The booming demand in the education market gingers up the competition, making many owners of education products rethink their strategies. Smart IoT solutions for education can become a growing point for such businesses. Implementing IoT-based solutions helps educational startups and classical institutions not only hold their market share but also take the technological lead and gain a competitive advantage in the field due to a number of benefits.

Having successfully conquered such areas as health, industry, and finance, IoT remains less popular in education. But, technological backwardness is not something we can blame educators for. 

Schools and universities around the world are taking confident steps towards smart education IoT solutions to make educational plans up-to-date and engaging for students. It also helps them improve school management and administration processes, make the most of the resources and increase the financial return on investment in the education business.

Let’s look at how universities and schools can enhance the learning routine with IoT applications and devices. We are going to give some successful examples and remind you about challenges, together with ways to overcome them, when implementing IoT solutions for the education sector.

IoT and its impact on education

Even the most conservative institutions were to make a radical turn towards technological advances because of COVID-19. The pandemic has become an outstanding accelerator for the widespread adoption of technology in education. This sector has been one of the hardest hit due to the restrictions imposed in response to the epidemic. In the spring of 2020, schools around the world were forced to close their campuses and move quickly to online learning. It was a challenge not only to traditional training models but also to the financial sustainability of this business.

The shift to distance learning benefits the blooming of IoT. By the same token, IoT challenges the traditional education system, enabling learning outside traditional classrooms and libraries. It is already changing the game in education, which cannot be overlooked.

The request for  IoT in the education industry is expected to grow at a double-digit pace yearly in the next 8 years. It is most likely there will be fewer schoolers in the world that have not tested this technology, than those who already have. The spreading of IoT-enabled gadgets, the expansion of storage capacities, and the cheeping of cloud services, as well as the growing demand for trendy education, will be the accelerators for demand. 

The education market in the US was estimated at $1.4 trillion in 2021, with an expected average growth rate of 4.2% to $3.1 trillion by 2030.  Experts believe that high growth rates will be associated with both the increasing role of education in the United States, rising consumer spending on education, and the development of smart technologies. The North American region will move the market forward, remaining the main source of income. The emerging markets will also form a significant part of the demand, as governments are seeking to close the education gap with the Western world.

Innovations in education appear in response to pandemics and other challenges but are not limited to this. Pioneers of the market who have been adopting technologies in education for more than a decade have other goals than just ensuring the continuity of the learning process. They have long been implanting personalized approaches to learning, improving curriculums, collecting data to study students’ preferences, bettering the quality of teacher training, and so on.

The Internet of Things is the very technology that can help in finding a successful response to the challenges of growing competition and financial stability. Analysts expect the global IoT in the education market will grow from USD 6.01 billion in 2020 to USD 17.42 billion by 2028, increasing an average of 14.22% per year during the forecast period. The rising use of connected devices, rapid adoption of e-learning, and increase of cloud-based solutions available are expected to be the main reasons IoT in the education market will be evolving.

Nowadays, the market is also affected by the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine, due to which many schools and universities were destroyed, and millions of schoolchildren and students became refugees.

The Internet of Things has revolutionized the education system. Technology improves the operational efficiency of schools, colleges, and universities, enabling them to improve their financial performance and respond more flexibly to changing student demands.

Just imagine what the net of interconnected devices and physical objects like the Internet of Things may mean for an educational institution. You can build a smart system that will collect data through sensors and remotely control lighting, locks, heating systems, school bells, and water supply via the Internet.

IoT allows users to implement a learning management system. With the help of it, teachers can remotely structure the educational process, and track the effectiveness of educational programs and students’ progress. As for students, they can take courses, tests, and exams at a convenient time and in any place. The system also allows you to get any necessary information on the course, videos, and textbooks in one place. IoT devices are also great at providing real-time access to such resources.

