It’s no secret that the pandemic shift to remote learning resulted in boom times for edtech. Market intelligence company HolonIQ wait global edtech spending will reach $300 billion in 2022 and as much as $404 billion in 2025. Growth is also driving investment, as venture capital tripled from pre-pandemic levels last year.
But is all that money well spent on learning products with proven effectiveness in the classroom, or are those billions going into technology for technology’s sake?
With the rise of educational technology and so many shiny new product offerings on the market, it is essential that educators select tools they can trust to have a long-term impact on learning. More often than not, these are the tools that have prioritized learning science in their product design, to guide the product vision and approach.
The science of learning is an interdisciplinary field that combines research across multiple topics, data, and practices with the goal of expanding our understanding of how we learn and improving instructional practices and processes. Incorporating the science of learning results in thoughtful products that have clear pathways to impact student learning and allow for targeted, thoughtful experimentation and product iteration throughout the product development lifecycle.
As edtech companies look to put science learning at the center of their products, there are three key steps to success: align your teams around educational outcomes, create a feedback loop, and test and validate. Your results.
Aligning your development team
Aligning your team around key educational outcomes is the first step toward integrating the science of learning into the product development process. The product development team and the learning science experts involved have to determine and ultimately join the selected educational outcomes to establish a vision for the product. This can mean a specific learning outcome for students, a general goal for classrooms and teachers, or an increase in the adoption rate of a certain subject. It could also show up through increased student confidence in learning, equitable instruction and lesson content, and the potential to equip students with skills for their future.
Regardless of the vision and goal, it should serve as a consistent roadmap for both teams as they move through the development process. Having agreed on educational outcomes can act as a lodestar against which teams can measure the progress of a product or its new features. This could speed up the ability to align, build, and iterate on a product. Without such alignment, teams may be driving toward different, less impactful results, ultimately slowing development and innovation.
Building a feedback loop
Once aligned around a common goal, the collaboration is only beginning. The product team should create learning opportunities for scientific inquiry and feedback in key parts of the development process. During the discovery and exploration phases of product development, consultation with learning science experts can help clarify the product vision and provide focus. During the design phase, constant communication with learning scientists can help improve the intentionality behind design choices and ultimately keep the team aligned with the desired learning outcome and impact. And finally, during the validation and testing phases, learning science can work closely with efficacy research teams to align with key metrics of interest and to identify which aspects of the product could be changed or iterated based on the changes. results of a study.
As education companies, we can demonstrate our commitment to learning by constantly being learners in our fields, receiving feedback, making changes, and constantly renewing our products. As student patterns change, we have to meet those changes with new products and features that fit their needs. We are learning companies: we must be receptive to constant change and learning.
Determination of effectiveness
Finally, the product team should establish a system to validate learning of the science-based features. Once a product or feature has been created with the intent to impact specific outcomes or principles, teams must engage in long-term experimentation and iteration of the product, validating the effectiveness and capabilities of the tool. Companies need flexibility to include teachers and end users in the iterative process, using research and long-term studies to determine (and prove) that a tool is effective. Be prepared to receive feedback from your customers and acknowledge their expertise as field scientists, partnering with you to ensure your product meets the needs of your students.
The effectiveness of educational technology plays a critical role in the current challenge teachers face in helping students catch up on learning lost at the hands of the pandemic. By testing the impacts of science learning product integrations on intended outcomes using effectiveness research, organizations can build a powerful system of rapid testing and iteration. In turn, teams can accelerate their ability to measure and improve their tools, in a field (and time) where small adjustments can make a big difference for learners.
guarantee results
As teachers and administrators turn to technology to help them improve effectiveness in their classrooms, they should look for focused, well-researched products based on science learning. And as organizations seek to build successful and impactful tools, they need to invest in developing their products with a test and iteration cycle that puts learning at the center.
Related:
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37 predictions about the impact of edtech in 2023
