Divanshi Gupta, a young, far-sighted, and zealous entrepreneur is here to take on the world with her latest venture into the field of Skill-Tech. With more than 16+ years of dancing, choreographing and teaching experience, Divanshi is set to redefine the way of upskilling, and most importantly, make it accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Divanshi is a Prabhakar Degree holder in Kathak from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad, and she wants to extend the experience, magic, and energy to scores of people with her latest entrepreneurial endeavour.
Divanshi has been on an entrepreneurial journey since 2012, first with Dance Helpline, and now Ucanji. She has organised several on-ground talent hunts for Dance India Dance, Dance+, So You Think You Can Dance, and more, while also organising workshops with International as well as National artists across India. She single-handedly launched and managed 13+ Dance Centres across Delhi NCR, and is again on a similar streak with Ucanji.
Over the last decade, the education industry has seen it all, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. By transforming digitally, learning has found a new medium to fan out among the people who are seeking to become extraordinary in their choice of field. Today, India is home to 4,500+ EdTech startups facilitating learning, growth and development to scores of people across age groups, and it is just the beginning.
With the change in learning dynamics, several educational institutions are adopting digital means to connect, engage and educate learners amidst the on-going stress-induced living. Everyone wants only the best for their family, and hence, people are moving towards the digital mode of learning despite various traditional/offline sessions available in the market.
Impact of COVID-19 on EdTech/Digital Learning Platforms
- The on-going pandemic has put technology at the core of ‘how teachers teach, how students learn and how educational facilities operate’. Arising from a wrecking ball, EdTech has the opportunity to positively influence and empower students to engage in active learning.
- The EdTech industry has been able to raise a total investment of $2.22 billion in 2020 alone, due to the shift in demand.
- A study by BARC India and Nielsen has reported a 30% increase in the time spent on education apps on smartphones since the beginning of COVID-19 led lockdown.
Digital Transformation re-defining Learning & Teaching
There will never be a better time to realize the importance of digital technology and grab the opportunity to transform with it. The digital methods of education have the capabilities to enhance and re-define learning and teaching methods. Here’s how digital transformation is making the difference today:
- Adaptive Learning: Technology today has enabled educational institutions to offer an enhanced learning experience to each student via digital media. Adaptive learning is a technology that captures data, analyses it, understands the student’s needs and curates an extensive tailored solution that works best for him/her.
- AI-driven online assessments & analysis: Teaching from a remote location has its perks but it comes with its sets of concerns. However, technology and digital transformation have helped overcome it. With the strategic integration of AI-driven solutions in education, the teachers have been able to assess a student’s performance and analyze it to help him/her improve tailored to the student’s weaker points.
- Video Conferencing Solutions: Education is important. The education sector has enrolled over 335 million students across schools, colleges and universities in India alone. With the deadly virus spreading with the speed of light, taking preventive measures such as complete lockdown was the need of the hour, and educating students was equally important. Hence, the need for Video Conferencing Solutions.
- Online-Proctoring for Comprehensive Learning: Just like learning, appearing for tests and elaborate exams is also a part of the process. Conducting examinations has become convenient with online proctoring solutions making their way into the education industry. Now, schools and colleges can take online exams and access student’s true learning – to understand a student’s overall learning cycle.
Role of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in Augmenting EdTech/Digital Learning
The launch of the National Education Policy emphasises on uplifting the digital learning experience in both private and public settings, while especially focusing on disadvantaged groups and making online learning content available in regional languages. Furthermore, NEP 2020 has propelled the EdTech business towards 8x to 10x growth over the next 5 years with a rise in adoption for higher education, increase in demand for professional skill development courses, and focus on continuous tracking of learning for better results.
Trends that will characterize the Digital Learning beyond Pandemic
- Boost in the integration of Technological tools such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in coming years. Besides creating remote-learning opportunities, the adoption of EdTech and other technologies will help provide a more robust infrastructure for an enhanced learning experience for millions of students. The use of AR and VR will improve the way students engage with education while AI will enable teachers to not only track student’s progress but also help them understand a student’s learning cycle more comprehensively.
- The need for Upskilling and Reskilling across different industries. The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for people to stay up-to-date in their field of employment and interest to stay relevant in the industry and to offer their best at the job. To ensure this, not only the employees are making conscious efforts to upskill themselves by enrolling in digital/online certified courses, but the companies are also taking immediate, dramatic steps to upgrade their staff’s knowledge base to secure their future in this ever-changing world. This is giving digital learning the required push to stay pertinent.
- Virtual learning sessions besides school hours. According to the National Sample Survey Office, 1 in every 4 students in India take private tuitions, and in several states, the statistics go up to 75%. During the pandemic, the educational institutions were not only the ones that went after tech integration and transformation, local tuition and coaching institutes were not as far behind.
Also, by the same token, virtual sessions have presented itself with huge opportunities for businesses looking to engage their employees in entertainment, motivational or educational resources as they continue to operate from a safe working environment.
Way Forward Beyond the Pandemic
Digital transformation in learning is not limited to education dissemination at school, college or universities, it pans out to anything and everything under the sun that engages learners in upskilling, from dance and fitness to programming. And so, the continued digitalization in offering personalized learning experience can benefit students from all ages of life, while also ameliorating the overall standard of education and related technologies in the country – making EdTech or Digital Learning the top choice in the coming years, even beyond the pandemic.
Overall, digital learning will be full of opportunities, accommodating to needs and cost-effectiveness, making it the preferred choice. While the disparity in access to the internet, smartphone devices or computers and electricity will pose as major challenges, however, the EdTech industry is expected to grow at a 6% CAGR with over 53 million learners enrolling in a plethora of edtech platforms by 2025.