Education is one of the evergreen industries out there, but like all other industries, it too needs to change in the current times. A few years ago, the educational classes usually meant in-person classes. However, given the current scenario, in-person classes are just not possible. Major edtech companies have shifted a fair number of students to virtual classes. The reasons to shift to a virtual medium for education are many, but currently the two main driving factors are — easy access and the pandemic.
The easy access to study material, online exams, and certifications allow millions of students to learn anything from the comfort of their homes. The current pandemic has also greatly induced adoption of e-learning.
The growth of e-learning sector
Industries are adopting cloud technology to find dedicated solutions to meet business objectives. Education sector might be late to the party, but it is considering cloud as a serious option. According to a report, global edtech investments reached an estimated $18.66 billion in 2019 and by 2025 the market it is projected to reach $350 billion.
These investments have facilitated various companies to bring perfect solutions for students with required infrastructure. EdTech companies like BYJU’s, world’s most highly valued edtech company, are making the most of this transition in education sector. BYJU’s recently bought WhiteHat Jr. in $300 million cash payments. Huge amount of money indicates toward growth in the sector.
Now, providing solutions to millions of students connecting to online platforms, some even from remote areas requires a flexible and scalable solution that can manage dynamic traffic. All this points toward one technology – cloud computing.
How is Cloud facilitating eLearning?
Whether it is IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, all the service models are helping the education sector. Education companies can leverage these service models to develop, test, and roll out new applications, solutions and platforms. SaaS can help educational institutions leverage applications and software via cloud platforms. This adds flexibility to scale as per the online student traffic and activities involved. PaaS provides the required tools and services to edTech companies for building online solutions for students. Meanwhile, IaaS provides physical hardware whether on-premise or via internet to deploy and run educational applications.
Education is a co-existing ecosystem wherein each industry player needs to work towards online quality education. For example, cloud providers need to develop more dedicated solutions. AWS is already putting efforts in this direction where they worked with Egyptian Ministry of Education to provide education access to 22 million students. There are already a few solutions available that edTech companies and educational institutions can smartly leverage.
Not only AWS, other than Google Classroom, it also rolled out new features in Google Meet to facilitate online education. Both solutions are hosted on Google Cloud’s infrastructure.
EdTech companies like Simplilearn, Catalyst, Unacademy etc. leverage cloud services in one way or another. This is not all, as cloud services are also enabling prestigious universities to bring reforms in the way they impart knowledge. AWS has a long list of customers in education sector such as The University of Adelaide, Saint Louis University, Caltech and many more. AWS is also running an educational program, AWS Educate, to bridge the gap between skills required in cloud industry. Clearly, this is also an educational initiative leveraging cloud resources to meet student requirements.
Cloud services have ensured that even in these grim situations, education sector faces no hurdles in imparting knowledge. It is just a matter of time that the virtual classes are driven via national institutions for wider adoption.