7 Ways Small Businesses Can Take Advantage of Recent Advances in EdTech

Recent advances in educational technology (EdTech) haven’t just revolutionized onsite and digital classrooms — they’ve also transformed the way small businesses operate.

From managing operations to conducting research, EdTech remains a promising market for educators and entrepreneurs.

As small businesses look toward the future, keeping an eye on EdTech trends should be a priority to remain competitive in the market.

To help take advantage of current trends, we’ve put together a list of ways you can use EdTech to improve your business.

And without further ado, here are seven ways small businesses can use recent advances in EdTech:

1. CONDUCTING RESEARCH

From researching product design ideas to pulling case studies, advances in EdTech can help small businesses conduct research to improve their operations, products, and services.

For example, three main ways companies can use EdTech research for product development include:

User research: Researching how people interact with a product.
Learning sciences: Gathering scientific research to see how people learn and use it for product design.
Evaluation research: Seeing how a product solves a problem in education.

As far as where companies can look for research, there are several reputable websites that can help.

For instance, StuDocu offers various online resources, including research papers, case studies, surveys, and even course notes from students in different universities around the world.

Small businesses can utilize the resources on StuDocu for conducting their own research or providing educational resources to train employees.

September 6, 2022

Businesses can also use Google Scholar to search across many disciplines of scholarly work or ERIC to focus on education research.

Here are some more helpful tips when conducting research:

Use the research responsibly — avoid ‘cherry-picking’ research findings that just say what you want to hear. If 10 rigorous studies show Strategy one works better than Strategy two, and a few mediocre studies support Strategy two, don’t choose Strategy two just because it supports what you want.

If you’re conducting product research, what does the science say about your product design? What’s the usability and effectiveness of that product?

To save time combing through countless articles, review journals that provide summaries of the work you’re looking for in a particular area.
If the research you’re pulling was conducted in a laboratory, consider whether it would still ring true in a real-world environment.

2. TRAINING EMPLOYEES

Hiring and training employees is a time-consuming and expensive part of running a business. Luckily, small businesses can now benefit from recent advances in EdTech to train employees without spending a lot of money.

As the working world is undergoing a generational shift from Baby Boomers to Generation Z workers, companies must learn what makes Gen Z tick in order to better recruit and retain them.

That’s why investing in technology and modern approaches to training is essential. Gen Zers have grown up around tech and expect to use it to train and conduct business.

Here are some ways businesses can use EdTech to train employees:

Create a digital application process and onboarding phase.
Use training platforms that provide learning modules, quizzes, automated grading, and teacher-student feedback tools.
Allow employees to complete external courses and degrees.
Use analytics tools that manage training and development progress across entire departments simultaneously.
Take advantage of automation to cut down on administrative tasks and streamline processes.
Use cloud computing communication like shared content and virtual whiteboards.

Once EdTech is introduced to remove time-consuming elements, tutors can dedicate more time to providing feedback and conducting one-on-one sessions as needed.

3. CREATING COURSES

Creating courses doesn’t just benefit your employees. Businesses can also create courses for customers. Not only is this an excellent way to create passive income, but it also positions you as an expert in your field and shows customers that you care about helping them succeed.

To give you an example, a business called Preply creates courses for business English and other training for small businesses to improve their communication skills. Preply has used the power of courses to turn its business into a full-blown educational platform.

But that doesn’t mean you have to become an educational platform to sell courses. Every small business has tools and resources it can package into à la carte courses or programs.

For instance, if you own a small marketing agency, you could sell SEO optimization courses and link-building courses. Or, if you own a photography company, you could sell an ‘introduction to photography’ course and a ‘photography masterclass’ course.

The other great thing about courses is they’re great lead magnets. If you’re using courses as a lead magnet, make sure to have some free or inexpensive courses too. Online users love signing up for free courses and, in exchange, you get to capture their names and email addresses when they sign up. That’s a win-win for both of you.

Additionally, when they sign up for the course, you can have an automated sales funnel in place to carry them through the buyer’s journey and turn them into paying customers.

4. ONBOARDING CUSTOMERS

Customer onboarding involves helping a new customer understand a product’s functionality and how to start using it. Since onboarding can negatively or positively affect customer retention, staying engaged and sharing knowledge at the beginning of the customer journey is the first step to retention.

Onboarding is usually conducted through online help cues, videos, emails, customer support calls, and chatbots (it can also happen onsite if it makes sense for both the business and the customer). But using EdTech onboarding systems can help small businesses save more time and resources.

The most common types of EdTech onboarding systems are:

Coaching: Coaching offers instructions within the context of the software so users can understand features as they encounter them.

Virtual tours: Provides a slide deck for users to click through, which gives an overview of a product and its features. (Be careful using this system if you have a complex product).

Progressive onboarding: This system provides instructions about how to get through the first level of product interaction and encourages deeper engagement over time. This is great for customers who don’t want to immediately use a full toolset to have a meaningful interaction with your product.

