Online Education
Article | July 12, 2022
This is a list of growing startups in the education technology space. Overall, VC funding in the edtech space grew by 94% last year, reaching $13 billion.
Big names like Udemy, MasterClass and Teachable might get all the attention. (And we will cover many edtech unicorns on this list.) But there are plenty of smaller, fast-growing Edtech startups to keep an eye on in 2021 and beyond.
Without further ado, let's dive into the list.
Teachoo
5-year search growth: 7500%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: Pune, India
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Teachoo is an education platform that hosts a variety of online courses designed for English speaking students in India. Current course offering include tax preparation, Microsoft Excel and math.
Outschool
5-year search growth: 6300%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $240.2M (Series D)
What they do: Outschool has created an educational platform for small live classes designed for homeschooling. Specifically, students and parents can choose from over 1,000 live classes designed for children, including ballet, drawing, STEM skills and anthropology. To date the company has had 500,000 students take at least once class and a total of 140,000 classes. Outschool now has a valuation of $3 billion and teachers have generated a reported $45 million from the platform.
Preply
5-year search growth: 3200%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2012
Location: Brookline, Massachusetts
Funding: $50.6M (Series B)
What they do: Preply is an online marketplace for finding tutors in a variety of different languages. The Preply platform also contains a "structured learning" option for those that want a tutor to help them take a more organized route. In addition to rankings, Preply also ranks tutors based on a machine learning model. The company reports that they have over 100,000 students on their platform.
Labster
5-year search growth: 575%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2011
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Funding: $103.5M (Series C)
What they do: Labster hosts several "virtual labs" for doing experiments in VR. Specifically, students use VR and AR software to practice lab techniques virtually. The major benefit is that students can practice in a safe environment. And prepare them for real-world lab work. Labster currently has over 150 virtual labs on its platform and boasts over 1,000 University clients.
Cambly
5-year search growth: 99X+
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: Undisclosed (Series B)
What they do: Cambly is an on-demand video platform for finding English language tutors. Includes features for lesson recordings, chat translations, courses and certifications. Cambly has a plan specifically for organizations that want to learn English.
Lessonly
5-year search growth: -4%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2012
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Funding: $29.1M (Series C)
What they do: Lessonly is software to help facilitate in-house staff training for companies. In other words, it's a learning platform for the B2B market. Their software comes with plug-and-play modules for training customer service reps and sales staff. Along with interactive tools that help employees practice scenarios they'll face in the real world.
Embrace
5-year search growth: 1900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 1999
Location: Highland, Illinois
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: Embrace is a tool for helping teachers document student performance in the classroom. The tool is designed to save educator's time when creating lesson plans and documenting results. Embrace reports that their tool cuts down reporting time by about 50% compared to traditional methods.
GoPractice
5-year search growth: 0%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2013
Location: Simpsonville, South Carolina
Funding: Undisclosed
What they do: GoPractice is an online training program for learning how to grow a customer base. Unlike some of the other edtech companies on this list, GoPractice doesn't offer a variety of courses in different areas. Instead, their 12-week course is designed to help startups find product market fit, launch, and scale their product. GoPractice includes lessons on product management, systems thinking, and data analytics.
BetterUp
5-year search growth: 600%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $569.8M (Series E)
What they do: BetterUp is a coaching and training platform designed to boost employee engagement and productivity. Focused on enterprise companies, BetterUp is technically SaaS. But also delivers coaching services through its platform. The company is currently valued at $4.7 billion and has raised $600 million.
CuriosityStream
5-year search growth: 273%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland
Funding: $279.7M (Post-IPO Equity)
What they do: CuriosityStream is "Netflix for educational content", like documentaries and educational series. Plans range from $2.99/mo for HD video to $9.99 for 4K quality. CuriosityStream's advisory board includes notable names like Glenn Close, Don Henley, and Michio Kaku. In Q3 2021, CuriosityStream posted $18.7 million in revenue and grew their direct subscriber count by 50% over the past year.
Udemy
5-year search growth: 223%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2009
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $311.4M (Secondary Market)
What they do: Udemy is a platform with 130,00 courses on dozens of different topics, from marketing to singing. In addition to à la carte course offerings, Udemy also has a "Udemy for Business" plan. This a subscription service that allows unlimited access to 5,000 courses.
