When it comes to actual learning, we are still in the stone age of edtech. More founders need to focus on finding Pedagogy Market Fit.

In this piece I cover a quick evolution of edtech and argue for the need for more pedagogy. I cover some key resources on better understanding learning pedagogy and a short guide on finding what we at Emerge Education call Pedagogy Market Fit. Finally, I highlight companies that I consider to have been rare technology-driven pedagogical innovators in this space.

The first two decades of this century have been about setting up the technology foundations in the significantly underdigitised education market.

The first decade of this century has been about digitising and managing content - making the slow move from all physical events and materials to more digital and accessible offers on CD-rooms, recordings and LMSs. The second decade focus has been on improving access to education and building the digital content, infrastructure and tools to enable it. MOOCs and OPMs opened up higher education to the world. Tutoring, curriculum and language businesses gave everyone instant access to great educators and content. 

With the foundations slowly developing, the last few years have seen innovations around building bridges and connectivity in education and careers. 

The smartest and hardest working students and adults are unlikely to always find top jobs and progress in their careers in light of so many structural barriers including socio-economics, geography, gender, disability, age and race. Companies like Guild Education (employees <> degrees), Applyboard (universities <> students), Handshake (students <> jobs) and FourthRev (student / universities <> employers/job) are at the forefront of creating better bridges connected to university credibility. Companies like Lambda (adults <> jobs) and Multiverse (young non-university graduates <> jobs) are creating these bridges too while sidestepping the university establishment.

Contrary to what most people think, most edtech to date has had very little to do with advancing and improving learning itself.

Digital assets, infrastructure, tools and bridges are helping improve usability, convenience and access to education and jobs. What is missing is the emphasis on improving learning impact - helping people more effectively acquire knowledge, skills and achieve desired learning outcomes.

The LMS is the centrepiece of the edtech stack, yet there is nothing pedagogical about it. There is not much that genuinely distinguishes digital content from the basic linnear, monotone textbooks and lectures it is often informed by. While we can charge the same prices for online and for offline education to create consumer perceptions around higher quality, in reality, offline is still in many ways more impactful.

Founders looking to innovate in technology enabled teaching and learning need to put pedagogy first.

We have learned so much in the last decade about how we learn and there is incredible potential to embed this at the core of edtech. Yet we are still in the learning stone age when it comes to technology. It is sometimes not that entrepreneurs don't think about pedagogy, it is often that they think about it too late and do not have the right people to develop it. Once the foundations of the product infrastructure are established, companies commit to a certain modus operandi. If that foundation is not conducive to more effective and impactful learning then it becomes very difficult to reconfigure and improve the learning experience.

While MOOC providers like Coursera are incredibly successful education businesses, they have for a long time struggled to move the needle on learning impact even after numerous product additions and the best of nudge and learning theory were applied to ready made courses. While the edtech market years ago was empty and it was easier to build big companies simply by digitising and improving existing education, the next generation needs to heavily focus on fundamentally rethinking learning while focusing on real learning impact.

The design behind technology enabled education needs to be different to brick and mortar. If done well, it can have a significantly greater and more scalable learning impact on students.

Luckily, we already know a lot of about pedagogy and what works.

The same way it is hard to build rockets without space engineers, it is hard to improve how the brain consumes and retains information without pedagogues. We too often come across companies that are looking to patch up learning rockets and over time learn from their flights, before first acknowledging and understanding all that we know about flights.

Of course, we will always learn the most about our products from usage, trials and errors, but it is important the set the right foundations. There are so many great insights on effective pedagogy which have been captured in numerous books and courses that can help edtech founders set up these foundations. Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects is one of the most popular classes on Coursera. There are books and whole bodies of research on topics like Synchronous Teaching and Learning Online, Student Engagement Techniques and Active Learning Online.

While the list of learnings is long, emphasis is often placed on making learning active, collaborative and applied. We do not retain information as passive users - prompts, questions and challenges make us think and process what we have consumed and get to those 'aha' moments. While there is a time and place for asynchronous education and for lectures, as social beings we have a lot to learn from each other through discussions and joint work. Lastly, applying learning to the real world and producing tangible, shareable outcomes will always be more motivating than just learning for the sake of learning.

Finding Pedagogy Market Fit

When we speak with founders looking to move the needle on learning impact, we like to think about the steps they are making towards achieving what we call 'Pedagogy Market Fit'. The concept is very similar to Product Market Fit with the key distinction being whether the user is passively or actively interacting with the product.

Companies that achieve passive Product Market Fit in education can achieve great business successes and impact especially when acting as bridges between education and careers and supporting career progression. They are, however, unlikely to foster strong and lasting learning impact. For many learning companies that have no pedagogical foundations, good early interest and traction could actually be a disservice to medium and long term learning impact. Users that keep coming back to download materials, watch new educational videos and get answers to homework problems, can be a sign of Product Market Fit, but are not a sign of Pedagogy Market Fit.

Pedagogy Market Fit can be achieved when the product creates an active learning experience for the participant. Student do not engage in frequent transactional activities, but in long and meaningful activities. With products that have Pedagogy Market Fit, end users are marking up materials and content, extracting insights, generating ideas, better managing their time, asking and answering questions, debating conclusions, repeating concepts, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, making and learning from mistakes and often doing this with peers.

It is great that education is becoming mobile friendly, bite-sized and more fun. But we need to remember that real learning will always have to have elements of struggle. Learning epiphanies and long term knowledge acquisition do not come from sitting down on the couch, watching and downloading content - they come from actively using our brains. It is only active work that can help individuals fulfil their intellectual potential.

What companies have Pedagogy Market fit

There are few companies today that have genuine Pedagogy Market Fit and the potential to truly use technology to improve the intellectual capacity of humans at scale. This is the most difficult and at the same time most exciting educational challenge of our time as we move away from the industrial education age.

Minerva Project has over the last decade built a robust pedagogically driven technology and service that empowers educators and students in online and hybrid learning settings. It is a rare company that has built its offer from day one starting with the first principles of helping empower learners with 'durable and broadly applicable skills needed for school, workforce and society'. Its philosophy is captured in its book on Building the Intentional University.

In a world of hundreds of coding bootcamps there is one that stands out - Lambda School. With its fully online programme and unwavering committment to student career success reflected in its business model, Lambda has created a learning experience that places a big emphasis on learning through doing, learning from peers and studying in time-based cohorts.

On the language learning front, Busuu has always been impressive with its commitment to pedagogy. Bite sized and manageable learning modules, peer to peer feedback, gamification and habit building support have been strong features over the years. More recently the company has also shown its commitment to personalising learning based on desired learning outcomes and expanding its remit from vocabulary acquisition to fluency building through its new network of tutors.

Up and coming companies that are we are excited about in this space and proud to support include engageli - a live online learning platform designed from scratch to drive learning outcomes, Aula - a community-first learning experience for students and Lingumi - English learning app for 2-6 year olds with interactive learning games, AI voice technology, and confidence-boosting tasks. 

Stay tuned and get in touch

Over the coming weeks I will continue to write and explore the world of technology enabled teaching and learning, culminating in a few major publications in March and April. If you are building something in this space and get excited about the term Pedagogy Market Fit, would love to hear from you.