The Project
This project developes a UK EdTech usage index and analyses shifting trends in edtech usage.
This project examines education technology (edtech) usage trends in the UK and develops an edtech usage index. Using data scraped from online, a longitudinal edtech usage index was built to track the popularity of educational apps from early 2019 onward. The index captures changes in usage over time and shows that edtech usage peaked during the COVID-19-related school closures in 2020, when remote learning was widely implemented. However, once schools reopened, usage levels dropped and returned to pre-pandemic levels. This indicates that the surge in edtech use during the pandemic was temporary rather than sustained.
The project also analyses the functions offered by the 50 most-used edtech apps by examining their product descriptions. This analysis identifies 17 main functions that represent the range of services and tools offered by these products. These functions include, for example, features related to student learning support, assessment, communication, and classroom management. The analysis also finds differences in the popularity of products based on their functions. Products that have gained popularity over time typically emphasise data-driven capabilities, such as tools for measuring student performance and behaviour. In contrast, products that declined in popularity were more focused on promoting collaboration and connectivity between users. Together, these findings offer a clearer picture of how edtech is used in UK and how different types of tools have gained or lost prominence over time.
