The education sector is pivotal in driving the socio, economic, and cultural changes globally since antiquity. There is no denying factor to state that education from pre-primary through professional degree level is getting digitized to keep pace with the evolving technological and market needs.
The educational sector is one of the earliest adopters to the online and remote teaching-learning practices during forced shutdowns due to the epidemic outbreak of the Global coronavirus. Digital transformation of the educational sector did not take place overnight, as they have been using digital aids for effective instruction since the early twenties. The onset of the COVID-19 has accelerated digital investments globally in the education sector.
The federal and the state governments remain the primary drivers of growth in IT spending. According to Gartner Inc. predictions, a total of $4.5 trillion will be spent on the IT sector worldwide in 2022, which is a 5.1% increase from 2021. While the consulting and managed services may emerge as the second-largest spenders, investing $1.3 trillion, up 7.9 percent from 2021. Business and technology consulting services will register a 10% growth in 2022.
The government’s IT spending across the globe will be $557.3 billion in 2022, a 6.5% increase from 2021, forming 64% of the total spending on digital technologies, including IT services and software. Governments across the globe are keen on strengthening analytical capabilities and scaling operational agility to enhance customer and employee experiences. This can also be seen as the government initiatives to improve the public health uncertainties and other vital services, hard hit during COVID-19. This can also be seen as the government’s gestures to install responsiveness and resilient public services during the pandemic and after.
Educational instruction remained to stand still at the height of the pandemic, where 1.6 billion children and adolescents were out of the classroom. This has particularly affected the global south, as 500 million students had lost access to distance learning. UNESCO was quick in mustering public, private, national, and International agencies’ support and the state governments support to boost investments in the digital infrastructure to promote remote learning. As many as 112 countries have signed a Global Coalition for Education on November 2021.
Digital spending on the education sector was $7.78 billion in 2020 and it is likely to reach $ 107.25 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 30% during the forecast period 2021-2030. Several research studies have predicted exponential growth of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or e-learning.
Business and Management, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are taking precedence over the other disciplines. The global market share for online education was $ 269.87 billion in 2021. It is likely to reach $ 585.48 billion by 2027, with a CARG of 13.8% growth during this period.
North America emerges as the largest market for the global digital education market, which is expected to get a 46% of revenue share in 2022 from a 35.8% in 2020
The European market is expected to grow at a stable pace, from $20,571.2 million in 2019 to $61,250.6 million by 2027. IT infrastructure, network, and connectivity building remain key areas of investment in 2022 to improve digital education.
Digital document management software is likely to occupy a significant share of the digital education markets across the globe because even the controlled economies of the Middle-east and Africa are open to structural reforms in the economy, welcoming Foreign Direct Investment. Digital signature software enhances student and other stakeholder experiences, driving unique user experiences.
Electronic Signature software streamlines the student admission process from filling out an online application form, paying the admission fee, selecting courses, issuing student ID, and login credentials. Employees in the educational institutes can facilitate a unique user experience through these innovative digital practices, which are quick, and efficient in accomplishing the student onboarding process in a few minutes. Signatory authorities at both ends can drag and drop their e-signatures that remain valid and legally bounding.
So far, the world has experienced online teaching-learning practices that involved partially manual operations such as examinations, evaluations, issuing of transcripts, and certificates, denoting the completion of a particular academic and professional degree. Electronic signature software has brought a complete digital transformation. Educational institutes can now issue digital transcripts, diploma and professional degree certificates online. They comply with the law of that region.
Student tutorials, assignments, assessments, funding, grants, allocation of research projects, and issuing study material are digitized to go on a paperless, environmentally friendly work atmosphere. Educational centers can use customized templates for each occasion and can save time from automated data filling, importing data and images from the system. They can create their customized logo and other brand-building activities to maintain their unique digital presence.
The education sector is traditionally data-centric and prone to the intensive documentation process. Digital signature software takes every measure in indexing, archiving, and retrieving documents. The electronic signature feature is completely safe and tamper-proof and remains valid across the regions of the globe, as signature software adheres to compliance norms of the geographical regions.
Electronic Signature software has a great potentiality in meeting the market demands. All the major players of the online education industry are eagerly embracing these new technologies to facilitate a unique user interface for parents, teachers, students, and other stakeholders. The key players in this sector are now focusing on bidding a bye to legacy practices and adopting new technology, and product innovations. Electronic signature software are more and more integrated with student and teacher onboarding applications and backend ERP’s, helping enable a truly digital education institute.
