“In early 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) plunged the world into an unprecedented education crisis that has affected over 1.2 billion learners.”
Ed-tech companies have been working on the concept of a social learning network and online teaching platform for a long time, but the COVID crisis set a perfect stage to experiment with the durability on a larger scale.
The pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill motivating many countries to explore new ways of resuming life which also included education. And the great shift from conventional classrooms to online classrooms became the main highlight of the educational domain for the year 2020.
But what initiated this great shift and how Ed-Tech companies worked as a catalyst to this evolution, we will highlight in this article.
The disastrous impact of educational institutions being closed during the lockdown
Overnight, the announcement of nationwide lockdown created havoc as there was no alternative to resume life as it was. Educational sectors such as schools, colleges, institutes, and even coaching centers were shut down leaving so many students clueless about their future.
Aspirants who were preparing for upcoming competitive exams especially dealt with a severe backlash as they were left alone without any support from professional coaching institutes. NEET exam was also about to be held and newspapers were full of articles demonstrating the uncertainty and sadness of every NEET aspirant who was left in a grey area.
All of this was hitting the nation at once and there was no hope until Ed-Tech companies came forward with a positive presentation of online assessment and social learning platform.
The idea of social learning and teaching was already becoming a part of the educational system but was only considered for its leisure/fun value. Only after its application as a strong replacement to conventional classroom learning, we could see its more proactive side.
How Ed-Tech companies are developing better online teaching and learning options?
To curb the educational crisis, countries across the globe are spending more on educational technology and online learning to initiate normal continuity of education even in the lockdown phase. To cultivate this sort of modern educational ideas Ed-Tech companies strive to create a unique combination of IT tools and AI technology along with conventional educational practices which form a strong base of teaching and learning across all educational domains.
The fact that social learning networks make education reachable even to the remote areas, makes it all the more effective in providing education to the ones who have no access to good schools and colleges.
It has been estimated that the Ed-Tech industry will be “triple in value to $350 billion by 2025” as it has been gaining rapid growth in countries like India and Kenya.
In what other ways Ed-Tech companies are supporting the educational industry during the COVID phase (The main Highlights)?
Developed low-tech mobile solutions
“Mobile is expanding rapidly. With over five billion unique subscribers globally or over two-thirds of the world’s population, mobile has the potential to be a catalyst for online learning.”
Online learning is not always about high-tech computers or expensive laptops and many Ed-Tech companies proved it by developing an online learning platform in an APP form which could be uploaded in any smartphone and could be used to acquire all forms of digital learning right from online courses to live classes.
Maintained digital equity
Earlier, ED-Tech tools were all created for high-end users who owned a proper setup including high-speed internet connectivity. The new online learning solutions that are being developed recently are more focused on working even on low internet connectivity. Also, many of its features support offline learning in which students can avail of basic features even without any internet connectivity. This has helped the students residing in remote areas to follow an equal pace of learning that students in urban areas enjoy.
Created remotely proctored platforms for online assessments
Online teaching platform are being integrated with online proctored assessment technology wherein the educators can teach and also conduct proctored assessments/quizzes all at once.
These proctored assessment platforms have also been used in many government and competitive exams that were conducted during the lockdown phase. It made exam conduction not just automatic but also easy and accurate. In this type of online assessment, the proctoring can be either done live or remote. Also, the evaluation and result generating process are automatic cutting down on any manual efforts and mistakes.
Made online learning easily accessible and fun- Social learning network
Just like any other social network such as Facebook and Instagram, the social learning network has been created to provide easy information and possibilities of connecting instantly but all in an educational ecosystem. The learners can share and receive a lot of relevant knowledge and the educators can make it a platform to gain brand recognition and reach out to a large population of students from across the world.
The development of social learning network and other sorts of social learning platforms has eliminated all restrictions of time and space making education readily available to all learners out there
Conclusion
AI integrated adaptive social learning and teaching platform was already developed as a catalyst to bridge any sort of learning gaps but now it is also becoming a means to recognize any failure in the existing conventional learning system.
In the COVID era, online teaching platform did save our current student and teacher population from a huge disaster which could ultimately result in a large number of layoffs in teaching jobs and students left midway of acquiring education. At the beginning of the lockdown announcement none of us knew when things will become normal and even today we are unsure as to when the possibility of the normal gathering will resume. But the introduction of “new normal” wherein everything has been taken over by technology, we are no more in vain of witnessing negative outcomes. This new path that has been opened has not just made us stable during the time of crisis but has also paved a path for a smart tech-enhanced future which can also be said as post COVID era.
