Try Group’s ICT Education Strategy amid Education Reforms
and the COVID-19 Pandemic— Cases from “Try IT”, “AI Tablet Service” and“Online Group LIVE Summer Courses” —Ryosuke Takarada

Executive Officer, Try Group

1. Introduction

Living in the Reiwa Era, we have faced considerable change in
our environment. These changes have also brought major changes
in what is required in the field of education. As a business in thefield of education, adapting to these changes is an urgent matter.
This article reviews changes in education due to educational
reforms and the COVID-19 pandemic, and discusses the Try
Group ICT education strategy, under the “People × Digital”
banner. We also discuss three examples of our achievements basedon this strategy.

2. Education and tutoring industries: Past,
present and future

In the past, “group teaching” and “off-line (one-on-one)teaching” has been the mainstream. In group teaching, classes
were conducted uniformly, according to a curriculum, and it was
effective in helping many students acquire knowledge, but had
issues in areas such as nurturing students’ thinking skills andaddressing students’ individual weaknesses.
It was also conducted mainly in an off-line (one-on-one)format, gathering students at a school, tutoring center or prepschool, and having tutors teach them directly. As such, educational
materials and learning environments were organized with theassumption that students and tutors would interact directly.
Having developed in this way, education in Japan has had tomake great changes due to education reforms in 2020 and the
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Major reforms in education are being made, starting in
FY2020, including the content of elementary, middle and highschool, and also the system for university entrance exams. An
important aspect of these reforms is a shift from a “knowledge
memorization” and “information processing capability” approach,in which students need to understand what to learn, to a
“judgment,” “logical thinking” and “expression skills” approach, sothat students know how to use what they have learned. We believe
it will be difficult to handle such changes using conventionalgroup teaching with uniform classes following a curriculum.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in Japan and the rest of theworld starting in 2020 prompted the three-Cs (avoiding Closed
spaces, Crowded places, and Close contact) to reduce risk ofinfection. This made it difficult to continue off-line (one-on-one)
education with people gathering in one place, and resulted in
rapid introduction and development of online education in regions
throughout the country.
With education reforms redefining scholastic ability, and

COVID-19 changing education environments, the very nature of
education is coming into question. The first thing that is needed
is to transition from uniform education to education tailored
to individuals. Demand for individualized teaching, which isadaptable for the learning-shift from focusing on memorization to
being able to use knowledge, is increasing.
The next requirement is to promote online education. This
goes beyond acquiring devices, to organizing content, training
tutors and other issues, too many to count. With a redefinition ofwhat education should be, education businesses are also required
to change the services that they provide.
■ Figure 1: Education in the past and future

3. Try Group’s ICT education strategy

Considering how to face this period of upheaval in the
education industry, Try Group has been building a new form ofeducation using the power of “People × Digital.”
Since Try Group was established, we have emphasized
one-on-one instruction, providing education that is closely
personalized for each student. Using the “Try Learning”
methodologies, such as our dialogue learning method in which
students output what they have learned in their own words, wehave had success nurturing students’ logical thinking capabilities
and expressive abilities. A central concept of our company is“People teaches people; people nurtures people.” We are using thisconcept as much as possible in pursuit of better forms of education.
On the other hand, as the demand for online education has
increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been essential
to introduce digital teaching materials and ICT education, in
addition to our one-on-one instruction. Attention on “flipped
learning,” in which digital materials are used for preparation
before a lesson, has increased so the role of the lesson itself is alsochanging significantly. We expect even more demand for services
making full use of devices and networks in the future.
As such, Try Group has proposed an ideal image of education
represented by the tag line, “People × Digital” (integrating off-line

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and online methods), to accelerate our ICT education strategy inthe future. We are enhancing digital aspects by introducing andexpanding video courses, AI and online services, in line with thehigh-quality, one-on-one, individualized education that we havealready developed, to maximize their educational potential.
■ Figure 2: Changes in education and Try Group’s strategy

