The education industry is the second-largest in the world. Technology has begun making inroads into the industry and is providing an enhanced learning experience to students. The Artificial Intelligence Industry in India is currently estimated to be US$ 230 million in terms of revenue, up from US$180 million a year ago. It is paving the way for a new era of education and will have an impact on how knowledge is delivered, right from the primary level to the university level. Technology has successfully been used in a wide range of domains - from the intelligent sensors that help us take perfect pictures, to the automatic parking features in cars and personal assistants in smartphones, it is changing the world we live in.
While this is happening, jobs are also changing with the advent of technology. When it comes to hiring, companies have a great opportunity to use cutting-edge technology to eliminate loopholes, increase efficiency and streamline processes. More and more recruiters are moving towards online platforms for hiring candidates. 70.1 percent recruiters, to be precise, have depended on job sites to find suitably skilled professionals. Speaking of jobs, the PWC Report states that the adoption of Artificial Intelligence will highly impact the workers and it may result in millions of job losses. To succeed in the near future, it would help if the individuals have a background in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and coding. Apart from these skills, students who can use technology to understand, reach out to the consumer are also in demand. Let's look at the job trends in India for 2020 which looks promising and growing continuously.
"To succeed in the near future, it would help if the individuals have a background in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and coding"
Briefly, it can be concluded that:
- India is the second-largest market in the world for digital consumers, according to a report by Mckinsey. There is a drastic rise in digital marketing managers and lead generation specialists, which shows India is growing exponentially digitally.
- India's technology sector will bear up to 65 million jobs, and generate $1 trillion as revenue, says the same report.
- Tech roles will need to have people with increased human skills-relationship management, client servicing, and understanding.
Today, technology is providing affordable, convenient, and very flexible ways for skill acquisition by providing a good experience to the learner too. Let's look at the top 5 technology trends in the education sector for 2020.
Self-Paced Learning
Technology provides the luxury of self-paced learning-in the sense, learning at your own speed and at your own convenience. Here, the conventional methods of teaching are not at work but instead, the learning plan and assessments are customized as per the learner's capability and strengths. A lot of institutes in India, including the premier ones, offer this type of online courses and certificate programs with placement assistance. The lecture is taught via video mode/audio mode which means the student can take the course from anywhere. The students can also clear their doubts via connecting over live chats with the available faculty. There is a stipulated time within which the student is expected to finish off the course. A lot of educational institutions will invest in online training than investing in physical classrooms. The technology professionals are about 2 million in India, and to keep them competitive, self-paced training's demand will be sky-high in the future.
Chatbots
From Microsoft's Clippy to Amazon's Alexa, chatbots have come a long way. A chatbot is no longer an additional micro-interaction for users and is quickly becoming the default customer-experience tool. The chatbots are built on the lines of intuition and hence configured to give out prompt and correct answers. These are commonly found on educational platforms too. 80 percent of businesses are projected to integrate some form of chatbot system by 2020, says research by Outgrow. Say, a student has to ask some doubts regarding one of the lectures, they can approach the chatbot anytime when needed. Chatbots are present at all times of the day and hence the educational institute doesn't need to employ humans specifically for this purpose. The chatbot will also answer questions regarding the institute, the various programs they have to offer, the other FAQs, payment support, scholarship support, and many more. The personalized experience really helps and the students end up being more satisfied with their queries resolved too. By 2020, 80 percent of the corporates across the globe will use chatbots at the workplace.
Mobile Learning
Now all learning happens on mobile phones, also known as mLearning. We have witnessed the explosion of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) in the past decade, which offer a very affordable and flexible way of acquiring skills through videos or live sessions. This movement is forcing institutions and companies to rethink their training courses' strategies and create mobile-friendly courses. The number of mobile phone users in 2018 was 5.1 billion, as per 'We Are Social' and this number is just increasing year on year. Students have access to study material like videos, slides, and pdf textbooks, all on their smartphones now. If not, Google and YouTube always come to the rescue. This gives them the freedom to study anywhere, anytime and in between busy schedules as well. Mobile learning has helped students to break through in their careers.
Ashish Yadav a young, energetic individual from Mumbai who dropped out in the 2nd year of engineering. He didn't drop out because he thought he was better than the education system but due to financial issues to pay fees amounting to lakhs. He badly wanted to become a software engineer and enrolled in online web development 5 months program with that motivation. He diligently worked through the basics of programming and built a portfolio of projects. He would have spent 10 hours a day in training himself apart from attending online live classes through mobile. In today's age where even full-time degree holders are jobless, Ashish got an opportunity in a mid-large software company in-spite of being a college drop-out.
Ambition, determination and hard work can set exemplary performance irrespective of students.
Artificial Intelligence
While humanoid robots acting as teachers could be a far-fetched idea, AI is already in use to help students get more out of their educational experience. With AI, it's now possible for institutes to opt for online assessment. Meaning, using machine learning and AI algorithms, the software can evaluate the answers that are written. It can even compare answers. Just like how we receive personalized recommendations on Netflix, AI is used to personalize learning to suit the students' needs. E-Learning Industry says that by 2024, more than 47 percent of learning management tools will be enabled by AI capabilities. Through AI-powered apps, students get targeted and customized responses from their mentors and guides. It expands the horizon of students by facilitating the learning of any course from anywhere and at any time. In the future, e-learning will be gamified-having video game-like features, making it catchy. The institutions can also track attendance by implementing facial recognition, which will also be useful for security purposes. Demand for AI and machine learning skilled specialists in the country is expected to see a 60 percent increase in 2020 due to the increasing adoption of automation, as per a report by KellyOCG, India.
Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality for education is predicted to be a $200 million industry by 2020, says Mbryonic. It is a classroom staple and is popular in the US and UK schools, but what makes it so popular? Because it makes learning more effective and engaging. Researchers at Warwick University found that VR headsets are a very stimulating way to learn any concept and allow them to replicate environments that would otherwise be too costly to access or impossible to see in reality. Imagine if you could learn about the history of data science by actually walking into the 90s and seeing data on machines. By creating an immersive and interactive environment, the learners' retention power is maximized. The benefits of using VR in education are it enhances creative thinking ability, gives a wholesome experience, and increases retention power.
We're living in a digital age where technology has had a transformative effect on the way we live and work. Slowly and steadily, technology has been making strides in revolutionizing methods of learning and teaching. Soon, such a time will come where we will have robots learning for us and giving assessments!
Sumesh Nair, Co-Founder
Sumesh Nair is an ex-management consultant with strategy and operations experience in Technology, Higher Education and Retail industry. After an MBA from S.P. Jain Mumbai, he worked as a senior consultant in PwC US Advisory (formerly PRTM Management Consulting). Sumesh has worked with fortune 500 clients delivering multiple engagements focused on post-merger integration projects, cost reduction exercises, people & organization, program management, market assessments, and supply chain strategy. He has co-founded Board Infinity, a career platform that aims to solve career problems for higher education job seekers in the country.
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