In the last few years, the word edtech has lost a bit of its meaning.

What was supposed to be about cutting-edge platforms, intelligent tutoring systems, and personalized learning, edtech today—at least in India’s exam prep space—is too often reduced to one thing: a giant video library. The model is simple: record a course once, put it behind a paywall, and sell it to thousands of students. It's fast, it's scalable, and it's everywhere.

But let's be clear: this isn’t education technology. It’s just video selling wearing the edtech label. And it’s giving the whole industry a bad name.

The Coaching Model, Now in HD

What many companies are calling edtech is, in reality, just the traditional coaching model with a digital wrapper.

Take a typical competitive exam course. Lectures are recorded—often by a single “star” faculty—and uploaded as-is. These videos are resold year after year, often with minimal updates. The course might include a PDF or two, maybe a test series, but the core product is just video.

This model works financially because it’s built on scale. Once the content is recorded, it costs almost nothing to distribute. You can sell the same content to 10 students or 10,000 students without any extra effort. That’s great for business, but not necessarily for students.

And here's the harsh truth: most students don’t finish these courses. Many barely get through 5-10% of the lectures. They buy with hope, but drop off soon after—overwhelmed, disengaged, or unsupported.

What they were promised was guidance and clarity. What they got was a playlist.

Why It’s Not “Tech”

Despite being sold as part of an edtech revolution, these video-selling platforms aren’t using technology in any meaningful way. Let’s break it down:

• No Interactivity: Students watch passively. There's no built-in mechanism to check if they’ve understood anything. No in-video quizzes, no problem-solving steps, no active recall.

• No Personalization: Everyone gets the same content in the same order. A first-time aspirant and a repeater with a strong foundation are treated identically. There’s no adaptation to skill level, pace, or learning gaps.

• No AI Assistance: For all the hype around AI, most of these platforms use none. No smart nudges, no automated feedback, no personalized doubt resolution. The only intelligence is human—and it's one-directional.

• No Gamified Learning: No progress tracking, no incentives for consistency, no visual cues to encourage a learning habit. Learning is hard; these systems make it boring, not better.

• No Community: The most powerful motivator in learning—peer support—is missing. There’s no safe space to ask doubts, discuss concepts, or share strategies. You’re on your own.

The Human Cost

This model is not just ineffective—it’s demoralizing. Students sign up with dreams and end up feeling lost. Many blame themselves for not being “disciplined enough,” not realizing the system was never designed to support them in the first place.

And when enough students feel that way, they stop trusting not just one platform, but the entire idea of edtech. That’s the real damage: the erosion of faith in something that actually could be transformative if done right.

The Real Tech Is Still Waiting

True edtech isn’t about content delivery. It’s about content engagement. It's about making learning more accessible, more personalized, and more effective than what traditional coaching could offer.

That requires technology—real technology. Not just a video player, but systems that:

• Adapt to a learner’s pace and weak spots.
• Use AI to provide targeted help and feedback.
• Create learning loops through quizzes, reflections, and challenges.
• Build real-time communities for collaboration and doubt-solving.
• Make learning a dynamic experience, not a static broadcast.

These are not small features. They’re engineering problems. Product problems. Design problems. And solving them requires a kind of team that too many edtech companies lack: technical talent.

Edtech Needs Engineers, Not Just YouTubers

Here’s the elephant in the room: the current wave of edtech is being driven by creators, not builders. Many companies are led by popular YouTubers or ex-coaching faculty who made the jump to online. They understand content and audience well, but often underestimate what it takes to build lasting, scalable tech.

This model prioritizes personal branding over platform innovation. The “product” becomes the person, not the system. That may work for selling videos—but it doesn’t work for building an ecosystem that actually helps students learn.

If edtech is to evolve, it needs more engineers, designers, researchers, and product thinkers—not just influencers with a mic. It needs people who understand learning science, data architecture, user experience, and platform thinking.

The future of edtech won’t be built in front of a camera. It’ll be built behind a keyboard.

At Redpapr, We Think It’s Time to Flip the Script

We started Redpapr not to sell content, but to solve learning. We believe in using tech the way it was meant to be used:

• To guide, not just deliver.
• To understand where students are stuck and help them through.
• To make preparation feel less like a grind and more like a game you can win.
• To use AI, data, design, and engineering to build something better than coaching—not just a digital version of it.

Yes, great content still matters. But content alone isn’t enough. What matters more is how it’s delivered, how it’s used, and how it helps the student move forward.

If edtech wants to live up to its name, it’s time we stop selling videos—and start building technology.