Engineers at Civitas Learning, whose suite of software tools are leading the trend of data-driven education. Courtesy photo.
In recent years, teachers have been getting a leg up in the classroom.
New software helps them identify struggling students so they're able to intervene earlier. Among the companies leading the charge for data-enhanced education is Austin’s Civitas Learning, whose programs use predictive analytics to empower teachers and improve student outcomes.
We wanted to know what’s next in edtech, so we asked their vice president of engineering, Chad Walters (pictured below). He told us the opportunity for third party tech providers is about to break wide open.
“The biggest thing I see right now is moving toward open standards and interoperability between institutions and third party operators like Civitas,” Walters said. “We’re watching right now these institutions change from using older technology where data is locked up in ‘data jails,’ and now being able to walk that to having their data in places to do things like what we do.”
Walters was referring to the common practice of schools using ad hoc or antiquated systems to house student data. Sometimes it’s siloed in different departments, and often it’s difficult to access.
It’s usually the result of constrained resources, a problem that snowballs when old systems make it harder for providers like Civitas to help.
Once that data is out in the open, though, Walters says the possibilities expand dramatically.
For example, Civitas has been collaborating with another edtech company called Instructure, which makes a Learning Management System not unlike the ones offered by Civitas and its competitors.
But because both companies are using Amazon Web Services to host their data, that data can now flow freely between them instead of requiring the costly adaptation of a school’s legacy system.
Now that companies like Civitas and Instructure can offer complementary solutions to schools instead of being mutually exclusive options due to compatibility issues, schools—and students—can benefit from the best of each system.
But schools aren’t the only ones benefitting.
Sean Duffy, who hosts the Edtech Austin meetup, said the barrier to entry for edtech startups is lowering as open and standard platforms are more widely adopted.
“The implementation process is really difficult for any emerging company in education,” he said. “Without a massive implementation team or plug-and-play solutions, it's really tough to gain traction for startups.”
One of those plug-and-play solutions is the Ed-Fi Alliance, whose goal is to establish a unified data standard for education. The organization was spun off from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in March 2013 to develop standards and tools to be licensed by schools and edtech providers.
The group is aiming to standardize 75 percent of U.S. schools by 2016.
Another open analytics framework, called Caliper, is also getting traction. Like Ed-Fi, it provides a standard for companies and schools to share data and collaborate on solutions using a common framework.
It remains to be seen which standard emerges as the dominant framework for education, but overall, it’s looking good for edtech. Data-driven education only seems to be picking up steam, and Civitas recently raised $60 million from investors to expand its reach in new markets through acquisitions.
Ultimately, Walters said the success or failure of these tools depends largely on the people using them.
“You get out of it what you put into it,” he said. “It’s when institutions combine our technology with procedures to help students in different ways, that’s where you see added benefit.”
You can meet the Civitas Learning team and learn more about their innovations in edtech tomorrow night when they host this week's Built In Brews, sponsored by IBM Bluemix, Salesforce and MSTC.
