Full Guide: From an Idea to a Money-Making EdTech Web-App

Is it too late to get into EdTech?

The educational technology market has exploded over the last couple of years. According to EdTechXGlobal, by 2020, EdTech will turn into a $252 billion industry because of a 17% annual growth. Besides Google, Apple, and Microsoft, thousands of startups have joined the race to monetize educational software. To stand out and succeed new products have to address the unmet needs and provide answers to unsolved problems.

EdTech market overview

There are established leaders, but that should not deter ambitious startups from entering the market. Instead, let's learn from the best and surpass their achievements. We've collected five examples of successful projects that offer a variety of educational services and rely on different monetization strategies:

Coursera

Coursera is the leading MOOC platform with thousands of courses on any subject. It's user-friendly, and most of the content is free unless users wish to get a shareable certificate or attain specializations.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy provides a free, world-class education for everyone and helps learners, their parents, and teachers. There are classes, tutorials, and quizzes for every school subject. The Academy is a non-profit organization that survives on volunteer help and donations.

Science360

Science360 collects and organizes advanced scientific content from experts and institutions and makes it available for everyone. Learners can watch videos, read the latest scientific news, and listen to the radio. The National Scientific Foundation supports the project.

Big Think

Big Think is a knowledge forum of over 2,000 leading thinkers and doers from around the globe. They cover the critical topics that should be the focus of humanity's attention. Articles, videos, and podcasts are available for everyone, while Big Think Edge offers premium content for business owners willing to invest in their team's professional development.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a game-based educational platform for teachers, professors, and managers to introduce new knowledge in a fun and engaging way. The intuitive interface helps to create exciting games for classroom and office environments. Most of the features are free while business software solutions are premium.

6 things aspiring EdTech startups must remember

The education sector is unlike any other business niche. Before you get excited about building the next Udemy or Coursera, let us remind you of a few critical considerations you need to keep in mind to succeed in EdTech:

1

Funding does not equal profit

Most startups are out to get investors' money to get the project off the ground and onto the market.

They forget that "fundable" business is not necessarily profitable.

Instead of focusing on attracting investors, focus on the target audience needs, develop a solid EdTech business plan, consider monetization and marketing options. Once they see the potential for returns, investors will flock your project with no extra effort on your part.

2

Schools can't afford many EdTech tools

With cutthroat competition developing in the EdTech industry, you should be clear on the benefits your product can bring to the table. Reasonable pricing is also critical to staying in business, as schools operate on a limited budget, and they need to be sure their investments get the best value for money.

3

Minors' data security should be a priority

With an influx of security breaches and private data leaks, you must follow data protection regulations (GDPR and others) or risk reputational and financial losses. Think carefully about the private data you gather and ensure its security against malicious attack. Educate users and admins on data security best practices and promote their use.

4

Educators are the worst students

Young minds are quick to adapt and adopt new technology and education tools, so you need not worry about students. It's the teachers that will give you the most trouble when pitching the product. Most teachers are trained to use traditional tools: blackboards, pencils, and textbooks. Training and support should be a part of your launch strategy if you want educators to use full capabilities of your solution.

5

Access to the technology in the classroom breeds academic dishonesty

Students rely on smartphones and in-class devices to find answers to tests, and most don't even consider this cheating. It is not only a problem for teachers who can't objectively evaluate the student's work. It is a dangerous trend that a few decades from now may cause catastrophic consequences for a society that believes every piece of information found online is 100% true and reliable.

6

Access to the technology in the classroom breeds academic dishonesty

Teachers and school administrators deal with theories and ideas. They will not appreciate your action-driven approach, and trust will be impossible to achieve without an insider in your corner.

Get an influencer or a forward-thinking teacher on your team to help translate your offer into the language of academia and bureaucrats.

