Educational technologies companies or edtech are startups that provide educational technology solutions to learners, institutions, and educators. They use technologies to enhance the learning experience and assist students to achieve success. Educators on the other hand use educational technologies to improve their teaching process. In this guide, we will discuss how the top edtech companies are employing technology to assist learners and educators all over the world.
The market outlook for online education
Before we dive deeper into the breakdown of the most promising start-ups and established companies within the Edtech space, let's take a quick look at the current market. Overall, people often strive for education and for many it is more comfortable to get it online. Previously, companies like Blackboard were mostly targeting educational institutions by providing Learning Management Systems (LMS) and letting the schools and universities directly benefit from the software. However, right now the tendency is that Edtech companies are focusing on providing the full-circle experience to their learners. In other words, a company does not only provide the technological setup, but also all of the educational content, expertise and so on.
This has given birth to such sites as SkillShare, Coursera, eDX and more. However, learners often are not willing to dive into a full-fledged course straight away. This is why they are looking for certain quick tutorials to resolve a certain gap in their knowledge or just as a quick test of their interest.
This is where YouTube comes in handy as it serves as one of the largest databases for any sort of a quick tip or a how-to as well as a crash course for nearly any subject matter. Besides that, often companies that operate in complex sectors are either required or prefer to educate their clients. For example, Axiory, a foreign exchange trading brokerage provides an in-depth library of online trading guides that help traders to easily get started. Content that is mostly suitable for beginner traders, like this guide that explains the most basic step one needs to take before trading online, are serving both as a conversion and nurturing tools. Hence, having educational content on the website of the company helps their current and potential clients to get educated online without even looking for a course elsewhere.
Competing emerging Edtech startups
With the rising demand for online learning and e-learning solutions, the edtech sector has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Due to the increased number of businesses seeking market share, competition in the edtech sector has gotten more fierce. From countless startups rising like mushrooms in later years, some companies stand out from the crowd with their creative approaches and cutting-edge technologies employed to support educators and learners.
Coursera
Partnering with universities and organizations, Coursera is an online learning platform that offers online courses, certificates, and degrees. The primary targeted audience of Coursera includes adult learners seeking to gain new skills or advance their careers. In this regard, Coursera differentiates itself from other learning platforms and has managed to gain a niche in the educational industry.
Udemy
Udemy is different from Coursera in that it is an online learning and teaching platform that allows anyone to create and sell online courses on a wide range of topics including
Business: marketing, entrepreneurship, finance, management, leadership, etc.
IT and software: programming languages, web development, data science, cybersecurity, and others.
Design: web design, graphic design, UX, game design, etc.
Personal development: productivity, self-improvement, time management, etc.
Photography and video: video editing, photography, animation, and more.
Music: theory, composition, production.
Health and fitness: yoga, nutrition, meditation, etc.
Teaching and academics: teaching skills, educational technologies, language learning, etc.
Anyone with enough skills in their respective careers can develop and upload a learning course on Udemy's online educational platform. Since anyone can upload content, it is important for learners to research more information about the educator they are going to teach from. Udemy has over 150 000 courses, making it possible to learn and teach almost anything.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is probably one of the most well-known online educational platforms that provide courses on many topics. The academy is also a non-profit organization that provides free resources for educational purposes to learners of all ages. The primary focus of the platform is on K-12 education, but adults can find many useful courses too. Although K-12 is for the USA, any other student from any country can use Khan Academy's free courses to understand and learn more about math, science, computing, arts and humanities, economics, and finances.
Khan Academy also has partner courses that are developed in collaboration with other organizations including Pixar, NASA, and the museum of modern art.
Canvas
This cloud-based LMS is designed to improve teaching and learning experiences for K-12 and higher education institutions. Education technology company Instructure is behind the Canvas creation, based in Salt Lake City. The brand offers a wide range of features and tools for online learning that includes course creation and management, grading assessments, discussions, and collaboration. The top reasons why canvas gained popularity are
Easy course management
User-friendly interface
Mobile support
Personalization
Collaborative tools
As we can see, many online educational platforms seem similar at one glance, but there are important differences that enabled these companies and organizations to become successful over the years. The main reason for all these companies' success is their capacity to target certain niches and audiences.
Key Takeaways
Edtech companies are using cutting-edge computer technologies to improve the educational experience and help students and educators succeed with it.
By providing teachers with tools for course management, communication, and assessment, edtech companies have a positive impact on learners. The Edtech industry has grown significantly in recent years, and this has boosted competition.
Coursera collaborates with institutions and organizations to provide adult learners looking to better their careers or learn new skills with access to online courses, certifications, and degrees.
Anyone can create and sell online courses on a variety of topics using Udemy's online learning and teaching platform.
Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization, offers free institutional-grade educational materials to students of all ages, with an emphasis on K-12 education.
Canvas makes it possible for educator organizations to employ advanced LMS tools. Cloud-based LMS of Canvas includes tools for course development and management, grading tests, comments, and collaboration tools.
The success of these edtech businesses depends on their capacity to set themselves apart from rivals and provide benefits to students and institutions.
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