About Stoodle

Aligning with our mission statement, Stoodle aims to provide a comprehensive, online learning experience, comparable to that of a physical one. The usability of Stoodle’s service is contingent upon the efficacy of communication between the tutor and student.

Feature Set

  • Basic Drawing Tools: Pen, Shapes, Text Box
  • Latex Equation Editor
  • Multiple Pages
  • Ability to upload documents and images + edit them + students can download them
  • Wolfram Alpha
  • Chat
  • Video Resource Module
  • Video Chat
  • Raise Hand


With a consummate learning platform, Stoodle seeks to aggregate exemplary textbook content from CK-12 and video resources from Khan Academy. With an integrated search module, tutors will be able to introduce supplementary FlexBooks® and videos and enhance their lesson. From a database of content tags, the search function will parse queries for keywords and the server will return an array of relevant textbook excerpts, each marked by page and title. Thus, the tutor can extract quality content in real-time. The FlexBook® PDF excerpts will overlay the canvas, allowing the tutor to draw and annotate the textbook itself. Students can also scan and upload their own work, in PDF or .docx form, to the canvas for the tutor to edit and critique. Upon selecting a video resource, a synchronized stream will play on both the tutor’s and tutee’s browser in a popup window.

The link-sharing module offers an intuitive method through which tutors and tutees can invite additional members to the session. The module will generate a shortlink, Facebook Share button, Twitter Tweet button, and e-mail mail-to button. Through various outlets, Stoodle aims to establish a presence in the social media atmosphere.

Stoodle is a peer-to-peer learning application that coalesces both high-quality content and interactive tutoring to enhance the student experience. We hope to diminish the national achievement gap by providing a flexible, free, and personalized system that caters to students’ needs. Our non-profit organization focuses on creating inter and intra school networks that supplement students’ education. Through an interactive whiteboard, supplemented by aggregated content, tutors can effectively teach students.

Horace Mann, renowned educational reformer, once said, “Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” Education is indubitably important in our society, but the current system is crippled by evident foibles. In the public classroom setting, busy schedules often leave students in the dust, as difficult concepts become insurmountable obstacles. The omnipresence of this situation is illustrated by the tremendous growth of the $8 billion private tutoring industry. As opposed to the countless expensive tutoring services, Stoodle provides a free, flexible, and simple tutoring application that helps students understand difficult concepts. Aggregating high quality content from Khan Academy and CK-12, Stoodle provides the consummate platform for student learning. Moreover, we harness the power of peers, as they become our tutor base for students. Jean Pol-Martin is the father of the “learning by teaching” idea. In essence, when students teach other students, they learn effectively and develop life-long skills. By utilizing peer tutors, we are creating a symbiotic relationship in which both the tutor and student learn the material. Students benefit by learning difficult concepts while tutors benefit by mastering the material. Tutors will also be provided with community service hours as we rollout Phase 1.

In the US and around the world, parents increasingly supplement their children’s education through tutoring services in light of public education inadequacies; the $8 billion private tutoring industry within the US alone is growing 5% annually. Tutoring services usually cost between $30-$45/hour, emphasizing the correlation between wealth and academic achievement. There is enormous opportunity to provide an effective and free tutoring service that all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, can avail.

Our system revolves around the tutoring marketplace. Already, thousands of schools have established tutoring clubs, connecting students willing to tutor and students wanting to learn. We are essentially bringing the entire tutoring club system onto a simple and effective tutoring application. Through our innovative whiteboard technologies and intuitive screen flow, we are revolutionizing the tutoring experience.

On Stoodle, everyone has the opportunity to teach and learn from anyone else. Remember, someone knows what you need, and someone needs what you know.

Stoodle started off as "Instunet" (the Interactive Student Network), an idea formed by Arjun Mehta in October 2011. After his first few days at a private high school, Arjun noticed a big difference from the public school he attended his freshman year and realized that there was a great opportunity to connect students from different schools to share knowledge. Arjun then felt the need to create something that would help bridge this education gap and thus, Instunet was born. After building the first version of the website, Arjun brought on Simar and Divyahans to help spearhead the project.

In June 2012, the team was given the opportunity to pitch the burgeoning company to Neeru Khosla, executive director of the CK-12 Foundation. Sharing a similar vision for the future of education, she graciously brought Instunet under the CK-12 umbrella and gave full support to the project. Since then, Instunet has changed its name to Stoodle, and the team has been working tirelessly to bring out a product that will disrupt the online learning space.




