Johannesburg, 21 Sep 2022
Digital technologies and cloud-based tools have the potential to democratise education and research, but the digital divide must be addressed to deliver on their potential.
This is according to experts participating in an ‘Innovation for technology-enabled education’ executive forum hosted by AWS, as part of its Cloud Technology 2022 series.
Agnat Max Makgoale, Senior Account Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), South Africa, said the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated moves local universities had been planning to make to offer online education. “The pandemic proved that we are able to distribute education nationwide through online learning, and the education sector has embraced this.”
This is underlined by IDC's Industry CloudPath 2021 Survey, which found that 90% of respondents from universities now use public cloud for at least one or two applications, while IDC's Worldwide Public Cloud Services Spending Guide forecasts that globally, educational institutions will increase overall investments in cloud-based solutions by nearly 21% annually through 2025 to nearly $24 billion. For cloud-based compute alone, spending will soar by over 28% annually on average through 2025, to reach $5 billion.
Makgoale noted key trends emerging in education, including that flexible learning is here to stay. “This has forced education leaders to say how can we take our product global and compete against universities around the world?”
He said the way students are being assessed is changing – with proctoring being introduced to ensure that students follow the best practices during online tests and identify potential cheating even if they are writing exams at home. The cloud is also impacting research, supporting faster outcomes and more scalable, cost-effective infrastructure, which could help universities compete more effectively for research grants, Makgoale said.
In addition, students engage differently from the way they did some years ago. “Today’s student cohort was born into the internet, they play in the digital space, and they expect to be treated the same way in education as they are in the consumer space – if online entertainment and shopping know what they want and offer personalised online assistance and feedback and recommendations, education should too,” he said.
However, while online learning could democratise education and offer a host of benefits, there were concerns and hurdles, Makgoale said. “Remote access is a risk universities never had to deal with in the past. Now there are increased concerns about privacy, cyber attacks and even research theft. Crucially, students relying on digital education face the challenge of acquiring digital devices and data – which are priced out of reach of many. Online education could be the great equaliser, but could also be the great divider if access tools and costs are not addressed.”
He said it had been encouraging to see the collaboration that took place across industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Public and private sectors worked together and telcos zero rated certain content. There is so much more that can be done to give students access to education and enable them with devices and data. So many youths don’t make it into the university system because they can’t afford it, or the system is not able to cater for them. Online education can be made available to the missing middle if stakeholders work together to make it more accessible.”
Kwena Mokgohloa, director: infrastructure and operations at the University of South Africa (Unisa), said partnerships and collaboration could overcome the digital divide. “At Unisa, many of our students are previously disadvantaged, but it is a requirement for students to have digital devices. With the help of industry and government, we were able to put aside the problem of access to devices and data,” he said.
Mokgohloa said subsidised access was not impossible in the broader education sector, noting that, for example, Unisa had stopped building during COVID-19, and used this budget to build out digital solutions and support student access to devices and data.
Skhumbuzo Clement Mtetwa, acting chief information officer at the Department of Science and Innovation, said digital devices and data could be funded if NSFAS funding was reprioritised: instead of having to fund accommodation and food for students attending university in person, the same funds could give far more students devices and access to education from wherever they lived.
“All you really need is a laptop and data, so a student in a remote area can study at UJ without additional travel, accommodation and food costs. With a changed funding structure, more students could have access to education,” he said.
Makgoale concluded: “AWS as a platform is a great equaliser, offering opportunities for entrepreneurs, edtechs, government and universities to build on the platform. I encourage organisations to start building solutions in the AWS cloud, and you’ll see our problems starting to dissipate.”
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