The Classroom of the Future will be in the Metaverse
A recurring theme in our portfolio the vision to reimagine the way we live and work — be it through real estate (Selina, Kin, Basic, Alasco), digital finance (GoTrade, Aspire, WeRize), human resources (Personio, Bennie), renewable energy (Enpal, Solarize), mobility (Finn, Truck It In), ecommerce (Hive, Telos Brands), health (POC Pharma, AVI Medical), or education (Invact).
Access: Printing press, World Wide Web and Jio — the great equalizers
Long gone are the days where Ivy leagues gate kept access to the best libraries, professors, and jobs with limited seats. The process of giving the broader population access to education started back in 1450, when Johannes Gutenberg perfected and commercially launched the printing press, and thereby kicked off the democratization of knowledge. The internet was the next big fillip, digitizing all of human knowledge for one-click access. Finally, Jio brought in the mobile internet revolution, crashing data costs to <0.1USD/GB among the lowest worldwide (Source: Inc42, Cable) and ushering in a wave of unbridled access to the world’s information trove in everyone’s hands. In the startup world, Khan Academy was one of the first movers in this space, with decacorns like Byju’s continuing to be powered by this simple principle.
Validation of sachet-learning: Upskilling the world, one topic at a time
The wheel of EdTech innovation rolled on — having solved for access, the next step was proof points and societal validation of the same. In a world where anyone can know everything, who actually does know something?
While institutions once controlled this gating, the broader theme of unbundling of degrees has been long underway, encompassing admission prep (language and critical thinking coaching), content (online courses), socialization (intranet forums) and placements (industry-partner co-developed programs). As a result, on the content front micro-credentialing was the answer, with universities across the world now available to students in emerging markets in sachet format — courses tailored specifically to the specific use case and need of the hour, without having to complete a multi-year degree. Coursera, Udemy were early proponents of this solution, with UpGrad championing the approach as well as layering the third pillar, relevance.
Relevance: Industry steps in to teach and train
Let us now touch upon India in particular, an emerging market with one of the most vibrant EdTech industries. Its education system has long been characterized as one of collecting degrees before deciding what to do with them. The mass adoption of mobile internet opened up a larger supply of high-quality education, certificates, and micro-degrees, widening the net of possibilities. However this explosion of variety could not solve for targeted industry demands and requirements, lagging in updating content and closing the feedback loop, losing relevance by the day. As a result, underemployment was rampant, coupled with a low rate of successful job transition from classroom to boardroom — even after the best of classes, the elusive “placement” was missing!
In a familiar flashback to the HBS and IIM Ahmedabad “Case Study method”, these were refreshed and elevated to include more targeted industry-specific courses. Designed and taught by working professionals from myriad walks of life, these would equip students with an operational toolkit, built on top of their theoretical foundations, so as to be more relevant in organizations from Day1. Submissions and evaluations were linked to problems being grappled with by these very executives in their day-to-day jobs — a harmony between classroom and boardroom.
This fusion was then elevated: first by ISA based models such as Bloom Institute of Technology (erstwhile Lambda School), Masai School and Pesto who linked payments to outcomes, followed by models like altMBA and Stoa. They compressed the much-vaulted MBA degree into an online micro-program, built and taught in conjunction with industry executives who would evaluate and go on to hire students based on the very same proof of work!
Throughout the course of the pandemic, ”Zoom Fatigue” became a dreaded overhang on EdTech, with experiential innovations highlighted as the need of the hour. With both supply and demand sides solved, the final piece of this puzzle was to elevate the student experience to ensure minimal drop-out, effective follow-through, and maximum value extraction.
The solution?
Mixed reality initiatives by Microsoft and Roblox were the digital Columbus’ of this space, laying the infrastructure for those to come. While Class built itself on top of Zoom, EdTech startups such as Invact, Engageli and Inspace are truly at this confluence of access, validation, and relevance, layered with the secret sauce of real-world engagement in an online setting. At the core, they hinge on reimagining what a degree really is: In the modern world, self-identity is everything, and your work, both inside and outside the classroom, speaks volumes for you.
Taking the case of Invact, it not only makes its students market-ready but does so while empowering them to learn, retain and think better — Their hardware agnostic solution to experience the metaverse classroom live fosters an immersive, serendipitous environment that is conducive to learning and engages creative mental pathways. Immutable on-chain proof of work, based on personalized curriculum designed and taught by industry experts, infuses job market readiness from day one, and the linked placement program provides avenues for continuous testing and seamless workforce integration.
We at Picus believe the future of education lies in innovations tackling the aforementioned three sticky problems. Our operating thesis has been distilled over time to manifest into these three principles:
While the method of validation and signaling has changed over time, the underlying need has not
Clarity of the signal comes from association and engaged, sustained effort by students
Web3 provides a conducive platform environment for experimentation with such behaviors, with innovations like on-chain proof of work and metaverse-augmented live classrooms
We eagerly look forward to the next generation of such leaders and builders and invite them to reach out to our team to co-create successful, global companies challenging the status quo and shaping tomorrow!
