IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL APPS ON THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY
Technology has had a strong impact on the education industry and its fruits are visible to all. It need not be highlighted how many people have benefitted from this wave in the past and continue to do so.
Amidst this COVID scenario, many industries had to face a downfall in their businesses. Edtech, or educational-technological industry as it’s called, took a leap in the market and used this as an opportunity to provide better E-learning solutions to youngsters at the comfort of their home. Web and mobile applications like Udemy, Coursera, etc. have made continuous efforts to make education an easy and manageable affair through online learning.
Edtech has become the backbone of the entire education industry today with a total market value of USD 21.66 billion in 2019, which is projected to reach USD 68.54 billion by 2024.
Talking about online applications, around 81% of the population today uses mobile phones and laptops to study and upgrade themselves. Moreover, mobile applications lead this entire race to be the most used platforms for online learning for their innumerable handy and user-friendly benefits.
With changing scenarios, education app development service providers are rising consistently.
Investors in the Edtech industry can recognize the significant global trends with which growth in this industry is inevitable to all its stakeholders. These trends include:
1. Continuous population growth in developing countries that will lead to a growth in the demand for education service providers, tools and technology.
2. Increasing digitization, that will lead to improved efficiency in delivery standards on education
3. Huge Opportunities to solve key problems in the industry like (student debt, flattening test scores)
Shifted Focus to Self-Learning
With applications like Udemy and Coursera taking the lead in providing affordable online courses on almost all possible skill sets, the focus has shifted to self-learning more than old school classroom learning. Today, youngsters are not limited to their particular streams of science, commerce, or humanities anymore. This means that even a commerce graduate with specializations in accountancy can learn how to code from scratch, thanks to E-Learning mobile applications.
Smart Classrooms for Students
There has been a significant shift in smart classrooms for school children in the past few years, resulting in better teaching patterns. Now, learning has shifted from monotonous one-sided lectures to gamified sessions where students play while they learn new concepts. Both students and teachers are now benefitting from this. They can view the entire syllabus online and decide which courses and subjects to start first. Interactive digitized blackboards installed in classes help students visualize their chapters and diagrams while learning.
Parents Have Better Control
With all student activities being mapped out on your handsets, parents today can have better control over their children’s education. All essential features like chapters, notes, homework, exam syllabus, date sheet, etc. can now be accessed by parents using their profiles. Parents and teachers can stay in direct contact thanks to these applications to help eliminate loopholes in their children’s development.
Rise of Application-Based Learning
With the World Advertising Research Centre coming with a bold prediction stating that 72% of the internet user will be using smartphones to access all information by 2025, education-based mobile applications had to take the lead in increasing their mobile presence. Mobile applications are easy to use, handy, and give the user flexibility while learning and acquiring new skillsets.
Cost-effective learning
With E-learning made available in the comfort of home, education has become affordable, accessible, and cost-effective to many youngsters. The packages they purchase include notes, online videos, tests, and live projects completed as per their convenience.
Customized packages
Learning today has become too focused. If you wish to gain expertise in ‘React JS’, you can always choose to opt for a course dedicated to ‘React JS’ basics. This helps you save money from paying for courses that you’re not interested in.
Rise of Edtech based start-ups
With the rising use of education applications, the global Edtech market is proliferating with massive scope for early-stage start-ups and middle-sized companies. Start-ups have analyzed the importance of technology in all the three categories of education i.e formal, informal, and non-formal. Hence an industry like Edtech has relevancy throughout the life of a learner.
Remote learning
Looking at the current COVID crises, remote learning features that comes with educational app-based learning has helped students continue their studies without any hassle. Schools have been able to continue with their classes online, and various institutions have successfully given coachings on one on one basis through online applications. Live doubt clearing, notes sharing, etc. has been possible because of this change in the educational system only.
Top Technologies Ruling the Educational Application Market
Artificial intelligence (AI)
AI is one of the essential technological interventions impacting the education sector by aiding in content creation, customization of learning processes, automating grading, generating more leads, etc. The global market for AI in education is expected to be valued at USD 3.68 Bn by 2023 at a Compound annual growth rate of 47% during the period 2018–2023.
The biggest problem of E-learning that AI helps solve is making customized or personalized educational packages for all. An adaptive learning system can be easily used to design various learning models as per the needs of the users through AI.
Blockchain
The best benefit offered by blockchain is data security. The data is stored in a distributed ledger system where absolutely no one can hamper with it. Therefore it provides safety along with transparency to all its users. Hence blockchain is helping connect networks through comfortable and safe data sharing on a single platform
Other than that, other benefits of blockchain in the education industry include:
1. Helps to validate the authority of educational resources
2. Helps prevents frauds and malpractices in institutions. Applications supported by blockchain can help in validating daily processes like attendance and assignment submissions.
3. Helps in creating and maintaining CVs online that could be easily shared with various employers.
4. Helps in managing record of the students and faculties online. It reduces paperwork and accelerates operations
5. Tutors can interact with each other from different part of the world on the same platform
AR/VR
Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are technologies that are bringing real looking environments in classrooms by introducing different virtual elements and situations for efficient learning. The best examples of AR/VR in learning applications are in the medical and airline industry. Real looking virtual environments are created for doctors and pilots during training to apply their learning practically before they step into real situations. With many such examples, technologies build a pace of understanding complex subjects with ease and creativity by developing great educational apps for students and teachers.
Gamification
One of the most efficient ways to improve engagement while learning is through Gamification. Applications today have features like leader boards, level-ups, trophies, awards, and badges to be awarded as the difficulty level increases while they learn and grow through the app. It evokes creativity, excitement, and imagination in students. Typical examples include Duolingo and vocab.com that use a similar concept.
With everything going in the right direction, what is it that’s still lagging???
With everything going in the right direction, what is stopping this industry from booming in all spheres? Although the industry well receives the dynamic changes brought in by these educational apps, some bottlenecks can potentially clog the industry from growling. These include:
- Lack of awareness on how to mainstream your conventional education business in schools to a fast-tracked technology-driven teaching system: schools situated in remote areas have no clue on how to bring about this technological change in their school environment because of which the students continue to stay disconnected with the benefits attached to E-learning
- No mechanism for Edtech start-ups to get certified with regulatory bodies, ultimately resulting in reduced trust levels between the start-ups and investors.
Conclusion
With the increased use of handsets by youngsters, learning from applications has shifted the focus off conventional classroom education towards a more flexible and customized form of learning. This has given rise to an entire Edtech industry in the market that’s increasing popularity in most of the developing nations. Applications make learning more accessible, fun, handy, and affordable to all, eventually helping them upgrade their skills as per the market standards. Therefore, entrepreneurs have started investing in this market and developing educational apps catering to every individual’s need. You can always reach out to a professional application development company with an amazing application idea that can deliver to your target customers specific needs in the market.
