Is education technology about to get a boost from COVID-19?

There is much discussion amongst the education community and the students as to whether the current pandemic will fundamentally and permanently change the delivery of learning in the future. For some, the move to online learning has been a necessity rather than a choice but it seems likely that online education will become an integral component even when some normality is restored. Many online learning platforms have offered free access to their services. Microsoft announced that all schools in the UK could sign up for Office 365 Education for free including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and significantly for Microsoft Teams. The UK has around 27,000 schools educating around 10 million pupils so the offer is clearly significant.

Of course, the shift to a “work and learn from home” scenario has exponentially increased the demand for SaaS solutions that support collaboration and remote workflows. Consequently, video conferencing platforms that enable faceto-face contact have become household names with Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet rising in popularity. Zoom has been reported as growing from 10 million users in December 2019 to 200 million users in March 2020, no doubt helped by their 40-minute free time limit restriction being lifted. Over the same period, Microsoft more than doubled their Team daily users from 20 million to 44 million and Google was said to be adding 2 million users per day.

Naturally, on-line learning requires a reliable internet connection and a laptop or tablet in order for the student to participate and, so rightly, there is a demand to ensure a level playing field can be achieved. The UK government is committed to making laptops available to disadvantaged students. For those that do have access to the right technology, there is evidence that online learning can be even more effective than a traditional classroom environment, increasing retention rates by between 25 and 60 per cent₁. Some students clearly benefit from learning at their own pace and going back over something they might not have grasped first time around. Technology had revolutionised teaching and learning prior to COVID-19 in many instances. Indeed, the global edtech investments to learning technology companies reached almost $19 billion globally in 2019 – the highest in the history of the learning technology industry by an extraordinary margin according to Metaari with Research and Markets estimating the market expected to reach $350 billion by 2025 due to the introduction of flexible learning technologies in the corporate and education sectors.

Technology provides personalised learning, empowering students to take ownership of how they learn with a combination of in-class and on-line education. Today, lectures and seminars no longer have to be confined to the classroom and experts can be brought in remotely to teach subjects where that expertise may not be available at a local level. Virtual Reality and gamification are providing new tools to add to that learning experience.

However, for some educational establishments the sudden move to on-line learning brought about by the pandemic only highlights the importance of having proper security in place. Even prior to lockdown, a Netwrix survey entitled 2020 Data Risk and Security report₄ revealed that educational establishments had weak security controls in place for protecting sensitive data and the move to distance learning will only exacerbate the problem as they become potentially more vulnerable to cyberattacks. In the report, one quarter (24 per cent) of them admit granting access rights based solely on user requests, and another 22 per cent said they don’t know how exactly access rights are granted in their organisations — the highest percentage among all industries. To make matters worse, 63 per cent of educational organisations don’t review permissions regularly. Furthermore 52 per cent of IT professionals in the education sector admit that employees put sensitive data at risk by sharing it via cloud apps. The Cyber Security Schools Audit 2019 report from the London Grid for Learning₅ maintained that four in five (83 per cent) of schools have reportedly experienced at least one cybersecurity incident and emphasised the need for cybersecurity training.

Clearly the shift to remote learning opens the door to further attacks with IT departments having less control and some schools lack the resources to build strong cybersecurity protection. Social engineering remains one of the most common forms of attack with phishing and ransomware common methods. Strong passwords, anti-malware software, patching, VPNs and two factor authentication can help to deter cyberattacks but basic cyber security training also needs to be in place. See our article on security for homeworkers on page 12 in this issue.

The channel has a key part to play in helping educational establishments to know what technology is available to help them stay ahead and adapt to the changes that may well become the long term norm. Providing, deploying and monitoring the right solutions is how resellers can support their educational customers along with ensuring training is provided to optimise the use of the equipment. In turn, resellers need a one stop shop for the products and solutions and the opportunity to take advantage of additional technical support and services that can help them win and retain a customer. Exertis is your ideal partner to do just that. We work with key vendors such as Intel, Fujitsu, Acer, Dynabook, Dell, Lenovo and Cherry that have specific programmes aimed at this market. In addition, our Interactive and Collaboration Solutions team are certified Microsoft Teams Room technical trainers and the vendor’s UK distributor of choice for MTR. In addition, our security team can also help to provide better protection for educational establishments.

The educational learning experience has been changing but COVID-19 may well make that happen quicker and deeper. That, in turn, presents opportunities for our resellers.