Education sector: Trends and technologies that are ruling now and will continue post COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the course of life and business everywhere across the globe. One of the worst affected section of people are the students, who are not just confused about the current situation but have queries about the future education and specifically about the education abroad. But as there is a bright side to every situation, there is one to the COVID-19 situation also. You may be wondering what could be the positive aspects of this pandemic, isn’t it? Well, this situation has lead to the increased and better use of technology in education.
Okay… there is no denying the fact that technology was already being used for educating students but not like the way it is being used now. COVID-19 has forced all industries to adopt new and innovative thinking in order to continue operating as close to normal as possible. It has brought about an impending ‘change’. While earlier the role of technology in education was limited, now the whole pandemic situation has accelerated its use and brought about digital transformation. And here, we are mentioning the technological solutions that have been used intensively since the pandemic and will be the new normal in the post COVID-19 times:
1.Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing will enable MOOC
While the traditional education system is based massively on the concept of “one-size-fits-all”, the Artificial Intelligence approach to education would be more focused on personalized learning experience, which would in turn help resolve many issues faced by students today. In other words, AI and machine learning will be used to outline a student’s qualities and shortcomings.
MOOC refers to massive open online courses. AI will make organizing the online classes easy and as individual learning rates and records will be contemplated and computed, these tests will bring about better results.
2.Chatbots will provide personalized help and guidance
Chatbots are already a great hit but the COVID-19 has seen its recent evolvement in the form of its new converts like the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control. Talking about its use in the education sector, the University of Murcia in Spain recently deployed AI-enabled chatbot to answer the queries of students and the results were surprising as the chatbot answered over 38,708 questions which accounted to 91% correct answers. In fact, it was observed that because chatbots could answer student’s questions outside of regular office hours, students felt motivated to study as there was somebody always available to sort their problems. How it would benefit the universities, you ask? Well, universities will have large volume of big data that would be obtained regarding students’ concerns and areas of interest. Universities can use this data to create innovative new services and programs which will help improve students’ educational experiences.
3.AR will enhance visualization, annotations and storytelling
It is a fact that something presented in a pictorial form is better understood and stays in memory for long. Talking in terms of today’s digitally advanced world, we would say Augmented Reality (AR) does a great job as a visualization tool. Recent example of its use in the education industry is of the medical students at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) who are using HoloLens and HoloAnatomy, an award-winning AR app by CWRU and Cleveland Clinic to learn their own homes in the current lockdown situation.
So, these were a few technological trends that are making mark in the education sector and may continue to do so in the near future. In fact, students who are curious to learn but due to the ongoing situation their learning has taken a back seat, can try making use of these technologies to learn. Their education abroad may not happen anytime soon but this doesn’t mean that they have to stop learning.