The future EdTech Opportunities

A recent report on EdTech caught my attention – “Education Technology (EdTech), a USD 30 Billion Opportunity in India, April2021” by RBSA Advisors. While there are certainly many positives that we can look forward to and leverage as an entrepreneur, a learning designer mind should ask a few important questions (that are not within the scope of this report). This note brings out some of these questions.

The report anchors around the prediction of a 30 billion EdTech sector by 2032. This is a 9x growth from a projected 3 billion plus sector next year. The growth in the sector would be driven by 5 elements – Gamification, hybrid models, continuous online learning, business models and technology evolution. Later this note elaborates the context and quality of the opportunity that the growth offers.

Before, we dive into these aspects, for those who haven’t seen this report ( https://rbsa.in/archives_of_research_reports/RBSA-Advisors-Presents-Education-Technology(EdTech)-a-USD-30-Billion-Opportunity-in-India-April2021.pdf), here is a quick summary of the insight that this report highlights.

In essence, the report says “Though, formal education system in India is multi fold and regulated, the demand for informal education which includes supplemental learning tools, coaching classes, test preparation, vocational training etc. has grown up significantly in last five years as a result of introduction of education technology in India. The transformation is significant in tier 3 and 4 cities, towns and villages where the students have been able to get access to quality education at the remote locations”. These are broken down and illustrated as 8 points here.

What are the questions that are triggered by this?

Let us start by going through each of them and understand some possible implications for learners, enablers and the sector in general.

1. Online learning era is upon us, that is hardly refutable. But is it also the dawn of learning era? Does it aid or hamper meta learning – the general ability the formal learning is expected to build?
2. More EdTech start-ups are expected and there are many reports that have confirmed this. Does starting an EdTech seem easier for the new entrepreneurs? More importantly, how many of them are the true drivers of change/disruptions? Is the sector ready for these new ideas?
3. Digital learning in formal education has happened out of lack of choice rather than the value it provides. While it lurked in the shadows in pre-Covid days, the crying need to look at new learning paradigms did not cut through. Will the changes be institutional, or will it be left for individual facilitators to adjust and accommodate?
4. Collaborative learning models have been primarily informal and a part of both degree and non-degree programs. The power is collaboration is best realized when the collaborators have a clear understanding of their roles and the outcomes they would deliver. Are we truly entering the age of knowledge being packaged, verified and outcome validated – social learning intelligent platforms?
5. Digital divide hindrance has been brought to the fore in the wake of Covid19 response. Right from the availability of experts, infrastructure and even the vaccine access, we have experienced this divide. Will the future see economic models for distributed investments? Will there be new model of holistic development that will curb the divide and the social challenges like economic migration?
6. Global education marketplace is a reality. While the Coursera and YouTube education channels have seen a global audience base for long, the pandemic forced the education migrants to sign up for “Ivy League” programs as a home study model. It is still early to conclude a sustainable value proposition here, but this will certainly push the institutions’ efforts to enrol global learners for their online programs. However, the more critical question to ask would be – will local regulations open access to the global institutions from the current restrictive policies?
7. Accelerated EdTech adoption has been captured well by a meme recently – “Covid19 led the digital transformation in my company”. Schools, colleges and even the corporate learning functions were forced to enable their learning systems digitally. The question is, has the mindset transformation also begun to lead to an exponential EdTech evolution?
8. More M&A in the EdTech space is being seen. It is very well known that mega corps resist changes as the cost of change is highest for them. Ironically, the erstwhile disruptors are becoming the behemoths by both organic and inorganic expansion. Will we now see the rush to invest the next Billions in the existing Decacorns or EdTech SMBs?

These questions from the learning designer perspective, opens a slew of new opportunities for EdTech ventures. The new entrants will have an option to work on finding the answers to them on priority. The Mega EdTech ventures naturally find value in continuous linear scaling to grow their existing business models. The exponential growth possibilities open when we see the scope of gaps that these questions highlight.

Here are a few gaps and the possible solutions that would lead to the next generation of transformation in the learning space:  

Reality 1: In the current education scenario, one the most significant thing missing from the context of learning is the acknowledgement of an unprecedented disruption. It is time to sit up and acknowledge that the schools and college have been shut due to the Covid19 pandemic for one full academic year now. The same is true for those countless “sirs” and “madams” who were the informal backbone of Indian education system.

