Irrefutably educational technology, popularly known as edtech, is defining learning today. There is an exponential innovations in technological tools and media, for instance massive online courses, that assist in the communication of knowledge, and its development and exchange. A common metaphor in the edtech space is educational technology for learning management systems (LMS), such as tools for student and curriculum management, and education management information systems (EMIS).
Further, Educational technology as back-office management, such as training management systems for logistics and budget management, and Learning Record Store (LRS) for learning data storage and analysis are gaining currency.
The influx of edtech tools are changing classrooms in a variety of ways. For instance, edtech robots, virtual reality lessons and gamified classroom activities make it easier for students to stay engaged through fun forms of learning. And edtech IoT devices are hailed for their ability to create digital classrooms for students, whether they’re physically in school, on the bus or at home. ‘’Even machine learning and blockchain tools are assisting teachers with grading tests and holding students accountable for homework,’’ says Navin Manaswi, founder of wowexp, one of India's leading metaverse companies which is starting its metaversity vertical soon.
Combining technology and education is another element of technological evolution, with the common goal of making learning easier for students while at the same time producing more outstanding results. ‘’Technology can not only ease the learning process but also dissect the students’ progress and provide responses accordingly,’’ says Venkat Patnaik, the key mentor of Ajeevi, an IoT company, who also sits on the board of a host of HE institutions. ‘’The combination of adaptive learning, using an individualized interface and materials, which accommodate to an individual, who thus receives personally differentiated instruction, with ubiquitous access to digital resources and learning opportunities in a range of places and at various times, has been termed smart learning.’’
Do you remember sitting in class, half-listening, half-day dreaming? Now, with a seemingly infinite number of gadgets and outside influences vying for a student’s attention, it’s imperative to craft lesson plans that are both gripping and educational. Edtech proponents say technology is the answer. Some of the more innovative examples of students using tech to boost classroom participation include interacting with other classrooms around the world via video, having students submit homework assignments as videos or podcasts and even gamifying problem-solving.
The potential for scalable individualized learning has played an important role in the edtech industry’s ascendance. The way we learn, how we interact with classmates and teachers, and our overall enthusiasm for the same subjects is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Everyone learns at their own pace and in their own style. Edtech tools make it easier for teachers to create individualized lesson plans and learning experiences that foster a sense of inclusivity and boost the learning capabilities of all students, no matter their age or learning abilities.
Education technology platforms, ebooks and game-based learning apps have fueled the desire for a tech-driven student experience. As a result, the edtech industry is expected to reach a valuation of $348.41 billion by 2030, despite hiccups in venture funding. This growth has led to an increasing number of edtech companies supporting schools, teachers and students. While education companies like Course Hero and Coursera offer students online courses on specific topics, technology platforms like PowerSchool help teachers and administrators manage and track students’ progress.
The EdTech industry is a diverse and rapidly growing market which includes early-stage startups, middle-market companies to publicly traded companies. It is getting significant attention from industry veterans as well as generalist investors. According to EdSurge, prior to the arrival of Covid, $1.7 billion was invested by venture capital funds into the industry across 105 deals. As COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in the mass closures of schools and universities, forcing education to be digitised more than ever, the education technology market went through a boom.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools across the world were forced to close, which left more and more grade-school students participating in online learning, and university-level students enrolling in online courses to enforce distance learning. Organizations such as Unesco have enlisted educational technology solutions to help schools facilitate distance education.The pandemic's extended lockdowns and focus on distance learning has attracted record-breaking amounts of venture capital to the ed-tech sector. In 2020, in the United States alone, ed-tech startups raised $1.78 billion in venture capital spanning 265 deals, compared to $1.32 billion in 2019.
During pandemic, there were further upsurge, and many start-ups became unicorns, many became the global unicorns such as Byju's was valued at over $22 billion in October 2022, when it raised a $250 million funding round. Of course, the company failed to keep the momentus, In November, Prosus first slashed the fair value of Byju's to $5.97 billion. Byju's valuation markdown comes at a time when three board members tendered their resignations. Byju's is caught in what many see as a governance crisis after it lost board members representing three global investors - Peak XV, Prosus NV, and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative - and auditor Deloitte.
An expanding edtech sector also means more jobs and a greater demand for skilled professionals among edtech brands. Front-end and back-end developers, UX designers and cybersecurity analysts are some of the most popular roles. While these jobs require knowledge in areas like programming languages, data science and UX design, edtech companies still look for well-rounded candidates. Interpersonal skills like emotional intelligence aid tech workers in understanding and meeting the diverse needs of students, teachers and school systems.
