K-12 and post-secondary are two key sectors of the educational market. These sectors regularly attract a great deal of analytical attention from both private companies and governmental institutions. This report focuses on data related to E-Learning, a subsector within the education market. One of the key characteristics of the education sector is its large base of potential users. Importantly, each of these users may start in the K-12 or post-secondary markets but they have the potential to also become future users of vocational training programs. Their involvement in E-Learning projects at the K-12 and post-secondary stages will build a large base of users already accustomed to using such technologies in order to learn. Figures relating to the worldwide education expenditure and expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP illustrate the size of this market and help explain the significance of the K-12 and post-secondary sectors in the education market.
K-12 (kindergarten through 12th grade) is the term commonly used for talking about a person’s first 13 years of schooling before entering university. It is also used by American multinationals when referring to the educational sector. The K-12 sector has been the focus of great reform in most countries in the last few years. The economic crisis has resulted, on one hand, in the revision of current public expenditure on education and, on the other, in the definition of new strategies that build on the relationship between skill acquisition and entering the labor market.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the K-12 sector has been overrun by a wave of modernization that has led to a growing interest in the application of new technologies for educational purposes. The governmental point of view on the relation between K-12 and technology is summarized in this statement from the European Commission: “Today, new technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to make learning more effective, inclusive and engaging.
Digital technologies can improve effectiveness of resources through economies of scale, expanding access to a wider number of people (e.g. through MOOCs28 and other Open Educational Resources (OER)) at lower costs or allowing teachers to focus on what they do best by automating or offloading more routine tasks. ICT can be used to foster more creative and innovative methods of learning (including personalized and collaborative learning), and it has the potential to facilitate collaboration, exchange and access to learning resources.” (SOURCE: EDUCATION AND TRAINING MONITOR 2013) The K-12 sector includes public education bodies as well as the primary and secondary private education sector (both non-profit and for-profit). Consequently, the digital technologies market for the K-12 sector needs to include products and solutions for digital publishing, such as textbooks, tools for skills assessment and education apps, as well as tools for teachers.
Global Education expenditure has grown consistently in recent years and the K-12 sector plays a big role in this growth. Focusing purely on distance education and, thus, ignoring the sub-sector of face-to-face education, the K-12 segment continues to represent the largest slice of the market. Pearson, one of the biggest global players in the education sector, has put education-technology solutions at the center of its growth model. Subsequently, digital revenues, as a percentage of the company’s overall revenues, have grown to 33% in 2011 from 20% in 2006 (SOURCE: IBIS CAPITAL). In addition, GSV Advisors has offered an interesting breakdown of E-Learning sub-sectors by growth rate and projected market size.
Gamification tools and mobile devices play a major role as market drivers for the K-12 sector. These Gamification tools are particularly appreciated by K-12 teachers and stakeholders, notably because of the mix of skills that can be empowered by “playing” a single or social serious game. Many new and established companies are taking advantage of the opportunity to move into this expanding market which has an estimated growth rate of 37% CAGR by 2020.
Gamification tools and mobile devices play a major role as market drivers for the K-12 sector. These Gamification tools are particularly appreciated by K-12 teachers and stakeholders, notably because of the mix of skills that can be empowered by “playing” a single or social serious game. Many new and established companies are taking advantage of the opportunity to move into this expanding market which has an estimated growth rate of 37% CAGR by 2020.
According to Tech Crunch, in terms of youth and education App downloads, the time that people spend on mobile apps has already surpassed the time spent on web browsing. Within the K-12 sector, the most used mobile device is the tablet (including both cheap and high quality tablets). All the players in this market are now rethinking their online offerings in order to be able to offer more on these devices. It’s also important to note that, in the K-12 sector, education technology plays a strategic role in the move from print textbooks to e-books.
Due to the increased price of textbook, schools are quickly adopting different solutions. This means not only creating e-books (both paid-for and downloaded), but also providing easy access to e-books (renting without ownership). However, the anticipated boom of e-book sales didn’t happen in the past year. The newest trend is the scouting for an environment that can host e-books, as a sort of Learning Management System with a library of books.