The world is revolving around trends in this century and so is the education system. Now the education trend is towards online platforms. And analyzing the records, a stronger online education in India is predicted by KPMG and Google. Earlier, the online platforms in India were only used for entertainment purposes. But with the advent of smartphone technology, tablets and related, the shift occurred towards various directions, Education being one of the directions. Rapidly increasing internet speed has been able to attract learners to participate in online learning. According to the report by KPMG and Google, Indian online education market is poised to grow eight times in the next three years.

Higher Education Trends to look out for in 2020 –

1. Job Oriented Online Courses

Online courses have become the source for upskill. It is the sorted path for working group to attain new skills to remain employable in the ever changing industry scenario. Industries are collaborating with colleges and educational start-ups in order to prepare the courses according to the current market demands, thus making the students employable at any time of the day. Furthermore, the data rich online modules that help solving the hiring problems are making the study materials related to modern day industry needs.

2. Change in Trends in Engineering and Technical Education

Students selecting engineering and technical courses have become less compared to the numbers in the previous years. This is due to the courses that is offered by the colleges are not updated on a regular basis. Lack of funds and qualified teachers are some of the reasons for this. In meantime, online portals have gained popularity where students are attaining technical expertise. They are also participating in online projects in order to stay industry perfect and employable.

3. Online Courses by Top-Notch Institutes

University Grants Commission allowed higher education institutions to offer online courses last year. Some of the reputed government backed universities and colleges like International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) and private institutes like Manipal Academy of Higher Education in the country started offering the online courses previous year which will continue in 2020.

4. Simplified Enrolment Process and Course Access

Joining in online learning programs has become easier for students compared to joining in traditional colleges. They can join learning platforms by carrying out formalities from their home. Fees for the courses when compared to the amount paid in traditional education institutions are also less. The newly launched income share agreements by online ed-tech startups are also become preferred choice among the students.

5. Predicting the Learning Path

Focus is laid on analyzing the online learning data of the students. The data collected is used by the institutions and educators as the predictive model. This serves in determining the future behaviors of the students and serving them with better learning experience.

6. Students’ Self Monitoring

The digital data from the online medium helps in maintaining transparency of the educational process. It serves the students in self-diagnosing the learning procedures, finding their gaps and enhancing the learning procedures.

7. Integrating Appropriate Software Tools

The online learning models are providing the exact software tools required by the teachers to assess students according to different parameters. This is strengthening the prospects for online learning.

8. Other Attributes

Flexibility, scalability and personalized learning experience are the main attributes of online learning. It helps the course providers to alter the courses when needed. The personalized experience offers the students with more than one course at a time.

9. Government’s Support in Online Learning

Steps are taken by the government to improve digital learning experience as it has been financially helping R&D projects in the field of e-learning at many educational institutes (According to Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology website). It is supporting programs for human resource development, faculty training, R&D technology initiatives and course content updating.

10. ISA (Income Sharing Agreement) Model

ISA model has agreed to bear the expenditure of learning of the students. Students in turn need to get hired after the course is completed to pay the course fee.