4. Try Group’s initiatives

To realize “People × Digital,” Try Group has incrementallydeveloped services utilizing online resources. This section will
describe our “Try IT” video-course service, our “AI Tablet”
service, and our “Online Group LIVE Summer Courses.”< “Try IT” Video Courses >“Try IT” was released in July, 2015, and is a service providing
high-quality video courses on the internet, with top-ranked
professional private tutors delivering the lessons on major subjects
for middle and high-school students. In September, 2021, it was
expanded to utilize multiple other media such as original apps,
websites, and YouTube. Try IT course video viewing is provided“free forever.” As such, the service provides opportunities to learn
at any time and any place, to anyone. Students can study by Try’s
carefully selected professional private tutors with short, focused,
10-to-15-minute units, and approximately 6,000 of these videos
covering middle and high-school topics are offered free-of-charge.
This service is also being used in a wider range of scenarios
in recent years, including supports for periodic exams, highschool and university entrance exams preparation, and courses toovercome students’ weaknesses. It is also being used in learning
support projects in collaboration with regional governments, andin learning environments at middle and high schools.
Try IT users can be divided broadly into two groups: those
who use our own app or the browser version, and those who watch
lessons on YouTube. Users that register to use the original app orbrowser version are able to learn using specialized video lessons
and learning materials.
The video lessons published on YouTube can be viewed on
the public “Try IT Video Course” YouTube channel without
registering. As of May, 2022, this channel had over one million
users and roughly 300 million views.
We are also building our own in-house studio and continuing
to update video courses, to revise learning outlines and adapt tochanges in digital-viewing environments.
< Try AI Tablet Service >The “Try AI Tablet” service was expanded nationally in April
2020, to further develop the “Try IT” video course service.
The AI Tablet service extends Try IT video courses, providing
a learning methodology that assesses the student’s understanding■ Figure 3: Studying with video lessons in the “Try IT” browser version

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of units in the learning material that they may be weak in,providing a direct learning flow leading to the required levelof understanding. At Try, we have developed an original app
combining video courses and the AI, providing a system thatmanages students’ learning history digitally. We made it a digitallearning package on a tablet device. There are three versions of theoriginal app, for middle-school term tests, high-school periodic
exam, and university entrance exam prep courses, and they aredesigned to be used depending on the student’s school year andstudy goals.
■ Figure 4: Studying with the AI tablet service

