Tech making education effective, flexible and engaging

The ever-evolving landscape of education is being significantly shaped by the rapid growth of the EdTech industry. To gain insights into the trends and tech advancements driving this transformation, we sat down with K Sridhar, Chief Business Officer of TalentSprint.

In this in-depth conversation, Sridhar sheds light on how technology is bridging gaps, hyper-personalizing learning experiences, and making education more accessible and inclusive. He also discusses the long-lasting impact of EdTech beyond the pandemic, the role of personalized learning, strategies for effective EdTech evaluation, and the potential of AI and ML in enhancing learning and supporting educators. Excerpts:

As the EdTech industry continues to grow, what significant trends or tech advancements do you see shaping the future of education?

Technology is bridging once-insurmountable gaps, enabling our education programs to span across geographical boundaries and create globally diverse cohorts. It is also broadening access to education for underrepresented groups and eager learners from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.

The future of education is driven by hyper personalization enabled through AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data analytics. These tools empower educators to personalize content delivery and strategies, promoting engagement and efficacy. Real-time data insights enable timely interventions, ensuring that no learner is left behind and that high achievers are continuously challenged.

Online learning platforms have empowered learners with flexibility to learn from anywhere through any device. Immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) transport learners into interactive environments, making a shift towards experiential learning, going beyond the boundaries of traditional classrooms. Thus, technology is making education highly effective and flexible, while continuing to be engaging, and inclusive.

EdTech has played a vital role in facilitating remote learning during challenging times like the pandemic. How do you see EdTech continuing to impact traditional education models even beyond the pandemic era?

Before the pandemic, education remained untouched by disruption. However, the pandemic reshaped education from traditional classrooms to remote and hybrid models. Remote learning introduced new possibilities, while hybrid learning merged traditional and online approaches. Online learning has challenged traditional learning with the ability to scale and transcend beyond geographies, pin codes, socio-economic backgrounds, and more.

Online learning also gave birth to personalized learning approaches with the help of cutting-edge technology. It enabled learners with the flexibility to learn anytime from anywhere. Beyond the pandemic, hybrid learning will continue to impact the traditional education system with a mix of both online and physical learning features.

We have implemented the mentioned models and utilized iPearl.ai, our AI-powered digital platform. It creates holistic and interactive experiences in line with our pedagogical philosophy. As EdTech advances, it will continue to enhance accessibility, flexibility, and experiential learning.

Personalized learning has been a key focus in EdTech. How do you ensure that EdTech solutions cater to diverse learning styles and individual student needs effectively?

Personalized learning experience has led EdTech to ensure learning delivers outcome-based results. It ensures customized learning caters to different learning styles while measuring its effectiveness. It emphasizes learning effectiveness more than the effort invested in it. Regardless of varied learning speeds, gauging learning effectiveness ensures uniform learning outcomes for all individuals.

AI has started to impact the educational landscape and thus, in the near future, it will be able to understand learning patterns, chalking out various parameters like types of mistakes, situations leading to such mistakes, and more. However, the evolution of AI is still in the nascent stage and it is too early to be talked about.

The accessibility of education is a critical aspect. How does your EdTech company ensure that its offerings are inclusive and reach learners from diverse backgrounds?

TalentSprint’s core values of accessibility and inclusivity are reflected in our programs across all segments. Every competitive exam includes aptitude as a key aspect of the test, thus, our exclusive YouTube channel hosts aptitude videos for competitive exams. With 1 million subscribers, our content is freely accessible. Moreover, iPearl.ai boasts 500,000 free users. Over 100 centers of excellence also access our learning content for free.

To ensure our learning is inclusive to learners from diverse backgrounds, we’ve pioneered inclusive learning via niche programs. Our Women Engineers (WE), supported by Google, is a 24-month initiative bridging gender gaps in tech. Today, around 50 out of 950+ program graduates are employed by Google and others at global giants like Microsoft. Scholarships and stipends of Rs 1 lac foster focused learning. Over the last 5 cohorts, WE received over 100,000 applications from 10,000+ colleges across India. Its reach spans diverse regions, addressing socio-economic gender gaps and nurturing talent from over 11,000 pin codes.

Our approach to inclusivity extends beyond enrollment, creating a transformative ecosystem that addresses barriers, empowers participants from various backgrounds, facilitating not just education, but a transformative journey towards excellence.

Data privacy and security are crucial when dealing with student information. What measures does your EdTech company take to safeguard user data and maintain user trust?

At TalentSprint, ensuring data privacy and security of student information is paramount. We collect only essential data required for educational services, minimizing sensitive information exposure and upholding user privacy.

Our platform security maintains a robust hosting environment aligned with industry best practices. This infrastructure acts as a potent defense against potential threats, showing our commitment to data integrity.

In addition, we are trying out our proactive monitoring system to continuously scan for unauthorized access or intrusion attempts. This proactive stance will empower us to take immediate preventive actions, preserving user data confidentiality and fostering trust.

The integration of AI and ML (Machine Learning) has become prevalent in EdTech. How do you leverage AI/ML to enhance learning experiences and support educators?

We embrace the integration of AI and ML through our AI-powered platform called iPearl.ai. It is our state-of-the-art digital delivery platform driven by AI. This technology aligns with our commitment to holistic learning, fostering 360-degree interactive experiences that match our pedagogical philosophy. Through this online platform, we offer AI-powered video lessons, proctored assessments to ensure learning is flexible, personalized, and monitored to measure the best learning outcomes. Furthermore, there’s automated grading, which works on AI/ML algorithms that efficiently grade assignments, saving educators time and enabling them to focus on providing meaningful feedback and guidance. In addition, we are also working on extreme personalization and learning companionship models to ensure it meets the customized needs of users.

Looking ahead, what are your predictions for the future of EdTech, and how do you see it reshaping the educational landscape globally?

EdTech’s future looks promising, with an expected CAGR of 13.6% from 2023 to 2030. EdTech growth stems from the need for continuous upskilling among freshers and working professionals, the demand for innovative programs from prestigious institutions, and the proactive efforts of EdTech organizations to tailor content to individual needs.

Executive education and bootcamps are redefining EdTech. As industries evolve, professionals rely on EdTechs for acquiring specialized skills to remain industry-ready and competitive in their careers. EdTech has made education scalable beyond traditional norms of education, however, to ensure 100% effectiveness on outcomes, it still has a long way to go. At TalentSprint, we have scaled up through cohort-based, synchronized, experiential learning methods.

EdTech organizations will continue to emerge as pivotal disruptors, facilitating the seamless transition toward online and hybrid learning models. It will reshape global education ensuring a collaborative cycle of learning and growth. As we look to the future, it promises limitless learning possibilities for impactful career transformation.

K Sridhar

Chief Business Officer, TalentSprint

aanchalg@cybermedia.co.in