EdTech market overview: How to build your own education product

Future is with e-learning services

In the light of the pandemic, the question of how affordable education could be if it were transformed into an online format has emerged. Education is one of the major sectors in the world, accounting for approximately 6% of global GDP. According to Holon IQ researchers, the worldwide education sector would be worth $ 7.3 trillion by 2025.

Source: Holon IQ.

Simultaneously, technological adoption remains low, accounting for less than 4% of total education spending. In absolute terms, the industry’s digital transformation investment in 2020 was $227 billion. 

However, EdTech is a fast-growing industry with a CAGR indicator of more than 16%. The COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the quarantine rules that accompanied it, are expected to have a long-term impact on schooling, while the EdTech industry is expected to quadruple by 2025, with infrastructure upgrades and new digital business models emerging. The demand for children’s educational apps has risen throughout the epidemic, and the system of attending educational institutions is likely to stay in a hybrid format – both offline and online.

The target audience for your EdTech software

When launching an EdTech project, you first need to determine your target areas. At the end of 2020, the total volume of venture capital investments in the worldwide education sector was $16 billion, nearly double what it was in 2018. China accounts for more than 60% of this total, with the United States accounting for 15%, India for 14%, and Europe for 5%.

Source: Holon Iq.

In the USA, 64% of middle school children use educational tools daily. Canada and Germany also belong to the global leaders in distance learning, with a number of learning management system companies and universities offering online courses. For that reason, elearning companies in the USA, Europe, and Canada make up one of the most profitable segments in the market. 

Types of Educational Software

If you want to create your own EdTech service, you first need to figure out its type. Let’s have a look at the most significant players in this field.

1. Academic Advising Software

Counselors at higher education institutions and K–12 schools can use this tool to help students plan academic programs and achieve their postsecondary objectives. Academic advising software is used by school counselors to create individualized degree plans and track how students move toward graduation criteria. It is also used by college and university advisers to increase student retention by detecting which individuals require more assistance.

A product must: 

• Be intended for school counselors or advisors to use.
• Allow for the formulation of a tailored plan for each student.
• Include outreach features such as appointment scheduling or messaging.
• Track interactions with students and their progress toward goals.

2. Admissions and Enrollment Management Software

Aids school administrators in managing the whole student admissions and enrollment process, from application processing through payment of application-related fees. To handle the whole admissions process and transition students from prospects to tuition-paying members of the school, schools employ admissions and enrollment management software.

A product must: 

• Be especially developed for use in school admissions
• Provide the capability for processing student applications.
• Include tools for email marketing, scheduling, and tracking application progress in real-time.
• Accept and handle payments associated with applications.

3. Assessment Software

Enables educators to create and administer tests to students via digital devices, including computers, smartphones, and tablets. These platforms streamline the process of delivering exams, grading student answers, and analyzing results. Assessment software is used by educational institutions, including K-12 schools and universities, as well as by corporate HR teams, certification bodies, and other organizations that need to administer assessments.

A product must:

• Be able to administer tests or assessments on digital devices.
• Create customized tests incorporating a variety of question types.
• Compile data from assessment results into analytical dashboards or reports.

4. Online Learning Platform

Businesses and educators utilize them to produce, author, and/or self-publish instructional content. Some offer a pre-existing marketplace where online courses may be sold, while others assist enterprises in marketing their material. Online Learning Platforms give educators the tools they need to develop personalized study materials and expedite chores, allowing them to focus on delivering engaging high-quality lectures. Some platforms allow teachers to include adaptive learning technologies into their courses, ensuring a uniform experience across all platforms.

A product must:

• Have processes for efficiently organizing and tracking educational content and students’ progress by providing tools for producing and/or uploading educational content.
• Keep track of crucial indicators like performance and study habits.
• Support a number of multimedia formats, such as Word documents, video, and audio.
• Students should be able to access instructional materials from any location and on any device.
  

5. Special education software

Provides tools for teachers and administrators to manage qualifying special needs students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

IEP software is developed to deal with all elements of IEPs, which are supposed to meet each student’s unique educational requirements and objectives with specific goals agreed upon by both educators and parents.

A product must:

• Provide features that are tailored to IEPs.
• Have instruments for intervention.
• Include a program for individualized learning.

6. Student information systems (SIS)

Keep track of all student information, such as grades and attendance records. The program acts as a digital filing cabinet for school-related documents.

A product must:

• Provide tools to help employees communicate more effectively.
• Include features to aid in the administration of school operations in areas including facilities, IT, program management, document management, attendance, and foodservice.

