The Need for Pedagogy Market Fit in EdTech
Mario Barosevcic, Principal at Emerge Education, explains why it is time for the next generation of founders to take EdTech to the next level by focusing on improving learning impact.
By Mario Barosevcic, Emerge Education
Covid could not have been more kind towards EdTech. An industry that has faced slow sales cycles, hesitant consumers and investor doubts, is now the hottest industry in town. EdTech is a very broad industry solving many different problems. In bull markets like this, it is easy to forget about one, still neglected area that more founders need to pay attention to — pedagogy and learning impact.
The first two decades of this century have been about setting up the technology foundations in the significantly underdigitised education market through software like the Learning Management System (LMS). We have digitised and improved access to content and education through apps, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Online Programme Managers (OPMs).
With the foundations slowly developing, the last few years have seen innovations around building bridges and connectivity in education and careers through companies like Guild Education (employees < > degrees) and Handshake (students < > jobs).
“Most EdTech to date has had very little to do with advancing and improving learning itself.”
However, contrary to what most people think, most EdTech to date has had very little to do with advancing and improving learning itself. Convenience and flexibility aside, online education is still worse than face to face. Most people dislike the LMS, while MOOCs and educational apps are plagued with poor engagement and completions. Pedagogy in EdTech often comes as an afterthought or when it is too late. We are still in the stone age of learning and technology.
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 and a strong understanding of the science of learning. It is great that education is becoming mobile friendly, bite-sized and more fun but we need to remember that real learning will always need to have elements of struggle that force us to actively use our brains. Luckily, we already know a lot about pedagogy and how to create strong and lasting educational impact. All the research boils down to the need for making learning active, collaborative and applied.
When we speak with founders looking to specifically 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 a key distinction being the emphasis on active versus passive product interaction.
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. Frequent transactional activities or one-off milestones and events, however, are unlikely to foster strong and lasting learning impact.
Pedagogy Market Fit can be achieved when the product creates an active, meaningful learning user experience. With products that have Pedagogy Market Fit, end users are marking up materials and content, extracting insights, generating ideas, asking and answering questions, debating conclusions, repeating concepts, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, making and learning from mistakes.
Big startups that we consider as pioneers of Pedagogy Market Fit include Minerva Project (online learning platform), Lambda (project-based career learning) and Busuu (language learning).
The time is now for the next generation of founders to take EdTech to the next level by focusing on improving learning impact. Those that relentlessly pursue Pedagogy Market Fit will build strong foundations to reach global scale.
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