Higher education administrators, instructional technology directors, and university accessibility coordinators.
Key Takeaways
Universities are combining specialized education technology with flexible teaching models to boost student achievement and workplace readiness. Discover how blending custom-trained speech recognition with live expert sessions gives every student equal opportunity to master complex coursework and launch successful careers.
AT A GLANCE
- Specialized speech tools learn complex course terms and textbook titles to capture lecture details accurately.
- Combining artificial intelligence with professional human review hits a 99% accuracy target for inclusive learning.
- Live virtual sessions connect students with practicing lawyers and surgeons to inspire future careers.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS
Estimated Reading Time
8 minutes
Spending on education technology keeps climbing. Grand View Research estimates the global AI in education market at $11.4 billion in 2026, growing to $57.2 billion by 2033. On campus, 85% of college students say they used AI tools for coursework in the past year.
But more technology doesn’t automatically mean better learning. New educational technology research published in 2025 and 2026 points to a more useful question for the year ahead: not whether students use technology, but how. When tools deepen engagement, achievement rises. When they replace thinking, it can fall.
This article rounds up the most important findings to know heading into 2027, and what they mean for how universities choose and implement technology in education – drawing on what Verbit sees across the colleges and universities it supports with captioning, transcription, and audio description.
What Is EdTech, and Where Is It Heading in 2026-2027?
What is edtech? Education technology, or edtech, covers the digital tools used to teach and learn: learning management systems, lecture capture, adaptive platforms, AI tutors, immersive VR, and accessibility tools like captions and transcripts. The tools that stick tend to be the ones built for how campuses actually work – which is why Verbit’s captioning and transcription plug directly into the platforms faculty already use, including Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, Kaltura, Panopto, and Zoom.
AI is driving most of the growth. Grand View Research projects the AI in education market will grow at a 25.9% annual rate through 2033, with solutions making up over 70% of revenue in 2025 and North America the largest region. Adoption is just as fast on the student side. In the PISA 2025 cycle, 46% of OECD students reported using AI chatbots at least weekly.
The question for 2027 isn’t whether education technology is coming. It’s which uses actually help students learn.
The Impact of Educational Technology: What New Research Shows
Three recent studies offer the clearest picture yet of the impact of educational technology on achievement – and they point in the same direction.
The Technology Effect on Education Depends on Engagement
A 2026 study of 2,307 Czech seventh graders, published in Education and Information Technologies, looked at how generative AI use relates to grades in math and language. How often students used GenAI wasn’t linked to higher achievement in either subject. But students who agreed they could rely on AI instead of building their own understanding scored lower, especially in language.
The technology effect on education, in other words, depends less on frequency than on mindset. Students who use AI as a shortcut around thinking tend to fall behind; students who use it to support thinking don’t.
That distinction shapes how Verbit approaches AI for education. Instead of writing answers for students, Verbit’s generative AI turns lecture transcripts into study aids like summaries, chapter markers, and practice quizzes – tools that send students back to the material to review and test themselves.
PISA 2025: AI for Learning vs. AI for Shortcuts
International data tells a similar story. In PISA 2025 science results, students who used AI for specific schoolwork tasks scored about 20 points lower than non-users on average – roughly a year of schooling. The exception was students who used AI weekly “to help me learn,” who scored highest. These are associations, not proof of cause, but the pattern matches the Czech findings.
AI Tutoring Done Right: A Harvard Trial
When AI is designed around good teaching practice, the results can be striking. In a randomized trial in Harvard’s largest introductory physics course, students using a custom AI tutor learned more than twice as much as students in an active-learning class covering the same material, in a median of 49 minutes. They also reported higher engagement and motivation.
The key detail: the tutor was built to guide students through problems step by step rather than hand them answers. That’s the same engagement principle the Czech and PISA data point to.
How Technology Has Improved Education: Evidence From Immersive Learning
Immersive tools offer another example of how technology has improved education when it deepens engagement. In a 2025 quasi-experimental study, 86 eleventh-grade chemistry students in Indonesia learned electrochemistry with either VR headsets or standard simulations and videos. The VR group scored significantly higher on the achievement test (Cohen’s d = 1.15) and showed stronger creative thinking.
The study is small and focused on one subject, but it supports a consistent theme: technology helps most when it lets students explore, visualize, and actively work through hard concepts. As courses lean more on visual and immersive content, it’s also worth planning for students who are blind or have low vision – audio description makes key visuals in course videos accessible, and AI-powered options now make it practical at scale.
