Learning a new professional skill has never been easier, with platforms like Coursera bringing courses in data analytics and certificates in financial markets to users’ fingertips. The education technology landscape, however, is changing. A shifting focus on the K-12 and university learning levels indicates the industry’s most promising investments aren’t from professional development but student learning.
Education technology firms that digitize aspects of the learning process have historically focused on providing employees with opportunities to develop and hone work skills. Coursera, as an industry leader with 129 million users, establishes its mission as providing “job-relevant online learning.” Similarly, Udemy, which has more than 44 million users, indicates “companies, governments, and nonprofits” are the target audience for their courses.
In the aftermath of widespread, pandemic-era distance learning, however, combining digitalization with classes was extended to K-12 students. This increased familiarity with technology-driven education amongst parents and students is a driver of asynchronous learning platforms beginning to shift the education technology startup realm. More specifically, increased homeschool enrollment –— which has been on the rise since the start of the 2019 academic year — birthed startups like Prisma, a digital homeschooling platform. Founded in 2020, the startup utilizes a hybrid curriculum that combines online and in-person lessons. It couples virtual workshops with socialization opportunities like student clubs and family meetups to “solve the two biggest issues with home-based learning (i.e. lack of a consistent social experience and the heavy involvement of parents),” according to Prisma founder Victoria Ransom.
Edtech startups like Prisma that are targeting the K-12 level, therefore, are addressing a relatively new demand for digital education that began amidst the urgency of the COVID pandemic but remains elevated as virtual learning is normalized. This focus on meeting a new consumer segment’s needs in a way market leaders haven’t achieved suggests the promising outlook student-oriented startups embody.
Additionally, while virtual learning for professionals is aimed at boosting resumes and supplementing employee knowledge, K-12 digital platforms attempt to reform an essential learning experience: early-age education. Because these startups attempt to address students and parents left unsatisfied with the gaps created by traditional classrooms — a necessity not necessarily applicable to professional development platforms — their competitive advantages over the more traditional alternative are an essential aspect of this industry shift.
One such gap in traditional classrooms is student customization. The average student-to-teacher ratio in U.S. public schools was 15.4 to one in 2021. Prisma attempts to address the dissatisfaction large classroom sizes stir in students and parents by utilizing the digital homeschool format to provide one-on-one mentor coaches to students and “a tight-knit, consistent peer community.”
Prisma isn’t alone in leveraging the more intimate nature of a digital learning experience to create an education better tailored to individual student needs. Outschool is a company that was founded in 2017 as a “marketplace” for live video K-12 online courses. It utilizes the diversity of course offerings that an online format allows to provide classes for students with specific learning needs, from ADHD to dyslexia. The ability to tackle accessibility issues created by the alternative – traditional classrooms – is an advantage that professional development platforms don’t necessarily focus on.
Some K-12 edtech companies, however, don’t attempt to overhaul the traditional classroom experience but to enhance it. Labster, a startup based in Denmark, democratizes STEM education by creating digital simulations of experiments. In combination with increased Chromebook use in classrooms, Labster’s ability to eliminate the need for expensive lab equipment makes learning opportunities that were financially restricted more accessible. This advantage is only possible because digital K-12 education is more directly related to an essential learning experience, improving upon necessary classroom time, while professional learning tends to be more supplemental.
Overall, K-12 edtech startups are seeing a promising rise in an industry historically dominated by professional development platforms as a result of increased technology use in learning experiences and continued demand for reforms to traditional classrooms.