By 2030, Global Education and Training Expenditure is set to reach at least $ 10 trillion. Here is a glimpse of emerging trends that will transform/ improve education sector in 2019. Vijaya Pothula, Co-Founder & COO – EdSense, for Elets News Network (ENN).
The education sector is set to see strong expansion globally due to population growth, government support and incentives, inclusion of “Quality Education” as one of the key sustainable development goals of UN, growing importance of adult education and technological and pedagogical changes in teaching and learning.
Artificial Intelligence
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies in education shows no signs of slowing down. While the recent years we have seen AI being used for developing virtual teaching assistants and personalizing learning for a student, as the technology evolves and becomes more commercially viable, we will see AI penetrating other areas in education sector like:
- AI Driven Assessment: Artificial intelligence-based assessment provides constant feedback to teachers, students and parents about how the student learns, the support they need and the progress they are making towards their learning goals.
- Remote Exam Proctoring and classrooms: The remote exam proctoring system lets a student to appear for exams from any location. The system can track and monitor remote use using advanced video, image, audio streaming with the intelligence to do analyze if a student is cheating. Remote classrooms will enable students in far corners of the world to attend a class in a school or university in countries. Local players will collaborate with international universities to bring them at an economical price point to developing countries like India.
- Augmented Analytics: As the world becomes more data driven, AI driven analytics will become a critical tool to improve education and make the institutions more competitive. Descriptive and Predictive analytics will assist in crucial areas like reducing drop-out rates, proactive tutoring , timely intervention for at risk students, understanding content quality issues and content consumption patterns. From a school administrator stand point, data collection and analysis will provide insights which will help them design better curriculum, allocate costs efficiently and make the right investment strategies for a school. We will see an increased investment being made in training educators to develop:
- Research and analysis skills to let them interpret the AI data and ask relevant questions of the data
- Collaborative and management skills to work more efficiently with AI assistants and managing the resources effectively
Immersive Experiential Learning
As private players involve in developing mixed reality tools like Microsoft’s HoloLens, Google Expedition and Windows 10’s mixed reality viewer, the lines between real and virtual worlds will blur and the way educators and students engage with content will significantly change. With 5G technologies on the horizon promising lower latency and more robust connectivity, the quality of these tools will continue to grow, expanding their potential to supplement school and higher education.
Also Read: Indian Education Sector Awaits New Dawn — Industrial Revolution 4.0
The upcoming years will see evolved Mixed and Augmented Reality hardware and their integration with mobile technologies to make them more accessible. We will see the rise of mobile educational AR apps for developing simulations, real-time translators, 3D models and AR printable worksheets that educators can provide students to continue their learning at home
STEAM
Over the last decade, STEM Education (learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in an interdisciplinary or integrated approach) has become an integral part of schools curriculum to develop future workforce who will lead in innovation and technology. But this led to downplaying of other disciplines like art and creativity. Over the past few years, the STEM to STEAM movement has been taking root and encourages including “Arts” into STEM to truly meet the needs of a 21st century economy.
Also Read: Stem Education Catalysing Hands-on Learning
The business and industry now view Design Thinking and Creativity as critical skills to have to nurture innovators, educators, leaders and learners of the future. There will be a need for educators to explore newer curriculum methods and age appropriate design approaches. School administration will need to create an environment that supports successful infusion of STEAM by investing in Smart Spaces and teacher training. There will be an increased focus on producing STEAM starter kits to accelerate design thinking and logic. The demand for teacher training in STEAM will lead to increased development of professional online trainings for teachers. Coding and Robotics will continue to grow in popularity with private sector’s increased participation in developing innovative educational content, providing expert help and transfer knowledge.
Personalised Learning
Personalized Learning has been in the education sector trends for many years now and its popularity keeps growing. But in 2019, we will see increased integration across the globe of personalized learning. EdTech and AI technology has evolved more to cater to personalized learning styles and diverse individual needs. Just in time assessment will assist teachers to intervene at appropriate stages and tailor lesson plans accordingly. Assistive technologies will enable students with learning disabilities to have personal learning experiences and continue mainstream education.
Cost Management
With the increased adoption of EdTech in schools and universities across the world, the school administration will have to strategize and plan their investments accordingly. The next few years will see significant integration of below technologies:
- Cloud Based Technologies: Education organisations will aim to leverage benefits of cloud based technologies to drive cost savings and operational efficiencies through shared services initiatives.
- BlockChain Technology: Education sector will look towards utilizing blockchain technology to cut paper and printing costs by digitally storing student certificates and diplomas, cost and labor savings by transferring the control of storing personal data to the applicants, litigation cost savings due to loss of documents and damage.
- Edge Computing: As schools integrate new tools like AR headsets or connected classroom devices, the demand for computing power and hence cost will go up and this will bring in another aspect called Edge computing. This takes information processing and brings it closer to the source by using edge devices instead of sending information to and from a centralized cloud.AI will assist in diversifying the kind of devices that will act as edge endpoints.
Online Education
According to KPMG and Google study, it is predicted that online education in India is likely to be 2 Billion USD industry by 2021. With MOOCs and e-learning platforms offering reasonably priced certified courses developing in profusion, governments getting involved in recognizing e-learning programs and the rise in validity of digital certificates offered by these organizations, online learning will continue to see an increased adoption in 2019. There will be more focus on developing micro learning, blitz testing, social media mentoring and content curation.
Wellness programs
Schools will invest more in developing and evolving wellness programs within premises to tackle issues like absenteeism, stress and anxiety related disorders and learning disabilities. There is more awareness of physical, emotional and spiritual health impacting learning outcomes and this had led to increased focus on conducting mindfulness and meditation programs for students and educators. There will be increased collaboration between schools and wellness experts to conduct life skills training and keeping the children calm and focused.
Continuous learning programs for teachers
In India, schools are investing up to 20% of their budget on teacher and administrator training. Proving continuing education is a great strategy for Teacher retention and career advancement. The infusion of AI and technology will require the teachers to be equipped with latest knowledge, tools and guidelines on ‘how to deal with the changes’ and educate effectively.
Though, we are terming the above as trends, it will be good if these are long-lasting and greatly assist in positively transforming the education sector over the next few years. As a parent and an educator, this is an exciting time to be a part of the educational landscape and crucial to remain engaged with the latest developments and how they shape the future of our children.