Lingoda
5-year search growth: 900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2013
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $79.1M (Private Equity)
What they do: Lingoda is an online language school. The startup’s platform offers group or 1-to-1 classes in English, German, French, or Spanish. Also, Lingoda develops its own learning material in-house, which helps standardize the methodology. The company reports that they have 70,000 students and 1,400 teachers.
GoStudent
5-year search growth: 4900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2016
Location: Vienna, Austria
Funding: $345.4M (Series C)
What they do: GoStudent is an online tutoring platform. The website helps find tutors across 14 different school subjects, from math to English. The site claims to have more than 10,000 students. In November 2021, GoStudent became the highest valued K through 12 education technology platform in Europe with a valuation of $1.6 billion.
Brainly
5-year search growth: 2000%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2009
Location: Kraków, Poland
Funding: $148.5M (Series D)
What they do: Brainly is a social learning network. Users can ask questions about a range of different school subjects. And help their peers in order to receive points. The number of Brainly users grew from 150 million users in 2019 to 350 million a year later.
Cuemath
5-year search growth: 300%
Search growth status: Exploding
Year founded: 2013
Location: Bengaluru, India
Funding: $64.5M (Series C)
What they do: Cuemath operates a live-class platform for learning math and coding. Classes are held on Cuemath’s own platform with access to video calls and personalized worksheets. Parents can track the progress of their child on the app, which updates after each class.
Quizizz
5-year search growth: 1328%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2015
Location: Bangalore, India
Funding: $47M (Series B)
What they do: Quizizz is a gamified learning platform for children and employees. Teachers can create quizzes or use a library of existing content for student assignments. Employers can create polls or quizzes to support employee training (during presentations, onboarding, etc.). Reports are available in the product with instant feedback on class performance.
Photomath
5-year search growth: 470%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2014
Location: San Mateo, CA
Funding: $29M (Series B)
What they do: Photomath is a mobile application for solving mathematical equations instantly. The app uses the smartphone's camera to scan math problems and provide solutions with step-by-step explanations. Photomath has more than 220 million downloads from App Store and Google Play.
Mursion
5-year search growth: -38%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2014
Location: San Francisco, CA
Funding: $35.1M (Series B)
What they do: Mursion is a VR training platform for workplace training. Specifically, developing "emotional quotient" (EQ) skills. Their product delivers personalized simulations with the use of AI and human specialists. The company has offers training programs for leadership training, healthcare, and more.
SplashLearn
5-year search growth: 4900%
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2010
Location: Gurugram, India
Funding: $25M (Series C)
What they do: SplashLearn is a gamified math learning product for elementary school children. Their content library includes more than 4,000 games designed to explain math concepts.
RangeForce
5-year search growth: 700%
Search growth status: Peaked
Year founded: 2015
Location: Manassas, VA
Funding: $18M (Series A)
What they do: RangeForce operates a cloud-based learning platform for cybersecurity training. The startup's product offers a cyber attack simulator for employees to improve their skills. Managers can track the team's performance with reporting features.
CoachHub
5-year search growth: 99X+
Search growth status: Regular
Year founded: 2018
Location: Berlin, Germany
Funding: $133M (Series B)
What they do: CoachHub is a B2B digital coaching provider. This startup creates personalized talent development programs for employees to hone their skills and delivers them remotely via video. Employees and HR teams can measure performance within the application. CoachHub has more than 2,500 business coaches in its network.
Conclusion
That completes this list of 21 Edtech startups with significant growth in 2021.
What stands out about many of these companies is the fact that they cater to completely different markets, from schoolchildren all the way up to executives that spend most of their time in B2B boardrooms.
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Education Technology
Article | July 27, 2022
Due to the increased exposures and positive COVID-19 cases, the educational industry is adapting to the fourth industrial revolution more swiftly than intended. Both students and educational institutions are realizing the requirement of technology to support the learning process. It has also led to the development of digital badges and the adoption of blockchain in this sector.
But, why should we adopt blockchain? Blockchain which is originally known as being the support of digital currencies like bitcoin is not new to the academe. Blockchain can be used as a validation tool for learning. With blockchain as the backbone of the educational system, institutions will become able to list courses, manage training badges, and issue certificates to the students. It will in return reduce the chances of issuing fraudulent certificates. Moreover, having high-end encryption, even the most experienced hackers will not be able to tamper the credentials.
And, what’s a digital badge? A digital badge validates the accomplishment, skills, and certifications of students. It can also be offered to the student after completing internships.
