State and Scope of Online Education In India

Indian ed-tech market bloomed at a rapid speed and the response of the consumer has been mixed. There are people who love the change for all the various reasons; primarily it has made education better. On the other hand there are people who are change resistant and have not been very appreciative of the mix for various reasons.

Last week while reading Quora I came across some amazing responses from the users as well as the makers of online education and it tells a lot about the experience of people with online education in India. Inspired, touching upon various aspects to online education in India, this article will cover the following questions.

1. State of Online Education In India:

The current user base for online education industry in India largely consists of school students and working professionals. Some startups are providing standardized offerings in the form of test preparation content and K-12 learning courses. Then there are startups that are offering skill-based education, and finally, the ones that bring on innovative and new models on deck.

Primarily, there are five business models/categories which are growing at a rapid pace in the ed-tech sector in India taking online education to the next level. These include primary and secondary supplement education, test preparation, re-skills and online certifications, higher education and language, and casual learning.

2. The Future of Online Education In India:

John Uebersax, Director, Californians for Higher Education Reform mentions on Quora that the future of online education in India is “Unlimited”.

He adds, “The key is to make ‘diploma discrimination’ — i.e., where employers require degrees from established colleges — illegal. Employers should base hiring on what a person knows, not how or where they learned it. Compulsory accreditation of universities is part of the problem. This is mainly a scheme whereby established institutions limit competition. One current danger (at least in the US) is that greedy corporations are trying to monopolize the online education market. If they have their way, people will be required to take classes from ‘accredited’ online programs.”

3. Factors Limiting The Growth Of Online Education In India:

Ishan Gupta, Managing Director, Udacity India mentions, “Lack of awareness of the student that online education can be more engaging and effective than distance education has been one of the limiting factors. Having said that, at EduKart (an online study portal) we have seen growing enrollments and increased openness of students to pursue formal and non-formal education through online delivery.”

It seems that in India the concept of edtech has been not getting the attention it should. There is a dire need that people adapt to the education technology as it can fulfill their learning needs but on the other hand lack of awareness and unavailability of supported infrastructure becomes one major reason for them to be not inclined towards the use of technology in education. And those who are well aware as well as have the proper supported infrastructure are finding it hard to gain the output after opting the online education as their preference.

Conclusion:

With so many reasons, both good and bad, the market is going good and there is demand from the audience hence the supply have been taking place. We can definitely expect India to be one major Ed-tech giant in the coming years but the question remains whether the benefits of the educational technology will be limited to only those who does have an understanding of the potential and benefits of this mix or will efforts be made to make it available to those who cannot only make the most out of it but actually need it.

Make sure you share your insights on the same in the comment section below.