Expectations have never been higher for edtech companies, resulting in a thriving education technology ecosystem. From some of the biggest edtech companies to budding edtech startups, tech professionals have plenty of options when deciding how they want to improve the daily lives of students and teachers.
Edtech companies are surfacing in most unlikely regions. The success stories of EdTech companies, such as TEKY, Mclass, and MindX, highlight the transformative power of foreign investments in Vietnam's education landscape. These companies have leveraged foreign capital and expertise to expand their reach, enhance their offerings, and deliver high-quality education solutions to students nationwide. Furthermore, partnerships and acquisitions negotiated between foreign investors and local EdTech firms have created synergies that propel the sector’s growth and enable the development of cutting-edge technologies and learning methodologies. Vietnam’s EdTech sector presents a promising investment landscape for foreign investors. With the right approach and partnerships, foreign investors can contribute to the transformation of Vietnam’s education ecosystem while reaping the benefits of a rapidly expanding market.
Founded in 2012, China’s Yuanfudao provides K-12 after-school tutoring, pre-school support and adult education services to over 400 million users across China, with a mission to provide equal access for every Chinese student to the best educational resources conveniently and efficiently. Headquartered in Beijing, Yuanfudao has centres across China, including in Wuhan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Jinan, Changsha, Tianjin, Chongqing, Shenyang, Changchun and Hefei.
Inoxoft, the educational software development company offers a range of comprehensive services, including E-Learning Software Development, Learning Management System Development, and School Management Software Development. They specialize in creating tailored solutions to meet your unique organizational and instructional needs. These education software solutions are designed to streamline processes and make life easier for teachers and students alike, digitizing everything from attendance tracking to grading.
Founded in 2008, Edtech company Knewton provides students with engineering, technology, science, and mathematics courses. Knewton’s recent product, Knewton Alta, combines adaptive learning technology and a library of open learning courses. Knewton’s powerful engine can detect how a student is progressing and adjust accordingly to make the student’s experience worth it. With partnerships including Fitchlearning and Alinea, Knewton presents products at an affordable price, making the learning process easily accessible.
Another, founded in 2015, China’s Zuoyebang provides online tutoring products and services for students covering a broad range of academic subjects. Headquartered in Beijing, the company employs over 35,000 staff in China and has 11 branches across the country, including in Xi'an, Hefei, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jinan, Changsha, Nanjing, and Shijiazhuang.
The Kahoot! Group is headquartered in Oslo, Norway with offices in many regions globally, boasts of 300 million sessions have been hosted on its platform by 30+ million active accounts, with 2 billion participants in more than 200 countries and regions in 2021 and 2022. Founded in 2012 by Morten Versvik, Johan Brand, and Jamie Brooker and launched in private beta in March 2013 at SXSWedu, Kahoot! is today used by around nine million teachers globally, hundreds of millions of students and families, and, perhaps surprisingly, across 97% of Fortune 500 companies.
Expectations have never been higher for edtech companies, resulting in a thriving education technology ecosystem. From some of the biggest edtech companies to budding edtech startups, tech professionals have plenty of options when deciding how they want to improve the daily lives of students and teachers.
Skillsoft, founded in 1998, is a cloud-based learning platform geared toward corporate training and workforce upskilling. Its extensive library of video-based courses covers topics ranging from leadership essentials to product management skills to data science fundamentals. According to its website, more than 12,000 organizations have used Skillsoft.
When you need in-depth preparation for classes on a certain subject or to pass an exam, you can use Studocu. It is a convenient educational platform that helps students improve their knowledge. The main resources for this are the courses, manuals, and educational materials posted here. Most materials (about 80%) are freely available, and access to the other 20% is provided after a subscription. In any case, all materials are carefully checked before publication, but especially valuable sources fall into the paid category. The choice of subjects is very wide – pupils/students can choose from thousands of subjects. In total, there are more than 4 million documents in the database. This opens up wide opportunities for training, as well as mastering new subjects.
Have you ever been stuck on an enraging homework problem that takes forever? Chegg is a service that provides homework solutions to problems for struggling students. It also offers a database of textbooks for students and provides internships and scholarship opportunities to those searching. However, this company does have an honor code. To prevent cheating in high-education institutions, professors and lecturers can be provided with students’ IP addresses upon request if there’s suspicion of cheating. With a great variety of services to choose from, Chegg is undoubtedly a company that can help a student’s life become much more manageable.
Founded in 2015, Guild Education helps working adults continue their employer-funded education with online courses from universities, including veteran-friendly schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Once companies work with Guild Education to design a learning program, Guild Education guides marketing efforts, tracks employees’ performance and handles any administrative tasks. Chipotle, Discover and Disney are a few of the biggest names that have partnered with Guild Education.
