearn is aligned on the one thing that matters most: it’s always about the students.
Measure what matters to Attendance
Online learning’s rise during the pandemic brought a wave of new ways to track student attention — AI-powered eye tracking, voice analysis, even brainwave trackers. We’re only seeing the beginning of what these technologies will do to how education is delivered.
Learning is entering a new renaissance, and we’re excited to be part of shaping it. But technology is only a tool — what ultimately matters is engagement and learning outcomes. For us, any leading indicator of in-class attention has to translate into sustained attendance over a semester and beyond. That’s what gives us the best chance of transforming a student’s relationship with learning for the rest of their life.
