How has COVID-19 Changed the EdTech Industry Forever?

The global COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by the devastation. Everything seemed to have stopped while quarantine and social distancing norms were in place. Be it physical retail, tourism, hospitality, edtech etc., almost every industry suffered a huge setback and was temporarily shut down, causing loss of revenue and unstable prospects. The same was the condition with the education industry too. The lockdowns forced schools, colleges, and institutes to shut down their physical operations and shift to remote Mecidiyeköy escort functioning. However, the main problem that cropped up here was that the industry wasn’t prepared to adopt the remote infrastructure quickly or at such short notice.

 

But before getting into that, let’s first look back at the condition that the pandemic left the education industry.

 

• Irrespective of fatality and infection rates in different countries, over 1.2 billion students from 188 countries were affected by closing down schools and colleges.
• As of the second half of 2021, many countries have started opening schools and colleges like normal. However, multiple countries still in the online education model.
• Pushing education to the offline mode did result in some good news for the sector. The global EdTech investment was already at $18.66 billion in 2019 and is predicted to reach a whopping $350 billion by 2025.

 

The EdTech Sector’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

 

The response of the EdTech sector to the Coronavirus pandemic has been phenomenal. Almost every country in the world took advantage of the online education pattern to make it big in the EdTech industry. However, this wasn’t easy and needed a well-thought-of response.

 

First up, let’s find out more about some of the most promising names in the industry:

 

• Byju’s, India

 

Founded way back in 2011, Byju’s was a successful business plan. However, the company witnessed a 200% rise in enrolment ever since it announced free live classes on its Think and Learn app platform. However, it still took some time to gain traction because India was yet to adopt and get used to such technology. All of this was revealed by Mrinal Mohit himself, the Chief Operating Officer for the company.

 

• Tencent Classroom

 

Tencent Classroom, the e-learning center, has experienced a surge in its usage since February 2020. The Chinese government had instructed around 250 million students to shift their education to online Bodrum Escort platforms. Such an event resulted in the largest online movement, with approximately 81% (or roughly 730,000) of all the K-12 students starting resuming their education online via the Tencent K-12 Online School in the city of Wuhan.

 

• Lark

 

Lark is a Singapore-based collaboration tool that ByteDance developed. However, it started to take advantage of the situation to develop a scheme. The company started offering services for free. It started off with unlimited time video conference, real-time co-editing, auto-translation, calendar scheduling, etc. To make this possible, Lark had to revamp its server infrastructure globally quickly to ensure that the connectivity was reliable.

 

What’s the Status of the EdTech Industry in 2021?

 

At the moment, almost every developed country have adapted to the changes in the education sector. Classes have shifted completely online, while some countries have already opened up physical schools again. However, the real problem exists with developing and underdeveloped schools.

 

The entire infrastructure of online education is still new, so platforms to host the classes are still not streamlined. But yet, there are several factors that are helping the EdTech industry transition smoothly into the online learning scene.

 

While technology has always been the strong point of most countries, spreading the word about such changes has been challenging. Almost every country has some or other platforms that are boosting online education. However, the real challenge that has arisen here is the platforms’ marketing to the masses.

 

To put things simply, here is an example for you. If Lark, the Singapore-based app, has developed the collaboration tool to meet the changes that the pandemic demands, how will the company manage to promote the new product to the public, especially because the pandemic has already pushed the world to a remote working setup.

 

How Did the BPO Sector Help the EdTech Industry in the Transition?

 

Believe it or not, the EdTech call center companies have been very instrumental in ensuring that educational institutes, both old and new, continue without any hiccups. The moment schools and colleges were forced to adopt the online route. The BPO sectors took over in various ways.

 

Let’s now talk about how the EdTech industry flourished with the assistance of the BPO sector.

 

• Promotion & Marketing

 

With the development of new platforms and app-based remote learning institutes, it became necessary for consumers to know about them. Call centers played an instrumental role in spreading awareness about the new product via various channels. There was a need to adopt multichannel marketing, lead generation, and sales strategy, not just voice calling techniques.

 

And as effective as it may sound, marketing through various channels, except physical, helped in the deeper penetration among the audience, even if there were social distancing norms in place.

 

• Answering Services

 

Setting up an answering service has become a necessity for the EdTech industry. During the pre-pandemic days, it was easy to consult and the school management or authority regarding any issue. So, there was a need to maintain the same ease. There was a need to set up answering services that would take calls from students, applications, and parents and transfer the call to a person who could handle the issue.

 

Answering services worked a lot similar to receptionist services, albeit remote.

 

• Counseling Services

 

The education sector always needed counseling services, even when there were no lockdown and social distancing norms. However, once the sector shifted online, there was a need to have similar counseling services to help the applications and students find out what’s best for them.

 

The counseling services are also offered by the BPO companies. Though the need for skilled and experienced counselors as agents is undeniable. Having such services to help students enroll for the right course, or enroll at all, for that matter. Also boosts the conversion and sale of courses. So, this seems to be been a win-win situation here.

 

In Conclusion

 

The EdTech BPO sector has ensured significant improvements and penetration of the online education spree. EdTech BPO companies in the United States and other developed countries and almost brought the industry back to its original self. In under-developed countries, things are still a little far away yet, but EdTech call centers have managed to streamline the growth process to a great extent.  In just a couple of years, the BPO industry will manage to pull up the EdTech sector to a growth rate never seen before.

 

Yet, only time will tell how quickly the BPO for EdTech companies will manage to pull things up with all its modern infrastructure, technology, and strategy.