Digital Education: Matching the Supply with Demand

There are a few recent studies that tell a lot about the changing landscape in the education sector:

• Education is the third most popular category in the downloaded apps from Apple's App Store.
• Mobile learning market worldwide is projected to touch $37 billion mark by 2020.
• Accenture 2014 Global Value of Higher Education Survey, based on a sample size of about 1500 across UK, US, Singapore, Australia and India has reported that about 70% of recent graduates and higher education students want institutions to use more and more of digital tools.
• By 2020, 98% of students are expected to use blended learning consisting of classroom as well as online components.
• Gaming has become a major learning technique. Whether you call it educational entertainment or academic game play, it has become a popular trend.

All these are indicators of the changing scenario of the way education is imparted to students at various levels. In fact, not just students, even companies are realizing the power of digital learning for corporate trainings. As per Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, the corporate digital market is set to overtake the learning in the traditional conference room settings of corporate headquarters.

While there is no doubt that there is huge demand for digital learning apps, the challenge before the apps development companies is that digital learning tools should be made more interactive and fun to enhance retention. Digital education is still a relatively young industry and it requires new and breakthrough models to make it exciting and interesting.

First of all, there are very few players who are offering course content catering to the diverse needs of learners. Then, there are issues of enabling technology that can address the hurdles like affordability, accessibility, mode of delivery, etc. AppWallet feature of Anant computing platform is remarkable in many ways in the sense that it allows different learning tools to be bundled for different customer groups based on their educational and socio-economic profile and needs. Low memory space, automatic update and auto app discovery are a few other features that the fast paced student community of today would be willing to embrace with open arms.

Bringing Rural Women into the Digital Fold

There are clear signs of a significant demographic shift in the internet users in the last few years in India. According to a recent report by Boston Consulting Group, a large proportion of the new internet users consist of female, rural, older, vernacular speakers and the mobile phone users. This demographic shift means that there are clear signals for apps development companies to reposition themselves by realigning their business and marketing strategy, and rural women, are now a critical link in their whole business plan.

Healthcare apps

Public healthcare is not very efficient in rural India and women are often the direct sufferers, as they are the primary caregiver for the family. Issues which could be easily treated are often left untreated leading to more serious health issues subsequently. Health apps that offer useful information on pregnancy and child care as well as common prevailing diseases like tuberculoses, malnutrition, and diarrhoea could be of great interest to rural women. Needless to say the features of organizing apps within AppWallet and the auto update feature of the apps contained inside are big plus points for such health apps.

Literacy apps

There is a rising level of aspirations among the new internet user groups, including rural women. The illiteracy rate is quite high among rural women and girls; they have either not attended the school or dropped mid way. But today, this group wants to be not just literate; it wants to go beyond the basic level of literacy to acquire knowledge which has been so far beyond their reach. The vernacular app development tool facilitated by Anant Computing Platform can prove to be the clear winner for getting rural womenfolk into the digital mainstream in a big way.

Entertainment apps

The changing landscape of rural economy has also meant that the rural women are no longer engaged in the routine mundane daily chores all through the day and are looking for doing other things as well such as listening to music, playing games, or doing such entertainment stuff. Apps developed through Anant Computing Platform, once downloaded do not require internet connections for running, and it is something that could prove to be quite an interesting proposition for this group of customer who may be a little concerned about the data download charges.

Getting Farmers into Mobile Apps Industry

Looking at the pace at which the mobile technology has dominated various businesses, apps for agricultural sector have not really taken off in a big way. The reasons are not far to seek; it’s basically a demand driven industry. Companies will make use of all the latest technology and try reaching out to their potential customers if they find they can make substantial increase in their customer base by using that technology. The same principle applies to mobile apps as well.

There is a general perception that the Indian farmer is not tech-savvy in general and this is not completely a false impression. The literacy rate of Indian farmers is at best very marginal and it requires significant individual effort to get to the level of being proficient in using modern gadgets and appliances. However, this landscape is changing rapidly with the immense popularity of smart phones as well as their reach in every rural household in recent times. Farmers, literate or illiterate are now spending big amount on purchasing mobile phones, and this segment of the population is huge enough to be ignored by businesses that deal with them.

But it’s a great challenge capturing this market of non-English speaking population which is comfortable in only the vernacular language, has a general low level of literacy and which is not tech savvy as the educated urban younger generation. Anant Computing Platform has precisely this focus in its features to deal with this challenge. The vernacular app development platform and AppWallet that update automatically are huge plus points when it comes to reaching out to this so far ignored customer segment from the digital revolution.

Manufacturing companies that communicate with farmers for selling their products, such as fertilizers or pesticides, warehousing and marketing companies that come to the aid of storage and marketing of the farmers’produce, the trading companies that are involved in buying or selling the farm produce, or the insurance companies that are involved in crop insurance – they can all benefit by suitably designing apps specifically targeted to this customer segment and bundling their products in proper design using Anant AppWallet.