The Try AI tablet service includes two types of AI. One is
Try’s learning diagnostic AI, and the other is an AI to predictentrance exam questions. Both of these AIs were developedin collaboration with Ghelia Inc., with investment from Sony
Computer Science Laboratories. They use the latest technologies
to support individually optimized, efficient learning.
The diagnostic AI is specialized to estimate the level ofunderstanding for a course or unit from the student’s answers to alimited number of questions in one of three levels (★ to ★★★).
The issue solved by the diagnostic AI is to “improve theefficiency and accuracy of identifying the student’s level ofunderstanding.” In regular tutoring schools, paper tests are used
to assess students’ understanding when they enter the school.
This requires students to answer 200 or more questions overa period of two hours or more, and presents difficulties suchas ensuring students’ time and motivation, while not actually
producing accurate estimations of level of understanding. Using
the diagnostic AI has enabled us to greatly reduce the amount oftime and number of questions. It has also enabled estimation oflevel of understanding with approximately one tenth of the labortime required for paper tests.
The diagnostic AI was developed using large amountsof learning data and the latest AI technology to quickly andaccurately assess learning. Using the new method, we are able toprovide diagnostic results that are 80 to 90% consistent with theresults from answering all questions, and taking only one-tenth
the time. In 2019, this system received the “Education AI Award”
in the “Nikkei x TECH EXPO AWARDS 2019.”
Try Group’s AI tablet service presents learning methods
applying the level of understanding determined using
the diagnostic AI. For example, if the student had a level ofunderstanding of ★ for a unit, their understanding of basic
content is inadequate, so the service provides study from “Try IT”
video lessons. For units scoring ★★, basic knowledge has beenacquired, but not yet mastered adequately, it starts with a summaryof key points is presented. If the score is ★★★, the content has
been mastered and the service presents further study with practiceproblems.
The AI Exam Predictor is specialized to university entrance
exams and selects 50 questions optimized based on trends in past
exams, the student’s strengths and weaknesses, and the target
university. When the student’s target university, department, andcurrent academic ability are entered into the app on the tablet,
the AI automatically generates 50 questions for the student toanswer, optimized for their success. The service was started inAugust, 2020, covering 32 universities, and as of September 2021,
it covered 824 departments in 129 universities. For university
entrance exams held in FY2020 at all 32 universities*, thequestions appearing in the exams were similar to those anticipatedby the AI Exam Predictor.
When developing the AI Exam Predictor, we teamed up with
Ghelia Inc. and Obunsha Co. Ltd., who provided the questions
data used in the app. More than 60 textbooks of practice questions
are included in the app.
Try has established courses to support students until theysuccessfully enter their target universities, combing questions
selected by the AI Exam Predictor with coaching service.
Through use of the AI Exam Predictor, we had students thatpassed “against-the-odds” in FY2020 and FY2021 entrance
exams. We were able to support passing results in national
universities including Tohoku University, Hokkaido University,
Nagoya University, Shinshu University, the Kobe University
School of Medicine, and others. We achieved the same in private
universities including Waseda University, Keio University,
Sophia University, Tokyo University of Science and Ritsumeikan
University.
< Online Group LIVE Summer Courses>
In addition to Try IT and expanding ICT education (digital)
using AI, the Try Group has been developing and expanding
online services in response to rapid changes in education since
2020.
In this section, we introduce our “Online Group LIVE
Summer Courses,” which our entire company has been working＊ For universities that make their exams public

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on since FY2021. For these courses, we are providing real-time
distribution with recorded archives for a total of 350 lessons,covering the main units from the fourth year of elementary school
to the third year of high school, all free-of-charge.
We developed this service due to the increasing demand foronline education during COVID-19 pandemic, as well as theincrease in households facing economic hardship, and conditions
in society such as the declaration of a state of emergency andthe call to limit outings. This summer, approximately 36,000
people took the free courses. Participants evaluated the program
highly, and we have continued to update and provide the courses,
including winter courses in December 2021 and spring courses
in March 2022. In the summer course of 2022, we added VR
content.
Try Group has also been expanding the breadth of services
with “Online Private Tutor” which provides online one-onone private lessons, and “Online Group Live Courses” whichallows students from everywhere to take the lessons, regardless ofgeographical distances. We have also released services including“Online Coaching” and “Online Self-Study Spaces,” as services
to accommodate changing life styles and learning styles. “Online
Coaching” was created in response to increasing amounts ofcontent and time for home study, and feedback that it is difficult
to manage study progress and maintain motivation. Students

create study plans with the coach for days when they are notreceiving one-on-one lessons, developing study habits while
creating progress reports and having discussions. “Online SelfStudy Spaces” focus on a trend in middle-school and high-school
students, to gather with study partners on SNS. It provides spaces
for friends to study together online and free-of-charge. We arealso actively holding online seminars on various themes such as“The Changing Trends in Entrance Exam System,” and “How To
Spend the Summer Holidays,” to provide information to students
and their guardians.

5. Future prospects

The 2021 educational reforms and the COVID-19 pandemic
have called into question the very nature of education and haverequired drastic changes for students, teachers, and the entire
education industry.
Try Group is pursuing an ideal image of education represented
by the tag line “People × Digital”, integrating off-line and on-line
aspects. Based on our company concept of “People teaches people;
People nurtures people,” we value one-on-one education with close
attention to the needs of individuals, while using the latest AI
technologies to integrate “people” with “digital” and provide new
education services not seen before.

■ Figure 5: Studying in an “Online Group LIVE Summer Course”

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