Another role of IoT in education is application management solutions. Enterprise-grade IoT applications are at the heart of the smart sensor ecosystem. They allow you to make quick decisions and better manage education as a business. Applications enable extracting data, processing it, making decisions based on this data, or initiating changes. If you consider education as a business, IoT applications are the tool that can both give you a head start in a highly competitive market and significantly increase your income.

Benefits of IoT in Education 

Increasing student engagement and interest

A post-pandemic McKinsey study found that educators and students highly value the use of new technologies in the educational process, but believe that in the future they can get even more benefits in case of broader implementation. 

Teachers notice changes for the better in student progress, and learners positively rate the experience with technology as effective and interesting.

Other studies show that students demonstrate the best assimilation of educational material when it is facilitated by the alternation of already known information with new, in an approximate proportion of 80 to 20. But how do teachers know what exactly is already learned, and what is new for a particular student? This is where IoT devices will help with the ability to collect real-time data on the level of attention and mood of students. For example, a device can send an alert to a teacher when a student is having difficulty.

Creating an intelligent environment using AR-enabled wireless smart whiteboards and interactive content, note-taking digital textbooks, and virtual reality headsets could completely reshape the classroom experience for students.

A customized approach to learning

IoT allows professors to focus on a personalized approach to each student, which learners especially appreciate. Experienced industry professionals know for sure that a one-size-fits-all approach does not always work. IoT sensors will help educators plan lessons based on the needs of every student, while robotic solutions enable the personalization of curriculum content and pace based on how students respond to questions or solve test tasks. Experimenting with these formats and smart devices, teachers get an opportunity to better understand what teaching methods work and don’t work for students.

The Internet of Things also helps students with special needs learn more effectively with the use of connected devices and aids. These can be, for example, text-to-speech converters or virtual reality headsets.

After all, the ability to access information anywhere allows students to learn at their own pace or create the same comfortable learning environment at home that they get in the classroom.

Automating processes and decreased bureaucracy 

The IoT solution for the education sector gives teachers the opportunity to do more creative work and constantly improve their skills, instead of wasting time on bureaucracy and routine. For example, with the development of connected technology, educators no longer need to manually grade paper exams, check notebooks, fill out endless syllabuses and reports, or spend hours on other standard activities. Note-taking, schedule checking, and research tasks can be automated using IoT devices.

Connected devices also help automate attendance statistics control the location of students in a school or college building, and inform parents about student progress and highlights in the educational process.

Automation can also be beneficial for students, as it helps, for example, to transcribe lessons using smart microphones. So they can save the record of the course, play it again, make notes inside the program to return to them later, and so on.

Resource usage optimization

Schools will benefit from reduced operating costs and enhanced energy efficiency using the Internet of Things. Most commonly, the biggest expenses of schools and universities are for energy and other resources. 

IoT devices can turn off lights, water, air conditioner, or projector if students forget to do so. Administrators can do this with just one click from a mobile device, even being far from the location. Or even set up automatic control of electronics without human intervention. In such cases, the level of lighting, and the temperature in the rooms will be adjusted depending on the time of day or the weather conditions.

Combining IoT with AI algorithms enables analyzing data and modeling trends in the use of certain premises. They are also able to find rooms where you can optimize consumption. With a system of advanced intelligent sensors, you will make the building itself always understand where and what exact number of people are inside and what equipment they are using. All this lowers utility costs and allows enlarged investment in the educational environment.

Safety of students, teachers, and classrooms

The use of IoT in education makes the learning environment more secure due to the adoption of smart cameras, smart ID cards, and smart access control. Attackers have become more cunning nowadays, so manual ways of protection and familiar methods may no longer work.

You can consider such solutions as video monitoring to detect intruders on school premises, or RFID technology, which is useful to track the whereabouts of each student. By the way, such systems can also be relevant for the educational process: for example, to control attendance punctuality. 

Devices with leakage or smoke sensors will protect not only educators and students but also the infrastructure of educational institutions. All mentioned will work to create a secure environment in the learning campuses and make the staff and students feel more safe and protected. 