Must-have EdTech app features for teachers and students

The feature set for an EdTech project depends on the target audience and its needs. While Coursera, Udemy, and edX may share many features, they would be useless for Kahoot. Still, there are several considerations all EdTech startups should keep in mind, especially when targeting traditional schools:

Assignment, assessment, and logbook features

To attract teachers, EdTech software must seamlessly slot into their daily workflow. They should be able to create new tasks for students, mark their progress, evaluate results, and keep track of grades. Secure cloud storage is essential for many of these needs.

Group mode and collaboration options

Besides an opportunity to view, share, and edit the same files at the same time, the EdTech app must acknowledge the lack of digital devices in many classrooms. Most schools still can't afford to provide every student with a screen. Your app should allow for two or more students to study simultaneously using one screen.

In-class and at home study features

These should be intuitive and user-friendly to ensure both students and their parents can continue the study process without constant teacher supervision. Clean UX and UI design and logical flow are a priority if you want your app to transform all aspects of the educational journey.

Cross-platform compatibility

In line with the previous point, apps should be easy to access in class and outside. Besides school tablets or laptops, students should be able to log into their accounts on their smartphones or personal laptops to go over the material learned, complete homework assignments, and prepare for tests and finals.

Simple authentication procedures

To keep the school data secure, encourage best cybersecurity practices. This includes hard passwords that are difficult to remember, but you can provide teachers and students with a Facebook or Google sign-up to save time and avoid the need for another password.

Seamless integration with other EdTech apps

Teacher's dashboard should connect to the learning management system (LMS) and school information system (SIS). Integration makes the teacher's job easier and speeds up everyday processes. Some EdTech startups offer their products for free, but charge schools for integration options. If you want more monetization options, check out our earlier post.

Digital space communication and interaction features

Besides collaborative efforts and group work, children should learn how to navigate life as digital citizens. They must develop respect for each other's rights and limitations and have a direct line of communication with classmates and teachers. Instant messaging, forum boards, video or audio-conference tools are among viable options.

This is not an exhaustive list of features necessary across all EdTech business models, however, the more of these you include to your product, the easier it will be for teachers and students to get on board with the app.

How do you turn education startup ideas into reality?

It's not enough to join the fray and create your app; you need to have a step-by-step plan for your application development. You can't ignore these four milestones:

How to go from zero to an EdTech MVP?

Once you have found your web development company, start working on an MVP. You will need to go through four main stages:

An MVP is not a crippled version of the future project. Instead, it is a finished product with enough customer value and vision to attract the first adopters. You can seek them through any available means, like posting guest articles in popular blogs, such as Hackernoon.com, creating an account at Product hunt and other platforms or directing beta-users to a landing page.

Fresh Fact

The primary goal of an MVP is to determine whether the concept of the product is worthy of further development.

You will need customer feedback to help you decide. Collecting real user reviews and feedback will guide the project's evolution.

An MVP is not a finished product even if users enjoy it. While early adopters are ready to deal with glitches and faulty features, your EdTech product should be bug-free and fully functional before you market it. Think of an MVP development as an iterative process of implementing incremental improvements that will ultimately lead to the finished product. Using the MVP, you will reach this goal much sooner and with fewer expenses.

How to get from an MVP to a money-making product?

After the MVP provides you with enough feedback and user data, engage the web development services of your team to go from the proof of concept to a finished product. Use customer reviews and behavior analysis to improve the project, and make it easier to use, add the features your customers found lacking. Follow the MVP modernization plan step-by-step until your beta-users are satisfied with the product.

New education web-apps face a lot of opposition and challenges, so plan the launch carefully to increase the chance of success. Outline the marketing strategy before you bring the product to the market and focus on the right promotion channels for your target audience. Instagram may boast billions of users, but not all teachers have accounts and are willing to adopt social media.

There is still time to cash in on EdTech. Check out outstanding EdTech cases in Freshcode portfolio, such as Educadio, and learn what our clients say about the quality of our work. Though education startup development can be a slow and painful process, the potential revenue is well worth it. Model the best strategies of successful EdTech startups, employ the software development services of a trustworthy company, and enjoy the success of your project!