The coronavirus outspread is having social and economic ramifications across the globe. While companies scramble to formulate new strategies to tackle this situation of crisis, businesses in the education sector are experiencing an upsurge in the usage of online learning. With travel bans and quarantines being imposed in full swing, education institutions around the world are making a shift towards e-learning. Experts suggest that this crisis may spark an online learning boom for the education industry. If not, then at least it’ll prepare us to tackle the next pandemic.
Disruption in Education Industry due to coronavirus
Millions of students all around the world are either homebound or unable to travel. In China, many universities had scheduled to begin the spring semester in February, which had to be postponed indefinitely. As an immediate response to the current situation, institutions are resorting to switching to online lectures at a massive scale.
Australian universities that offer higher education are extremely dependent on Chinese students. But international travel restrictions have left both the students and the universities in a lurch. The only thing higher education institutions can do right now is to boost their online capacity. This unprecedented situation has compelled the education institutions to adopt digital ways of teaching. It is a whole new experience for both faculties as well as the students.
Numerous colleges are facing issues trying to figure out the correct medium of interaction with their students. While a majority of them utilizing online leaning management systems, there are still no standard guidelines for e-learning. To make things worse, not everyone feels positive about distance learning. With Ed-tech historically moving at a slow pace and struggling with adoption at a large-scale, investors of ed-tech companies hope that an innovation in the near future will change the landscape of ed-tech, where a majority of the population will be actively engaged into online learning.
Ed-tech as a crisis response tool
In today’s world, where uncertainty caused due to the coronavirus is on an exponential rise, online education is playing a vital role in keeping things on the move for the education institutions. Countries across the globe, especially developing countries, can benefit from it greatly as it can aid in overcoming emergencies as well as address issues of faculty shortage. When things do go back to “normal”, the increase in the usage of online learning will sustain.
COVID-19 has indeed triggered a revolution for the ed-tech industry. Various education companies are offering free access to their tools in order to drive traffic, but the real question is whether the traffic will last once things normalize. Ofcourse there is a boost in the demand for e-learning platforms but are the businesses really gaining from this situation? Experts believe that there is no guarantee that this uptick in the demand will drive sales or revenue.
A number of e-learning apps, websites and collaboration service providers are boosting their marketing efforts these days to engage their target audience. Home bound people are indulging in learning new skills and completing various certifications.
