Education Technology | Innovations and Insights - Edinbox

India's engineering education system is producing millions of graduates but with a glaring employability gap where only 43 percent of them find employment. Conventional teaching practices based on old curricula and theory do not provide students with employable skills. The solution to this lies in behavioural sciencesmoving focus from what students should "know" to what they should become habitual about.

Promoting everyday coding practice, experiential learning, and redefining evaluations can fuel effective skill development. With technology transforming at lightning speed, colleges need to evolve, rethink policy, and design an environment where students are actively creating, experimenting, and inventing.

Arindam Mukherjee, Co-founder and CEO at NextLeap, points out that colleges need to reimagine education by prioritizing behavioural science and experiential skill-building

AICTE statistics for the years 2019-20 to 2022-23 suggest that there were 6.01 million students studying at the diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate levels of engineering courses but only 2.64 Million (~43 percent) were placed in employment.

SO, HOW DID WE

Ask any individual and you will be directed towards causes such as an outdated syllabus, a lack of an industry taxonomy of skills, no industry exposure for the instructors and so on.

However, if you delve deeper into the matter, the cause could also be an understanding of the science of behaviour.

Learning isn't the product of teaching, but rather the product of the learner's activity. That implies that for a learning experience to be effective, it must have the ability to lead to some desired behaviours among students. A recent paper by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, detailed which interventions do (and don't) work in changing behaviour.

What they discovered is that theoretical knowledge sharing in class, i.e., knowledge-based interventions, has a very small effect on changing behaviors. However, behavior skills training and habit formation, i.e., providing highly selected learning materials and the opportunity to practice them, have the greatest impact in terms of changing behaviors.

So, how do we change our mindset to go from "what should the student KNOW" to "what is the habit we want our students to develop"? The question we need to be asking ourselves isn't "How do we make sure our students know about arrays" - it is "How do we make sure our students code for an hour a day".

This will make the colleges rethink all the parameters of the educational system. Do the professors teach the material or serve as a guide or mentor? Do the tests come in the form of a quiz/test or a demo day when students share their work? How do we create an environment where the students "want" to learn? Solutions to these questions could remake how colleges are run nowadays.

HOW DO WE ARRIVE AT THIS NEEDED STATE?

The response once more lies in behavioural science. The research paper also cites the fact that interventions at the structural and policy levels are more effective in bringing about changes in behaviour. There must be a rethink on the education policy side regarding the efficacy of college education and the transformations needed.

This is all the more critical in the modern age, since the half-life of technology skills is diminishing day by day and unless there is a total rethink on collegiate education, academia can never keep pace with the changing events in the world of technology.

For India to accrue gains from its demographic dividend, it needs a skilled workforce and the colleges have a huge responsibility to create a skilled talent economy. The question is, is the Indian college system prepared?

It is an era of the internet, with cybercriminals growing increasingly bold by the day. Even top tech guns are not immune. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm's founder and CEO, recently shared a bizarre and concerning scam attempt where a fraudster impersonated. well, him!.

Moving on to social media, Sharma explained that he had been approached on WhatsApp by someone claiming to be him. Yes, the cheat attempted to cheat Vijay Shekhar Sharma because Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The impersonator requested confidential company data, such as access to funds and the phone number of the finance head of the company. And as if all that was not bold enough, the SMS scammer also sent a suspicious .exe file pretending to be a GST document — an obvious attempt to slip malware into the system.

Fortunately, Sharma was not fooled. Sharing a screenshot of the message, he took the opportunity to use it as a lesson. "Now frauds are being conducted in my name, with my picture. Be careful," he warned his followers.

The timing of the post could not have been more opportune. It came at the heels of a government announcement on a new cyber-tool, the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), an initiative proactively aimed at detecting and deterring online financial frauds. The tool is poised to help institutions and individuals detect risk indicators and deter fraudulent activity.

The incident is a bitter reminder that none is too high-profile to be victimized and that cyber scams are not only growing in size but also in creativity. CEOs to common users, being on one's guard and verifying sources — especially when it comes to digital communication and foreign attachments — is more crucial than ever before. 

As Sharma states, "Digital India deserves digital safety."

AI can help you learn quickly but actual understanding comes out of thinking, making efforts, and personal experience. AI prompting is potent. It speeds up work, opens up ideas, and integrates information. But in the absence of context, curation, and personal control, it makes you achingly mundane. In order to move beyond AI, concentrate on what AI cannot do and engage in the unpromotable in learning.

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the education sector at a very fast pace, there are warnings against over-reliance on technology and calling for a more holistic model of learning development.

A recent survey states that while AI can be excellent for grading, feedback, and learning to students' individual needs, it is incomplete in incorporating the human factor and critical thinking skills necessary to achieve a well-rounded education.

"A.I can be harnessed positively in education, but teachers need to be mindful of creating skills which are distinctly human, like creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving," the education expert said.

To this, teachers are being encouraged to prioritize emotional intelligence, social skills, and character development alongside academic achievement.

