Wang Yan, chief architecture officer at Zuoyebang, delivers a speech at a conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in February. (Photo: chinadaily.com.cn)

Remote technologies will play an increasingly-critical role in driving the education industry, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to go remote, according to an industry insider.

"Remote technology is continuing to empower online education, with large migrations online. With the continuous application of new technology methods such as big data and artificial intelligence, students' learning outcomes have been significantly improved," said Wang Yan, chief architecture officer at Zuoyebang.

Wang made the remarks after "remote everything" was nominated by MIT Technology Review for its 10 Breakthrough Technologies list for 2021 that features 10 advances predicted to have a big impact on our lives.

"Technology and outcomes are two major challenges that companies face when they transform from offline to online. The education industry is facing the largest traffic challenge ever," Wang said.

To upgrade the infrastructure, Zuoyebang has continued to upgrade its technology, changing from its original single cloud service to multiple cloud services and from mostly using third-party live broadcast systems to now relying on an independent system.

"For online classes, only livestreaming can achieve a real interacting effect, which can get both students and teachers more involved. It is impossible to achieve such outcomes through recorded and broadcast lessons," he added.

The Beijing-based company developed a complete set of livestreaming architecture based on the ZRTC protocol. It can fully support classes, including one-on-one tutoring and six-to-six small interactive classes.

In the five weeks from February 3 to March 9 last year, Zuoyebang has helped 275 teachers bring 1,832 classes to more than 33 million primary and middle school students across the country.