💡 Education technology (EdTech) refers to hardware and software used to educate students on a virtual level in order to improve classroom learning and improve students’ educational outcomes. There are well-known LMS softwares such as Blackboard, Instructure, and Moodle, and LMS-tools companies that provide instruments that can be integrated into the LMS to increase student engagement.
I personally am one of the user of such software and can refer to my experience as “no-UX, no UI”. And I had an interview with one of the LMS-tools provider companies not so long ago. Before I send my application to any company, I research and investigate the industry, market opportunities, user feedback, employees feedback, and of course the product itself. So I decided to share some finding with you in case you want to get a Product Management job in EdTech industry.
The Market
The EdTech and smartclassroms market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.5% from 2022 ($127B) to 2027 ($429.5B).
The education industry, like any other industry, faces a range of challenges. Market has a low market consolidation. Market share is divided among a large number of market players.
Market Trends
Rising adoption of edtech platforms in government organisations, academic institutions, eLearning solutions, AI based learning, and the expansion of the edtech and smart classroom market. Constantly changing technology and teaching methods (can be considered as an opportunity).
Market Challenges
- Intense competition: Due to the low market consolidation, it is hard to carve out the significant potion of the LMS/Edtech market
- Increasing regulatory requirements: Govt started to support edtech industry in formalising guidelines
- Acquisition: It is challenging to attract both NEW potential clients and discourage them from competitors
- User types: Universities are conservative and it is challenging to attract them
The Competition
There are Whales (LMS) and there are Squids (Engagement Tools). And I can hear you asking me “WTH is this, ocean or competition comparison?”.
Whales example
Blackboard.com, Instructure.com + Moodle.com + D2L.com = LSM + Established Player + Maximum assumed market share
Squids example
Feedbackfruits.com + Yellowdig.co + Harmonizeleaning.com = Tools provider + Game Changer + Just started their expansion
Overall, the squids want to get as many institution possible, to get integrated in LSM software or be used as an external solution. The whales can’t always keep up with trends, yet they try to keep their market share and keep recruiting software engineers to the maximum.
Following a market share analysis, I concluded that Yellowdig may be concealing the true #userscount and #partnerscount. The traffic is simply too low in comparison to Feedbackfruits. Harmonize may think about sharing insights and traction for transparency and product marketing. It’s worth noting that Blackboard’s partners appear to be defecting to Instructure. Moodle, on the other hand, has very little traffic but provides incredible analytics results for users and partners.
The LMS-tools Provider Lean Canvas
The LMS SWOT
The SWOT analysis of the LMS platforms like Moodle & Blackboard helps identify the potential solutions that LMS-tools provider can add to satisfy the market and attract more potential institutions.
The User Pain Points
LMS Product Feature Example
The product that is directly responsible for engagement and collaboration = discussion tool. Discussion tools enable students, teaching assistants, and instructors to converse. Text, images, GIFs, emojis, and even video may be used to respond. Instead of rote memorization, they encourage students to think critically about course content and engage with it in a more meaningful way.
Discussion Tools Feature Comparison
Apart from discussion tools, I want to share an interesting observation. What features majority of whales have and squids don’t?
Technical Capabilities Comparison
Feedbackfruits, Harmonize and Yellowdig have similar integration rules.
- Discussion tool can be considered as a microapp/widget.
- External systems can be considered as host application that handles the orchestration of microapps/widgets in the web-browser
With D2L, Blackboard and Canvas, a user must have an authenticated account or access token for institution to access the APIs, without which, the API calls will fail.
Like other LMSs, Moodle has APIs that can be accessed by integrated third-party application. As an open-source platform provides both APIs for download and plugins to install.
Discussion Tools Reviews Comparison
Feedbackfruits, Harmonize and Yellowdig don’t have enough reviews to sum them up. To increase product marketing, companies need to consider gathering and sharing reviews.
Superficial Case Study
Who’s considered: Feedbackfruits — LMS-integrated tool suite is an all-in-one solution to boost student engagement and collaboration in any course setting. Discussion on topic feature: https://feedbackfruits.com/discussion-on-topic Goals: Analyse the discussion tool Feedbackfruits offers and make recommendations
Overall Analysis
User-flow and suggestions
