Zoho on Wednesday introduced Classes 2.0, an updated version of its learning management system originally launched during the Covid pandemic. The new release incorporates artificial intelligence across nearly all features, including lesson planning, grading, and a subject-specific AI tutor for students.
Dev Anand Ramasamy, vice-president of product management at Zoho, said the update resulted from five years of development and discussions with educators. He noted that the platform evolved from a basic assignment tool into a comprehensive system now adopted by state governments, universities, schools, and colleges.
Ramasamy described the redesign as addressing issues faced by students, teachers, and institutions. Students, as digital natives, often lose interest in traditional settings. Teachers in India typically handle all tasks without support staff, reducing time for direct instruction. Institutions must meet increasing regulatory reporting requirements.
The company positions AI as a way to improve student learning, reduce teacher workload, and assist with compliance tasks. New features include a restricted AI tutor limited to enrolled subjects, daily micro-learning activities with progress tracking, an AI career guidance tool, and an AI course generator that produces full course outlines in under 30 seconds across 22 Indian languages.
For teachers, the system automates lesson planning and provides AI support for grading computer science work, potentially saving 150 hours per semester. All AI feedback requires teacher review before reaching students. Institutions gain tools for mapping course outcomes to accreditation reports.
Classes 2.0 supports 22 scheduled Indian languages through direct model capabilities rather than translation layers. Zoho applies narrow prompting to limit errors and keeps student activity visible to institutions. The mobile app allows temporary offline caching but not full content downloads.
The platform is offered free to central and state government institutions as well as to individual teachers for up to 100 students.
