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The Indian Education sector is poised at an interesting juncture - on the

one hand, there is a growing focus on achieving learning outcomes, while on

the other, technology is being adopted quickly and content is being

rewritten and redesigned to adapt to a variety of emerging media. Amongst

all modern-day developments 'Technology' has clearly emerged as the single

biggest theme to impact the sector in the last few years. This augurs well

for the present-day learner, as also for educators and others in the

teaching-learning process. The advent of digitally enabled classrooms,

cloud-based content, ebooks and online assessments among others have enabled

our education system to reach an inflection point. Let us look at EdTech

trends that have the potential to upturn the Education landscape forever.



Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR): This has probably been the most

talked about trend of 2017.  Virtual Reality immerses the user in a virtual

or imaginary environment. Immersive educational environments are already

being used to provide learners a life-like experience in subjects as diverse

as history and chemistry. Augmented Reality on the other hand is a

technology used to present an enhanced version of reality where elements of

physical real-world environment are augmented with digital learning

experiences. AR/VR technologies help learners experience and interact with

digital learning objects to support their learning. Educators, who earlier

had print or digital images/animations for teaching support, now can

leverage these high-fidelity educational experiences to achieve better

learning outcomes.



Adaptive learning through Artificial Intelligence: Adaptive learning has the

potential to solve a crucial challenge in classroom learning - how to engage

learners of different abilities in the same classroom! Adaptive learning

systems use machine learning and to help personalize the presentation of

learning material based on their learning speed, interest and problem areas.

In the hands of teachers, this can become an important tool to ensure more

uniform learning. Machine learning along with natural processing and speech

recognition technologies are also facilitating the development of

conversational programs, also called chatbots. The bots can be programmed to

provide a wide variety of services such as tutoring.



Learning Analytics: It is often said "what gets measured is what gets done".

The focus is shifting from big data to 'little' data. Little data is

personal activity data which when analyzed by intelligent systems, is able

to provide key insights into the way students learn. It may well become an

important source of information and insight for decision-making for

educators. It may also unlock new potential for personalization of tools and

content. By adding the right information capture mechanisms and real-time

insight capabilities, traditional Learning Management Systems (LMS) can now

vastly enhance the teaching-learning experience. The implications of a data

driven approach will be far reaching and will permeate not just teaching &

learning but other areas including guidance on career choices. One of OUP's

more recent integrated learning solution, launched last year, provides

detailed learning analytics for the student, teacher and also the parent.



Online Assessments: New forms of technology mediated assessments have

enabled a big shift from fixed-in-point summative assessments, which are

today at the core of the learning process, to more continuous and adaptive

formative assessments. Online assessment solutions are clearly more

customizable, interactive, secure and quick to deliver. They work across

multiple platforms (mobile included) and offer detailed interactive

dashboards to analyze performance from various aspects. The ability to store

historical assessment data and compare progress over time can be used to

establish a trend and also draw inferences on the learners' progress in the

context of learning. Online testing also brings in the benefits of anytime

testing, remote proctoring, real-time audio-video integration and also more

personalized testing.



2018 promises to be an interesting year for Education, clearly with EdTech

disrupting traditional methods, pedagogies and mindsets. Its seamless

integration with print and classroom practices will be central to its

success in the Indian context, and wider acceptance by stakeholders the key

to its longevity!



It is important not to lose sight of the evolving needs of the educator in

the context of the fast-paced EdTech developments. Teacher Training

programmes, offered online, offline or in a combination, are key to

upskilling our educators who are often the primary consumers of these EdTech

solutions and play a pivotal role in seeding and growing adoption among

learners.