ADVERTORIAL FEATURE
The digital classroom
The value of an investment , and any income from it , can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount invested .
For centuries , education meant a teacher standing in front of a class , teaching a set course to a limited group of students . The format restricted how learning could be scaled up in volume , contributing to rising costs for students . In the US , for example , college tuition fees have almost quadrupled since the 1980s . Thaiha Nguyen explains why : “ Education is a scarce resource and if something is scarce , it ’ s often expensive .” Not for much longer . ‘ Edtech ’, or educational technology companies , are using the power of the internet , artificial intelligence and smartphone apps to disrupt the traditional model and remove education ’ s scarcity value . But it ’ s not just supply that ’ s changing , demand for lifelong learning is also on the increase , Nguyen says . “ If you buy into the argument that we ’ re going to live for longer , then we ’ re going to work for longer . And we ’ re going to keep learning , not just because we want new knowledge , but also because we want to remain relevant in the fastchanging job market . There is an opportunity for education to keep growing . It ’ s a $ 2tn market and online degrees are estimated to be worth about $ 40bn , rising to $ 80bn by 2025 .” Nguyen is not disheartened by the common perception of edtech as “ a graveyard for investors ,” suggesting this view arises from the difficulty of balancing the mission to provide cheap , accessible products with the need for companies to be profitable . But she believes companies such as Duolingo , Coursera and FDM can strike the right balance , by combining technology and digital delivery efficiently and effectively . The first of those , Duolingo , is a smartphone-based languageteaching app . Nguyen underlines the
/ 18 / trustnet . com