We know that the world is presently under the COVID-19 impact and facing an enormous amount of difficulties. This critical situation made organizations move towards digital platforms and grasp the transformation with the expansion of remote working and a collaborative approach. During this pandemic, companies needed to accept the new normal and change their strategies to survive in such critical and unpredictable times. Many sectors such as aviation, travel, and hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and education were hit hard, but some of them saw a dramatic visible growth during the pandemic. One of those extremely fortunate sectors was the edtech sector.
Edtech refers to the eLearning industry or the online mode of learning and education. A strong push was given to the edtech sector as the studies of millions of students were interrupted due to the indefinite close down of universities and other educational institutions. So students switched to online platforms for their further studies and learnings. This pandemic accrued a drastic change overnight for the education technology (ed-tech) sector. Apart from students, professionals also leveraged the edtech platforms to upskill themselves. They took online courses to prepare for industry-recognized certifications like Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), and so on.
A huge and widening gap between having and have-nots ranked high among the challenges faced online or offline in the education space, all because of the lack of affordable access to quality teachers and other reasons. But there are multiple reasons to be optimistic about this industry. Covid-19 intensified existing bright spots such as connected TV, video conferencing tools, and cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) in the edtech space.
Things have changed quickly in edtech, and accomplishment within this industry relies on a business’s capacity to adjust to these changes during this critical pandemic time. As a result, eLearning players updated their mobile and desktop applications to incorporate more features that could fulfill the learning needs of the users. For example, more tutors were hired and trained to take instructor-led live classes, and students were provided the option to take notes in real-time.
In the years to come, edtech organizations will turn to be more dependent than ever on their digital strategy that will decide whether they can endure the difficult times ahead. They would be willing to stay tuned into the advanced technologies, latest trends, and developments in the business and attempt to provide solutions that react to these changes. It will assist edtech organizations in crossing and overcoming the difficulties that learners may face.
The new version of edtech is rising speedily with endless potential and opportunities. The growing demand for improved and better solutions is switching the traditional methods of education and altering the way the learners connect with their instructors and use their study materials. So we must accept the change that evolution is a conclusive attribute of our industry, and innovation should be our priority.
The Covid-19 crisis has rocked edtech and forced entities throughout the ecosystem to focus on how they can maintain their business continuity. But looking for a longer time, the impact of this pandemic on the industry is even harder to predict. But it is also clear that COVID-19 has given the edtech industry a significant push in the short term at least and has also created opportunities for the strongest players to emerge from it in an even better position.
