“The Role Of Social Media Platforms In Facilitating Personalized Learning Experiences Of E-Learners & Sustainability Of E-Education Industry And Hybrid Learning.”

Abstract

Majority of schools and colleges of India were closed from October 15, 2020 after complete lockdown imposed in March, 2020 creating a huge vacuum in education sector of India.

To make classes functioning e-educational industry have to synchronise with digital demand which resulted in an unwitnessed surge of internet based education i.e. “sellers’ market” in e-educational industry. 

The Ed- tech industry in India witnessed a pump of approximately one billion USD by investors in 2020. E-learning industry across the globe accomplished investment of `USD 253.0 billion in the year 2021 and same is predicted to increase by almost USD 70 billion in the next following years. Before initial stages of pandemic people were digitally deprived which pushed students to opt for the digital mediums. This sudden shift because of the Covid-19, has boosted the online experience of education.

The EdTech sector had seen a humongous inward cash flow of investments in the year 2020. The two top torch bearers of Indian E-education providers; Byju’s and Unacademy which are based on the “Freemium model” and have received massive inflows of fund in pandemic time. India’s own and the highest valued BYJU’S with `5.5 million annual paid subscribers, have able to receive approximately 1 billion USD worth of funding in the pandemic year. Byju’s had also bought  White Hat J for USD 300 million in August- 2020.The growth of  Unacademy during this year was nearly  nine fold.

The prime motivating tools for the education industry  during the 2020-2021 has been the state of the art technologies like  Machine learning  and artificial intelligence that made E-learning more adoptive, stretchable, and responsive. This digital mode of education had enabled students to understand their courses better.

Zoom, MS Teams were the preferred application while Face book and YouTube were the most preferred social media platforms for the learning. 

Thus, the Covid- 19 was a real time experiment that has shown the pathway to educational institutions to adopt innovative technologies to deliver content and impart education. Though, there was a digital divide during the Covid-19, still, blended learning model, the conventional class room education, digital learning or mix will be the sustainability model for the EdTech companies in the future. The pandemic has already transformed the world and society and these positive effects can be witnessed on the education sector which are testimonials of its embracement to different modes of online learning.