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courses online led to the beginning worldwide were cutting down from any
of a new era of education. The year form of expenditure. This pandemic
2000s saw an explosion in usage of forced educational institutions to adopt
e-learning methods. The revenue from some safe means of reaching out to the
e-learning industry has grown more students.
than 900percent since 2000. The global
e-learning market in the year 2015 was Online Education during COVID-19
worth $107 billion (Global Industry The sudden closure of educational
Analysts, Inc., USA). In the year 2019 the institutions was a huge challenge as it
adoption of education technology with was affecting the life of many students
global edtech investments had reached and their parents. In response to this
US$18.66 billion (Metaari Whitepaper). unavoidable circumstance, the majority
This trend was expected to grow owing of the educational institutions preferred
to various economic development adopting online mode of teaching.
drives. The statistical figures for online The objective of this unplanned shift
education were very attractive even was that online teaching could help
before COVID-19 as it was projected educational institutions reach their
to reach $350 Billion by 2025. But, students at their homes. However, in
COVID-19 has brought a change in the a country like India significant barriers
landscape of the education industry.
were affecting this sudden shift in
the teaching-learning process. The
Education Industry during COVID-19
main barrier being the availability of
The educational institutions like necessary infrastructure to support
schools, colleges, coaching centers and the online teaching learning process as
universities were shut down to curb only 27 percent of households in India
the spread of COVID-19 infections. have some members with access to
While these educational institutions at the internet (National Sample Survey
global level were closed during different as part of the Survey on Education
points of time according to the spread (2014). Students who were not having
of COVID-19 infections, if the statistical reliable internet access or technology
numbers are looked at, there were had to struggle to participate in the
around 157 Crore students across 191 digital learning process. This barrier
countries who were impacted (UNESCO was faced across countries as there
report). In Indian context more than was a gap between students who
32 Crore students considering all actually had required infrastructure/
school, college and university level technology and the number of students
were affected with the restrictions who were actually enrolled in different
imposed to curb COVID-19 infections. courses (OECD data). Experts from the
The major areas of concern for colleges education industry believe that this
and universities during this closure unplanned, rapid shift from offline to
were completion of course, conducting online teaching with a very minimal
examinations and placing final year time for both faculties and students to
students when most of the companies “Accept-Adopt-Implement” the change

Indian Journal of Educational Technology 41
Volume 3, Issue 2, July 2021