Rohit Gajbhiye is the founder of Financepeer, a peer to peer lending platform connecting individual borrowers to lenders digitally. He has a decade of years experience in the banking industry. Ex-DBS, Singapore. He is an alumnus of IITB and Stanford and has a history of working in the Credit & Liquidity Risk section of banking industry at DBS, Singapore. He has also been featured by Fobes in 30 under 30.
We are living in the world of digital data. The volume, variety and velocity of the data today is unprecedented. Control and utilization of the data have become defining factors for the success of various companies and industries in the modern world. This is exactly the reason why data is being called the new oil. Ed-tech is one of the areas which has greatly benefitted from big data analytics. In the subsequent paragraphs, we will discuss how big data analytics has been instrumental in the evolution of Ed-tech in India.
Like many other innovative digital services, EdTech was also on a constant growth path in India in the last decade. Although the growth was constant, it was rather slow. However, the arrival of Covid-19 on the scene made all the difference. When Covid-19 forced the entire world to stay locked inside their homes, the continuation of education became a big challenge. Technology rose to the occasion and helped the education sector continue providing its services to society. What started as merely providing online classes to the student has quickly evolved into a major phenomenon. Data analytics have fuelled this evolution and is now playing a major role in the sector.
Delivering customised curriculums
Traditional education systems take one size fits all approach. However, Ed-tech is rapidly changing this notion. By analysing large amounts and variety of data about the students, teachers, locality and various other things, Ed-tech can deliver customised curriculums. It is able to deliver curriculums best suited for the students as per their learning ability and practical needs. This is especially helpful in preparing curriculums for differently-abled students.
Identify strengths and weaknesses of the students
Data analysis can help the teachers identify the strong and weak points of their students. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the students, teachers can modify their teaching ways. Intelligent dashboards are enabling teachers to visualise the progress, strengths and weaknesses of their students. Equipped with proper information, teachers can help the students overcome their weaknesses and also guide them chose their areas of specialisation or career fields based on their strengths.
Develop new content and share global knowledge
By analysing the data from the events happening in the local community, markets, science and technology, geo-politics etc, Big-data analytics can help curate new and relevant content for the students. It can also analyse the best practices in EdTech in the other parts of the world and facilitate knowledge sharing with the other countries.
Reducing the burden on teachers
In the traditional system of education, teachers had to perform various other tasks besides teaching. The tasks included preparing question papers, assessing answer books, checking homework, marking attendance and several more. With data analytics, these tasks can be easily performed with a few clicks or sometimes automatically even without a click. This has given teachers extra time which they can utilize on their primary work i.e., teaching or rejuvenating themselves for better focus on teaching.
The above-mentioned are some of the many ways, big-data analytics have been helping the EdTech sector evolve. However, there are many other ways it has been revolutionising EdTech. It is noteworthy, that the application of big-data analytics in the education sector has just begun; it still has to go a long way to realise its full potential. Educational institutions are realising the importance of data analytics and investing heavily to get more and more out of it. Players like Udemy, Byju’s, Unacademy and many more are currently using big-data analytics to keep customising the business models and provide the best possible online education to the students.