How EdTech Applications help Educational Institutes through the Covid-19 Pandemic?

With the increasing number of universities and schools shutting down their campuses and moving their learning online to contain the spread of CoronaVirus, the edtech industry received an opportunity to prove its worth. Since the COVID-19 is spreading across the globe exponentially, public health officials have advised for fewer public gatherings that are accelerating online activities.

Many schools and colleges are trying to shift to online learning systems to ensure that the study is not affected by the spread of infectious disease. Before the spread of COVID-19, only a few countries focused on promoting online learning platforms. But, gradually, everyone started to realize the importance of such platforms amid the CoronaVirus outbreak. Now, the question is, are we ready for any future outbreak?

No doubt that we should be ready for any future outbreak by implementing the latest and advanced technologies. In case of any disease outbreak, students can continue their studies and schoolwork without attending school or college physically. Therefore, edtech plays a crucial role in modernizing conventional methods of learning and teaching.

Understanding the increased demand for online learning platforms, we have drafted an article that would help you understand how to create an end-to-end edtech platform for both faculties and students.

In this article, we shall discuss the following topics:

• What are the core features of the Edtech Application?
• How can different users interact with the application?
  • Students
  • Mentors
  • Administrator
  • Parents

Core Features of the EdTech Application:

• Free Demos
  Users can avail the facility of free demos that allow them to access freely available content related to their selected course or subject.
• Payment Mode
  The application can have different payment modes, including credit cards, debit cards, net banking and digital wallets.
• Live Chat
  Students can communicate with their tutors in real-time and get answers to their queries.
  
• Download or Watch Online
  Users can download the purchased course content or watch and read it online.
• Video Conferencing/ Live Classrooms
  Tutors can connect with students via video conferencing to deliver live classes and provide a better explanation about a specific subject. .
• Cancel Subscription
  Users can cancel the subscription to any course anytime and request for refund.
• Webcam-enabled Tests
  Students have to attend tests after the completion of a particular course milestone wherein students’ movements are tracked via webcam to ensure that they are not involved in any kind of cheating. Students can access the next milestone of the course if they pass the current milestone test. In this way, the progress of students can also be tracked efficiently.
• Discussion Forums
  Students and tutors can participate in discussion forums where they can discuss any issue and give solutions to each other.
• Progress Tracking
  Mentors and administrators can track if students are attending the course in real-time by monitoring their screen time. .

Who can all be the users of the edtech application? We have identified the possible users of the application that are as follows:

1. Students
2. Mentors
3. Parents
4. Administrator

Here’s how different users can interact with the application

Students

To access the course or subject studies, students would need to download the student edtech app. They can either sign up on the application using their email id or phone number or login with social media credentials.

After registering on the application, students can log in to the app, select their grade and view the list of available courses. They can choose the courses they want to join and start learning online.

The application allows students to share views on particular topics with other students in the discussion forums. The discussion feature will enable students to ask questions, leave comments, chat and share in-depth insights on the course they are studying.

Students can also attend webinars and web conferences delivered by the tutors. Students can be asked to participate in one or more sessions to complete a course successfully. Webinars can be recorded online and shared with students or it can also be broadcasted live and in real-time.

Also, students can track their progress on every course in terms of percentage.

A virtual AI-based chatbot can be integrated into the application that interacts with students like a live person and keeps them engaged with real conversations. An AI-based chatbot can also help edtech providers analyze students’ behavior and provide them offers from time to time that they might be interested in.

Students can also undergo time-to-time web-cam based assessments that can evaluate their progress and allow them to move to the next milestone of a course.

Students can also request virtual online consultations from their mentors if they face any challenge during learning. Students can receive a quicker response instead of waiting for a meeting in person.

Following are some of the different types of communications that can be used for virtual consultation in the app:

• Video Calls for real-time face-to-face interactions between mentors and students. Video calls help build more trust and confidence and provide a better understanding.
• Group Calls can also be leveraged for connecting with multiple students and mentors at once.
• Screencasts for sharing computer screens during calls.

APIs of software, such as Zoom, Twilio, GoTo Meeting and more, can be integrated into the EdTech application to enable video conferencing with screencasting features.

Calendar applications can also be integrated into the app so that students can schedule meetings with their mentors by looking at mentors’ availability from the calendar.

Students would also receive notifications regarding course materials, upcoming events, meetings, calls, progress and various other activities from time to time. They can get push notifications, email or SMS notifications to keep them updated. We prefer Amazon SNS APIs to integrate notification service in the application.

Students can also get access to their progress reports where they can track their progress on a specific course and check test results and get certification based on their grades.

Are your students completing the online materials and activities? Are they progressing according to the plan? How many courses did the student complete? These are all questions that can be answered by reports extracted from the developed learning management system.

Mentors

Mentors have to download the app and sign up to the EdTech application using a private key or a password provided to them. After entering the input key, the mentor needs to provide additional details, including a profile picture, email id and phone number.

Mentors can upload the study material in the form of text, graphic images, videos and audios. The application would have a CMS for the mentors using which they can upload the study content instantly and share it with students.

There are plenty of Content Management Systems available for mobile apps, including Contentful and WordPress, that can be integrated into the app for uploading a wide array of content.

Mentors can upload, edit and delete course materials.

Following are some of the functionalities that mentors can perform:

• Add Content
  Mentors can upload the study material that allows students to download or read materials. .
• Edit Course Info
  Mentors are allowed to edit course information.
• Reorder Content
  Mentors can update the course program that automatically gets updated on the roadmap and notifies students.
• View as a Student
  Mentors can also view course content as a student to ensure that the look and feel of the content are appealing for students.
• Schedule a meeting
  Mentors can schedule a meeting with students and parents to discuss their progress on a course or specific subject.
• Add Event
  Mentors can schedule a webinar or virtual online conference for students assigned to a specific course.
• Track Students
  Mentors can track students in real-time and check if they are studying all course materials and completing their daily tasks.

To track students’ progress, APIs of remote tracking tools like Time Doctor and RoadMap can be used to monitor students’ activity. Mentors can receive screenshots from the students’ system using which they can understand what the student is doing during study time.

Administrator

The role of the administrator is to organize, monitor, manage and report all activities. Administrators can view and manage the following components in an EdTech application:

• Courses
• Users
• Categories
• Notifications
• Events
• Settings
• Progress Reports
• Files
• Import/Export

Administrators would be responsible for handling any kind of issue faced by students or mentors. They can interact live with all users of the application to resolve the problem instantly.

Parents

Parents can also join the EdTech application by downloading the Parent’s app. They can sign up to the app using their private key shared by mentors or administrators of schools/universities. Parents would be able to connect with their kids’ activities on the application.
The EdTech application for parents would help them stay connected and involved in their child’s learning journey.
They can:

• Track the progress of children just like a mentor or admin.
• Check the test results published by the mentor.
• Schedule meetings with mentors.
• Attend webinars with children.
• Attend virtual consultation or counseling for the better growth of children.
• Receive notifications related to student updates.

Edtech applications are the need of an hour. On March 17th, 2020, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) revealed that more than 850 million students worldwide are not able to attend school due to the CoronaVirus outbreak.

Though reputed schools and universities have adopted edtech solutions to provide online learning to their students, there are still many institutions that lack tools and technologies to offer remote learning.

If you are also looking for edtech app development or want to add new features to the existing app, we can help you. Our software developers have expertise in a wide array of technologies, including AI, IoT, Blockchain, Cloud, Mobile, Web and RPA and we can build a scalable and student-friendly EdTech Application for your institution.