Online Coaching: How are E-Learning Businesses Helping Realize the Goal of Universal Access to Education?

Highlights:

• Introduction
• Advantages of online educational services
• Latest developments in the virtual education sector

Just like banking and healthcare, education is nowadays considered an essential service and an important part of governance. From an economic perspective, education has been directly linked to skill development, employment, and ultimately poverty reduction. From a societal angle, educational services help in bridging gender, class, and racial inequalities. Hence, almost all modern democracies focus on offering universal access to education, meaning providing equitable educational services to all sections of society.

However, a major hurdle governments face is providing educational services to remote communities living in inaccessible regions. Lack of infrastructure facilities like roads, rail, electricity, colleges, universities, etc., have deprived people living in these regions of getting quality education. Hence, authorities in these countries have been looking for a solution that will help cater to the educational needs of remote communities. The advent of virtual education through e-learning platforms has proved to be a blessing for achieving universal education.

How have online coaching services helped governments effectively implement policies for universal access to education?

The increasing penetration of internet services and smart electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets is predicted to help the online coaching industry. Apart from this, virtual education services provide some crucial benefits which have helped increase their popularity. Firstly, virtual education services offer convenience and flexibility to students and access educational courses from the comfort of their homes. Moreover, since most of the e-learning platforms offer recording options, these courses can be recorded and watched by the students at their convenience. This is an important advantage for youths belonging to the marginalized section who generally work by the day to support their families financially. Virtual education programs can, thus, offer education to these youths who are unwilling to leave their occupation for education.

Apart from convenience and flexibility, access to quality academic educators is one of the biggest benefits of virtual education services. In developing countries, where the pupil-to-professor ratio is high, professors cannot pay enough attention to each student. This problem is solved in the case of online coaching, as advanced e-learning platforms help professors attend to the doubts and queries of every student and address their complaints. Thus, by providing access to quality educators, e-learning platforms seek to improve educational outcomes significantly. As a result, the demand for academic online coaching has surged in the past few years, thereby helping the segment to garner a revenue of $4,583 million in the 2023-2032 period.

Also, online coaching services have proven to be highly cost-efficient as compared to offline teaching. In virtual education services, the expenses related to transportation, accommodation, and coaching materials are done away with. This helps students get access to educational students at affordable costs. From the government’s side, the infrastructure required for providing online educational services is much less as compared to that required for offline education as the expenditure required for building colleges and schools is cut down. Thus, virtual education services offer a win-win solution for both educators and students.

Upcoming trends in the online educational services sector

In the past few years, virtual educational services have gained a lot of ground owing to their proven utility during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, despite strict lockdowns, educational institutions were able to provide courses to their students through e-learning platforms. As a result, many private companies and educational institutes have joined hands to improve the quality of these e-learning platforms. Many reputed institutes have even launched their e-learning platforms to enable students to enroll in their programs easily. For instance, in March 2023, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, one of the premier management schools in India, announced the launch of Online@IIMA, an online learning platform for students wanting to access introductory as well as specialized management courses.

Another important trend seen in the online coaching industry is the growing integration of skill development programs in university curriculums. As said earlier, virtual education services have made it possible to rope in the best educators to teach specific subjects. By capitalizing on this opportunity, many colleges and universities have started recruiting industry professionals to teach students the skills required to enter a specific industry. By gaining knowledge directly from the industry players, students can enter the job market with confidence and seek better employment opportunities.

The convenience and flexibility offered by virtual educational services have led to an increase in the number of students opting for specialization in their preferred faculty. Moreover, many students are even opting for a multidisciplinary approach wherein they can enroll in courses in different subjects and faculties.

To sum it up, online educational services have helped governments across the globe to offer affordable educational services to all sections of society including marginalized communities. The advantages offered by e-learning platforms such as convenience and flexibility have increased their popularity in the past few years. With increasing collaboration between educational institutions and IT companies, the scope of this industry is expected to widen in the years to come.

For a detailed analysis of the growth drivers and investment opportunities available in the industry, feel free to contact us.

Related Post