The world has turned to technology for almost everything. With the decreasing social interactions, virtual interaction rose to power. It is a bliss to be technologically equipped these days leading to better productivity. The comfort that accompanies along without dealing with physical presence is a cherry on the cake to the same. Amid the lockdown, schools and colleges are shut due to which institutions took to online teaching, and students preferred seeking online education to use the time productively. The online education providers started up with providing free courses to the students and schools and colleges used various apps to conduct classroom meetings and teach. In India, education has least suffered the toll of time, all thanks to the technology.
The research article will highlight if the practice of online education has proven profitable for the sector or not!
The globalization of institutions has given a variety and choice for other countries to provide quality education all over the world. A list of educational institutions operating online are performing financially well and the growth is also exponential.
In 2005, Apollo Group (owner of The University Phoenix) recorded a revenue of 1.8 billion dollars which is 40% of the total revenue of the company. It has more than 1,19,000 students enrolled online. The credibility matters but the most important factor that affects the revenue rates is the market condition. In an interview with the CEO of Unacademy, he said that the company always had an exponential graph. Especially during the lockdown, the company’s profits in these 3 months is 10 times more than that of 2 years combined. The Youtube watch time went from Millions to Billions in no time. BYJUs had its busiest 3 months. In March and April alone, Byju’s welcomed 14 million consumers.
Online education ensures that the student is learning and not cramming. Moreover, during the times of toxicity in the surroundings, online education has proven to be the safest and most successful medium of learning.
While according to the polls by Pew Research Centre, 25 per cent of students say that they have lost interest in their subjects. They complained of not being able to get back to schools and it is disconnecting them from ‘real-time’ education.
Online education has helped in making education affordable reducing the course infrastructure expenses. The introduction of MOOC courses have enabled variety in learning as well as teaching. But the disadvantage is that the online courses are a part of the entire curriculum. The course material has to fit in shorter videos because longer videos are uninteresting due to lack of interaction.
All the online course marketeers have opted for email marketing which also sets for reminders to the students to attend classes. Many innovative methods have come up with the advent of online education. This includes webinars, masterclasses, celebrity interactions and they cost a little. Certification courses from universities abroad without actually going there for study purposes have saved time and effort. According to research, 60 percent of people say that they can be more productive if online education continues as it gives them the freedom to choose between the content they want to study.
By: Satyam Sharma
References:
http://www.campusdemocracy.org/articles/cyber-shools-profitable.html
THOUGHT-SO-RAMA 