The advancements in technology that has taken place over the last few years have disrupted nearly every industry there is. Specifically, the internet has created a multitude of platforms that have benefitted the education sector immensely. Since the traditional model of education was largely location-based, and students had to move entire continents to obtain a better education. The connectivity offered by the internet facilitated that by eliminating all borders. As of now, it is possible for a student living on one side of the planet to enroll in a course at a university or college on the other side of the planet, all from the luxury of their own home.

From a student's perspective, obtaining an education of one's choosing is a challenging endeavor. Aside from the geographical limitations mentioned earlier, the main obstacle for most students is simply the cost. Ask any student enrolled in college about how they are getting by, and most students would reply that they are knee-deep in debt and loans. The price of education has been gradually increasing in the last few decades, and that is an issue that needs to be addressed.

As the demand for higher education has also seen a massive increase, the playing field in this area is rich in numerous opportunities. For that reason, startups that have found their calling towards this sector are in a constant battle to break the existing model and bring about a change. There is immense potential in the market for global education, particularly as the market is valued at more than $4 trillion. These startups aim to disrupt the status quo and bring about a change in the current educational spaces through the power of technology. Here is the lowdown on these startups, and the agendas they stand for.

EdX

By putting together the best of both worlds, MIT and Harvard have embarked on a joint venture by offering students a platform to learn free courses online. Whether it’s due to their endorsement or the power of this platform, other universities such as UC Berkeley, University of Texas, Boston University and others also offer their courses on this platform. Although this platform was founded by the schools themselves, the interesting bit is that this is a non-profit venture. Since this a collaboration between two leading names in the education sphere, it will be intriguing to watch their competitiveness against other online platforms and spaces.

InsideTrack

Instead of directly offering their services to students, InsideTrack aims to provide services to colleges and universities. Akin to a tutoring service, InsideTrack provides personalized solutions for academic assistance. Additionally, the service also provided metrics to a student’s performance, and that performance can be gauged by institutions as well. Essentially, InsideTrack aims to combine advanced analytics technologies with trusted teaching methods to simplify education. The insights and information gained from this platform allow teachers to target struggling students with ease, and that makes the service quite useful. It has successfully assisted students of reputed universities and is now aiming to provide direct help to students by pairing up with popular academic services platform Chegg.   

UnCollege

UnCollege is a program that lets students get a college experience without going to college in the first place. Allow me to explain. The UnCollege Movement was started by Dale Stephens with one goal in mind, and that was to provide young students with a proper gap year experience that allows them to gain valuable skills over the of the program. This might seem like the perfect deal for a student that hasn’t decided the path they wish to pursue in life and were planning to make the most out of their gap year. 

Students enrolled in this program get to live in a gap year house, gaining work experience through internships, and travelling along the way. The culmination of this program is a creative project that aims to test the learning that has taken place throughout the course. Unlike traditionally, where a gap year might include work experience and travel, this course seeks to offer the same learning but at a reasonable price point.

Rafter

To benefit bookstores in university campuses, Rafter seeks to use online cloud technologies to help them hold their own against third party bookstores and literary resources. Students turned to these external sources for their books as campus bookstores were often expensive. Combine that with the knowledge of places that offered a better deal, and it is no wonder why campus bookstores were suffering. However, by offering students the option to download an electronic version of their course books and study materials, it is possible to significantly reduce costs associated with traditional publishing. This benefits students as the books are cheaper, the college as the bookstore sales increase and the platform itself gains the trust of its users.

Minerva Project

Unlike the other services mentioned above, the Minerva Project is an ambitious plan to offer a traditional education on an innovative platform. The service aims to offer an internationally accepted education through online teaching. This alleviates the financial challenges faced by normal colleges, such as the cost of buildings, facilities and extracurriculars such as sports. However, that doesn’t mean students are deprived of the full college experience.

Students will still be able to live together and make the most out of a positive community. In the initial years of schooling, the primary residence will be based in San Francisco, with the remaining semesters taking place around the world in different cities.

Nerdify

For college students that need assistance on the go, Nerdify is an application that is essentially a personal assistant. As the name suggests, the service seeks to connect students directly with assistants known as 'nerds', and communication can take place using social media messengers or text messaging. Regardless of what the request may be, whether it’s advice on which book to purchase or a query regarding the topic of discussion, the nerds will respond promptly. 

All requests are assessed, and a suitable nerd is assigned to help the student. Depending on the kind, so assistance needed, the company will quote a price in exchange for the service.

PeerGrade

Ask anyone that has written an academic paper, and they will tell you just how beneficial it is to get a peer-reviewed paper. Although some students take the help of affordable editing services online to clear the first obstacle of their paper, the reviewing aspect is often done by physically sharing the paper with someone else. As the vast majority of students are likely to pass their papers to an acquaintance or friend, the grading aspect can get a little biased. There is also no good way for instructors to monitor the reviewing process, making it necessary to design a proper mechanism.

PeerGrade aims to solve that problem by providing a platform through which students can review each other's papers. Besides, the service also allows them to provide constructive feedback to professors. It works by having the professor create an assignment, which is completed and reviewed by the students. Then, the students can simply upload their files that are distributed by the platform itself. After an assessment, the instructor receives a report for each of the assignments easily.