Access to professional opportunities operates in a biased way. To combat this, Multiverse is working to create more professional apprenticeships, offering programs for areas of focus such as data analytics, digital marketing and business analysis. Through the combination of work, training and community, the company hopes to develop and raise the social capital of a diverse group of leaders.
With its adaptive K-8 math curriculum, Dreambox Learning aims to make math accessible and exciting. Its technology tracks students’ problem-solving approaches, constantly re-sequencing problems and recalibrating difficulty based on student performance. Meanwhile, bright visuals, crisp sound design and other game-like touches make learning long division more engaging.
Consider the business model of a company called Newsela, founded in 2012. Newsela curates a digital library of relevant, trustworthy nonfiction readings and adapts them to a wide variety of reading levels. The company supplements real-world texts with built-in activities, which allow teachers to track their students’ usage levels and performance. Teachers can always adjust their content according to students’ needs and interests since Newsela updates its content offering daily.
Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is an online marketplace platform that allows instructors to exchange teaching materials with each other, making it more straightforward for them to access resources on demand. TpT was designed by teachers for teachers, with over 7 million users on the platform and over 1 billion resources downloaded so far.
Another innovative company is Screencastify, founded in 2016. The edtech company provides a free Google Chrome browser extension that makes it easier to record, edit and share videos for use by teachers, students, business professionals and collaborators of all kinds. The extension offers an efficient solution to recording via screen capture, webcam and microphone while featuring additional tools such as narration, focus mouse and virtual pen capabilities for incorporating clear visuals into workflows.
GoGuardian facilitates safer learning experiences by providing educators with a suite of tools that ensure students are protected from harmful and distracting content when working within the digital space. The company is primarily focused on supporting mental health through a suite of products that includes DNS network filtering, classroom management tools, asset management tools, student safety beacons and more, leading to a more productive learning environment.
Edtech turns out to be a melting pot of businesses, amalgamation of different verticals and specializations.
DonorsChoose, founded in 2000, is a crowd-funding platform, akin to GoFundMe, that focuses on fundraising for public school classrooms. Founded in 2000 by a high school history teacher in the Bronx, the site allows teachers nationwide to post funding requests for all kinds of supplies, from robotics kits to books to printer ink. Users can explore maps of local requests, meeting the needs of teachers in their communities.
Founded in 2011, San Francisco based Remind’s app lets administrators, teachers, students and students’ families send text and voice messages via phone, avoiding the privacy hassle of exchanging actual phone numbers. Educators can quickly send out mass messages, but parents’ responses can turn into individual conversations when needed. Students can also connect to tutors through Remind, tailoring their learning environment to their needs through a one-on-one format.
PAIRIN, founded in 2012, strives to bridge the gap between workforce and education programs and participants. The My Journey platform connects user data to tailor career exploration, professional development and even hiring processes. This way, students and career-seeking professionals can use the platform to access resources relevant to their personal goals and realize more equitable futures.
An influx of technology is opening up new avenues of learning for students of all ages, while also promoting collaboration and inclusivity in the classroom. There are multiple ways edtech is directly impacting the way students learn.
‘’Cloud-enabled tools and tablets are fostering collaboration in the classroom,’’ says Dr Pankaj Paul, chief mentor of eStudentBook.com, an emerging Indian edtech companies. ‘’ IoT devices are making it easier for students to have full access to the classroom in a digital environment.’’
‘’Edtech tools are flipping the traditional notion of classrooms and education,’’ says Navin Manaswi. ‘’Traditionally, students have to listen to lectures or read in class then work on projects and homework at home. With video lectures and learning apps, students can now watch lessons at home at their own pace, using class time to collaboratively work on projects as a group. This type of learning style helps foster self-learning, creativity and a sense of collaboration among students.’’
Edtech opens up opportunities for educators to craft personalized learning plans for each of their students. This approach aims to customize learning based on a student’s strengths, skills and interests. Video content tools help students learn at their own pace and because students can pause and rewind lectures, these videos can help students fully grasp lessons. With analytics, teachers can see which students had trouble with certain lessons and offer further help on the subject.
Instead of relying on stress-inducing testing to measure academic success, educators are now turning to apps that consistently measure overall aptitude. Constant measurements display learning trends that teachers can use to craft specialized learning plans based on each student’s strengths and weaknesses or, more importantly, find negative trends that can be proactively thwarted with intervention. From this, one can guess the immense possibilities exist with edtech companies.
By Sarat C. Das
(The content of this article reflects the views of writers and contributors, not necessarily those of the publisher and editor. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only)
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