Infographic | Future Opportunities in EdTech

This week we are considering Future Opportunities in EdTech and what better place to start than with this nifty infographic by Knewton, the maker of a test prep app and harborer of data analytics on student performance.

The infographic mixes analyst projections about future digital content trends with current usage data, as well as opinions from educators. It highlights that the age of a one-size-fits-all education is increasingly incompatible with the age of the custom fit that new technology permits.

This rapidly evolving market provides an exciting range of opportunities for the future of EdTech.

Here is our analysis of the headline figures in the infographic, plus some other key industry opportunities we think are out there:

1. Education is a 7 trillion dollar industry. That’s more than the GDP of Italy, France and the UK combined. As founder and CEO of Third Space Learning, Tom Hooper, stated at a recent event — if your EdTech product fixes a problem, then there is money to pay for it.
2. Digital textbook sales are set to attain a 35% marketshare by 2016. A number of EdTech companies are doing exciting things in order to meet the growth in demand for interactive, collaborative digital textbook platforms. One such company is Learn Forward, who have built an open-source authoring tool for a new breed of digital, hyper collaborative textbooks. Learn Forward is part of Emerge’s third cohort — to stay tuned on how they progress through the programme sign up to our newsletter here.
3. The online learning enrolment growth rate is 14x higher than overall higher education enrolment growth rate. The shift to online learning provides opportunity for enhanced learning experiences. One example of how this might be achieved is via augmented learning. The augmented reality market is set to grow to 200m users by 2018 so whether you’re developing QR code hunting games; courses for Oculus Rift or location based app functionality, there’s a burgeoning market waiting to be tapped into.
4. Blended learning courses are growing rapidly. By 2020, 98% of teachers in the US are projected to deliver a blended learning curriculum. One of the key opportunities to meet this growing demand would be an automated process of content creation that could revolutionise the quality and quantity of blended learning curriculums. Whether that be through algorithmically generated course content, automated exercises, or customised courses based on individual skill level - there’s never been a greater demand for automated content.
5. There were predictions about the death of Learning Management Systems, but despite this, last year showed constant growth of the industry. Statistics point to an LMS growth rate of 25% for the next five years, reaching $7,83 billion in 2018. While higher education is still going to use LMSs, corporations will become the number one type of LMS customer. Out of all learning systems, cloud-based platforms had the highest growth in the last two years.