“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos” — Mary Shelley (in ‘Frankenstein’)
A Brief Introduction
Technology is the greatest disruptive phenomenon that has occurred to mankind. The internet which started for sovereign purposes in the 1960’s has reached our bedrooms today. The advanced technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), deep learning, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data are the propellant of change in the whole dynamics of societal and organisational conduct. To bring in the context here, ‘Education Technology’ (“EdTech”) is one of the by-products of such technological advancement which has disrupted the way of imparting knowledge and the method of teaching and learning by transcending all geographical limitations, and has gained more relevance in time of this unhappening pandemic.
Ed-Tech and its Application: Insights
‘Education Technology’ or ‘Instructional Technology’ can be understood as a mutation of technology and conventional education system to transform the whole learning and teaching experience. What was limited to the four walls of a classroom has flipped to an e-learning mode. Now learning and imparting knowledge is not confined to a physical location, rather the mode of accessibility has gone global. You can access your learning modules on your digital devices anytime and anywhere. A course offered by a university in USA can be accessed by a person at any location in India, such is the impact and transition. If you are an entrepreneur and want to work in the education sector, you need not necessarily establish an educational institution backed by huge capital, technology can be the aid for you. This mix of internet and education has also been addressed by Kerala High Court, holding right to internet access as part of right to education under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
EdTech is an ecosystem where technology is used to enhance the academic experience, method of teaching and learning, increased accessibility of resources. The technology deployed is not only a hardware or a software, but most often as the future will be, an AI Teacher, an online library on cloud servers, a synced collaborative learning process through the mechanism of IoT, advanced predictive assessment and guidance process through big data analytics and the development will be manifold. The whole conception of education might change.
The present example, in the time of corona crisis, the educational institutions have adopted technology to provide e-learning facility. The different models of EdTech have been plied, like the flipped classroom, synchronous and asynchronous mode of teaching, online tutorials, computer-based training or linear learning, collaborative learning, students enrolling for online certificate courses, the credit transfer courses from foreign universities, gamification of education, dish tv operators like Tata Sky collaborating to provide classroom teaching on your television, web based knowledge sharing platforms and mediums like Unacademy, Byjus, ebooks, online library etc.
Questions to ponder But few realistic and ethical questions might also occur. Whether AI will replace human teachers completely? What about the machine bias and how to get rid of it? Whether classrooms will go flipped, completely? Whether e-learning will suffice the human touch of physical interface? How to address the concern of digital accessibility of financially weaker class, if EdTech is the future? Whether the future beholds a blended learning of pen and paper complimented with technology or will it act in isolation? Whether we have to do away with physical space of learning? Whether the change will be for good or will it deteriorate the education system? What about false profiling of teachers, online defamation and child privacy violations? Whether the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will have to face any intermediary liability for an independent EdTech entrepreneur’s mischief over internet?
Regulatory Laws: Opportunities and challenges
a) Education Policy and UGC regulation With a lot many questions, debates, speculations and curiosity, the sector has gained a lot of traction and hence is being brought into the regulatory arena. In India, the New Education Policy, 2020 (“NEP Policy/ Policy”) has brought in sweeping changes in school and higher education. The Policy has revised the curriculum structure with focus on more practical learning and skill training. The higher education has been opened to foreign universities, selective course reading has been introduced, colleges and universities will be multidisciplinary, changing the whole thrust of education system. The EdTech will play a major role here for achieving the visionary Policy goals. However, they will have to operate as per applicable University Grants Commission (UGC) rules. The UGC introduced the University Grants Commission (Online Courses or Programmes) Regulations, 2018 regulating the online courses offered by University in India. But the NEP Policy, has proposed to dismantle the UGC, so it has to be seen in the long run how the regulatory construct will be.
b) E-commerce rules and Foreign Direct Investment On the economic front, EdTech companies have seen exponential buyouts for this year. Byju’s, Vedantu and Unacademy, the Indian EdTech companies have been diversifying uniformly and their valuations have grown significantly. EdTech has become a medium of exchange of services and products and has attracted electronic transactions, thereby inviting ECommerce regulations. The new Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 will have a significant role to play here. The scope and applicability of this rule is wide enough to cover all goods and services bought or sold over digital or electronic network including digital products and all models of e-commerce, including marketplace and inventory models of ecommerce. The definition of an ‘e-commerce entity’ includes any person who owns, operates or manages digital or electronic facility or platform for electronic commerce.
An EdTech is most likely to fall within the domain of this definition, as it is being offered in consideration of some fee, and hence the regulatory obligations and liabilities will apply directly. However, free services by platforms will fall outside this regulatory ambit. At the same time, it will be critical to analyse whether the EdTech model is falling under ‘marketplace e-commerce entity’ or ‘inventory e-commerce entity’ under the E-Commerce Rules to determine the subsequent foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, as applicable. As the FDI Policy of India stands, in ecommerce although 100% FDI is allowed, but it varies depending upon the business model. While for a B2B (Business to Business) model, 100% FDI is allowed, the Government of India has been reluctant to allow the same for a B2C (Business to Consumer) model. This would impact the EdTech sector bifurcation based on ‘marketplace e-commerce entity’ (alike B2B model) or ‘inventory e-commerce entity’ (alike B2C model).
It is also to be given a thought, reconciling the past apparent conflicting views of courts and tribunals, whether education is a ‘service’ and students are ‘consumer’ under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. Recently the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in a reference answered that educational institutions don’t fall within the ambit of Consumer Protection Act; however, coaching institutions are rendering ‘service’ and needs to be distinguished. So, it needs to be finally settled by the authorities how the construct of law has to be in this regard, to give more clarity.
d) The IP rights, AI ecosystem and Data Sanctity The challenge for an EdTech company is also to protect its intellectual property rights. The contents that are generated, the algorithms being used, software, brand name, domain name, know-how, protection of these is a robust task. Simultaneously, the seamless interaction of persons through technological interface is observing huge flow of data, contents and has invited privacy concerns. Since the whole EdTech architecture is backed by AI, the recent draft framework of the Indian Artificial Intelligence Stack will have a pivotal role to play. The questions of AI bias and its training, the emerging privacy concerns and sanctity of data principles can be addressed in a more comprehensive manner, when it comes to EdTech. The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) and compliance of Section 43A, 72, 72A along with the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 is a key aspect for addressing privacy and security concerns. The intermediary regulations under section 79A of the IT Act along with intermediary guidelines will also come into motion.
Read the conclusion on TheDailyGuardian.com.