Guided task completion: Using experiential learning, this onboarding system has users complete an interaction within your product as they’re learning how to use it.

This route planning software company uses a ‘guided task completion’ onboarding system to help users plan, optimize, and re-assign delivery routes with its scheduling tool. Businesses need to start their new employees off on the right foot by using the best route optimization apps. That way, they learn how to use the right technology the first time.

When users sign up for a trial or a plan, they’re guided through several tasks that help them set up everything they need to use the platform.

Choosing the best EdTech onboarding system — or using more than one of these systems — is crucial to familiarizing users with product features and getting them (and their friends) to fall in love with your product.

5. WRITING CASE STUDIES

Writing case studies showcasing the effect EdTech advances have made on your business and customers is an effective sales and marketing tool.

Case studies speak to the context of your success with qualitative and quantitative data formed into an accessible story. Case studies can attract ideal customers, move conversations forward, and turn skeptical prospects into loyal customers. This is especially true for businesses still in the early stages of operation.

Having a series of case studies for each pain point you relieve, customer profile you target, and use case you support can be a tremendous asset to your business.

If possible, hire a qualified, objective third party to conduct your case studies to put prospects with trust issues at ease.

If you don’t have the resources to hire an external team to conduct your case studies, here are some tips to help you build credible and effective case studies.

Focus on the customer experience: A great case study focuses on your customer and their experience, not on your product or company. For instance, show how a customer benefitted from your blockchain technology, rather than breaking down the technology itself.

Be objective and honest: Focus on creating case studies that are useful and objective. They should never be pushy or salesy. For instance, if your case study is about how your customer benefited from a virtual reality simulation, be sure to also add the challenges they faced and how you helped overcome them.

Strategize: To capture the qualitative insight that will bring the quantitative data to life, you’ll need to gather customer data ahead of time. Once you’ve considered objectives and gathered customer data, look for a specific and clear success story. Then, go to the customer interview with planned questions and be as prepared as possible.

Here are a few other tips:

Of course, creating case studies comes in many different forms. As long as you focus on telling the story and relaying your brand in the most effective way, you’ll be all set.

After your case studies are ready, you can use them to market in a variety of ways. From using them throughout your sales funnels to embedding them in social media campaigns, the options are endless.

Note: Looking for step-by-step instructions on creating case studies? Check out this article on how to write a case study for a complete walkthrough.

6. USING INTELLIGENT SOFTWARE

Possibly one of the greatest EdTech advancements so far is intelligent software. Intelligent software (or smart software) refers to any application using artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret data and/or communicate with systems and humans.

For instance, monday.com’s Work OS offers intelligent project management software, CRM and Sales management software, task management software, and more.

Its automations can connect boards (a board is a virtual whiteboard where projects are stored). Sales dashboards automatically pull data from other boards to see how teams are performing. This service also offers automations that reflect project status changes and integrations to connect other applications to the platform.

If all of that was a bit wordy, the gist is this: intelligent software takes care of operational tasks that would otherwise get done manually.

So, if you turn a project in late, the system will flag it as overdue. When you complete a task, the system will flag it as complete. Intelligent software also promotes easy collaboration. Teams can share files, notes, and project statuses in real-time.

They can also send instant messages and add @mentions to tasks when they need to communicate about task details. But really, the options are endless.

From product planning to design management, intelligent platforms adapt to exactly what businesses need to get work done seamlessly.

Here are some other advantages to using intelligent software:

Some platforms can be adjusted to help teams of all sizes
One platform manages and stores all company work
Access to analytics and robust reporting features
Ability to custom build apps with little to no code
Multiple view styles available like Gantt, Kanban, and more
Ready made customizable templates for projects, tasks, and timelines
Flexible and adaptable

When deciding which software company to use, consider testing out a few to see which works best for your team. Most SaaS (software as a service) companies like Tracklify offer free trials, so be sure to take advantage of those while you can. Here is a handy guide for SEO project management.

7. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF STEM MATERIALS

And finally, as technology has increasingly become a crucial aspect of modern life, schools have put a greater focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects.

This gives small businesses greater access to STEM materials and skills to use as business and development resources. STEM skills are instrumental in coding, programming, and robotics, but can also extend far beyond industries that specialize in STEM subjects.

Small businesses can also hire STEM workers to provide advanced problem-solving skills and innovative approaches to using technology (that other employees wouldn’t even consider).

From accountants to IT specialists to office professionals, STEM workers are a great asset to small businesses looking to think outside of the box.

WRAP UP

Using EdTech developments is an effective way to scale your business, attract top talent, and serve your customers.

From conducting research to training employees to onboarding customers, small businesses have ample opportunity to propel their business forward with EdTech advances.

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7 Ways Small Businesses Can Take Advantage of Recent Advances in EdTech | Bookafy

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