Examples of IoT in Education

Let’s look at specific solutions that have been successfully implemented and are already helping to make the learning experience more versatile and deep, and the process of educational management more effective.

Kajeet SmartBus

The developers of the SmartBus application of the US company Kajeet have set a goal to help schoolchildren get safe and free access to the Internet while traveling on a school bus. The product includes a router for Wi-Fi and 5G signal transmission, as well as the Kajeet Sentinel cloud platform. Due to the built-in security protocols, children can only connect via Internet to secure sites related to learning, as well as do their homework.

Up to 65 students can connect at one time, making SmartBus convenient for daily bus routes, athletic buses, field trips, mobile STEM labs, and bookmobiles. The manufacturer emphasizes that the service helps bridge the digital divide for those children who do not have Internet access at home, as the number of such children in the US is estimated at 30%. In addition, with the help of SmartBus, the school administration department can remotely receive complete information about the movement of the bus, which helps in ensuring safety.

LocoRobo

LocoRobo makes products that help students learn computer science and robotics within K 12. One of the company’s solutions is My Loopy, an interactive high-tech robot that plays games, tells jokes, and is aimed to make it fun to learn early STEM and coding concepts. The robot uses AI and high-tech sensors to learn, grow and react to the world around him. Loopy responds to touch, light, sound, proximity, temperature, and motion with more than 250 phrases and responses.

It is made for kids as young as four and can be used with or without an app or additional device. When paired with the free My Loopy app, My Loopy can help teach coding and STEM with a colorful, easy-to-use, programming block interface. Little users may learn how to change the color and pattern of Loopy’s lights, set his eye animations in motion, give him a script of funny phrases to say, make new music for him to play, and more.

IPEVO

IPEVO develops teaching tools, including document cameras, that can optimize remote learning and help teachers abandon old-fashioned methods switching to new modern technologies. IPEVO cameras allow users to show what their cameras see, either on a big screen see or in an online conferencing app. 

Together with IPEVO’s Visualizer software, the video feed can be displayed from the computer camera, recorded, and modified with features like zooming, stop-motion, video filters, and much more. It means that teachers may create flipped classroom videos with software such as Seesaw, Camtasia, or OBS. They also can use the doc cam as a webcam for video conferencing or remote teaching via communication software such as Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet. At the same time, the company claims that it avoids overloading devices with unnecessary features to keep the price of the product low and affordable for students and educators with different financial capabilities.

SweetRush

The producer of learning and communications solutions from San Francisco, SweetRush has got a challenge from its big client in the financial sector to improve performance of the call center. They wanted to increase customer satisfaction and improve personnel’s knowledge of available credit card products. Previously, they used to get training in the classroom, but it wasn’t a gainful answer to the problem. 

SweetRush offered a new training solution, a conversation simulator, that blends a goal-based scenario with a branching social simulation. An educator may choose their avatar/character and follow the storyline of an upset customer who has just received her credit card bill after traveling in Europe. An agent and the program role-play their responses, and the trainee is able to follow in real time the customer’s satisfaction via a mood meter as feedback. The applications also use tools like competitive games and audio/video animation that help to increase participation and retention. Such an interactive conversation simulator may be a model for best practices in call center training, as well as a good example of applying IoT-based decisions in different businesses. 

MagiCard printers

Magicard is a developer and producer of ID card printing technologies and devices. It manufactures printers for issuing personalized contactless plastic cards, like those we all use for entering offices or other buildings. Magicard printers are wide-known for their built-in card security features, including the secure watermark and digital shredding.

In addition to ID card printers, Magicard offers other products that include ID card issuance software and smart cards. Magicard printers can encode smart cards in-line with printing. 

Used by teachers or students as personal electronic keys at universities, Magicard cards provide them safe access to education campuses, classrooms, faculties, or science labs, securing from unauthorized entry into the territory of suspicious persons. Along with this, MagiCard printers are able to print cards that help track students’ usage of library resources, or timely submitting of their assignments. Students can use smart cards to pay for services within the university or store their medical information and emergency contacts.

