8 reasons why online education will rule

“The biggest industry of the future, the one with the most dollar amount, will be online education. Colleges will eventually have to disappear because they don’t really make sense for the price.”

— Scott Adams, political commentator, tech evangelist and creator of the popular cartoon strip Dilbert.

The Covid pandemic-crisis-lockdown-recession probably presents the greatest technological shift and lifestyle change since World War 2. At the beginning of this crisis, many people thought that things would return to normal, but that may not happen. It’s why we have coined the term “New Normal”. Changes taking place in the education sector may well become permanent for a variety of factors. But look at why online education is on the ascendant.

1. Costs: In the US, the student debt is more than $1.5 trillion. The education system was creaking even before Covid. Now it will be even more difficult for colleges to recover costs and students to repay thanks to a recession which may last a few years. It is a fact that higher education is getting more and more expensive for even middle-class students all over the world. The only thing that is stopping online colleges from taking off is government accreditation. Once that happens, nothing can stop online universities from expanding in a big way.

2. Quality: During Covid, everyone has been pushed into the swimming pool and is being forced to learn to swim. Bandwidths are being upgraded, collaboration tools are being refined to include special features for education. Teachers and students are being forced to learn these new skills. The world will learn from its mistakes and best practices will come up by 2021 which will be adopted by educational institutions all over the world.

3. Quantity: Did you know that one teacher can simultaneously conduct classes for thousands of students? As far as the student is concerned, he has a direct connect with the teacher who can have the same virtual presence for every virtual student. The teacher can know how many are active on screen. They can keep asking multiple choice questions to every student and will immediately know who all are not participating. Facial Recognition can be applied to see if the teacher is teaching well and if every one of the many students online are paying attention or whether something wrong with them.

4. Data Analytics: Educational institutes create a huge amount of data. Now all this data can be digitized, collated and analyzed in a manner that cannot be done offline. Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning-Deep Learning techniques can take it to the next level. Teaching can be streamlined and optimized. Even checking of papers can be slightly automated. Once you are used to the online world, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used to streamline administrative processes.

5. Virtual Reality: VR is very handy when it comes to education and training purposes. But you can’t put the cart before the horse. We had to wait for online education itself to reach a critical point which may now be happening. VR can help students to take virtual tours of any place on Earth or universe or even inside the human body. They can visit the best museums and conduct scientific simulations. Many educators were thinking of having VR headsets in classrooms, but now they can be used at home too.

6. It’s Eco-friendly: Students can save a lot of time by not commuting. For some it may be convenient but for others it may not be. There is also the environmental factor by bringing down commute and saving on carbon emissions. The dream of a paperless office has been around for decades. With online education and the cloud available for storage of huge swathes of data with backup, that dream can finally come true.

7. Remote Education: India is a far-flung country with many remote areas—villages, mountainous terrain, there are those who are cut off for many months or maybe even throughout the year. With virtual education everyone gets a chance to participate no matter where they are. One expects that every university in the long run will offer online classes along with their offline ones. Offline classrooms also could also go live.

8. Home Education: This is also one option preferred by many parents, but they do not go ahead because their options are currently limited. Yesterday home schooling consisted of only tutions and studying at home. With online education going big, the option of home schooling will also open up to whichever parents are keen on it.