EdTech has been creating a profound impact at all levels of education across the world and in India. The online education market in India was valued at INR 39 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach INR 360.3 billion by 2024, expanding at a Compound Annual Growth (CAGR) of ~43.85% during the 2019-2024 period.
However all is not copacetic in EdTech land.
Led by technology savvy entrepreneurs, EdTech has become more tech and less ed. It has been commented that the learner experience (LX) has been replaced by the user experience (UX). Ed-Tech companies, who are not education and pedagogical specialists. are trying to replace teachers rather than assisting them in their work.
This problem of educational insufficiency becomes even more exacerbated in the reskilling / upskilling segments of the market.
Workplace disruptions will displace more than 75 million workers by the year 2030. On the other hand, these disruptions would also create 133 million new roles. To proactively realize the benefits of the changes, at least 54 per cent of all employees will need re-skilling and up-skilling by 2022.
However, EdTech in reskilling / upskilling is failing to rise to this daunting challenge. By and large, EdTech consumers are being driven by the distinct cost advantage over physical coaching, an implicit assurance of success in the crowded marketplace, and lastly, an enhanced employability quotient driven by promises of higher salaries.
The traditional classroom learning paradigms (whether offline or online EdTech platforms) are inadequate for working professionals because their learning needs are context-centric, skills-focused, situation-specific, peer-dependent and collective, and not strictly bound by a pre-defined static course curriculum.
We struggled to find a learning approach that uniquely takes into consideration the socio cultural context of the Indian upskilling professional. Assessing the unique motivations, fears and desires of Indian EdTech learners along their reskilling / upskilling journey is vital to form a learning system best suited to Indian socio-cultural conditions.
Hence, we felt the need for an exploratory study to understand the mismatch between the Indian working professionals reskilling / upskilling journey and the EdTech industry’s current offerings. Such a study would help overcome the imbalance between the tech and the pedagogy by enquiring into Learning Management Systems (LMS) that were best suited for the unique learning journey of the Indian working professional.
First, we analysed secondary data from an extensive review of more than 50 articles, papers and interviews to arrive at the hypothesis of the study. Subsequently, a qualitative study conducted over a 6 week period in November / December 2021. The study was done through in-depth, face to face, online, individual interviews with 16 respondents conducted over Zoom. All respondents were male / female, 25- to 28-year-old, hailing from different zones in the country (north, south, east, west, and central). They were working for a salary for the last three years post their MBA, done from institutes in Tier 2, Tier 3 towns. They may or may not have done a EdTech course but are positively disposed to upskilling and continual learning.
We had five distinct probe areas. Firstly, the respondent’s choice of specialisation and current job profile were discussed. This was followed by a discussion on their career aspirations. Next, the discussion moved to knowledge, skill sets and learning – whether the respondent felt adequately prepared for the future and the reasons thereof. Then, the discussion was shifted to the specific courses the respondent had done after their MBA, either offline or online, and the reasons thereof. Finally, the respondent was probed on their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the currently available learning choices. Within this context, their wish list or desired areas of improvement were further discussed.
Almost all respondents are strongly in favour of adding value to themselves through learning new skills and knowledge. This impetus is from a desire of growth, not from a feeling of inadequacy. Certification is a key expectation. However, this needs to come alongside actual learning. While online learning is strongly preferred, their actual opinion of current online platforms was between negative and indifference.
This proved to be the focal point for generating the five learning themes emanating from the study. Further, each of the five themes highlighted interesting insights around the mismatch between the EdTech offering and the respondents primary learning expectations
A. Less theory, more utility: Across respondents, online courses were appreciated for its convenience since it permitted them to manage their time and work pressures. However, they also mentioned that the learning outcomes were not practical enough to be applied in everyday work situations.
B. Less foreign, more vernacular: While all the respondents were used to learning in English, most also felt that their learning could be faster if the medium of instruction was more colloquial, informal, and vernacular. Beyond the language, this theme was also conceptual. Hence, the desire for brands that were rooted in India, examples from the local culture that were understood instinctively rather than synthetically.
C. Not dictated, but collaborative: While all respondents were working as trainees or in junior management, they also felt that they were handling important positions and responsibilities. In such circumstances, they felt that collaborative peer-to-peer learning from people in the industry was more preferred to learning within the more authoritarian teacher-student relationship.
D. Not just validation, but fulfilment too: On the surface, most respondents claimed to be motivated by increased pay, promotion, peer appreciation, and other visible markers of success. However, when probed further, there is a latent need for personal satisfaction, for occasions that makes them proud of their own achievements, for the small wins in everyday professional situations and moments of personal celebration on the distance they have traversed.
E. Not overcoming inadequacy, but driving personal growth: All respondents, with no exception, feel that they are equipped with necessary skills to handle their current jobs well. Almost all of them think that will need to add some knowledge / skill sets to help them grow, get into mid management, emigrate to better environments, or start their own business.
Our study indicated that there are five particular dimensions that could be explored to create a LMS that is uniquely adapted to an Indian ethos. These five dimensions of a. simple practicality, b. partiality to the vernacular and the homegrown, c. peer-enabled interactions, d. fulfilling deliberations, and e. intellectual growth led towards an uniquely Indian system of ‘Enquiry based learning’. This singularly peculiar concoction of pragmatic, participative, contemplative, argumentation, native discussions happen in every tea stall, every news channel, every office corridor and every living room in India.
The challenge is to recreate this ‘Enquiry based learning’ with enabling technology onto an online EdTech platform. After all, learners are their own best teachers.
Key words: EdTech, Upskill, Learning, Learning Management System (LMS), Learner Experience (LX)
For the full transcript of the published paper that includes the references, footnotes, detailed findings and an initial learning model, please share your email with us. The original article was published as ‘Understanding the mismatch in the EdTech learner’s customer journey’ by G S Hari Ganesh and Krishnan Subramanian, Founders at Shramy Learning Technologies, India.