Over many years, while consulting or working for a number of small, medium, and large educational technology and solution providers, I have been involved in many different EdTech product evaluations.
The product evaluations had a lot in common:
- They were very time-consuming.
- They required great amounts of detail.
- They involved a lot of depth and breadth.
- They required strict quality practices and objectivity.
- They called for a very specialized skill set and tool set.
- They needed to have perfectly synthesized summaries.
- They took precious time from critical path items.
- They would usually have benefited from more information that was not available.
- They were obsolete within months.
- They were expensive when done well.
In parallel I managed to talk with many members of the larger education ecosystem:
- Investors looking for the best investment in EdTech space.
- Companies looking for the right EdTech partners.
- Educational institutions needing to select the right EdTech products.
- Educators looking for the best EdTech solution for their students.
- Parents helping their kids be successful in school.
- Students preparing for college success.
In speaking with them, it was easy to see the need across the ecosystem for objective, systematic, and decision-informing EdTech research and benchmarking.
During 2014, I iterated on our methodology, reviewed it with a number of trusted advisors, and received validation from benchmarking experts. In early 2015, I focused on putting together a set of tools and practices that make it possible to efficiently collect information, perform benchmarking, and maintain benchmarks as products, and the spaces they are in, continue to evolve.
In late 2015, it was time to take the next step by launching EdTechBenchmarking.com, and with a group of research associates, begin conducting the research. We are looking forward to releasing the first reports and opening the channel for larger education community feedback and suggestions on how to improve.
If you would like to subscribe to email updates about our progress and be the first to find out about reports availability, please send us a message using the contact form.
Mladen Malkovich
Founder, EdTechBenchmarking.com
mladen@edtechbenchmarking.com
