Overall Picture of the EM-K12 field

Research Questions

• How was this field born and how is it evolving?
• What are the main business models?
• What are the innovation dynamics in this field? (inputs/outputs, timing of innovation/ disruptive or incremental innovation?)
• How does knowledge flow in this field?
• Is this field replicating models from other fields?
• How many companies?
• How much money do they make or how much money do they “move” in the American economy?
• How important is research from universities in this specific field?
• How important is public funding in this field?
• How important is private funding / venture capital in this field?
• Are there any specific public policies (from agencies, federal or state policies) that give incentives for openness or enclosure?
• What is the cost structure of the field?
• Who are the producers, the buyers, and the users?
• What is the structure of power from the production side and what is the structure of power in the demand side? E.g., who has the power to control production and demand? How is the control distributed?

Introduction

The Educational Materials Sector for K-12 in the USA can be divided into non-digital and digital solutions. Digital Solutions is a general term that describes a range of technologies used to enhance the delivery and the administration of K-12 education, including data management systems, web-based course and assessment materials, and online tutoring and professional development. While under the non-digital solutions for K-12 education we find textbooks and other course materials, such as educative toys and games.

It is important also to notice how the market has evolved and what strategies the actors have adopted to adapt its business to the growing and overlapping sector of educational materials for K-12. "Since the 1990s, leading textbook publishers with longstanding relationships at state and local levels have included CDs and DVDs with their textbooks to deliver modular content, and many are now acquiring technologies that add value by incorporating assessment and analytical capabilities into instructional materials."

Thus, when observing this market, processes of acquisitions and mergers focus on market penetration and product diversification are the rule. Examples of this trend are Pearson’s acquisition of eCollege, Effective Education Technologies, PowerSchool1 and Chancery12 in 2006 and 2007; McGraw-Hill’s purchase of Turnleaf Solutions in 2005 1 2; and Houghlin Mifflin Riverdeep’s (HMR) purchase of Achievement Technologies 1.

However, niche players focus on software development and a variety of small entities, many with roots in academia, have begun offering open-source instructional management systems to financially strapped school districts and OERs. In addition, large software and communications companies, such as Intel and Verizon, are offering free solutions through their outreach programs (to create goodwill and gain an opportunity to sell proprietary solutions).

Digital Solutions market

The Digital Solutions market is a growing market, marked by fragmentation and overlapping segments, making it difficult to find specific information. The 2000 Merrill Lynch study "The Knowledge Web" estimated the market to be $1.3 billion at that time. In 2008, the market was estimated in between $5 and $7 billion. For some, key drivers of this growth have been the ongoing impact of NCLB, improving IT infrastructure in schools, and the growing number of tech-savvy students and teachers.

A pointed above, three market segments are identifiable under the category of Digital Solutions fo K-12 and they comprise:
(a) Instructional Materials and Assessments: CDs and DVDs and comprehensive or adaptive courseware
(b) Data management and analysis: analysis and reporting tools that help educators modify lesson plans during the year by linking assessment results with prescribed interventions and relevant instructional materials and tools that help schools to manage student data, track attendance, monitor schedules and store relevant information such as student demographics, named "student information systems"
(c) Supporting services: professional development products for teachers and administrators, and online courses and tutoring

Table on Digital Education Solutions for K-12

For the purposes of this research, the focus we will give under Digital Solutions is just on products that have specific educational purposes, embedding knowledge that can be enclosured under some form of Intellectual Property. Thus, we will not consider products such as "student information systems" or professional development products for teachers and administrators. However, it is relevant to point out the importance of these for market strategies leading to, for instance, "on stop and shop" arrangements and how these strategies may lead to closedness or openness in this sector.

Navigation

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