Some of the most important strategies for transcending A.I in education are:

• Fostering innovation and creativity among students
• Developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills
• Emphasizing social skills and emotional intelligence
• Prioritizing the education of character and values
• By embracing a more balanced model of learning, teachers can equip students to succeed in an increasingly dynamic world and prepare them for the triumphs of an AI-powered future.

A shopping list of a middle-class student for an expensive laptop turned into a nightmare when dreaming of the luxury laptop for years turned out to be a nightmare when he lost all his savings of ₹77,787 in a failed transaction on Amazon India. The incident that has become the discussion of widespread outrage on social media sends some pointed questions about customer service and accountability in India's thriving e-commerce sector.

The student had struggled to purchase the laptop under the false assumption that Amazon's site would be followed by a guarantee of reliability. Yet once purchased, he claims that the product never materialized, with many efforts to obtain redress through Amazon seeming to be for nought. The experience has not only psychologically traumatised him but also financially drained him.

The incident was first reported on X (Twitter), where the student narrated his experience. The post became viral in a few minutes, and outrage and sympathy from netizens. The majority of people sympathized with the financial and emotional cost of the incident.

They demanded Amazon India to take action immediately.

"This is more than an issue of one laptop," wrote one reader. "It's how trust of the world by individuals on the Internet is done and what the breakdown in trust is like."

Delayed deliveries, being sent the wrong products, and long refunds are becoming the norm in India's expanding e-commerce market. Students and poor families who buy expensive products rely on these systems and can be greatly disadvantaged by their breakdowns.

Consumer rights experts encourage consumers to document all transactions, pay securely, and report anomalies in a timely manner through appropriate customer care channels. Public complaints on social media have also been effective in pressurizing companies to take prompt action.

Amazon India, in its customer policy, avows to provide topmost priority for satisfaction and requests users to resolve grievances through their toll-free helpline or online redressal mechanism. The case, however, indicates the requirement of effective consumer protection measures in the event of high-value transactions.

With online purchases continuing to grow, such instances reflect the necessity for increased transparency and accountability in the manner consumer complaints are handled by online enterprises.

Dutch investment behemoth Prosus has officially written down its entire $530 million stake in Indian edtech company Byju's, citing a sharp drop in the firm's valuation. The move comes as a big setback for what was perhaps once India's most iconic startup in the education technology sector.

Byju's, at one time worth more than $22 billion, has experienced a sharp decline in the last year on the backdrop of governance troubles, delayed disclosure of financial results, jobs cuts, and growing investor scrutiny. Prosus had already flagged previously Byju's opacity and operational issues.

Even with the enormous loss, Prosus is optimistic regarding the wider education technology sector, asserting that its edtech portfolio is diversified and continues to provide promising returns.

Strong Performance in Other Investments

While Byju's disappointed, other Prosus-backed businesses have improved the company's overall performance. Food delivery app Swiggy registered a 24% revenue growth in local currency. PayU, the fintech payments business, had a 22% higher consolidated revenue at $1.1 billion in FY24. Other platforms like Meesho and ElasticRun also reported strong performances, backing up Prosus's investment thesis across emerging markets.

Edtech Faces Global Headwinds

Byju's is not the only edtech letdown in Prosus's portfolio. The company also witnessed negative returns from Skillsoft and Stack Overflow, signaling broader volatility in the world of global edtech. Post-pandemic normalization, heightened competition, and profitability issues have served to dent investor confidence in the space.

Edtech Still a Bet Worth Making

In spite of disappointments, Prosus has a positive outlook. The company reaffirmed its confidence in the long-term promise of edtech, particularly in disadvantaged markets. "While some bets haven't paid off, we remain confident in the transformative power of technology in education," said a company statement.

With meaningful capital still invested across international edtech companies, Prosus's future actions will be under close observation as a gauge for investor confidence in the sector.

The state government of Uttar Pradesh has launched the 'ITI Chalo Abhiyan', a statewide campaign for encouraging admissions in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) for the 2025 academic year. This program was inaugurated on May 12 and aims to enhance the technical proficiency of rural and urban youth, skill them for employment, as per flagship national initiatives such as Make in India and Digital India.

Principal Secretary of Vocational Education Dr. Hariom has directed all District Magistrates to earnestly promote the campaign, highlighting its power to make Uttar Pradesh a skill development leader. The government has launched a multi-pronged drive for awareness through school authorities, Gram Sabha meetings, and block-level meetings to ensure maximum outreach. District School Inspectors and Basic Education Officers will carry out the drive in schools, while Block Development Officers will promote grassroots support through village heads.

The progress of the campaign will be reviewed in weekly review meetings convened by Chief Development Officers. In a notable industry-academia tie-up, 149 government ITIs have joined hands with Tata Technologies to provide 11 long-term courses that are industry-relevant as per current industry needs. The Department of Vocational Education also got 27,000 youth employed through recent memorandum with 22 industry partners.

This program is the state government's collective effort to eliminate the gap between employment and education, with ITI graduates being expected to give Uttar Pradesh an economic boost. The government has distributed far-reaching publicity material in all ITIs so that more people are made aware of the scheme and the advantages it has to offer.