The COVID-19 spread changed the face of education dramatically, with the emergence of unorthodox virtual classrooms and extensive e-learning platforms.
Having spread to virtually every country, to say that the novel coronavirus severely disrupted global livelihoods would be an understatement. Entire industries came to a grinding halt. In the face of those struggles, erecting a strong technological setup in the education sector gave thousands a vision towards realizing a classroom of the future. At the centre sits a robust digital online architecture allowing worldwide access to quality education.
Distance became the norm
As social distancing became the new norm, digital platforms and supportive tools aimed to bring us closer than ever. Advances in vast online interconnectivity served as essential keys towards implementing large-scale online education. The pandemic led to schools and colleges being shut down all over the world, and through swift implementation of online learning solutions, decisive steps were taken to ensure that learning never stops.
Many modern setups rose to meet the demands of inclusive learning, course coverage and scalable classroom sizes in packages including customizable teaching resources, virtual support staff and one-to-one communication platforms. Teaching and collaboration resources like Zoom Meetings, MS Teams and Google Meet helped deliver a virtual brick-and-mortar experience to the stay-at-home classroom.
Distance learning became the new norm as e-learning firms like BYJU'S, Udemy and Khan Academy took active steps towards ramping up their global server infrastructure to increase load capabilities in tandem with the increased traffic to their platforms.
What comes next
The outbreak planted doubts about the actual effectiveness of a brick-and-mortar classroom, or even a workplace. With rapid advances in the industry, the education scene will continue to evolve to provide a more effective and interactive platform for the modern learner. With the introduction of 5G, orthodox education looks to be completely overthrown, with VR and AR leading the drive of setting up a powerful virtual environment.
Even before the outbreak, the education industry saw large investments made to ensure a stronger technology-enabled future, with the global market predicted to cross $350 billion by 2025. While COVID-19 was a setback to the rapid advances being made in education and classroom technology, it also helped accelerate building the digital infrastructure required for the future. Whether the changes are brought about today or in the next five years, one thing is certain: modern education and learning will never remain the same.