Dave Tucker is an entrepreneur and innovator of learning technology. With over 15 years of experience in Higher Education, he has driven the development of award-winning products, helping students to overcome common learning challenges and support independent learning across the globe.
1. Tell us about your company and the problem it solves, or its benefit to learners or educators.
For over 15 years we have been making study tools for learners who struggle with attention, information overload and organization skills. At Genio, we work with over 900 higher education institutions globally to help students learn more effectively, offering a support solution that includes learning and administration tools, training and resources. Our flagship product is our audio-based note taking tool, which enables learners of any ability to study from their lectures in their own time and ensures they are able to extract maximum value from their classes. Recently we launched a new product, Genio Present, which supports learners with rehearsing presentations and other oral assessments. This not only helps alleviate presentation anxiety, but builds confidence and presentation skills.
In everything we do, we emphasize the importance of accessibility and learning design based on learning science. Now, more than ever, it is essential that we focus on the acquisition of knowledge and skills rather than simply passing an assessment as our standard for what constitutes valuable learning technology.
I am a firm believer that to improve learning outcomes, we need to help learners develop the skills and habits to thrive in an educational environment and that needs to go far beyond a few online resources available to learners at the start of semester. This is even more important today because the modern student mix is increasingly made up of what we once called non-traditional students, such as those who are parents, veterans, employed full time, neurodivergent, English-language learners (ESL) or over the age of 25. These individuals may be underprepared, time poor and facing other challenges. The institutions we work with recognise that to improve student persistence rates, they need to ensure students have access to the tools to better engage in the classroom, study outside of it and feel confident that they are capable of succeeding academically.
2. Where did the idea come from to create your company?
My father, Dr. Roger Tucker, invented our very first product “Audio Notetaker” in the mid-2000s. He is an expert in speech processing and spent the better part of a decade working at HP Labs as a researcher. During that time he became very interested in how technology companies could create solutions that support some of the most disadvantaged people in the world. In November 2004, he found out that 95% of students in UK universities receiving support for a disability were being given laptops and digital voice recorders (DVRs). Back then, we didn’t have low-cost effective transcription, and the hardware specs of the average computer were significantly lower. He needed to find a novel approach to solving this issue. Over the course of several months, he developed a concept for software that could help dyslexic students study more effectively from those recordings by transforming learning from audio from a passive process into an active one through the use of a visual interface. In 2007 the first version of Audio Notetaker launched after a year of development and through collaboration with experts in Assistive Technology and students with dyslexia.
At the same time, I was working with my father as I completed my BA in Japanese. My experiences as a student were fresh in my mind, and I felt strongly that Audio Notetaker needed to move from “DVR companion” to “learning companion” for neurodivergent students. I began collaborating with Assistive Technology and Study Skill trainers on a concept of “audio-centric study skills”, built upon the knowledge that for many students with dyslexia and other print disabilities, working with speech can be more effective than text. This concept was very novel at the time, but was proving to be highly valuable for some users.
Over the last 15 years, the company has grown from those humble beginnings and evolved many times over. However, our fundamental approach to designing products that overcome learners’ challenges and finding ways to get them into the hands of students, has not changed.
My own experiences as a student taught me that not all learning experiences are equal. Students rarely get to choose their teacher and the quality of instruction can vary significantly. The issue is that all too often students internalize these factors as personal failings or limitations, and adopt a belief that they aren’t capable of success in that subject, or even in school itself. The right technology can enable individuals to study independently and confidently, regardless of how they are taught. I have seen time and again how life-changing it is when students realize that the root issue wasn’t their abilities, but rather their lack of support.
3. Tell us about one challenge and how you overcame that challenge.
Our first product, Audio Notetaker, was designed for the UK system where individual training was a part of the support that the government offered to students. As we designed it to support various study strategies, it became increasingly feature-rich. This was good for those who were already familiar with the product, but it also meant that new users were often overwhelmed by how to use it.
By 2017, we had partnered with dozens of colleges in the US to support them with their note-taking accommodation provision and felt strongly that our tool was much better for many students, and that our mission was to bring our digital system to as many colleges and learners as possible.
I remember clearly one sales visit to the disability support services of a college in New York which changed everything. In many ways it was like any other visit to a prospect; we would talk about their department, their students and the current limitations of their approach to note taking. However, rather than expressing a desire to buy or saying she would consider it, she instead politely explained that despite her belief that the solution would be better for her students, it could not work for her department. The issue is that she didn’t have the resources to train each student that requested a note-taking accommodation. The peer notes system may have been worse and more expensive, but it was practical.
At that moment, I knew that for students to adopt our tool, it needed to be beautifully simple. This was backed up by research showing that the likelihood of assistive technology being adopted can be calculated by the multiplying motivation and need, and then divided by the time, effort and stigma of the product. In other words, it doesn’t matter how motivated or in need the student is; the tool cannot take time and effort to use. We exist to drive impact for learners, and that can’t happen without them using our product.
So I decided that the only solution was to redesign our product from scratch, building natively for the web and incorporating everything we’d learned over the previous decade, but sticking to the essentials. This was not only a significant investment and took many years, but it was also risky as it meant removing functionality. So often we can falsely equate more features with more value.
This product is what we now call Genio Notes and it was truly the catalyst for our growth since its release. It’s a good reminder that you can only incrementally improve things so much. Sometimes to achieve the outcomes you want, you need to start with the problem and rebuild the solution using the best of what technology can offer at that time.
4. What are you most proud of or what is your company’s greatest achievement?
On its own, our partnership with over 900 higher education institutions globally is a fantastic achievement. However, what makes me most proud is when we have a life-changing impact on a learner. We have heard students say that they lived in a “D world” their whole life, not being able to get a higher grade. But now, with our products, they are getting As and Bs for the first time. We have had people tell us that they didn’t think they were cut out for academic life and considered dropping out, but when they used our tools they were able to not only get by, but thrive, winning scholarships and standing out amongst their peers.
At our core, we make tools that help overcome learning challenges, but the real impact comes from our ability to help learners realize what they are capable of when they have access to the tools that enable them to succeed. That is a change that goes far beyond any course; it’s something that shapes their whole life story and allows them to do things they otherwise may have been unable to do before. It’s a metric we may not be able to adequately measure, but it means the most to me because that is the process by which education changes the world.
5. Where do you see your company in five years?
By 2030, my goal is to be supporting over 10 million active learners with the tools, resources and support they need to be successful. Higher education is going through significant change at the moment, and we’re here to help support institutions through it. We believe that by offering proactive learning support directly to learners, through technology and learning resources that are both appealing and based on learning science, we can set students up for success from the beginning.
I would love for our message to resonate and influence educators so that in five years, schools see it as their obligation to ensure students have access to tools and resources for independent and effective self-study as a part of their educational experience. I don’t believe it should be left to the students to work out how to study on their own. They are paying to be educated and the time they spend outside of the classroom is a key component of their learning. Institutions need to do more to ensure this time is spent efficiently if they want to improve learning outcomes and increase student persistence.
Beyond this, my hope is that we can continue to be a trusted resource for individuals during college and beyond. We want to be able to support learners throughout their life, giving them career confidence and the ability to learn their way through any challenge and grasp every opportunity ahead of them.
