Despite the many advancements technology has provided us, many schools continue to operate on little to no technology. But the rise in cloud-based learning management systems (LMS’s) have enabled educational institutions to digitize the classroom.
When it comes to making LMS purchase decisions, 45% of K-12 institutions rate functionality as the number one most important factor. This is followed by reliability (20%) and price (16%).
Investment Implications
Today, there are many solutions on the market although companies have been moving quickly to sell into K-12 school districts and universities. With contracts extending for year on end, the outcome can be lucrative.
Companies like PowerSchool, which owns Schoology, have focused on entering K-12 school districts with one of their many core offerings and then permeating throughout schools to be an end-to-end platform for teachers and administrators.
On the other hand, companies like Instructure (which owns Canvas LMS) have zeroed in on higher-education institutions and have made significant progress against incumbents like Blackboard.
Ultimately, instructors continue to rely heavily on a fragmented set of solutions, but as time goes on it will be interesting to see which companies rise to the top and evolve to be the underlying software of schools around the world.
Twitter: @_SeanDavid
The author or his firm may have positions in mentioned securities at the time of publication. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