Neeru Khosla


Neeru Khosla is a firm believer in the power of education. She wants the rigor and accountability of for profit models to apply to non-profits. Neeru is a member of the Board at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, California, where she has served since 1997, caters to gifted and talented students and is internationally recognized. Neeru is also on the Advisory Board of the American India Foundation, a leading international development organization charged with accelerating social and economic change in India. She previously served as a trustee of the Pacific Vascular Research Foundation and Connexions, a Rice University open-source project. Neeru’s commitment to education is evidenced by her role on the National Advisory Board for DonorsChoose, an organization dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials in U.S. public schools. Neeru is one of the founding members of the K-12 Initiative of the D-School (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) at Stanford University and a member of the committee to expand the program. Neeru is currently the Co-Founder and Executive Director of CK-12 Foundation. CK-12 is a non-profit organization launched in 2006, which aims to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the US and worldwide. Neeru holds a Bachelors degree from Delhi University/San Jose State, a Masters degree in Molecular Biology from San Jose State, and a Masters in Education from Stanford University.






Karl Mehta


Karl Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, engineer, and civil servant with over 20 years of experience in founding, building, and funding technology companies in the U.S. and international markets. He is currently a venture partner at Menlo Ventures. Previously, he was the Founder & CEO of PlaySpan Inc., acquired in the March of 2011 by Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), the world's largest payment network. Karl also served as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow, selected by the Obama Administration during the inaugural 2012-13 term. He was recently appointed by Governor Brown to the Workforce Investment Board of the State of California. In 2010, Karl won the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award from Ernst & Young for Northern California. Karl is on the boards of Simpa Networks and the Chapman University Center for Entrepreneurship and on the advisory board of Intel Capital.

High Schools

Kha & Khiem Lu
Mission San Jose High School
Fremont, CA

Kha & Khiem are juniors at MSJH.

Universities

Dev Rishi
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Dev is a freshman at Harvard.



More coming soon!




Arjun Mehta

Founder & President

arjun.mehta@ck12.org


Arjun Mehta is passionate about bringing a positive change in the world using technology and entrepreneurship. He is a junior at The Harker School and enjoys traveling as an avid congressional debater and playing soccer for his school team. In his free time, Arjun enjoys playing the piano, guitar, and drums. He also holds a black belt in Taekwondo and is an active Boy Scout. Growing up under the influence of his father and grandfather, both of whom are successful entrepreneurs, Arjun has developed a strong interest for the field. In regard to entrepreneurial experience and exposure, Arjun has previously co-founded PlaySpan along with his father and is currently a member of DECA and the Harker Business Club.






Simar Mangat

Co-Founder & VP of Marketing

simar.mangat@ck12.org


Simar is a senior at The Harker School and brings a lifetime of leadership and entrepreneurial experiences to the table. Having served as Class President for the past 3 years, attended the HOBY World Leadership Congress, and served as the Varsity Soccer captain, Simar has valuable experience as an active leader. Harker even awarded him the “Donald Nichols Excellence in Leadership” award for his visible impact on the community. He is also the Founder and President of OneThing, a social application designed to bridge non-profits, schools, and sponsors in a community service network. Simar has served as a Calculus BC tutor the past year and worked closely with students, developing strategies that make difficult concepts easy to comprehend.




Divyahans Gupta

Co-Founder & VP of Engineering

divyahans.gupta@ck12.org


Divyahans Gupta is a junior at The Harker School. At the age of 14, he became an Oracle Certified Java SE 6 Programmer. He also enjoys programming in C++, Python, and R. Divyahans is a Silver division competitor in the United States Computing Olympiad and is one of the youngest developers for txtWeb, an Intuit-sponsored mobile platform, having developed 20 apps. As a computer science student, he has a specific interest in machine learning and social network analysis. At Harker, Divyahans serves as co-president of the Programming Club, project manager for the Tech Club, representative for its Honor Council, and editor for its Triple Helix chapter. He also actively educates seniors and the underprivileged in computer literacy through a local nonprofit. Divyahans is excited to help Stoodle revolutionize education with technology.




Maverick McNealy

Co-Founder & Advisor


Maverick McNealy is a senior at The Harker School. Aside from being an avid hockey player and competitive golfer, he is ASB Vice President. He has been captain of his Junior Sharks hockey team for 4 years, captain of the Harker golf team, and captain of his summer golf team. He has also done volunteer work for Curikki.org, a K-12 open curricula community.