Opportunity 1: Solutions to mimic and digitise the value that a physical learning facilitator brings to our classical learning models.

Reality 2: Today, we are sitting on an unprecedented goldmine of knowledge repository. We know more and more about more and more things. We also know how they connect with each other. We can decipher many “new to the world” things, like the COVID19 Pandemic, by using already known things in the new realm. This suggests that we are learning the art of generalization, expanding the scope and relevance of our knowledge and identify some familiar markers in otherwise strange things.

Opportunity 2: Solutions to enable meta learning for the current “syllabus” and learning solutions

Reality 3: We know that AI & ML is already being used to align the digital content to any consumer leading to an explosive rise in binge consumption of content. The web streaming entertainment companies are using it to great effect creating a new generation of screen addicts. The social media has a glut of marketing, peer recommendations and multiple activity forums to get more people to binge. However, we do not see such initiatives in the learning and education space.

Opportunity 3: Solutions to add the same pull to learning content through value based reach out and community initiatives.

Reality 4: To delve deeper into what might be the next critical the missing ingredient, let us look at sport. Sport needs very similar ingredient as life to see success – toil, talent, temperament and a touch of luck. Take any sport and you will find this consistent story behind any of the greats. A champion, who eventually competes at international levels, is talented and puts an incredible amount of hard work consistently from a very young age. But with all these efforts and early learning, it still takes the keen eye of a coach/mentor to spot the unusual talent and shape them to be a legend. Sachin Tendulkar - Achrekar, PV Sindhu – Mehboob Ali or Dipa Karmakar - Bishweshwar Nandi stories are etched in our mind as the critical link that discovered the true potential and made these stars reach their potential. Even, in instances where an established Federer saw a dip in his peak performance was immensely helped by a veteran like Stefan Edberg to notice those little gaps and make small changes in his way of playing and set him on the path of staking a claim to being an all-time legend.

Opportunity 4: Solutions of coaching and mentoring to enable learners to navigate through the challenging journey of learning outcomes to attain their professional goals. This opportunity goes beyond the typical subject matter expert to enabling “Micro topical Experts”.

Reality 5: Putting this approach to learning, we see the need to go beyond the ideas like eLearning, flipped learning and learning adaptive.  All these have contributed well to bring the concept of hybrid learning alive. But they are still primarily content driven learning models. They beautifully leverage the delivery facet of content by digitising and enabling the sharing process. What is essentially missing is the concept of “reflection” which is the most critical component for learning.

Opportunity 5: Solutions that enrich the current content in terms of markers for reflection, self-assessment and contextual connections between silos of subjects, streams and sectors.

Reality 6: The idea of learning needs to be deconstructed to make it in SMART. Remember the idea of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals? Using machine learning and artificial intelligence one can draw out the underlying patterns of knowledge schema, the learner clusters, the objective map of the artifacts and a detailed map of a demonstrable learning.

Opportunity 6: Developing deep learning algorithms use this data to identify patterns which then can be used to update a learner about the way she demonstrated her acquired knowledge and give tips on how to improve that knowledge acquisition.

The future: One of the problems they say with prediction is that it is about the future. Especially when one is trying to stick the neck our in looking at anything digital. The only thing that is available to do this is what we see currently. And what is even more valuable to understand are the dysfunctionalities that have remained withstanding multiple disruptions. It would be a perfect ending to this note as each of them offer a host of opportunities for the future generation to exploit.

• Missing systematic and scientific grounding in the process of learning for an individual
• Missing understanding of the uniqueness each of us bring because of a distinct and diverse mindset
• Pass or fail and grades to indicate the quality of an adult as an economically valuable resource v/s updates and upgrades
• Continuing growth in the test prep market and the increasing use of separate competitive exams for colleges and jobs selection
• 16 years of rigorous school and college time to 15 weeks of unsupervised “training” for a machine learning algorithm

This decade would see some truly novel and path breaking developments in all areas. While education sector would see it too, it is charged with the responsibility to ensure that the future generations have the mindset, competence and resources to prevail. The way we will learn in the future is not going to be a linear extrapolation of the past is hardly debated by anyone, yet there is a constant push back and reluctance to adopt changes. We still see the man v/s machine debates when we talk about the future. Some of the ideas shared above would critically enhance the scenario that a human learner stays ahead of the challenges that nature would pose to our survival. It is time to look at the EdTech space as an enabler of learning at all levels rather than seeing it as a challenger or substitute to the formal education system.