36 EdTech Statistics & Facts: The State of Technology in Education

To understand the future of technology in education, we need to know what’s happening now. We’ve seen recent changes in the industry that seem to be paving the way for a new wave of online learning for entrepreneurs, edtech developers, instructors, and learners alike. A deep dive into these changes can show what we might expect in the coming years.

Here, we’ll look at facts: What are the current benchmarks and what has changed in technology and education?

• Editor’s Choice: Top Technology in Education Statistics
• EdTech Industry Trends
• How Technology Impacts Educational Outcomes
• Types of Technology Used in the Classroom
• The State of Education Technology Jobs
• EdTech Market Size Statistics
• Final Takeaway: What Can We Make of all This?

Editor’s Choice: Top Technology in Education Statistics

1. In the United States, students with more than 60 minutes per week of device use achieved higher academic results, a metric that varies country to country (McKinsey).

2. 81% of US educators stated that their ability to use EdTech improved during school building closures in response to COVID-19 in 2020 (EdWeek).

3. In 2015, 49% of students worldwide reported that they had taken an online course in the past 12 months. A year later, 81% of college students believed that digital learning technology, including virtual classroom chat, helped them boost their grades (Statista).

4. As of April 2020, 73% of US households always had access to the internet for online learning (USAFacts).

5. As of Summer 2020, 93% of US teachers reported conducting at least some of their teaching online from home (EdWeek).

EdTech Industry Trends

6. 65% of faculty support the use of open educational resources in teaching (Statista).

7. In 2015, 56% of students worldwide reported the desire for instructors to enable them to use their devices in the classroom (Statista).

8. As of 2015, 79% of potential learners in the United States were unaware of massive open online courses (Statista).

9. In 2018, 74% of US teachers reported that their students did not have district-provided computers and estimated that as many as 75% or more students had computer access at home. Yet, only 21% of these teachers believed that they were very knowledgeable about the topic (NCES).

10. 19% of learners who earned a competency badge from a massive online open course professed that they would use the badge on their resume (Statista).

11. 19% and 28% of US teachers respectively report that they assign technology-based homework often or at least sometimes (NCES).

12. As of April 2020, over 9 million children still lacked internet access from home (USAFacts).

13. Families in rural areas, as of April 2020, were 18% less likely than those in other geographic locations to have internet access (USAFacts).

14. 58% of education professionals now have a more positive opinion of EdTech in response to 2020’s COVID-19 school closures (EdWeek).

How Technology Impacts Educational Outcomes

15. In North America, data projectors have a more positive impact on in-person educational outcomes than internet-connected computers, laptops, or tablets (McKinsey).

16. 12% and 32% of US teachers respectively believe that smartphones are very useful or somewhat useful for school assignments (NCES).

17. When teachers alone use devices in the classroom, the educational outcomes are higher than when students alone use them (McKinsey).

18. Gamification alone can improve outcomes by 45.45%, and 60.67% when combined with reading (IJCS).

19. Challenge-based gamification in e-learning can improve educational outcomes by as much as 89.45% (IJCS).

20. 53% of teachers believe that students’ increased access to individual computers makes teaching easier, especially with school closures (EdWeek).

Types of Technology Used in the Classroom

21. 71% of US students claim to use laptops in the classroom versus the global average of 37% (McKinsey).

22. In 2015, 56% of US students reported using a laptop at least once a week in the classroom (Statista).

23. In 2016, the most common tech used in PreK-12 classrooms were online educational videos, educational apps or software, and websites for research followed by games that focused on specific content or skills, eBooks, simulations, and e-magazines (Statista).

24. As of 2018, 26% of US teachers reported that their students used school-provided computers in the classroom, 40% reported that some students are not able to take them home, and only 8% reported that the school district provided hot spots for students to take home (NCES).

25. Students use mobile technology to seek help and engage in computer-supported collaborative learning with a positive educational impact in literacy, mathematics, science, art, and history (CEP).

26. 2.5% of US K-12 students, as of April 2020, used district-provided internet to access online learning from home (USAFacts).

The State of Education Technology Jobs

27. In 2020, traditional medical educators reduced teaching hours as they were redeployed into clinical practice in response to COVID-19, leading to increased awareness and adoption of the available education technologies (MedEdPublish).

28. As of Summer 2020, 50% of US educators reported teaching all of their classes online from home, 63% at schools with fewer low-income students, and 36% at schools with more low-income students (EdWeek).

29. Job growth for instructional coordinators is expected to grow 6% more rapidly than average between 2019 and 2029 (BLS).

30. 9 out of 10 teachers reported that they spent more time troubleshooting technology in response to the COVID-19 school closures in 2020 (EdWeek).

31. Some of the best entry-level jobs for EdTech majors are education technician, computer teacher, and technology coordinator because these career paths can eventually lead to jobs as chief learning officer, technical education teacher, and senior support analyst (Zippa).

EdTech Market Size Statistics

32. In 2016, self-paced elearning industry made up $46.67 billion of the global market share and, by 2022, that number is projected to exceed $243 billion (Statista).

33. As of August 2020, the global education and training market is expected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2025 (Holon IQ).

34. In 2019, the global education technology market was estimated at 76.4 billion (Grandview).

35. The global education technology market could reach $404 billion by 2025, as of August 2020 (Holon IQ).

36. EdTech is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1% year-over-year through 2027 (Grandview).

Final Takeaway: What Can We Make of all This?

EdTech has seen many changes in the past several years, more so in the last 12 months. The greatest challenge, it seems, may be to find ways to increase home internet access for a minority of K-12 learners. Still, whether you’re a developer, entrepreneur, or you work the education system, you can expect the industry to continue to grow in the direction it is currently headed... with an even stronger focus on technology.

If you want a way to improve your e-learning app, learning management system or individual digital classroom communication with a customized messaging experience, learn more about how you can leverage our chat APIs and SDKs.