Crack the code: Help us connect with the next gen of learners online

Desired outcome

Imagine this: You’re part of the leading force in educational content in Slovenia—a company known for creating cutting-edge digital resources and being miles ahead in innovation. But here’s the twist: while we’re a powerhouse in classrooms, we want to break free from traditional publishing and meet students and parents where they actually spend time—online, in the digital world they live in every day.

The challenge? Help us map the digital landscape of our users. We need your insights to understand where kids, parents, and teachers hang out online, what content grabs their attention, and what makes them click. Picture students watching videos or scrolling social media—how can we make learning as engaging as their favorite content?

If you can help us find these users and figure out what makes them tick, we can turn educational content into something they actually want to interact with. Think of it as a chance to shake up how an entire industry reaches people in the digital age. We’re looking for bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and out-of-the-box solutions to bring our materials directly to the people who need them most.

Are you up for helping a leader go beyond the lead? This is your opportunity to drive real change and make learning accessible, relevant, and exciting in a way that’s never been done before.

Initial Problem Description

The core challenge we face is understanding the personal digital engagement patterns, preferences, and motivations of our end users—school-aged children, their parents, and teachers in Slovenia. While we have robust data on educational usage patterns (e.g., material usage across schools, enrollment statistics), we lack personalized, behavioral insights about where these groups spend their time online and how they interact with digital content in non-school contexts.

This gap hinders our ability to effectively reach, engage, and support them with relevant educational materials and services. For instance, knowing that parents actively watch cooking videos on Facebook or that secondary students prefer interactive content on specific platforms would enable us to tailor our offerings to better align with their habits and expectations.

Problems to be solved
Mapping digital presence: Identify where and when school-aged children (primary and secondary), parents (ages 30-50), and teachers engage online in Slovenia—covering social media platforms, online communities, and other relevant digital environments.

Behavioral profiling: Develop comprehensive user personas for each group, including key characteristics such as:

Content preferences: The types of content they are drawn to (e.g., videos, articles, interactive tools).

Motivations and triggers: Understanding their goals (e.g., parental aspirations for children’s education) and motivators that could prompt them to engage with educational content.

Guiding targeted outreach: Define actionable insights for crafting targeted outreach strategies, allowing us to design content and messaging that resonates with each group’s specific digital habits and educational motivations.

Content development guidance: Provide actionable insights into the types of content and messaging that would be most effective in engaging each target group based on their specific digital habits and educational motivations.

Context

Our challenge lies in the disconnect between our educational materials and the broader learning environment of students outside the classroom. Although our materials are widely used in schools across Slovenia, we lack visibility into how students learn and engage with educational content during after-school hours. This becomes especially problematic when we attempt to offer supplementary learning resources that could support students’ independent learning or assist parents in guiding their children’s education.

For example, we develop high-quality auxiliary materials that reinforce school concepts, like videos simplifying topics such as free fall. These resources are designed to make complex ideas more accessible, yet we have no effective way of reaching students in their digital spaces to introduce them to this content. This gap results from two primary issues:

Lack of direct access: We cannot directly contact students outside of the school setting. Students themselves typically avoid educational content online unless they have a specific need, making it difficult to capture their interest through conventional marketing channels.

Limited insights into parent behavior: Parents play a critical role in supporting their children’s education, often investing heavily in after-school tutoring and supplementary learning aids. However, we lack insights into where parents spend their time online or the types of content they consume. This limits our ability to target them effectively with resources that could supplement or even reduce their need for costly external tutoring services.

Without a clear understanding of where and how students, parents, and teachers interact online, we are unable to connect them with our materials. This insight gap not only affects our ability to market these resources but also prevents us from maximizing the educational impact our materials could have if they reached the right audiences in the right places.

Connection to cross-cutting areas

Our challenge is closely linked to digitalisation and sustainability as it seeks to modernize the way educational resources reach students, parents, and teachers in Slovenia. Traditionally, educational materials are print-heavy, and while this format remains essential, there is a growing opportunity to enhance learning through digital channels. By identifying where students and parents naturally spend time online, we can develop strategies to connect with them digitally, reducing our reliance on print materials and minimizing environmental impact.

This digital shift supports sustainability goals by enabling more efficient, resource-light delivery of supplementary educational content. Through targeted digital outreach, we can ensure that our resources reach the right audiences with minimal physical distribution, reducing waste and making our operations more eco-friendly.

Moreover, enhancing digital access to our materials not only supports sustainable practices but also aligns with broader trends in connected learning. By meeting students, parents, and teachers in their preferred digital spaces, we create a more adaptable and inclusive educational ecosystem that resonates with modern learners. This combination of digitalisation and sustainability drives our vision to make high-quality educational resources accessible in a format that is both engaging and environmentally responsible.

