If you want to impact the lives of all the learners out there, Ed-Tech might be the path for you. People who strive to learn are everywhere from students studying in schools, colleges, and universities to hired employees seeking to upskill themselves. Ed-Tech helps these people learn new things without having access to a physical education institution. Educational technology is one of those fields that has experienced tremendous growth over the past five years. Educational institutions are warming up to a more modern and flexible approach to learning and are starting to use the internet and other technological devices to teach students.
With the Covid-19 changing the norm as we know it, physical education was one of the sectors most negatively affected by the lockdowns. At the time of the crisis, It was Ed-Tech that helped students continue their education even from their homes. Online courses, learning apps, gamification, conversational AI, and many other technologies are used by educational institutions worldwide to facilitate the students and provide them with quality education using Ed-Tech products.
Ed-Tech is a rapidly developing industry, so if you’re looking to start your own Ed-Tech company, we have assembled a list of some things you should know before getting into developing an Ed-Tech product. Here we will discuss all the current trends in the Ed-Tech industry and the right business model for you.
Trends Affecting The Ed-Tech Industry
Technology is taking the world by storm and changing people’s lives every day. According to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, by 2022, around 42% of all the core competencies deemed essential for jobs are expected to change.
The above statistics reveal that an unavoidable revolution of reskilling is on the horizon. Ed-Tech is the only solution to equip our learners with the tools required to participate in the fast-paced world of technology.
Before starting your Ed-Tech company, have a look at the list of trends currently being used in the Ed-Tech market to improve learning and development at all levels, including young students to established professionals.
Global Internet Penetration
As of now, approximately 4.88 billion people have access to the internet worldwide, making it up to 62% of the world population. Access to the internet makes it easier for Ed-Tech companies to reach out to learners from different demographics globally. An example of this is a product we built for the National TB Control Program in Pakistan. The platform helps doctors from all over the country to learn and get certified in Tuberculosis care. The platform has so far trained a couple of thousand healthcare professionals which has improved the level of care provided to the patients.
Internet accessibility is imperative for building Ed-Tech products as digital access to education would ensure a global, and inclusive learning experience. Digital classrooms and textbooks reduce the cost of publication, and classes can be tailored specifically to a student’s needs.
Another pro to take advantage of when starting your own Ed-Tech company is to tailor and design specific classes for students with different abilities. Online courses have made it easier for differently-abled students to learn in a safe space. Recent years have seen the development of various Ed-Tech products and apps that help these students learn and grow. A project initiated by Microsoft called AI for Accessibility. Education is one of their focus areas and they provide excellent resources on this topic. They also give grants to innovators developing education, employment, community, and home life-related solutions for differently-abled folks.
Data-Driven Decisions
As technology progresses, digital textbooks are starting to gain momentum and are gradually being integrated into the world of Ed-Tech. Students are opting for visualization tools and digital textbooks more and more as these tools make learning more interactive, enjoyable, and effective for students. An example of this is Team Taleem, an app developed for underserved communities in Pakistan to teach basic literacy.
One of the reasons visualization tools are currently in high demand in Ed-Tech companies is because these tools help the students grasp hard-to-understand concepts and allow them to track their progress and performance. The tools make the job easier for teachers and students alike. Students can experience learning through visualization, and teachers can solely focus on teaching instead of creating and distributing text-only notes for every new topic.
Virtual Reality
Immersive learning is a necessary process, and virtual reality is closing the distance between learning and experiencing something. The idea of using 3D and 4D simulations for learning might seem a bit out there, but it is actually pretty doable. A Denmark-based startup, Labster builds virtual laboratory simulations for STEM students.
Using virtual reality, building simulations for E-Learning is now becoming the go-to method in many countries, with many new Ed-Tech startups dipping their toes in this area to bring something new to the table and revolutionize the world of Ed-Tech.
Gamification
The best way to learn is by playing. Gamification is a good utilization of technology as it involves students in the learning process. For example, the Minecraft project: The education edition is a famous game among kids and successfully used globally for educational purposes. The game can be applied to any field ranging from English and Math to Architecture, Physics, and Biology.
Conversational AI
With AI in the market, your Ed-Tech company might not need to provide a crowd of teachers to its students as the AI will partly take care of it. Cognii can be used as an example of using AI’s for immersive learning. Cogni provides products for K-12 students and corporate professionals with open-format responses and improves critical thinking. All of this is done with the help of conversational AI.
Business Models In The Ed-Tech Industry
According to CBS Insights, 42% of the startups fail because their products don’t solve a real problem. Over the years, many startups have begun their journey with a vague idea of how they’ll earn money. These startups did not consider various possibilities, such as the money running out before the product has been completed or the product not being functional enough for people to spend their money on.
If you want to stay in the Ed-Tech industry for the long term, you need to create a sustainable business around whatever product you choose to create and market. Most of the models in Ed-Tech look similar, but we have assembled a list of four business models that will help you score a path to success with your Ed-Tech company.
Freemium Or Free Trial
With the freemium pricing model, consumers can begin to use your product for free with an option to upgrade for paid version coming up later. Freemium pricing plan works in two ways: Feature limitation (Freemium) or time limitation (Free-trial).
The freemium business plan tends to be unfavorable in the later stages when the consumers refuse to buy upgrades later. Still, the model does give you the advantage of gaining a lot of traction quite fast. It makes your product readily available without the need for intermediaries.
Coursera is an excellent example of an Ed-Tech startup using the freemium business plan. Coursera offers many free courses alongside paid ones, and the free courses attract the audience in numbers. The approach has worked well for Coursera as it is now one of the most successful Ed-Tech startups globally.
Top-Down
Top-down or institutional models allow you to sell your product to schools, businesses, or other organizations through educational district leaders. In the institutional model, market size is estimated first, leading to the market value to be targeted based on the anticipated penetration rate. Once the targeted market value is zeroed in, a strategy is developed to achieve the potential revenue.
The top-down business plan allows the district leaders to purchase Ed-Tech apps and products for the school administration. An advantage of using this business plan is that districts tend to sign large contracts that can help establish your Ed-Tech company and build its reputation.
Schoolzilla is an excellent example of a top-down business plan. It is an Ed-Tech software currently used by over 140 districts in the USA. Schoolzilla offers a wide range of tools that aid the school in educating their students using E-learning.
Sponsored Products
The sponsored product is an unconventional business model where neither the parents nor the school is required to pay. This plan is used when a corporation is brought into the picture and offers to pay for the Ed-Tech product placement. The advantage of this plan is that students are offered a high-quality product for free, resulting in increased usage rates.
GoNoodle is an excellent example for sponsored products and provides a vast library of videos that helps students to be creative and makes learning fun.
Ad- Sponsored Model
With this business plan, Ed-Tech startups can show ads during the courses to cover its cost. As producing and offering courses online costs a great deal of money, ads can be used to showcase more courses to your existing customers, while third-party products ads can also be used to earn money.
Duolingo is an Ed-Tech startup that first started using the ad-sponsored business plan and is currently a very successful and inspirational unicorn startup.
Conclusion
That is it. Now you know all about the rapidly advancing Ed-Tech industry from current trends to business models. You can use any of these elements and integrate them with your ideas to produce impact-creating and revenue-generating Ed-Tech products resulting in a successful company. Our company, Gentech Solutions, has also worked on several Ed-Tech projects over the years. Some case studies of our work can be seen here.
We have Product and Project Managers with special interest and expertise in Ed-Tech products and you can get on a call with one of them by filling in the form here.
