CASE STUDY · LIDO LEARNING (ACQUIRED BY BYJU'S)

Designing the instructional system behind 4,000 live classes a week

I built the instructional framework, led the design team that shipped the lessons, and trained the tutors who delivered it — across four regions.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN · CURRICULUM · LEARNING EXPERIENCE · TRAINING & ENABLEMENT

COMPANY

Lido Learning (acquired by BYJU'S)

ROLE

Senior Curriculum Designer

DURATION

2020 – 2021

GRADES

K – 5

REGIONS

US · UK · New Zealand · MENA

WHAT I OWNED

Instructional framework · curriculum delivery · tutor training

Overview

Lido Learning was an Indian EdTech (later acquired by BYJU'S) running customized online tutoring for students in the US, UK, New Zealand, and MENA. At the start of the pandemic, the job was simple to say and hard to do — make a live class feel friction-free for the kid, the parent, and the tutor on the other end of the call.

THE CHALLENGE

Lido ran live, customized online tutoring for kids across the US, UK, New Zealand, and MENA — then the pandemic sent demand vertical. Every classroom was tiny, live, and different. With 2,000+ tutors teaching 4,000+ kids a week, the hard part wasn't making a good lesson — it was making every lesson land the same way in 2,000 different hands.

How might we make every live class feel consistent, joyful, and effective — when 2,000 different tutors deliver it to 4,000 kids a week?

WHAT I OWNED

One role, four disciplines

Instructional Design

Built the lesson framework every class runs on: essential questions, chunked teach-time, energizers, and assessment baked in.

Curriculum Design

Led 5 designers shipping 100+ multi-subject lessons across Math, Science, English, Coding & SEL for K-5.

Learning Experience

Wove characters, energizers, and play into every lesson, then tuned timing from real class recordings.

Training & Enablement

Trained 400+ tutors a month to deliver the framework consistently across four regions.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

A lesson model any tutor could run — and every kid could feel

Lessons couldn't depend on a great tutor — they had to be great by design. So I built a fixed lesson architecture, grounded in cognitive load theory and backward design, that any tutor could deliver with consistency. Every lesson moves through the same eight beats.

THE LESSON MODEL Eight beats, every lesson A fixed lesson architecture any tutor can deliver — built on cognitive load and backward design. OPEN TEACH & PROCESS CLOSE 1 Essential Question One high-order question per lesson — answerable only by the end. 2 Activating Strategy Hook to prior knowledge and the real world before any new content. 3 Relevant Vocabulary A small, deliberate set — used in context, not a word wall. 4 THE CORE RULE Limited Teach Never teach for 3 minutes without making kids do something. ≤ 3 MIN 5 Graphic Organizer Visual scaffolding so new information is easy to hold and revisit. 6 Energizers Kinesthetic resets that pull squirmy learners back to the screen. 7 Summarize Re-answer the essential question — a built-in comprehension check. 8 Free Talk + Practice Talk time for joy, then pen-to-paper practice for retention. COGNITIVE LOAD · CHUNKING · ACTIVE RECALL · BACKWARD DESIGN

CURRICULUM · MOTIVATION

Turning 21st-century skills into something a 6-year-old wants to earn

Abstract skills like "critical thinking" mean nothing to a five-year-old. So I mapped seven core competencies to seven characters kids could collect — a motivational layer that ran across lessons, badges, syllabus, and even sales decks.

Creative Caterpillar

Creativity & imagination

Science Squirrel

Critical thinking & problem-solving

Curious Chimp

Inquiry & data analysis

Talking Tiger

Communication & speaking

Reading Rhino

Reading fluency

Coding Croc

Computational thinking

Positive Panda

Social-emotional literacy

ONE FRAMEWORK · USED ACROSS LESSONS, BADGES, SYLLABUS & SALES

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Designed backwards from what kids should be able to do

Every lesson was built from its outcomes first, then assessed at two levels — quick formative checks inside class, and summative milestones across units. The capstone mattered most: it made learning progress visible to parents, not just measurable on a grade sheet.

Formative · in-class

Oral assessment graded against a rubric

End-of-class quizzes (5–8 questions)

Summative · across units

Milestone tests (10–15 questions)

Capstone projects + showcase sessions

Parent-teacher meetings tied to each unit

CURRICULUM DESIGN

20 lessons a week, every week, across five subjects

I led five instructional designers turning the framework into shipped lessons — 20 a week across Math, Science, English, Coding, and SEL, split for grades K-2 and 3-5. We built in Articulate Rise using ADDIE and backward design, then handed off to the design team to layer in the LIDO characters. SMEs set the subject content; the instructional framework that shaped every lesson was mine.

ENGLISH · GRADES 3-5 · LESSON SLIDE

MATH · GRADES 3-5 · LESSON SLIDE

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

For little kids, joy is the curriculum

Teaching 4-to-8-year-olds over video means designing for attention, not just comprehension. I wove characters, energizers, and interactive beats into every lesson — then watched real class recordings with the Tutor Excellence team and retuned the timing and interactivity based on what actually held a kid's focus.

Tutor energy turned out to be a design variable. Get it wrong and the little ones are squirming off-screen in ninety seconds.

TRAINING & ENABLEMENT

Training 400 tutors a month to deliver it consistently

A framework only works if the people delivering it understand it. Every week I ran live trainings for 400+ tutors — walking them through the lesson format, the characters, and the conceptual moves that matter most when teaching phonics and early math to small children.

PHONICS TRAINING DECK · GRADES K-2

OUTCOME

10,000+

Students reached across grades K-5 through the instructional framework I designed — delivered in 4,000+ live classes a week, by 2,000+ tutors, across four regions.

100+

LESSONS DESIGNED

Live-class lessons built using ADDIE, Backward Design, and formative assessment.

400

TUTORS ENABLED · MONTHLY

Online tutors onboarded and trained every month, across subjects and grades.

5

DESIGNERS LED

Instructional designers shipping multi-subject lessons every week.

REFLECTION

What I Learned

This role taught me to design for the system, not the lesson — when 2,000 people deliver your work, the framework is the product. It also taught me that with the youngest learners, talk time, free play, and a high-energy tutor aren't extras. They're the mechanism that makes anything else stick.

The best instructional design disappears. If the tutor and the kid both feel like the class is just flowing, the structure underneath is doing its job.

LIDO LEARNING (BYJU'S) · SENIOR CURRICULUM DESIGNER · 2020–2021