Technology in Education Works Best When It Removes Barriers
Not all effective technology in education is cutting-edge. Some of the most reliable tools are the ones that remove barriers so students can engage at all.
Assistive technology like captions and transcripts is a strong example. A review of more than 100 studies found captions improve comprehension, attention, and memory for video – for all viewers, not only those with hearing loss. Captions and transcripts give students who are Deaf or have hearing loss full access to lectures. They also help students learning in a second language, students reviewing before exams, and students who can’t take notes fast enough to keep up.
Unlike tools that risk replacing thinking, accessibility technology supports it. Students still do the cognitive work; they just have more ways to access the material. The catch is accuracy: generic speech recognition often stumbles on the technical vocabulary that fills STEM lectures, legal seminars, and medical courses, and a garbled term in a caption can derail a student’s understanding.
How Verbit Supports Accessible Learning at Scale
Verbit’s education accessibility solutions provide live and recorded closed captioning, transcription, and audio description for lectures, course videos, and campus events. Captivate, Verbit’s speech recognition technology, delivers up to 99% targeted accuracy and can be customized with each institution’s course terms, speaker names, and past content. Human review is available when accuracy or compliance requires it. For live classes, CART real-time captioning helps students follow along as lectures happen.
For public colleges and universities preparing for ADA Title II, Campus Complete bundles captioning, transcription, and both AI audio description and professional audio description into one subscription. Institutions can also use Verbit’s full platform for any individual captioning, transcription, or translation need.
What Educational Technology Research Means for Implementation in 2027
Taken together, the latest educational technology research suggests a few practical priorities for higher education:
- Measure learning, not usage. Track outcomes like grades, completion, and retention alongside adoption data.
- Teach students how to use AI. Build AI literacy that frames AI as a study partner, not a shortcut.
- Choose tools that guide rather than answer. The Harvard tutor worked because it was built around good pedagogy.
- Make access the default. Captions, transcripts, and audio description help every student engage, and support Title II readiness. Look for tools built for education – ones that learn your course terminology, work inside your LMS, and cover live classes as well as recorded content.
- Pair technology with teaching. Blended approaches that combine in-person and digital learning give students more than one path in. See how captioning supports blended learning.
The same lessons apply in K-12 and corporate learning: focus on engagement, measure outcomes, and remove barriers first.
Looking Ahead: Education Technology That Amplifies Learning
The research heading into 2027 is clear on one point: education technology improves achievement when it keeps students thinking. AI tutors designed around good teaching, immersive tools that make hard concepts visible, and accessibility tools that open content to every learner all share that trait. Tools that let students skip the thinking don’t. That’s the standard Verbit builds to for higher education: AI that’s customized to each institution, backed by human review where accuracy matters, and designed to help every student access and engage with the material.
For universities, the goal isn’t more technology. It’s the right technology, implemented well. To see how Verbit helps institutions make every lecture and video accessible, explore Verbit’s higher education solutions.
FAQs on Education Technology
What is edtech?
Edtech, short for education technology, is the digital tools used to teach and learn – from learning management systems and lecture capture to AI tutors, VR, and accessibility tools like captions and transcripts.
Does education technology improve student achievement?
It can, depending on how it’s used. Recent research shows technology helps most when it deepens engagement – like well-designed AI tutors or immersive simulations – and can hurt when students use it to skip the thinking.
Does using AI help or hurt students' grades?
Recent studies suggest it depends on how students use it. A 2026 study of Czech seventh graders found that relying on AI instead of building understanding was linked to lower achievement, while PISA 2025 data showed students using AI to help them learn scored highest.
How has technology improved education?
Technology has made learning more flexible and accessible. Recorded lectures, captions, and transcripts let students review at their own pace, AI tutors can provide step-by-step guidance, and accessibility tools give students with disabilities equal access to course content.
How do captions support student achievement?
Research shows captions are one simple ed tech tool with a significant impact as they improve comprehension, attention, and memory for video content. They give students who are Deaf or have hearing loss full access, and they can greatly help English learners and students reviewing materials or studying for exams. Captions can also help students feel more included in the campus-wide experience when offered with extracurricular events, such as guest talks, sporting events, webinars, virtual meetings and information sessions, graduations, and more.