Input

In the context of digital engagement with educational content, there are several known trends that shape our approach to this challenge:

Growing digital engagement among younger audiences: Students, especially in primary and secondary school, are increasingly spending their time on social media platforms and online entertainment spaces. Platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok are especially popular among this demographic. However, younger students typically avoid content that is explicitly educational, instead favoring interactive and entertaining formats. This trend highlights the need for us to understand how to make our materials engaging enough to capture their interest within these platforms.

Parental involvement and investment in education: Parents in Slovenia are highly invested in their children’s education and often spend substantial amounts on after-school tutoring and supplemental learning resources. However, their digital habits vary widely, with many engaging with content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, often centered around personal interests, such as cooking, lifestyle, and family activities. Understanding these preferences can help us create targeted educational content that resonates with parents, positioning it as a valuable and accessible alternative to external tutoring.

Teacher adoption of digital resources: Teachers are increasingly open to incorporating digital resources into their classrooms and professional development. Many participate in online educator communities on platforms such as Facebook, where they share insights and teaching tools. Identifying where teachers congregate online will help us support them with relevant materials they can introduce to students, further connecting our digital resources to classroom learning.

These trends point to clear opportunities for digital engagement, but they also highlight our current challenge: without precise data specific to the Slovenian market, it remains difficult to target these groups effectively. This research aims to validate and expand on these known trends, providing us with Slovenia-specific insights that will inform a targeted approach to digital educational outreach.

Expectations

While the primary goal of this project is to obtain targeted insights into the digital engagement habits of students, parents, and teachers, we’re also very open to unexpected findings that could shift our perspective or approach. Beyond the solution itself, we would highly value any “eye-opening” insights or creative perspectives that could help us rethink how we connect with our end users.

Educational engagement is evolving rapidly in the digital space, and we recognize that our current approach may benefit from out-of-the-box ideas that challenge traditional ways of reaching these audiences. We would encourage the team to look beyond conventional trends and consider any novel behaviors, platform usage, or emerging digital spaces that could represent new opportunities for educational outreach.

In addition, we hope to establish a foundation for long-term strategic thinking around digital engagement and sustainable educational content delivery. Any recommendations that could help us adapt to the shifting digital landscape in the coming years would be greatly beneficial as we aim to stay ahead of trends and continue providing valuable resources to students, parents, and teachers in Slovenia.

Desired Team Profile

To address the complexity of this challenge effectively, we believe an interdisciplinary team with a blend of expertise would be ideal. Specific skills and academic backgrounds we’d value include:

Digital marketing and data analytics: Given that the project focuses on understanding online behaviors, team members with skills in digital marketing, data analytics, and social media analysis would be essential. Their expertise would help us map out the digital presence of each target group and analyze engagement patterns effectively.

Educational psychology and pedagogy: Since our core objective is to engage students, parents, and teachers with educational materials, having members with a background in educational psychology or pedagogy would be valuable. Their insights could help us better understand the motivations, preferences, and needs of students and parents regarding supplemental learning resources.

Sociology and behavioral studies: A background in sociology or behavioral studies would be beneficial for identifying the broader social trends and behavioral nuances in digital engagement among families and educational communities. This expertise could add depth to the user personas and enhance our understanding of how digital environments impact learning habits.

Content strategy and communication: To interpret and apply findings effectively, we would appreciate team members with content strategy and communication experience. This would allow them to provide recommendations on the types of content and messaging that would resonate most with each target group.

Additional Information

Our company is a market leader in educational publishing, known for our agility, advanced digital capabilities, and high-quality content. We operate at the forefront of digital innovation in our sector, continually evolving to meet the changing needs of teachers and students. Unlike traditional educational publishers often perceived as slow-moving, we pride ourselves on being a data-driven, responsive, and highly professional organization.

We have an in-depth understanding of the teacher community in Slovenia, tracking key insights such as NPS (Net Promoter Score) and preferences. This allows us to maintain strong relationships with educators, as we know precisely what materials they prefer, what teaching approaches resonate, and how we can support their work in the classroom.

However, in comparison to industries such as e-commerce, which are deeply attuned to real-time user behavior, we recognize that we still have room to grow. While we are already the leader in our field, our ambition is not just to lead within educational publishing but to set new standards across industries. Our goal is to become the best in engaging and supporting students, parents, and teachers digitally, making our content accessible and relevant in the spaces they frequent online.

This is the driving force behind our challenge to better understand our end users. We want the insights from this project to guide us in evolving beyond traditional educational publishing, transforming us into a forward-thinking, digitally fluent organization that meets its users wherever they are in the digital space.

Related Keywords

• Information and media, society
• Digitalization
• Market research
• Consumer related
• Consumer Services