Research has proven without a doubt that eLearning, delivered on powerful digital learning platforms, enhances student engagement, motivation, and attendance. However, educational publishers have long been plagued by the dilemma of building vs buying educational technology solutions. If you relate to this conundrum, let’s look at a hypothetical situation. Imagine you hire a team of extremely talented developers to build you the perfect K-12 digital learning platform. They spend months fine-tuning the features and functionalities, testing each one, fixing bugs, and resolving vulnerabilities to give you the solution you desire. Months pass, deadlines keep getting pushed back, costs spiral, only for you to realize that compliance needs were missed.
Even if you take special care to ensure the highest levels of security and compliance, are the time and resources really worth it if your competition reaches the market before you? Now, you might say that building is cheaper because a white label digital learning platform needs high initial investments, especially if you want to customize it to your brand.
In this blog, we unpack why “buy” is the smarter choice for K-12 publishers and how to pivot without losing time or momentum.
The Lure of Building Your Own K-12 Publishing Technology
Did you know that 85% of teachers and 63% of high school students use digital learning platforms to deliver and receive education in the US? So, you know you need to consider edtech platform development for your publishing house. But when you consider adopting the latest K-12 publishing technology, it isn’t unusual to believe that you know what you need better than anyone else. Therefore, you should be the one building the tech platform. We hate to burst your bubble, but this false sense of control can end up costing you in more ways than just monetarily. A glitch in the platform that exposes even a single student’s data could hurt your reputation irreparably. Are you willing to take that risk?
Another common misconception in the industry is that you will save money in the long run by avoiding the licensing fees associated with white label solutions. We like to call this a short-term cost illusion, something that will come in the way of ensuring platform scalability in education. Trust us, we have over three decades of experience in edtech platform development. Our experience also suggests that many publishing houses tend to underestimate the complexity of building a K-12 digital learning platform from scratch while overestimating the flexibility they can grant it.
The only way you can get a cost- and time-effective custom-fitted platform that offers immense scalability and flexibility is by choosing a powerful white label one with a proven track record. Not convinced yet? Have you considered the hidden cost of building your own K-12 publishing technology?
The Hidden Cost of Building K-12 Digital Learning Platforms
The cost of building your own digital learning platform increases exponentially depending on the features you want to include and the complexity of the design, Plus, it will take at least 12 months, if not longer, to have the digital learning platform ready for market launch. But in business, time is money.
These are just the costs of building the solution. Have you considered the ongoing expenses involved in ensuring the highest levels of security, in accordance with FERPA, COPPA, GDPR, WCAG, etc.? What about the need for regular updates, integrations with emerging edtech, hosting, and scaling as your business expands? And are you willing to take on the responsibility and associated cost of platform maintenance? Sustaining an in-house team of experts will always be more expensive than outsourcing edtech solutions.
Plus, the time and budget dedicated to building could have been better spent on content innovation and market expansion. It’s almost like expecting Delta Air Lines or Southwest to build their own aircraft. Ridiculous, right?
Why Buying Digital Learning Platforms is Smarter
An off-the-shelf platform that you can customize to your needs, while also turning on and off features based on user roles, can offer numerous advantages. And if you’re buying educational technology solutions based on multi-tenant architecture and powerful digital rights management tools, life would become so much easier. Here’s a look at what you can gain from outsourcing edtech solutions.
Reduced Development Time & Cost
Building a platform from scratch requires significant time and resources for development, testing, and deployment. Buying a pre-built platform significantly reduces these timelines and associated costs.
Access to Specialized Expertise
Established edtech providers have specialized teams with expertise in platform development, user interface design, and learning management systems. This expertise not only ensures a more robust and user-friendly platform but also reduces time to market while future-proofing your offerings.
Scalability and Flexibility
White label platforms offer features for scaling as your user base grows and adapting to evolving learning needs, which may be more difficult to achieve with a custom-built solution.
Reliability and Support
Established platforms have a track record of stability and security, with robust infrastructure and dedicated support teams. This provides peace of mind and ensures smooth user experiences.
Built-in Features and Integrations
Pre-built platforms often come with pre-integrated features like learning analytics, reporting, and seamless integrations with other systems. This eliminates the need for extensive custom development.
In short, buying a digital learning platform allows you to focus on creating content and delivering effective learning experiences, rather than being bogged down by development and maintenance.
Choose Growth, Not Grind
While building your own K-12 digital learning platform might feel empowering, buying educational technology solutions wisely gives you more power to scale smarter, serve learners better, and innovate faster. With over 30 years of experience supporting the education sector and associated publishing houses with the latest education technology, MagicBox™ is the only platform you will ever need to create and distribute learning content while supporting accessibility, inclusivity, and better learning outcomes.
Ready to break free from the build trap? Let’s talk about smarter paths to K-12 digital success.
