Coronavirus pandemic has led to a new-age EdTech experience for children everywhere

By Praveen Tyagi

COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the lifestyle of everyone around the world. Every sector of the economy is hit by this change. The lockdown situation has emerged as a threat for some sectors and at the same time, an opportunity for some. As a result, the dynamics of education has seen a dramatic change. The world of EdTech and E-Learning came out as the knight in shining armour.

We have been, for a long time, understanding and working on traditional school educational concepts and theories. There were no other alternatives than school or classroom education for children to perceive their concepts.

The pandemic has led to a new-age EdTech experience for children all over the world. Learning from home technology was never appreciated and utilized as it’s been now.

As per a report released by KPMG India and Google, Online Education in India: 2021, the market for online education in India is expected to witness a magnificent growth of eight times in three years.

Such high growth in the online education market is projected to be the outcome of the increased number of paid online education users from 1.57 million in 2016 to 9.5 million in 2021. This highlights that the schools and educational institutions are accepting it and started implementing or advising children to opt for these technologies and make full use of education even in such a crisis.

Benefits

Edutech or the Edtech industry not only gives a new conceptual technology for educating the children but also flourishes their careers. With an advanced way of learning like gamification and participative learning modules, the e-learning apps are bringing more efficiency in the students.

E-learning apps offer well-ensured monitoring and performance-check of the child to give a synopsis of the strengths and weaknesses. This detailed and in-depth analysis is not possible through physical tests, but with these tech products, the parents and the teachers are in the loop with the accurate and detailed information of the child’s performance in each subject.

Other benefits of these e-learning apps are:

1. Enables students to practice self-learning: The process of learning through gamification helps the students to practice self-learning. This further helps them to prepare and participate in competitive exams for building their career and empowers them to take ownership of their learning for understanding their educational progress. As reports at Class Central indicate, in 2017 alone, around 27 million individuals on a global scale took their first Massive Open Online Course, rounding up a number of 81 million online learners at over 800 universities.
2. Increases Attentiveness and Efficiency: The gamified techniques of learning help the students to focus more on their syllabus as it provides them with an enjoyable and interactive medium to learn. This motivates the students to improve their efficiency and attentiveness towards their learning process.
3. Provides Instant Feedback: The gamified format of learning gives the students instant feedback after every game-cum-lesson. This enables them to understand their progress and get better learning engagement through dashboards with a real-time feedback mechanism that further helps the teachers and the parents in making informed decisions.
4. Gives Freedom to Fail and Try Again: Gamification of the learning process enables the students to try again and again without any negative repercussions. It gives the students various opportunities to attempt without the fear of failing, so they can hone their conceptual clarity to perfection.
5. Allows learners to see real-world applications: Learning becomes interesting and effective when the learner can apply the theories in practical scenarios. Gamification in education enables the students to see the real-world applications and benefits of the subject matter. They can get a first-hand look at how their choices within the game result in consequences or rewards.
6. Easy Accessibility: The biggest advantage of online learning is the ease of access that it provides to students all over the world. Breaking the geographical barriers, e-learning helps the students to learn from the ease of their homes, whether in a rural or urban area.
7. Gives Effective Results: Online learning gives effective results with the added benefit of flexibility. With e-learning, students have more control over the learning process. As per the sources of Sh!ft, E-learning increases learning retention rates by between 25% and 60%.
8. Offers Personalization: Along with so many other benefits, E-learning also offers personalization. To cater to the needs of every student as per their requirements, e-learning platforms provide a personalised way of teaching and learning that is solely customised as per the individual. When they decide what to learn, they remain invested in the course.

(The author is the Founder of STEPapp. Views expressed are personal.)