At present, the Indian edtech market size is reported to be about $700 million to $800 million. It is expected to grow more than 35-fold in the next 10 years, clocking $30 billion in market size as per estimates.
The onset of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown has drastically transformed the educational scenario across the globe. It has led to the transition from classroom learning to live classes have with books getting replaced by PDFs. As the uncertainty still prevails regarding the containment of the virus, remote and hybrid learning will be the natural mainstay of education in times to come. So, let’s have a look at how education is changing in today’s fast-paced digital world.
The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Online Education
So far, giant strides have been made in terms of education to meet the needs of the post-pandemic world. It has led to the advent of multiple educational platforms involving live interactive classes, audio-visual lectures, interesting modules, and so on. The adoption of digital modes of education is already high and will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.
At present, the Indian edtech market size is reported to be about $700 million to $800 million. It is expected to grow more than 35-fold in the next 10 years, clocking $30 billion in market size as per estimates. This stellar growth is going to piggyback on disruptive models that are coming to the fore, as we gradually depart from the one-size-fits-all academic landscape. Online platforms are ensuring that modern education is not merely enriching for students but also personalized.
According to a report by UNESCO named ‘Education in a post-COVID world: Nine ideas for public action’, the remote nature of digital devices has freed education from the tenterhooks of a permanent location.It is transforming the ways knowledge spreads throughout society. As an advantage, the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in exponential growth in mobile learning technologies. So, more people are able to educate and upskill themselves in the current scenario than before.
But there is also the flipside of this new-age education. Despite its wide-ranging advantages, the digital means cannot truly emulate the real-world classroom environment. In classrooms, students engage and collaborate with each other while also polishing their verbal and non-verbal skills. Doing so is quite challenging via digital means. Also, in the New Normal, the increased exposure of students to digital screens is likely to strain the eyes. This comes on top of the decreased physical activity due to the pandemic and social isolation causing increased cognitive load.
Importance ofAudio/Podcast
In an ideal scenario, the model of education should be such that it becomes affordable, understandable, and convenient, especially in a diverse nation like India. Moreover, while learners got used to consuming content digitally during the pandemic, the screen time for individuals has increased significantly. However, to limit the ill effects of too much screen time, everyone is looking for an alternative. In this context, audio comes as a savior by eliminating active screen time and still allowing to learn. Besides, a large number of learners, especially from the rural parts of our country, are only acquainted with vernacular languages. And the lack of learning solutions in local dialects is further accelerating the digital divide in our country. This is precisely the need gap that podcast-based platforms are addressing with their innovation-driven approach.
Apart from eliminating the language barrier, there are several other advantages of using podcasts for educational purposes. To begin with, it empowers students from even the remotest parts of India to receive a quality education. The audio lectures and presentation of information through podcasts can also be easily understood by anyone; including children. The cost-effectiveness of podcasts is also an added advantage. In case of inconsistent network connectivity, students can even record lectures and audio classes when the network is available. They can conveniently download and listen to them later at their own convenience. In fact, audio also converts any non-learning time into learning time due to its passive nature of consumption like while walking, cooking, or doing other physical work.
Teachers can, moreover, create personalized audio classes and topic-wise lectures for clearing the concept of students. So, these engaging audio contents improve the overall learning curve and the experience at large. Lastly, podcasts also prevent visual impairment, which is becoming a pressing issue these days owing to increased exposure of people to screens. Some of these reasons are why India has emerged as the third-largest podcast-listening market globally, which will grow with a CAGR of 34.5% till 2023 as per a KPMG report. It is because of them that re-imagining education in the post-pandemic world looks quite interesting. Its large-scale adoption can be the ‘revolution in education that India has been waiting for.
Source: Business World
