Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many activities throughout all sectors nationwide, with various firms and establishments putting effort into optimizing their work and seeking solutions to unprecedented issues. The results of the pandemic on the sectors can be considered ambiguous. On the one hand, when it comes to the educational sector, the international educational sector was affected by the coronavirus epidemic, which resulted in extensive school closures. It caused significant interruptions to academic activity and professional goals. However, on the other hand, the pandemic led to many innovations in the educational sector, digitalizing the educational system and providing more opportunities via distant learning. Thus, regardless of the negative influences, the global pandemic spurred the optimization of the educational system.
COVID-19 for the educational system
During extensive school classes, several educational trends have occurred that later became incorporated into curriculums. The growth of distant learning and the rise of academic technology innovation are the two most current developments in the digitalization of the education sector during the COVID-19 outbreak. The COVID-19 epidemic forced educators to consider and use distant learning strategies on a far greater scale than before (Kang, 2021). Though remote education was used before the global pandemic, it was unusual, and the majority of educational activities were held in traditional classroom settings.
As for the types of internet-based distant learning, these include pre-recorded online courses and interactive digital seminars. The development of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is chiefly responsible for making pre-recorded online courses usable (Kang, 2021). The majority of the information on the MOOC’s interactive learning platform is freely available. The Kahn Academy on YouTube produced the MOOC, which provides a variety of programs for establishments, including colleges, skill- and job-training programs, and preschools (Kang, 2021). Course selection is up to individuals. In the education sector, immersive digital learning has also gained popularity. The majority of courses on the MOOC platform are pre-recorded, which makes them equivalent to prior forms of distant learning. Thus, internet-based remote learning has not only become accepted and popular nationwide, but it is similar to offline lessons and convenient.
Expansion and development of educational tools is another beneficial trend that was caused by the pandemic. In an effort to slow the spreading of COVID-19, the majority of governments worldwide have immediately suspended offline lessons. Due to online access to educational information and the development and sharing of educational technology (or EdTechs) to support learning, homeschooling has become the logical choice for parents (Kang, 2021). The COVID-19 epidemic offers the educational sector a fresh chance to adopt cutting-edge EdTech (Kang, 2021). EdTechs have experienced significant advancement in past years, with modern educational technologies primarily making use of modern IT gadgets and digitizing textbooks and instructional materials.
Conclusion
Hence, COVID-19 has become a turning point for the educational system not only from a national but global perspective. While many people view the pandemic as a disruptive factor in education, others perceive it as a boost for innovation and digitalization. During a pandemic, two significant trends occurred such as the expansion and development of educational tools and distant learning. At this point, remote learning involved the incorporation and growth in popularity of pre-recorded courses and interactive digital seminars. In turn, improvement in educational tools implies the digitalization of learning materials. Such approaches made the education process relatively more accessible and more flexible.
Reference
Kang, B. (2021). How the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the education service. The Future of Service Post-COVID-19 Pandemic, 1, 15-36.