Challenges and Solutions

Even as many colleges and universities are interested in using IoT solutions to support student learning, some difficulties become a barrier to the widespread adoption of its tools. Let’s look at some of them, as well as solutions that can be an answer to these challenges.

Privacy and Security Concerns

The growing number of connected devices and sensors makes networks more vulnerable to cyberattacks, causing reasonable consumers’ concerns about a possible leak of data. Threats like data theft, “fishing” activity, man-in-the-middle attacks, ransomware, and so on are not excluded. Such situations can have an extremely negative impact on the reputation of the educational institution and create serious problems for students.

What you can do. Do not ignore following all security policies to protect data, and do your best to raise awareness of students and staff about digital hygiene. Don’t save on protective measures and contingency plans for the event of cyber threats. Use only trusted solution providers who apply only best practices and the latest security technologies for their products.

High Implementation Cost

Financial resources play a crucial role in the integration of IoT devices and software in the education environment. These expenses include not only the expenses of purchasing hardware, software licenses, and maintenance price of IoT tools, but also spending on the power supply and teacher training. You should also take into account sufficient bandwidth and reliable Wi-Fi connectivity. All this could be the most challenging issue for public-funded schools or big institutions, requiring a lot of resources given the scale of implementation.

What you can do. Manufacturers are doing their best to reduce the cost of the solutions and make them available to as many students as possible. Perhaps you should hire a consultant who will select a product on the market that is not the most widely advertised, but perfectly suitable for your tasks. Another option is to order a custom solution yourself from a vendor with extensive experience, which allows you to eliminate unnecessary features and focus on exactly what you need.

Lack of Infrastructure to Store and Process Data

IoT devices generate a huge amount of data that needs to be stored and processed. The local infrastructure some institutions engage for data storage is likely too outdated and unstable to empower connected IoT-based solutions. It interferes with uninterrupted data transfer and may cause the malfunction of devices. But what is even more important, it increases the risk of sensitive information leakage or data loss in the event of a cyber threat.

What you can do. When implementing IoT solutions, university or school management needs to choose a reliable computing platform and data tools. Using cloud-based storage systems, you can store a massive amount of data. We advise also keeping multiple copies at different places to ensure your data is safe even if one facility is down.

Read also: Internet of things (IoT) in consumer electronics market: 5 Use Cases of 2023

How Webbylab Helps Educational Centers With IoT Implementation

As our world moves onward, we require educational tools to enable teachers to keep up with the latest achievements of science and progress. Using IoT in schools and universities allows educators to put on digital tracks the learning process and make it more efficient and streamlined. Today’s technologies give us limitless possibilities, and even if the use of IoT applications in education is still associated with some difficulties, such as high cost or security issues, but as they improve, all these barriers will certainly be removed. Anyway, you can start getting all the benefits of IoT in education right now.

Webbylab creates complex IoT solutions, managing the entire process from concept to finished product. Our team consists of experts with deep knowledge in the field of IoT, including developers, designers and QA engineers. We provide solutions for both large enterprises and start-ups.

We can consult you at any stage of your IoT project, as well as help you to validate your IoT business idea, offer a range of implementation options, share our professional expertise.  Furthermore, we use for development a Proof of Concept approach, what helps you get the maximum out of your IoT application development with the smallest costs. 

One of our projects related to education was the grandexpo.school learning management platform, that we created and launched in a limited amount of time. You may also be interested in our experience in creating a smart home system, together with such products as control system Propustator with a line of access controllers and firmware for them, automation platform for connecting a smart home or industrial facilities 2Smart Standalone, or security robot prototype with the ability to remote control and video surveillance via a mobile application. 

So If you want to create your own ecosystem or bring added value to your clients, making devices smart, please feel free to contact us.  We’ll be happy to support you through all the stages of the creation of a new IoT device, including IoT consulting, acceleration, and integration, both in hardware and software.