A study of EdTech Start-ups Capitalizing over E-Learning Technologies during the Covid-19 pandemic in India

Abstract

Quality and uninterrupted education is the hope and need of every parent across the globe. Indian education system is one of the largest in the world catering to the educational needs of a huge population of 430 million between the age group of 6 to 23 years. It is well known that the educational institutions in India (prior to the pandemic) were based only on the brick and mortar mode of teaching following the conventional set up of in-person lectures. Then came a phenomenon that no had ever even anticipated let alone, lived and survived. The sudden outbreak of Coronavirus of Covid-19 startled the entire world infecting people in huge numbers. This led to the World Health Organisation declaring it as a Pandemic. Covid-19 caused devastating impact on all the sectors of the economy including the educational sector. The outbreak led to shutting down of all the schools, colleges and coaching centres across the country. This situation challenged the pre set educational norms and forced the educators to shift to teaching through online channels to ensure the continuity of education to the students. This paper is an attempt to understand the importance of online learning along with e learning modalities analysis in times of crises covering strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and challenges (SWOC Analysis). The paper also studies the emergence and growth of Ed-Tech start-ups during the times of pandemic in India. The paper concludes with ideas and suggestions to deal with the challenges associated with online mode of education.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Education, Online Learning, Technology, EdTech