Episode 31
Re-engineering Learning Products for Maximum Adoption
Brief description of the episode
With the edtech market becoming more competitive and investments plateauing, education providers must stay ahead of the curve. Dr. Duriya Aziz, SVP of Education at Scholastic, shares insights on creating a successful learning product, navigating the curriculum market, and emerging education trends.
Key Takeaways:
- The pandemic caused significant learning loss to students of at least one-third or half a year worldwide. Education providers should help fill this learning gap by using innovative ways to learn with technological support.
- It’s important to focus on the processes that sustain the ecosystem of learning by utilizing technology to customize and personalize learning for each student.
- Edtech providers must offer unique solutions to cater to the needs of students and teachers through continuous research and development.
- The success of a product beyond adoption cannot be measured with a one-size-fits-all approach. It depends on a market-to-market and country-by-country basis. Particularly in the US, it depends on the size, scale, and availability of funds.
- Publishers need to understand the composition of the markets and identify the segments they can participate in. They need to challenge assumptions and provide better solutions, instead of adding bells and whistles to an existing product.
- Curriculum alignment is a significant factor in the approval of a product, as schools want to know if it will lead to the desired learning outcomes. Another important factor to consider is whether the product is being paid for by the school or the parents.
- Publishers need to understand the importance of the context of use such as class size and the teacher’s competence in the pedagogy in their proposal.
- There should be clarity in how their product solves the problem for teachers and students and how it is better than the competition.
- The best yardstick for measuring the success of a product is learning outcomes. Publishers should use data to support the effectiveness of their product.
- Education should always come before technology in edtech, as education is the primary objective and technology is the enabler.
- Pedagogical innovations are key and these come from observing great teachers and novice teachers at work.
- Creating solutions for all teachers through instructional design and technology.
- Identifying the struggles of teachers and students and finding unique ways to support them.
- All developers, businesses, and stakeholders should consider design thinking and co-designing as a very significant part of the product development process.
- Learner focus and motivation should be the top priority when planning for education in the current disruptive environment.
- Rather than viewing learners as receptacles to be filled, they should be seen as human beings holistically with social-emotional well-being having a huge impact on their learning.
- Evaluate solutions based on the mindset and attitude of the learner that they are bringing to the learning episode.
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