AI-Powered Academic – Chennaionline

Zoho, a global technology company headquartered in Chennai, today announced the launch of Zoho Classes 2.0, an AI-powered academic LMS built in India and designed for educational institutions worldwide. The platform is launching first in India, with roll-outs across global markets to follow in the coming months, each with regional capabilities tailored to local educational requirements. In India, Zoho is making Zoho Classes 2.0 available at no product licensing cost to all Central and State Government schools, colleges, and universities, in a move to democratise access to educational technology. Additionally, any teacher with up to 100 students can use the platform free of charge. Zoho believes education is a critical pillar of nation-building, and that quality learning tools should reach every student and teacher regardless of an institution's budget. The platform is available to private educational institutions through competitively priced subscription plans. Zoho Classes 2.0 brings teaching, learning, student success, and institutional administration together on a unified AI-powered platform. The latest version introduces three new core capabilities: AI embedded across the learning journey, student engagement tools designed for today's digital-native learners, and student lifecycle management with institutional intelligence. Significantly, the platform is deeply localised for the Indian market and its linguistic diversity, supporting all 22 scheduled Indian languages so AI-powered teaching, assessments, and learning content reach students in the language they learn best in. Together, these capabilities help institutions improve student outcomes, support teachers, strengthen student engagement, and make more informed decisions. "Education shapes how societies learn, adapt, and grow, making it one of the most important areas where technology can create lasting impact. Every education system is unique, and technology must be built around local needs and diverse learning environments. This belief has shaped Zoho Classes into a platform designed to adapt to the diverse students and education systems it serves" said Mani Vembu, CEO, Zoho. "We believe access to modern educational technology should never be limited by an institution's resources. As part of our commitment to democratising access, Zoho Classes is being made available at no product licensing cost to Central and State Government schools, colleges, and universities across India. We hope this enables more institutions to harness technology to improve learning outcomes and expand educational opportunities," he further added."Traditional LMS platforms were built to deliver academic content, not experiences. But today's students, raised on short-form video and instant feedback, expect learning to be interactive and immersive, and traditional formats no longer hold their attention. At the same time, institutions need to improve outcomes without adding to teachers" load. That is the gap we set out to bridge. Zoho Classes 2.0 uses a deeply embedded AI layer to automate time-intensive work like lesson planning, grading, and reporting, freeing teachers to focus on what matters most: teaching and engaging students,&quot; said Dev Anand Ramasamy, Vice President of Product Management, Zoho. Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Student Success Zoho Classes 2.0 combines AI, student engagement, student lifecycle management, and institutional intelligence on a single platform, delivering distinct value across the education ecosystem. Moving beyond traditional learning management, the platform is designed to help institutions improve student success while simplifying teaching and administration. For teachers, the platform means less administration tasks and more teaching. Its AI Course Builder turns a syllabus, topic, or lesson plan into a complete structured course in under 30 seconds, automatically generating video lesson outlines, reading materials, assignments with rubrics, and adaptive practice tests, with every item mapped to the relevant Course and Programme Outcomes. Teachers can deliver courses with content locking, scheduled releases, and in-video note-saving, and draw on a library of more than 1,00,000 prebuilt curriculum templates. By automating course creation, assessment design, and outcome mapping,Zoho Classes 2.0 significantly reduces faculty evaluation workload and enables flipped classrooms at scale, where students engage with content before class and classroom time shifts to discussion, problem-solving, and mentorship. For students, the experience is engaging, personalised, and available in their own language. A 24/7 AI Tutor supports each student at their own pace, while microlearning, interactive activities, and gamified experiences improve engagement and knowledge retention. For institutes, Zoho Classes 2.0 introduces student lifecycle management that tracks the student journey from enrolment through completion, and with AI, institutions can identify at-risk students and surface intervention opportunities. Institutional intelligence gives administrators visibility into student outcomes, engagement trends, and operational performance for more informed decision-making, while a Low-Code Micro App Builder lets institutions build custom tools for admissions, lesson planning, and syllabus management without engineering resources. Built for Local Education Needs, Designed to Scale Zoho is actively working with government education bodies in India to expand digital education access at scale, supporting initiatives for out-of-school students, government polytechnic colleges, and large state education networks. The platform enables centralised administration, content distribution, student engagement, and reporting through a unified interface, supporting deployments that range from individual classrooms to statewide education systems. Zoho Classes 2.0 is built for the scale and diversity of Indian education, with capabilities tailored to local curricula, languages, and requirements. Its support for all 22 scheduled Indian languages helps break the language barriers that too often limit access to quality education and higher learning, enabling AI-powered teaching, assessments, and course content to reach students in the language they think and learn in. For millions of first-generation and regional- language learners, this makes advanced, technology-enabled education more accessible. For higher educational institutions, Zoho Classes 2.0 supports outcome-based education and accreditation readiness through automated Course Outcome (CO) and Programme Outcome (PO) attainment tracking. The platform also supports key digital learning, multilingual education, and outcome-based learning objectives outlined under India&#39;s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Institutions can streamline reporting and documentation for accreditation frameworks including NAAC, NBA, UGC, and NMC. For medical institutions, the platform supports Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) workflows aligned with National Medical Commission (NMC) requirements, including competency tracking, clinical log management, OSPE and OSCE assessments, and audit-ready documentation. Built on Zoho's vertically integrated technology stack, the platform supports data residency in India with sovereign data protection and complies with India&#39;s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP). Trusted by Educational Institutions Across its institutional user base, the platform has delivered more than 8 million notifications, supported over 1 million assignment submissions, enabled more than 100,000 minutes of learning content consumption, and hosts over 2TB of teacher-created video content. Zoho Classes is used by institutions including SRM Institute, Sishya School, Chettinad Health City, CGIHM, Vidya Mandir, Grace International School, and GSE Institute, alongside government education bodies and large-scale education initiatives. Availability Zoho Classes 2.0 is available immediately at - https://www.zoho.com/classes/ For institutional inquiries, contact sales@zohocorp.com