Ed-Tech: What's out there now?
I'm starting to research companies and their value-add to education.
This week I'm doing a bit of research into ed-tech. I want to enter the space to fix some of the problems I had and I know every other educator has. My first takeaway:
I haven't found a lot of innovative delivery of dynamic and interactive upper-level engineering content
To start off with, I really respect Khan Academy's approach to math. It's pedagogical approach to asking the same question a hundred different ways is really important for cementing my own kids' understanding. I just wish they offered that same approach for other topics.
In fact, it seems like a lot of sites focus on math and coding, but not because there aren't other popular or interesting topics out there, but simply because the interfaces are easier to code up. I understand that developing new interfaces is hard, and that the number of paying customers may drop off as you get into more advanced engineering topics.
What I've found at higher levels is more lecture-based delivery
It seems counterintuitive that developing an edited video featuring an expert, who most likely developed their own content, is cheaper and easier to produce the automated version -- a reusable, customized interface to the material with dynamic elements that can randomize and customize the experience. And yet, I haven't found the same formats in upper-level engineering courses as I do with k-12 math apps and interfaces.
I would contend the reason has more to do with the economics of course development. With most MOOC-style courses, the person developing and delivering the engineering content doesn't have the software development expertise to be able to create and populate the quiz interface for their own topic (nor should they, really). Even I have had difficulty using Canvas's quiz tool with question randomization functionality. It's hard to game out all the corner cases your students might encounter with a partially randomized question, in advance. And then the kind of questions you can ask are limited by the interface.
Who's out there?
So who's already in the space? Here's a short list. Please let me know (either back on linked in or via email) if I missed any big players or categories. This is not meant to be comprehensive, but instead to span the space of ed-tech styles and formats, and to find interesting approaches that you don't see elsewhere.
- Learning management systems
- Canvas
- Moodle
- Learning Sites & E-textbooks
- Khan academy
- IXL
- Zybooks
- gamefied apps/sites
- Duolingo
- I've heard that duolingo is moving beyond languages to offer gameified learning in other topics.
- quizlet, kahoot
- prodigy -- learning app that plays like a game. Kids are hooked.
- Duolingo
- Straight up video games? What's out there?
- Grading / Testing
- turnitin
- gradescope
- chegg -- kindof an anti testing site, but maybe this is the best category?
- MOOC platforms
- coursera
- udemy
- edx
- University sites
- MIT
- Stanford
- Cornell
- ASU
- masterclass
- More focused individual tutoring and/or group courses
- varsity tutoring -- over $50/hr
- dojotutor - $20 / class
- ideou -- $900 / 5 weeks
- sphero
- Pyimagesearch
- Mark Roeber
- talk python training
- linkedin learning
- Bootcamps / Reskilling / Workforce development
- udacity
- Trainings
- There are a bunch of companies that provide canned training and courses to various industries, that feature a quiz. Very similar to some of the above, but the content is usually drier and no one seems to care if you know the material past the quiz.
- AI -- if I'm doing this in 2026, I am competing against LLMs, AI agents, and other similar tools that can quickly aggregate and explain information to anyone, in addition to providing a starting point for code and projects. What
- Communication unifiers - not my interest or focus yet, but there are a bunch, mostly focused on spamming parents of k-12 students or preschool/daycare kids.
- classdojo
- parentsquare
- etc
- powerschool