In the educational sector, a digital badge can be acquired by a student after learning a skill or completing a course. It should be considered by every institution to help students in showcasing their skills in the job market as well. The digital badges are multipurpose. It can be used for certifications to show the acquired skills, transparency for other universities or schools to collect key details of the student, and validation to show that the individual has participated in a workshop or training program.
Besides the basic reasons discussed, how these digital badges can help and why should institutions opt for digital badges?
Why Should Educational Institutions Opt For Digital Badges?
Among numerous reasons why an educational institution should go for digital badges, let’s check some of the most important reasons.
Personalized Learning
Micro-credentials help in dividing the part of the subjects into certain skills that enables students and educational institutions to design plans according to their needs. With the availability of personalized learning, a learner can complete the course anywhere regardless of the time and earn a badge.
Skill-Based Learning
A digital badge can enable students to showcase their skills while applying for an internship or part-time job. These badges must be connected with professional capabilities that confirm that it is worthy to the students. These skill badges either can be for technical skills like programming or soft skills like leadership, teamwork, and so on.
Open Standards
As we know that digital badges are verifiable, it offers a chance for students to learn something outside their typical classroom. It increases the achievement and abilities of the students creating a new opportunity for them at the time of recruitment.
Some of the companies and institutions that are using digital certifications include Certif-ID, Stamford University, Georgetown University, and MIT. For those who want to implement blockchain and digital badges in their educational institutions, you can easily hire developers that will build a powerful system to glorify the entire education process.
Wrapping it up!
To maintain educational records, a digital badge is the most innovative solution. Moreover, the education industry is gradually moving towards record maintenance on blockchain to eliminate fake degrees due to which many deserving candidates lose their chance to attain better opportunities. It is also beneficial for the companies as they will not have to hire less staff for cross-checking the information which will increase their profitability and productivity as well. Despite the increasing acceptance of digital badges and blockchain in the education sector, many educators are unaware of their power. Plausibly, it is about to change soon.
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Online Education
Article | July 19, 2022
So what does this translate into for your online courses? You may have incorporated video content and a number of engaging GIFs or infographics into your course, but is that enough? Does your course have everything that is needed to attract your target audience? In this article, we are going to provide you with a simple checklist to make sure that you have a wholesome and fun online course. Here we have also provided some core benefits of visually engaging content that can seriously boost the quality of your online course. Here’s a small checklist of details that contribute to the fun factor of your online course.
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Education Technology
Article | July 12, 2022
Teacher burnout has become a massive challenge for many educational institutions. According to the National Education Association, 55% of the teachers surveyed are considering quitting their profession much earlier than planned. Over 600,000 teachers have already quit in the span of 2020 and 2021. Educational institutions must prepare to identify burnout and ensure teachers successfully create an inclusive, engaging learning experience.
Recognizing the Signs of Teacher Burnout
Laurie Santos, a professor at Yale University and a cognitive scientist, says that burnout has three major symptoms.
Being Emotionally Exhausted
Emotional exhaustion is when a person feels exhausted and burned out even after a full night’s sleep.
Depersonalizing
Santos equates depersonalizing with feeling high levels of cynicism towards others. Individuals who are depersonalizing often feel annoyed at people requesting them to doing something that is part of their regular role. This frustration signals burnout.
Reduced Personal Efficacy
When an individual feels like she isn’t making a difference or she isn’t doing her job well, a sort of disenchantment sets in. To the individual, it may feel like they aren’t being effective at their work, and this is a sign of burnout.
How Teachers Can Reduce Burnout
Teacher burnout must be treated as a serious issue. Educational institutions and teachers should team up to ensure they don’t undergo burnout. Here are some ways to do that:
Don’t Ignore It
Organizations must have a system in place so teachers can seek the help they need to treat their burnout symptoms. A lot of teachers tend to ignore negative emotions in order to keep working, but this is the wrong approach. Just as screen time must be regulated for children, teachers need to regulate their workloads. Instead of sweeping it under the rug, acknowledge it and treat it so you can bounce back higher.
Don’t Attach Your Identity to Your Job
Santos says that burnout is sometimes a result of being unable to separate your identity from your job. This is something that happens a lot with educators. A way to treat it is to spend off time with friends, engage in hobbies unrelated to your profession, or invest more energy in other life roles, like being a parent.
To Conclude
In the age of remote learning, teachers and educators must be careful not to let their love of teaching hurt their physical and mental health. As a profession, teaching tends to take its toll. When you combine that with teacher shortages and cases of overwork, education becomes a high risk, high turnover industry.
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