One of the industries that’s experiencing a surge in growth is Education Tech, commonly shortened to EdTech. It’s all about using technology and SaaS to improve the results that students can achieve. This is facilitated by helping teachers do more with less resources, helping students engage in novel and innovative ways and better tracking of student success in order to assist students who might be struggling in the classroom.
Like many industries, education is at a crossroads. In Australia and many other parts of the world, education is experiencing a severe staff shortage, not to mention the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and seasonal illnesses. This means that there are fewer teachers being spread throughout the public and private sectors. No matter what happens, the world’s children need educating. This is pushing for the development of tech solutions to solve some of these problems.
List of Australian EdTech Start Ups
As an Aussie, I do like to look at what’s up and coming in my industry. I’d recommend you to Google what’s in your own country or region if you’re curious. A few of the start-ups Down Under that are focusing on EdTech are:
- Cadmus – transform an educational institution’s practises by streamlining online assessment.
- 60Seconds.com – focuses on improving impact of teaching through coaching, practice and measurement.
- Compass Education – A school CRM that helps schools manage communications between teachers, parents and students. I’ve got a soft spot for this one, since we did use it quite a bit during lockdowns here in Victoria through 2020 and 2021. It helped my daughter through home schooling.
Industry Considerations
- Need to get buy-in from the top – Schools – both public and private – have boards. A lot of these boards also have parents of children who are currently studying in the school on them. One of the hardest parts is getting in the initial buy in from people high up that they would be open to give the tech a shot. This should fall to the BDM, but as a Customer Success Manager, you may also have a role to play in doing demos.
- Generally quite open to new tech – Unlike other industries, education is generally quite open to tech. Knowing that students of all ages have short attention spans, any way to not only help them stay focused on the topic, but to also improve knowledge retention is welcome. It’s key though that the user experience isn’t buggy so that the emphasis is on the learning material or the quality of the education itself.
- Privacy is paramount – while privacy is critical for all SaaS, it’s particularly important for minors. Parents will not tolerate any risk that their children’s details are shared or made public. Having a strong privacy policy is a must have and this must be ironclad to not only protect the children, but also yourself in the event that there is a leak (touch wood!).
The Customers
- Teachers – the teachers are likely to have a part to play in the EdTech that you’re supporting. Obviously they are teaching during the day and it’s likely that the window you can actually talk to them on is quite narrow. It’s likely to be after hours. It’s more likely that you’ll liaise with IT operators who set up the systems for the entire school if things go wrong. Having good online resources will be critical for onboarding and training.
- Parents – as kids might be quite little, parents are likely to be a customer group that you have to also support. Again, they are going to be hard to reach at the best of times. Having videos and maybe even an online community or forum where parents can ask and answer questions in their own time could be a great way to support them in a low-touch manner.
- Students – last but not least, the students themselves. Knowing the grades or year levels that you’ll be supporting is paramount, as the UX and UI design should be tailored towards them. For younger audiences, porting over desktop experiences for mobile interfaces like iPad might be a challenge, but critical, as those are likely the mediums they’ll use for use of the EdTech solution.
If you’re inspired by enriching the educational pursuits of future generations, being a Customer Success Manager in EdTech might be right for you. If you’re actually making the transition from being a teaching professional into the world of tech, this could be a perfect opportunity to take a leap of faith and use your existing experience to improve the lives of kids in a different way.