How EdTech Platforms can Succeed with Their Educational Products?

An essential rule of product development is to ensure that one builds a product that people want and to avoid making something that people do not wish for.

FREMONT, CA: Education technology is still lacking and has not reached its full potential. There are several reasons for the occurrence of the situation, but the criticism that is most often hurled at developers is the fact that they do not consult their users. On the other hand, educators often only hear about a new technology solution that they must employ after the administration has already made the purchase decision.

An essential rule of product development is to ensure that one builds a product that people want and to avoid making something that people do not wish for. One critical reason why products fail is people go from writing about the plan on a back of the napkin to creating a detailed functional requirement. They do so without knowing if people genuinely need the product.

Educational platform providers and product developer who meet up with teachers at seminars, webinars, and conferences have a great opportunity to learn about the requirements. They can discover what teachers need and what works in class. Below are a set of things that providers should consider so that their educational product succeeds.

Discover What the Real Issues are

Only a few EdTech platforms and programs available in the market are succeeding in solving teaching or learning problems in the classroom. According to a research, it was found that more teachers want better resources for each grade level and across every subject area. In addition, only about 50 percent of the educators feel that the technology used by them is meeting the student requirements. The result leaves a considerable number of teachers who have not seen any reason to use education technology in their classrooms.

So, EdTech entrepreneurs need to talk to educators to find out what challenges they face daily. Makers need to spend some time in classrooms to come up with a tool that will address present-day teaching and learning challenges.

Build a Product that Attends to the Priority Gap Areas

The research also identified the gaps in digital product offerings where EdTech developers could step in and help teachers out. The areas include K-12 English Language Arts (ELA), high school math, social studies, and K-5 science. What educators need are products that center their focus on each of the areas.

Assist Educators to Transform their Teaching

Many teachers feel that their teaching does not reach every student. The evidence can be seen in widespread reduced graduation rates, low scores, and student apathy that make educators feel that they are failing at their job. With the right software, EdTech developers can assist the teachers in transforming their teaching. For the method to work, the tool needs to offer fundamentally new approaches to learning and teaching.

Make Data Easily Available and Simple to Understand

For teachers to create better learning outcomes, they need data that is easily accessible. EdTech platforms must make it easy for administrators and teachers to view and understand the data; the layout should be simple to grasp at a glance. Additionally, the design also needs to be effortless to move data sets between diverse data management platforms.

Prioritize learning standards alignment

Only about 30 percent of teachers agree that EdTech products they use help pupils meet standards. So, EdTech developers have the responsibility to ensure that they are familiar with the curriculum standards in the states that they operate in. Furthermore, they must make sure that their product meets the learning objectives.

It is not easy to come up with an education product that works well for everyone. Hence, it is required for the manufacturers to first talk to end-users to find out what they need. The requirements will help makers go a long way toward finding solutions that actually work.