Unlike most sectors, edutech has been booming over the past year amidst the pandemic, as many brick and mortar education and professional training institutions in the region are scrambling to digitise. The global edutech industry is currently valued at US$ 89.49 billion in 2020 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.9 per cent from 2021 to 2028.
This provides ample opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors to capitalise on the growing demand locally and globally and poses a few challenges to the industry.
As industry players continue to innovate to streamline online education, Knovo’s take on three issues that must be addressed to ensure learners can fully benefit from the digitisation of education.
Unfiltered education content and fragmented industry
As of January 2021, about 60 per cent of the global population is reported to have access to the internet via mobile devices, allowing them to access hundreds of edutech platforms and making it difficult for the average student or professional to figure out which education platform is right for them.
Therefore, data aggregation and adaptive learning technologies are important in edutech platforms to help filter education content on the internet.
The high influx of edutech providers has also resulted in the industry becoming more fragmented due to various learning management systems.
The key is to democratise access to quality education tools for students, professionals and educators, thereby driving inclusiveness in e-learning.
To illustrate, Knovo recognises the importance of data aggregation and the impact adaptive learning technologies have on a user’s learning journey.
Its Virtual Interactive Knowledge Exchange (VIKE) platform actively aggregates key players in the edutech industry. Its “one-stop” learning system allows users to tap into a repository of educational content and learning resources to learn synchronously or asynchronously.
As edutech allows ‘flipped learning’ where learners can consume materials offline at their own pace, Knovo addresses the gaps in allowing students to reach out to connect with educators for validated learning and real-time interactions.
This mode allows a recurring bond between the educators, enterprises, and learners while giving the recognition and exposure for the educators and institutions to connect with new learners globally, outside of their own market or learner base.
This creates an “edu-social” experience between students and educators, giving them flexible learning modes and technology-based features to deliver adaptive digital education content.
Knovo focusses on ‘right’ educator and supply of quality educators
With unfiltered education content comes the challenge of finding the ‘right’ educator. From firsthand experience, the right tutor could change a person’s life as it did for me.
Shadow education is deemed necessary, especially in Asian countries, as most parents believe that an investment in education will pay the best dividends in the years to come.
From a score of F to an A in Mathematics, my experience with an amazing tutor changed my life and was fundamental in earning a good degree and opening up many career options.
With the heightened restrictions and lockdowns implemented worldwide, we recognise that not many have the financial capacity or equal access to quality education. This is where Knovo’s solutions come in.
In collaboration with Singapore Brand Educators and centres, we facilitate access to quality education for underserved communities, making online learning and teaching easier through end-to-end solutions, from class booking, scheduling, virtual learning delivery tools and payment solutions for both learners and educators, all in one.
Our primary goal is to digitally connect qualified educators to learners from all over the world so that those who desire to learn can access quality education without breaking the bank.
Gaps in quality workforce
The reality is that even in this day and age, not many have access to quality education, especially in developing countries. The gaps in the quality of the workforce can directly impact standards of living, business decisions, and the economic growth of countries. These issues derive from lower education standards and have an impact on the way people think and act.
At the K-12 level, where more supervision is needed, the future of education will likely move towards a blended learning model. In tertiary and vocational education, there will be a need for more flexible learning modes to help students acquire the skills they need for jobs or provide them with the opportunity to reskill and upskill at ease.
Hence, as automation and technology transform the labour market, more emphasis will be placed on developing skills that cannot be easily automated, resulting in requirements to be retrained multiple times during their career.
Therefore, I see a rise in AI-powered training suites for enterprises to manage content for such training and drive acceleration in reskilling and upskilling over a longer term.
Also Read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning
In that vein, the tertiary education spectrum can benefit greatly from blockchain, which provides easy records of students’ educational qualifications or admission details.
This will transform the record-keeping of certificates as well as student credentials in learning institutions and issuing credentials. While many appreciate blockchain as ‘that thing that makes bitcoin work’, there are far more applications for it.
Being secure, decentralised ledgers, blockchains can be applied in many fields, including healthcare and education. I think this is an area that edutech could look at adopting to achieve its full potential.
Our internship programmes for local tertiary and university students allow them to work on real software development projects and understand more about the tech industry and career paths through our extensive database of live instructors and industry experts.
Such courses are targeted towards industry-relevant skills required for jobs and provide lifelong learners with the opportunity to upskill or re-skill through industry-based programmes.
With more initiatives from other edutech providers, we would support a steady pipeline of industry-relevant talent and further establish Singapore as a Global-Asia technology hub.
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