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It has been more than 15 months since the outbreak of Covid-19, but its rage has not started to wither yet. However, people have learnt how to manoeuvre their way through this and adjust in the new normal.

When the deadly virus was transmitting fiercely across the country, a lot of students were confused about their educational opportunities. While students had prepared over a long period, suddenly everything came to a stand-still. They had the fear of losing opportunities and time.

They could see a lot of uncertainties and felt anxious about the circumstances. The situation was worse for those who wanted to pursue their higher education abroad.

At that time, edtech came as a ray of hope for students who were in the depths of despair and successfully helped students beat the woes of higher education, especially abroad.

Challenges faced by students

Every student faced certain challenges in accessing education during the pandemic. Those who were aspiring foreign education faced the trouble of slow application process and delayed responses from foreign universities as every country was dealing with a surge in Covid cases.

There was ambiguity regarding on-campus classes as educational institutions were closed across the country to contain the spread of the virus.

However, witnessing the situation, institutes took the digital route and resorted to online classes. However, it cannot be denied that the pandemic disrupted the academic calendar, and innumerable universities delayed their admission process, which led to a dearth of opportunities for several students.

For instance, students who were seeking government jobs and were on the verge of meeting job’s age criteria lost the job opportunities, just due to the delay in the declaration of results by the universities.

Edtech platforms play saviour to the students

The sudden but eventual prolonged closure of universities/schools made many students perplexed as the situation was itself very chaotic. At such a critical time, various edtech platforms proved to be saviours for several students.

These edtech companies helped students with online counselling and provided them with regular updates regarding admission, declaration of results, deferral of various competitive exams, etc., of different universities across the country.

A lot of these platforms maintained continuous engagement with universities across the globe, and facilitated the opportunities for aspirants in line with the continuously changing procedures. Given the crisis, assisting students with their queries who were seeking higher education was substantial on the part of these edtech platforms.

Edtech learning

Besides the dedicated edtech brands, university/school teachers also explored the digital route to facilitate classes remotely, and create a more engaging and individualised learning experience.

Learning through edtech led to the smooth delivery of lectures, which the pandemic had otherwise obstructed. While institutes were exploring the e-learning procedures, they also tried to combine the same with demonstrations and graphics to add the required interactiveness, which had been missing in the remote learning.

Exploring edtech

Edtech did not just fill in for the missing physical education infrastructure, but it also widened the scope for working professionals.

In the new normal, when professionals were working from home, they spent time exploring new activities online. While doing so, a lot of these professionals pursued new courses and programmes on edtech platforms that were not only better utilisation of the extra time, but also added value to their profile.

For students, edtech platforms helped by offering them courses that fell outside the realm of curricular subjects. Pursuing such courses helped students in enhancing their skills while maintaining the Covid-19 protocol of staying home.

Conclusion

In this critical scenario, the pandemic gave the edtech sector the required push and made the sail for higher education easier, especially abroad, given the fact that universities in different countries were following various procedures that could not have been tracked by students easily.

In return, edtech fulfilled its duty and assisted students in vanquishing the woes of higher education and coming out of despondency to create a bright future for themselves. While the education system faced major setbacks due to pandemic, edtech saved the drowning education system.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)