The outbreak of the pandemic under the name of Covid-19 or commonly known Corona-virus has effectively paralyzed most operational sectors. Education and learning were not able to escape the grip of this situation. Impact of Covid-19 on E-Learning is as significant as it is in any other industry. As of 27 April 2020, approximately 1.725 billion learners are currently affected due to school closures in response to the pandemic.
From March 19th, by the orders of the HRD ministry, schools and colleges were provisionally shut for preventive measures. According to UNICEF monitoring, 186 countries are currently implementing nationwide closures and 8 are implementing local closures. Impacting about 98.5 percent of the world’s student population.
As a result, education has changed dramatically. With the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase. With that, retention of information, and taking less time, meaning the changes coronavirus has caused might be here to stay.
Before COVID-19, there was high growth and adoption in education technology, with global ed-tech investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019. And the overall market for online education projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025. Whether it is language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing, or online learning software, there has been a significant surge in usage since COVID-19.
In a statement issued by BYJU’s Mrinal Mohit, the company’s Chief Operating Officer states the 200% increase in the number of new students using its product. Udemy’s tech courses saw a surge in usage as well with a significant increase of 62% in its consumption. There has been very significant growth in the number of teachers conducting various sessions on various platforms like ByteDance etc.
Some research shows that on average, students retain 25-60% more material when learning online. Whereas when compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online. Also, e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace. Going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose.
Even with tremendous growth in the e-learning sector, the future still remains unraveled. The formal retention of this technique after this pandemic is over is still ambiguous. Impact of Covid-19 on E-Learning and related industries is significant and we expect the impact to have a ripple effect.
To facilitate the current situation, Programming Hub is adding its drop into the ocean, by giving away free courses of worth more than USD 900. To help and support tech education and students building careers by learning tech at home, Programming Hub has made 12 major tech domain courses free. And Programming Hub has seen a 240% growth in its student users during the quarantine period. With the sole purpose of skill development during this time, Programming Hub plans to cater to the e-learning sector in every possible way.