Now, using the example of building a Student information system (SIS) program, we’ll talk about how to make your EdTech product operate.

Why Use SIS Software?

SIS software has become an indispensable tool for educational institutions, parents, and students, who use it to access student information, make payments and connect with school officials. SIS software is used for a variety of purposes, like as a communication channel and a repository for student data.

Cloud accessibility, mobile apps, activity monitoring, and analytics capabilities are hot topics in the SIS world, with artificial intelligence following closely behind. As artificial intelligence develops, SIS software will leverage the agile elearning development technology to become more engaging and an active participant in the student’s academic career. The capacity to track and evaluate student behavior will increase dramatically when AI is integrated into SIS apps.

Basic Benefits of SIS Software:

• Increasing communication across divisions by better managing prospective and enrolled student data.
• When moving records across departments, keeping track of stakeholders’ information.
• Creating a centralized resource center for all key stakeholders, such as alumni, faculty, support staff, and funders.
• Ensuring that data formats are consistent across divisions.
• Facilitating data transmission to external entities.
• Reducing the amount of time you spend organizing and managing student records.

Developing an SIS Product

First of all, you need to determine your own business needs. Will it be an elearning agency or just an app? Who will use it? Are there any specific features you may need to include? Before we even start to work on the project, we need to draw up some basic features of your software’s functionality. 

What are the Different Kinds of SIS Software?

There are two main subsets of SIS systems, including K-12 Student Information Systems and Higher Education Student Information Systems. The difference between the two custom school apps is the target demographic. Changing the target demography necessitates modifications to the solution’s feature set and structure. While the fundamental functionalities are nearly the same between the two groups, the K-12 SIS solutions include parental access options. 

Because of the area’s competition, it’s critical to target as many distinct sectors as possible. The current Apple Store is estimated to have 200k of solutions in educational software development. Choose your EdTech idea and leave it up to our elearning designers!

Who Uses SIS Software?

The main users of SIS software are school administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Each group has different uses for these solutions, but the software is vital for all of them.

SIS Software Features

SIS software may include, but is not limited to:

• Information management 
• Reporting 
• IEP creation (Individual Education Plans).
• Admissions management 
• Billing and payment 
• Student information management 
• Student and parent portal
• Registration and scheduling 
• Gradebooks and transcripts 

What elements do you need to include in your custom elearning design

Registration form.

Main interface (student’s profile). Personal information (such as name, surname, date of birth, etc.) should be provided for all user types in the app’s basic area. The user’s profile may additionally show scheduled/visited classes and lesson lists.

Schedule. If your custom elearning development is for educational institutions, you will need to include scheduling options with the opportunity to cancel or delay lessons. 

Push notifications. Your app’s push notifications are an essential component. They shape the user’s opinion of the program. Users can be alerted about future programs or classes.

Messages. Your users should be able to contact your support team promptly and simply if they require assistance. Consider displaying chat notifications right on your phone’s screen. You may include both teachers’ and students’ chat rooms.

Academic success graph. Any user type should be able to get some broad data regarding the system’s academic achievements. It will assist them in determining their progress, preparedness, and other factors.

What is the cost of the custom elearning solution

The price for the final project will depend on several factors. They include:

Architecture choice. Our developers will have to determine whether to construct an Android, iOS, or web platform based on your company’s demands. If you need to create apps for both iOS and Android, keep in mind that the cost will be doubled because they demand different coding and development techniques.

Development rates. You should choose an education app developer that will help you with all the technical specifics of your project. You can hire elearning development firms nearby or hire specialists from other countries. To discover more about our prices, please use our project calculator tool!

Design and quality assurance. Before we begin a project, we must create a model of the app, calculate the scope of work, and determine the level of sophistication of the UI/UX design. Keep in mind that clients, especially when it comes to learning, will choose to utilize a more appealing interface. You’ll also need to make sure your software is bug-free and ready to be launched on the market!

TRIARE understands the importance of education and has long ago started contributing to it as much as we can. We actively work with universities at the local level, help students, organize numerous lectures and other events. 

Last month, by the way, was jam-packed with activities. As a proud member of the Cherkasy IT Cluster and a Founder Institute partner, we have visited several institutions in the Cherkasy region to promote IT careers and recruit new workers. Each year we also participate in IT Career Day to assist prospective developers, quality assurance professionals, and project managers in choosing the correct career path.

We will be happy to fulfill your EdTech project at the highest level!

Read more – case studies eLearning Project,  Booking Education System